Learning to play their cross-cultural cards right

“This is like a personification of you,’’ said Sakurai, a cross-cultural trainer. “If this is bent or it has a fingerprint on it, it’s like having a fingerprint on your face.’’

The ultimate mistake is discarding a business card, Sakurai said, recalling the time a US visitor dropped a client’s card and failed to pick it up. “It’s like stepping on a Japanese person’s face with your foot.’’

Sakurai’s counsel on card courtesy came dur ing a daylong workshop, “Working Effectively with Japan,’’ held at Millennium in Cambridge last week. Eighteen months after the company was bought by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. of Japan for $8.8 billion - the largest biotechnology acquisition in Massachusetts - employees are learning the protocol of bowing, seating, swapping cards and gifts, and drinking beer.

“Even if you don’t drink beer, you pretend that you drink it,’’ said Sakurai, a senior consultant for Aperian Global who divides her time between Tokyo and San Francisco and has led workshops for Takeda on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. “You keep the glass full. You don’t want the person who is pouring you the beer to lose face.’’

The training might seem unnecessary in an Internet-connected world where many cultural differences are either commonly known or have dissipated through globalization. But there’s a heightened level of interest in the subject when your paycheck indirectly hinges on getting along with someone who does business thousands of miles away.

Advice like Sakurai’s is becoming a valuable commodity in an era when more foreign pharmaceutical companies are snapping up US biotechs to gain a foothold in the North American market. Another local company, Sepracor Inc. of Marlborough, agreed in September to be acquired for $2.6 billion by Japan’s Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co.

To illustrate how misconceptions flow both ways, Sakurai showed the workshop participants slides listing common stereotypes Japanese and American business people have of one another. For example, Americans complain about the Japanese remaining silent during meetings and not sharing information. Japanese grouse about US business people speaking before listening or failing to read material sent to them in advance of a meeting. And each side faults the other for “being unwilling to try something new,’’ she said.

The workshop armed Millennium executives with information to help them avoid unintended lapses in etiquette, such as sitting closer to a Japanese department head at a conference table than a more senior manager.

“I’m the bumbling idiot who wants to make sure I don’t make a fool out of myself,’’ said Tina Stiles, a Millennium senior manager of corporate quality assurance training, who has yet to interact with Takeda counterparts on the ground in Japan. “It’s good from the cultural perspective to make sure we’re not doing anything to offend anybody.’’

Sakurai conducted a similar workshop earlier in October at Takeda’s headquarters in Tokyo and shared with Millennium managers some of the feedback she gleaned there.

“Although they are one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in Japan, they feel inferior because you speak English too fast and you give direct feedback,’’ she said. “For the Japanese, direct feedback can be perceived as damaging the relationship.’’

Japanese business people put a premium on harmony, she said, and delivering “the hard truth’’ is often considered inappropriate in a public setting. They prize teamwork, status, and restraint, and focus on the long term. Americans, by contrast, tend to value independence, take risks, and march to short-term goals.

Isabelle Mercier, a native of France who is Millennium’s vice president of marketing, already has made two trips to Takeda, but she was embarrassed to learn from Sakurai that she may have breached protocol by opening her hosts’ gifts in their presence.

“This has made me more attuned to the importance of not assuming that I understand where they’re coming from,’’ Mercier said.

Margaret Mason, Millennium’s associate director for corporate quality assurance, audit, and compliance, said she was surprised when her Takeda colleagues began addressing their e-mails to “Mason-san,’’ using the honorific Japanese suffix, but later switched to “Margaret-san.’’ When they visited her in Cambridge, she said, they called her by her first name. Mason followed their lead, a decision that drew praise from Sakurai.

“This is good,’’ Sakurai assured her. “You’re becoming one of them, their teammate. So they call you by the first name.’’

But she added that how you address a co-worker depends on the situation. The same executive who uses a first name in an intracompany setting might address someone by last name in front of a client because the setting is more formal.

Millennium associate finance director Tariq Kassum said the workshop reminded him to be more precise and avoid jargon. “The language barrier is the greatest contributor to misunderstanding,’’ Kassum said. “I need to be conscious about not stepping into any of these cultural landmines.’’

To help bridge the cultural divide, Sakurai said, she offers Millennium and Takeda employees a piece of overarching advice: “As you get to know them, be open to accepting new information and updating your stereotype.’’

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.