Global Business Professor’s latest audio interview, “Intercultural Business Skills in the U.K.” features Matthew Hill, a senior consultant at Berlitz.  

In the 8-minute audio interview, Hill discusses and answers these questions:

• It can sometimes be confusing when speaking to a business person in the U.K. to identify what they are really saying – how would one go about directing the conversation?
• Based on personal experience, is it easy to connect with the average British worker?
• What are some of the cultural “traps”?
• How should an overseas executive proceed when working with someone from the U.K.?

Hill is an experienced trainer, coach, speaker and consultant working in a multi-national business setting.

Hill lived in the Czech Republic for six years has more than 20 years of experience with more than 70 corporate clients in 20 countries from his international executive search, HR and training career. He has personally worked with 50 nationalities and managed people from 12 different countries.

From his base in Prague, he dealt with some of the key companies in the automotive sector, including VW Skoda, Mercedes-Benz, Valeo, Tenneco and Robert Bosch.

Today, his work covers a number of training areas including raising cultural awareness, team building, conflict resolution, personal effectiveness, managers as coaches, leadership and communication, international presentation skills, repatriation and country culture briefings (Czech and Slovak Republics, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Ireland and the U.K.)

Hill has held the positions of managing director, HR practice leader, client operations manager and team leader for two long-standing global executive search and HR consultancies.

His experience extends beyond the U.K. and the continent to include Asia, Central Asia and his six-year tour in the Czech Republic where he held a regional role for Central and Eastern Europe. Here he spent many months on assignment successfully shaping project requirements, designing and leading international training courses and coaching briefs.

Hill graduated from London University (psychology and life sciences). He is a licensed practitioner of neuro-linguistic programming and is qualified in TMC’s Cultural Orientations Indicator tools. He has professional qualifications in advertising and marketing as well as extensive in-house training and development experience.

He regularly writes, broadcasts (both radio and podcast) and speaks for the BBC, the APU in Cambridge, Newcastle University, the Chelsea School of Art, the Belgian and Hungarian Embassies, the CIPD, The British, Australian and New Zealand Chambers of Commerce, UKTI, the Trade Council of Iceland, the Institute of Directors  – IOD, The Tomas Bat’a University in Zlin, Czech Republic, HR Director magazine, European CEO magazine, Human Capital Management magazine, International Trade magazine, International Trade Forum magazine, Global Connection magazine, The Personnel Zone website, Construction News, SIETAR, The Association of European Businesses (Moscow), IIC Partners, IIR Conferences (Globally Mobile Executives) and the ECIA (Engineering and Construction).  

He now lives in London and is chair of the intercultural charity – the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research – SIETAR UK.

Click here to listen to the audio interview.