Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to The Auto Ethnographer. I'm your host, John Steck, and today we're celebrating a milestone, episode 41, but more importantly, it's the close of 2025. Over the past year, we've traveled across cultures and industries, not only the automotive industry, with guests who've lived, led, and learned in places far from home.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Auto Ethnographer. I'm John Steck, your host on this journey. We travel the globe to bring you stories about culture and the global automotive industry. Fasten your seatbelt and let's get started.
Speaker: As we wrap up the year, I want to thank every listener, the managers, engineers, marketers, founders, expats, and in-country experts who've tuned in and shared your stories.
Speaker: I'm excited to say that over 55 different countries have tuned in this year. It's far beyond the expectations that I had in the first year of the podcast.
Speaker: I especially want to thank the guests on the podcast for their time, for their valuable insights, which have been both informative and in many cases, highly motivational.
Speaker: To celebrate the guests, I wanted to curate a list of the best of their different quotes, different statements that they've made on the podcast. And when I gathered those best quotes, and in my opinion, I found that there were five themes that covered everything that they talked about.
Speaker: The themes are basically ah grouped into five groups. cultural adaptation and global mindset, learning and growth through experience, respect, empathy, and human connection, cultural identity and immersion, and finally, on the business side, really business side, global business and strategic perspective.
Speaker: Each theme will open up with just a brief reflection on my side to set the stage, but then I give the microphone back over to the podcast guest from this year to hear their resonant quotes.
Speaker: So thank you for being part of the journey. I'm deeply grateful that you've joined the Auto Ethnographer this year. Let's dive in on the final episode, and at the end, I'll share my last 2025 message and also a look ahead to 2026.
Speaker: So the first theme, as I mentioned, is cross-cultural adaptation and global mindset. Whether you're relocating or just working with global teams, adaptation starts with listening and looking, of course.
Speaker: A global mindset, it's not so much a passport stamp, it's really more of a practice where you suspend your assumptions, you seek context, and above all, you stay curious.
Speaker: The quotes in this section, they remind me that cross-cultural fluency is built in everyday moments, not necessarily in big conferences.
Speaker: They're on factory floors, they're in project rooms, and as one of the guests alludes, they're over coffee. The leaders here, they talk about being a global citizen, learning by observing, and then finding a common ground across these different corporate and above all societal cultures.
Speaker: If there's a takeaway, it's this. Humility will open the door, but it's your curiosity that keeps that door open. So starting off, coincidentally or not, with the first quote, also happens to be the very first guest of all time on the Auto Ethnographer podcast. Here's Greg Tebbit speaking of his experience with Volkswagen marketing.
Speaker: You eventually become a global citizen when when you ah deal with many different cultures, no matter where you are, where you're based. So it's wonderful to be talking about that. Now we have Gareth Dunsmore, where he expounds on his experience as a Brit living in France and dealing with many, many cultures around the world on an international marketing role.
Speaker: you just sort of close your mouth, open your ears, you suddenly realize how amazing these different cultures are and the different ways people work and you can learn off them all. Stavros Paraskevitis, he speaks about his first overseas work with Mercedes-Benz in the United States after relocating from his native Greece.
Speaker: When you're willing to learn and when you're willing to try and understand the idiosyncrasies of each individual market, irrespective of the size, you're going to be able to to adapt. If you're looking for solutions, you're going to find a way to provide those, hopefully.
Speaker: Greg Clark, he talks about his experience also as a Brit living outside of his native England. When you are in a different environment, number one, I think you have a very firm appreciation of the environment you came from,
Speaker: um And there's a silly expression, there is none. So there's nobody so English as an Englishman who no longer lives in England. And then following work in his native Germany, Andreas Schlegel, who also spent time in the United States, the UK, Sweden and Switzerland, he talks about his work with a number of brands across a number of cultures.
Speaker: I can put things much better in perspective, having lived and worked England, in many in many countries now. ah and And I think that's that's probably one of my my biggest assets and when entering a new endeavor um that i've been I've been to places, I've seen different cultures.
Speaker: Having focused on intercultural studies in the university, Dr. Susanne Lehmann of Volkswagen, she highlights the strength of understanding and leveraging culture during the career.
Speaker: Take culture as a yeah power that can help you define your cooperation with people from other countries, take it as a positive aspect and take it as a chance, even with your customers.
Speaker: Dr. Edwin Pang of Malaysia, he highlighted how he made living in Germany a truly positive experience. be understanding of each person's culture. And ideally, you learn the good from you learn the good stuff from Germany, you keep the good stuff, what you have in Asia, and then you become a much better person.
Speaker: And what's probably the longest quote in this episode Benny Oyen, a native of Belgium, he dives to the very root of what makes all people across the globe the same when you get right down to their personal goals and needs.
Speaker: The end of the day, people are people. We are all the same. We all want the same. We have the same values. We want to on the same goals in life, I should say.
Speaker: We want to be happy. I think everybody wants it, regardless which culture. We want to be happy. We want to have a good relationship with our partners or spouses, etc. and We want our children to be healthy, to be happy, to be become good people. We want our children to do well. ah We want our parents to be healthy and have a long and healthy relationship with each other. That, I found, is regardless which culture you work in,
Speaker: with, it's the same. So at the end, we all have these shared human values. Jess Bala, the managing director at General Motors Australia and New Zealand, she makes clear what's not always so obvious.
Speaker: Yeah, I think there's a little bit of, you know, people just assume where you're going from one English-speaking country to another. It can't really be that different. But I would say that's not always, always the case.
Speaker: Jess Bala goes on then to explain how working outside of her native Australia helped her to grow professionally. i I would say without a doubt, it was one of the best things that I've that i've done for sure. um Being able to work at a global company, I think opens up a lot of opportunities. You get to learn about other cultures, you get to interact with other cultures and see how the differences between markets apply. um And also it gives you different viewpoints as to how other brands and other markets do things as well, all of which I think are great learnings when you especially come back to such a multicultural country like ours here in Australia, it's only going to go to benefit you.
Speaker: Moving on to the second theme, learning and growth through experience. I'd have to say that growth isn't clean. It's iterative, it's messy, and it's humbling. And I can certainly speak to that learning how to do a podcast in 2025.
Speaker: The voices here, they emphasize learning by doing, by reframing their setbacks as feedback, and to treat change as a teacher.
Speaker: Leaders often talk about failure as a great professor and the importance of resilience and then turning your uncertainty or their uncertainty into a skill.
Speaker: So if you're building teams or careers across borders, remember, according to one of the guests, you don't lose, you learn. And each cycle of learning, it expands your adaptability, your judgment, and ultimately your empathy.
Speaker: Again, letting Greg Tebbit lead in this category. He highlights how competitiveness kept improvements coming in his work at Volkswagen.
Speaker: As much as we were doing well as a market, and that can that can slip at any time. um Certainly our mantra was, you're you're only as good as your last piece of work.
Speaker: Now between you and me, it's hard to admit to failure, but listen to Greg Clark as he explains what he did when he made mistakes.
Speaker: I probably always learned more from the failings in my career, the things that I've royally screwed up than I do from those things that i think actually that went pretty well. You know, that worked as planned.
Speaker: You like to plan out your life? and then maybe get disappointed if it doesn't end up the way you the way you had planned it. i can certainly subscribe to to that happening.
Speaker: um Tim Bravo from Lamborghini, he sees it differently, especially with regards to life's twists and turns. life has, as as we will see when we talk about my my career, life is something that you cannot plan always. no You say life is what happens while you're making other plans. And this is something really, really true.
Speaker: My life has been has been like that. Whatever I planned, it came differently. But whichever ah door closed, another window opened. This is also, again, it's ah It's a cliche, but that I find to be very true. You always have to have to set of planning ahead. You just have to give your best to always be prepared to be able to react to different scenarios.
Speaker: And because life's unpredictable and it can hand you challenges and failures. Tim Bravo goes on to advise on what he does to respond when those happen.
Speaker: ah But in life, I found it true that ah you either win or you learn. So you you don't you don't lose if you if you if you deal with the situation with authenticity and honesty. And then people will forgive you mistakes, especially when it's a cultural mistake.
Speaker: Dr. Edwin Peng, again from Malaysia, having worked in Germany with Continental, he explains that with freedom comes responsibility.
Speaker: There's this great saying always, you know, people's people's um success is people's success, but people's failures is also people's failures. But that's also on to you. youre You're the same way. If you make decisions yourself, you you get to own those decisions.
Speaker: And then finally... startup founder, Adi Bhatla, he ties his personal cultural learning journey from India to the United States to the rapid change in a growing company or startup.
Speaker: I think one thing that I learned was culture. Culture is very, very important. It shapes who you are and Hopping from one culture to another that had stark differences um really throws you at the deep end and ah really puts you in a sink or swim mentality. So you get to understand the psychology of somebody going through that level of change.
Speaker: That is the pace of change that mimics, somewhat mimics what high growth startup goes through. So moving on to the third theme, respect, empathy, and human connection.
Speaker: I would say respect and empathy are the connective tissue of of cross-cultural work. Teams are going to thrive when leaders show some vulnerability, they honor local knowledge, and then they negotiate even with generosity instead of with dominance, again, depending on where which culture they're operating in.
Speaker: The insights here, they stress starting with understanding, not judgment, and then anchoring collaboration in shared goals, which I think everybody could describe too. I'll let Gareth Dunsmore start off here in this theme by opening up that vulnerability can truly lead to deeper connection.
Speaker: What's the worst that could happen if you show a little bit of yourself? Yeah, people could judge, but actually maybe you could make a friend. And I know that sounds really soft in some ways, but I've got friends all over the world from just being a bit more human, bit more vulnerable. And and I think that's also helped me then lead and and drive teams to be successful within a positive environment. so And now, Stavros Paras Gavitis,
Speaker: He alludes to the shared experience of expats in the Middle East when he was working with a BMW brand in Saudi Arabia.
Speaker: We are all expats. We go into a foreign country for a common purpose, and that is to be financially at a better position so we can support our families, educate our children. So I e always try to remember that all these people were in this country for the same fundamental purpose.
Speaker: So that means that we all have a common goal. Now, after spending nearly two decades in Brazil, Philip Schemer, who was the CEO of Mercedes-Benz Brazil and later CEO of Mercedes-AMG, he explains in two quotes, first, how to adapt to the local culture, and then second, how to operate successfully within that culture once you've learned to adapt.
Speaker: I think were very important and you also know that if you come to a country ah totally different from yours, I think the the first thing is very important to try to understand and not to judge. So try to understand how how the people are living. So I think very important is to talk to the people. to to ask them how this is working, how would you do that? And I think this is ah this is a very important ah step if you want to have success afterwards in ah in ah in ah in ah in ah in a different culture. ah
Speaker: So the give and take principle, I think maybe in Brazil is more important than then in then in Germany. so You have to let the other side win also. It just it cannot be just one, somebody's winning. You have to give something something to the one side. So if you go into a in ah a negotiation, you have always know what you you can give and what could be interesting for them. yeah And not only good things happen across borders, there are also some negative trends that are developing around the world, especially now with the rise of technology.
Speaker: particularly focused on AI. And that topic, unfortunately, is ageism or age bias, which is pervasive around the world. Tamika Sears, an American HR expert, she highlights the impact of stereotypes.
Speaker: And I think that there is just this overall thought and picture that you don't think of the person, you know, with gray hair getting something done fast.
Speaker: And I think that that's just the, the, total prejudice that just colors a lot of these decisions is just the assumption that the person's not going to be able to learn the technology.
Speaker: They're not going to be able to do it as fast. They're not going to be a efficient. um Like, I do feel like they expect someone who is, you know, over 40 to show up with a notebook and a pen and not know how to use a computer. Like, and that's just not really the case.
Speaker: And then Kelvin Wynn, an expert in ah h r and recruiting in Vietnam, he goes on to explain the shocking, truly shocking age at which ageism begins in Vietnam.
Speaker: Yeah, I read a story on Lincoln yesterday, Lincoln of like a Vietnamese professional, and ah he complained that Before, some months before, people were worrying about like when they get over 45 years old.
Speaker: It's very difficult for them to get a job. But now it's become 35, not 45 anymore. So now we go on to the fourth theme, which is cultural identity and immersion.
Speaker: Immersion changes us. It widens our lens and it invites us to carry more than one identity with comfort. The voices here explore their are hybrid identities, full family immersion and a deeper appreciation of heritage craft and aesthetics.
Speaker: Beyond efficiency, culture teaches us ways of living, how we eat, how we learn, how we heal, how we design and in business, how we even brand.
Speaker: When we truly immerse, we see the beauty in difference and that brings richness into our lives as well as to the teams and the products with which we work.
Speaker: Let's start with Gianfranco Pizzuto. He's the CEO and founder of Automobile Estrema. in Northern Italy, he points to the impact of living between cultures and in fact, growing up between them.
Speaker: It's part of our culture because being raised in in a hybrid, I call it a hybrid culture, you know where you have influence, ah my mother being Austrian and my father being Italian and my my wife being German and having spent many years in the US and in Germany, in France, in Africa and and so on and so forth. I think this makes you a better man, a better person.
Speaker: In German, a Mensch, a better Mensch. Alexandra Strasburger of Mercedes-Benz, who spent 11 years in China, she explains what happens if you don't adapt to cultures fast enough.
Speaker: I mean, the first year, and I apologize already to the team, it was my first leadership role. And it was very German, right? You write meeting minutes, they have to be in a certain format, blah, blah, blah. And I was very, very adamant about bringing the German standard to China.
Speaker: And my poor team, I really, I felt now retrospectively, I really feel sorry ah because I was very German and very controlling. And this first year, it was very painful because I realized somehow it's not working. Somehow it's not, you know, it's not clicking.
Speaker: And when I realized that I have to adapt, that I have to change, that I have to really change also my way of working, then it worked wonders. And we had the most fun.
Speaker: Grace Mo, a trend spotting expert and branding strategist in Shanghai, she was surprised by what she found in Europe on her first visit there. Actually, ah before I just ah went to Europe, I saw to your Europe countries, and especially France and Italy are quite advanced. But when I just land there, I just ah find that that I was transported ah to the past, the the history about the it it is it was like ah ah in terms of a technology, France and the Italy were like,
Speaker: are just like ah China 10 or 20 years ago in terms of a technology or advancement. Grace goes on to talk about while Europe may have some disadvantage in tech and tech adoption, it does tend to focus on the beauty of things, not only on the utility of them.
Speaker: For a brand, I learned, you don't need to always prioritize functionality at the first ah place. It is not that important.
Speaker: ah well Just say it's a big learning and enhance my knowledge, past knowledge and the experience about the branding. Sometimes and most of the times, how to invoke as the emotion beyond functionality.
Speaker: And this brings us to the fifth theme, global business and strategic perspective. So strategy gets real in cross-border business. I spent my entire career focused on this.
Speaker: Regulations shift headquarters, assumptions they can collide with local realities. And of course, the competitive landscapes, they evolve fast. The reflections here, they push for collaboration versus isolation and for pragmatism over dogma.
Speaker: And ultimately for a, how do I say, global slash local lens. They remind us that behind every strategic move that we make and that companies make, there are human choices.
Speaker: their family decisions, their trade-offs, and there's a certain courage to embrace uncertainty. I'll let Gianfranco Pizzuto lead off again by pointing out that the safe route is not always the best one to take.
Speaker: I'm sincerely convinced that if we have a chance, we Western, we want to have a chance of being able to compete is by ah getting to work with them together and not banning them with the tariffs, et cetera, et cetera, and isolating ourselves. what What happened is that we isolate ourselves.
Speaker: Next up. mindset can change the starting point, according to Dr. Helmut Größer, formerly from Mercedes-Benz. This typical American thinking of, which I feel at least, the glass is half full.
Speaker: In Germany, German mindset, in doubt, the glass is always empty. And you have to work hard to somehow get it at least filled a bit.
Speaker: And during the season of podcasts, we heard several times that if the headquarters refuses to adapt to a local environment, it can lead to failure. Here, expounding on that is Dr. Deb Mukherjee from India on his experience.
Speaker: Yeah, John, I think out of all the other factors that we mentioned, I think human resource or human aspect and the whole socio cultural aspect of India is the most important, according to me.
Speaker: And I've seen companies fail. um having great products, having great technologies and massive power, but they could not figure out the social social cultural aspect of India. GM, as you know, ah failed here. Ford backed up from here. Nokia could not succeed here.
Speaker: On the other side of it is Japanese companies. Suzuki makes an enormous amount of money here. And rounding out the quotes at the end of 2025 is Toscan Bennett, who has worked for a veritable kaleidoscope of brands, 11 in all. And he speaks also of the headquarters mindset with respect to overseas markets.
Speaker: I think the most common mistake that headquarters organizations make is to assume that everything is just like it is ah at the headquarters, right? and So there's a desire to impose ah processes, policies, customer expectations, all those kinds of things, just as they are in the home market.
Speaker: I mean, what works there? Why why shouldn't it work abroad, right? And sometimes that makes sense and and sometimes it's a good idea, but very often it's not. And especially when it comes to things like customer needs and and local kind of cultural adaptations.
Speaker: So as you look and listen to these five themes, a pattern clearly emerges. And that is you listen first, you learn fast,
Speaker: You lead with respect, you immerse yourself deeply, and you think both global and local.
Speaker: So whether you're building products or shaping teams or moving your family across borders, these voices, these words of wisdom, they underscore that culture, it's not just a hurdle, it's actually an advantage.
Speaker: The leaders who thrive, they don't just work across cultures, they let themselves grow through them.
Speaker: As we close 2025 and cap off episode 41, I wanna thank every guest for their candor, their insight, and their generosity with their time.
Speaker: And thank you to the listeners for your time, your feedback, and even some of the stories that you've shared with me. Let your year's end be restful and meaningful. I wish you a great end of year. Happy holidays to those who are celebrating and see you again in January, 2026. I'll even be announcing a new project that I've been working on during that time.
Speaker: But you know what to do in the meantime. Keep on driving.
Speaker: Thank you for joining us on today's journey. Please remember to like and subscribe to The Auto Ethnographer and leave us a rating or comment. For more information, visit our website at auto-ethnographer.com.
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