Cindy King, a cross-cultural marketer, has an interesting post on different interpretations of times and dates across cultures.  It reminded me of a friend from Botswana who had a very different idea of time than I do.  He defined "later"  as any time in the future: today, tomorrow, next week, next month.  Appointments did not translate into being somewhere at a specific time or even on a particular date.  While this attitude was the norm where he did business, it would never have worked in the US.

So, what should you do when working with overseas customers? Do as the Romans: learn how your customers use times and dates and follow their lead. 

Image by Travis Jon Allison under Creative Commons license.