Culture Clash

Henry Irving

https://www.castrust.org/2017/12/culture-clash/

I am always dubious about so called national characteristics and sweeping statements about millions of different people but this is slightly more sophisticated than the usual stereotypes and focuses on culture.

Interesting read.

charltonkeston

If true, it explains a lot of the weirdness.

McBobbin

Interesting, enjoyed reading that. Understanding cultural differences when conducting business abroad is important for my job, schoolboy error if he didn't even consider it

stonemuse

Fully agree with the analysis.

We did a similar thing when I ran the Product Management team for a large German multi-national. Very useful when you are negotiating with many different cultures around the world.

Stig

I thought from the title this was going to be a game about making up composite band names. I give you:

The Sex Pumpkins
The Arctic Monkees
British Sea Prodigy

rananegra

Interesting. There's definitely something in this. In my late 20s/early 30s I had a relationship with a Norwegian. Superficially very similar culture to us, but one of the things I learned from it was that I was very English in lots of little ways that I hadn't thought of before. Before then, I was a lot more vague about my identity, and would say British if asked, where now I say English.

Either way, want Duchatelet out and I reckon Aussies would be a good fit for us as a club. (Especially the wanting to win bit)

Alwaysneil

Struggle to understand this tbh.

Duchatelet ‘I am in important person, perhaps a visionary and therefore entitled’

Charlton - ‘you are a failure as far as Football ownership is concerned and the sooner you stop seeing it as your entitlement to ruin clubs because you have money and some half baked social ideas the better’

Duchatelet - ‘I am an important person and I will do as I like, I will not be dictated to or blackmailed by people less important than me’

Charlton - ‘Sounds like you aren’t going to admit to making a mistake mate, how about you go for a face saving solution’

Duchatelet - ‘There will need to be an appropriate process.’

Charlton - ‘Crack on, we like Sint Truiden, wouldn’t want the ROT to fully set in there for you’

Duchatelet - ‘I am a very important person and have entirely of my own free will decided to exit Football quickly in the most face saving manner possible.’

mrbligh

https://youtu.be/ZOwiFWfHfFE

PragueAddick

charltonkeston said:

If true, it explains a lot of the weirdness.

Personally I think it explains more about KM than RD, in that in RD's case, we know that many of his fellow Belgians agree he is weird. For example I doubt there are many rich Belgians who refuse to have a dishwasher in order to ensure "quality time" when washing the dishes with his wife. There are a lot of people who have pointed to the fact that many brilliant mathematician minds have difficulty connecting to ordinary members of society in a normal way. Another layer is the general arrogance and contempt for the rest of us shown by many but not all successful businesspeople.

KM exhibits the absolute deference to RD which this analysis would lead you to expect, and I guess it also explains why she shows no humility about being a CEO hen she had no prior experience that prepared her for it. RD made her the CEO, therefore she is a CEO, and we all "just have to accept that".

Well worth doing though, not least because if anyone dares still to say that we are a bunch of xenophobes who didn't accept Belgian owners, we can point to the fact that even went so far as to invest in this. And much good it did us.

GlassHalfFull

This is a very interesting subject, hopefully soon to be further contemplated in the rear-view mirror as we are carried away by our new owners.

I agree with PA that KM is directly responsible for much more damage than RD (he guilty nonetheless of her appointment and continued employment). She is someone who clearly thinks it's better to be famous and despised than a respected non-entity. Her four epic years of mismanagement and antagonism will long remain some kind of appalling benchmark.

As far as national characteristics are concerned surely language is one of the most important factors, and Belgium doesn't actually have its own language - it uses three of its neighbours' (don't forget that in the east 7% of the population is officially German-speaking). The country remains deeply divided on the basis of language, and yet somehow can still function. Could any other mature democracy have managed a period of 589 days without an elected government, as happened some years ago?

I will always be staunchly pro-European and regard RD's reign as one of complete betrayal. I wish all the very best to all STVVers - I hope the inevitable changes which arise from their beloved club's new (and distant) ownership turn out to be beneficial in the main, and that the fans can come to terms with their stadium now being in other hands. I'm sure that our good connections will enable us to keep well informed of developments.

Oakster

I have worked for a Belgian company for 18 years - none of the goings on at The Valley suprise me - I certainly recognize the personality traits of KM in some of my colleagues.