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This is the first in a series of articles exploring Geneva’s business culture. My initial idea was to find out about the generalizations people have about working with other cultures in this multi-cultural city, especially when working with our neighbors; Austria, Italy, France, Germany, and Liechtenstein.
The first step was to find out more about Geneva’s own business culture, and people's opinions on doing business with our neighbors.
For example, is it true that the Austrians are always formal? That the Italians are always late and the Germans, on the contrary, are always punctual? That the Liechtensteiners never meet without an agenda or that the French tend to complain?
The results were somewhat surprising.
I reached out to my network and attended various social gathering events to talk to others about their impressions of the local business culture.
While I do not pretend that my research methodology was perfect, considering the small sample size, I did identify one common denominator.
There are no generalizations about working in Geneva and dealing with many different cultures. The city is just too diverse.
Every individual who lives and works here contributes to a common Genevan identity.
The Swiss Federal Statistical Office FSO and the Geneva statistics office offer data that helps explain why one cannot generalize about Geneva. Firstly, in 2017, 189 different nationalities lived in the canton. In 2019, there was a working population of 237,498, of which 40.93 percent were non-Swiss. This statistic did not include some 32,000 international civil servants, diplomats, and representatives of civil society, as well as approximately 30,000 inter-cantonal “navetteurs” and 90,000 cross-border workers from neighboring France.
Additionally, Geneva’s workforce is employed across many sectors of the local economy, including international organizations, technology, private banking, commodities, life sciences, and healthcare. Each sector has its own working culture.
So many different backgrounds from so many walks of life. Every individual who lives and works here contributes to a common Genevan identity. We all love the setting and the quality of life that ultimately unites us all here and makes Geneva such a wonderful place to live and work.
In the next article on business culture in Geneva, I want to look at what you need to know when dealing with cross-border business-to-business trade.
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Further reading:
Agriculture urbaine à Genève by