Henry Lee from Hong Kong was assigned by his company to live in the United
States in order to examine the possibilities of joint business ventures.
Henry had a specific place to go, an organization in Boston whose representatives
had earleir visited Hong Kong and who had suggested the idea of a person
like Henry visiting the Boston organization for an extended period. Henry
was made to feel at home. This was his first time out of Southeast Asia,
but he had done some reading about the United States. He was invited to
a cocktail party at which many of the important figures in the Boston organization
would be present. Henry remembered from his reading that important conversation,
which later might lead to actual business decisions, were held at cocktail
parties. Henry was anxious to make a good impression. Sure enough, at the
party he was introduced to Sean O'Neil, a company vice-president. Recognizing
the name as Irish and remembering from his reading that a good way to get
others into a conversation is to discuss matters they know about, Henry
brought up matters like the Irish immigration in the mid-1800s, which had
Boston as a major target; Roman Catholicism; the distilling of Irish whiskey;
and the current struggle in Northern Ireland. Henry also brought up a few
facts about the plans of his organization in Hong Kong. Mr. O'Neil kept
the conversation as short as possible and moved on to others at the party.
Henry sensed that the conversation did not go well and that he had not made
a good impression with the vice-president.