X-Culture.org
The X-Culture Consulting Group
- 300+ local X-Culture Consulting Group experts in 74 countries
- Hire one expert, get the wisdom of the entire community
- Supported by tens of thousands of business students
Depending on your needs, we will assemble a team of world-class experts to deliver a top-quality solution to your problem.
Even if only one of our experts works on your project, all experts in the group provide support, so you get the wisdom of the entire X-Culture expert community.
The X-Culture professionals are supported by over 10,000 MBA students in our international business training program. With their help, we can:
- Get an unlimited supply of fresh creative ideas
- Collect rich local market research data
- Reach out to thousands of potential retailers, distributors, and customers
- Conduct local promotion of your products
Expertise Areas and Types of Consulting
The X-Culture Consulting Group delivers high-quality solutions in the following areas:
International Business Strategy
Consulting types:
- Global market research
- Complete export strategy
- Complete market entry strategy and local support
- Search for local distributors/retailers/partners
Example 1: A full market entry strategy, the market identified by the client
- Competition analysis:
- Full list of competitors, including their products, prices, market share, marketing strategies
- Analysis of the client’s strength and weaknesses compared to the competition
- Market analysis: Culture and customer tastes, economic conditions, ease of doing business
- Survey of potential local customers (N=252)
- Survey of potential local distributors/retailers (N=8)
- Marketing strategy, including:
- Positioning and messaging
- The message
- Best advertisement/promotion channels, including pricing
- Mock-ups of ads for social media and direct mailing
- Marketing budget
- A list of recommended local marketing agencies
- Pricing strategy
- Including a comparative analysis of ways to collect payment in the market, and fees associated with each payment option
- Logistics
- Shipping options, including time, price, reliability
- Analysis of trade regulations
- Customs duties and documentation
- Other required paperwork, certification
Price: $19,000
Completion time: 2 months
Example 2: Same as #1, the market was not identified by the client
- A comprehensive global search for the most promising new markets, including assessment of demand and competition in over 120 markets using our global network
- Full market entry strategy for two most promising markets, as in #1
- Included HR strategy: recruitment, selection, compensation strategy, and management strategy for local personnel
Price: $26,000
Completion time: 4 months
Cross-Cultural and Global Virtual Teams
Consulting types:
- The technical side of online collaboration (Dropbox, Google Docs, Zoom, Slack, MS, Teams, Doodle, etc.)
- The human side of online collaboration (dealing with time-zones, cultural differences, lack of in-person contact, challenges of working from home)
- Teamwork intelligence
- Culture, cross-cultural communication, and conflict
- Cultural intelligence
- Leveraging cultural differences and global dispersion
Most training programs include a complete Global Workplace Aptitude Assessment. Each employee receives a detailed personal report that details test results, identify strengths and weaknesses, and provides a personal development plan and recommendations for the following competencies:
- Online technical competency
- Cultural intelligence
- Emotional intelligence
- Communication competencies
- Leadership and team coordination competencies
Examples of recent projects
Training for a newly-formed international, globally dispersed team
- Assessment of the team member’s GVT competencies, including:
- Online technical competency
- Cultural intelligence
- Emotional intelligence
- Communication competencies
- Leadership and team coordination competencies
- Employee training, including:
- Online collaboration tools
- Dealing with time-zones, cultural differences, lack of in-person contact
- Cultural intelligence
- Teamwork intelligence
- Effective coordination and performance management in global virtual teams
- Cross-cultural conflict resolution
- Leveraging cultural differences and global dispersion
- Team performance review, feedback, and suggestions (two weeks after the project start)
Project team size: 7 employees from four countries
Training session duration: 3 hours
Total duration: 1 month (including pre-training assessment and follow-up review/feedback)
Price: $8,000
Conversion to the virtual workplace / Work from home
- Assessment of the company’s needs and employees’ virtual collaboration competencies
- Development of the strategy to covert to the virtual workplace, including:
- IT solutions
- Performance appraisal and management strategy
- Employee coordination strategy
- Employee training, including:
- Online collaboration tools
- Challenges and best practices of working from home
- Effective coordination in virtual teams
- Performance appraisal and management when working from home
- Employee transition review and feedback (weekly first 3 weeks, monthly first 3 months)
- Follow up training 4 weeks into the transition
Number of employees transitioning to working from home: 23
Price: $18,000
Expatriate Management
Consulting types:
- Pre-departure / post-arrival training
- Recruitment and selection for expatriate assignments
- International labor law
- Compensation in the international context
- Performance appraisal
- Monthly adjustment evaluation, coaching
- Post-assignment briefing
Recent projects:
Example 1. Pre-departure training for an employee + family going on a 1-year overseas assignment
- Culture of the host country: similarities and differences with the home country
- Political, economic, and legal systems of the host country
- Legal issues: registration upon arrival, local ID, visa regulations
- Housing options
- Schooling for kids
- Transportation options
- Local banking
- Local holidays, traditions, gift-giving, making friends among locals
- Local expatriate networks, mailing lists, making friends with other expatriates
- Personal safety and security tips
- Q&A
One personal training/orientation session, 3 hours
Price: $2,500
Example 2. Staffing strategy for a position overseas
- Job design and the accompanying position description
- Performance monitoring and assessment
- Performance metrics
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- Employee feedback and coaching
- Selection strategy: required credentials, selection tests, interview questions
- Recruitment notice (compliant with local labor laws)
- Placed recruitment ads
- Reviewed the applications, assessed and recommended best candidates
- Prepared contract template as per legal requirements in both countries
- Designed the compensation strategy based on local market research, including local labor laws, culture, and customs
- Pre-departure training for the employee and family, see the example above
- Conducted monthly (first 6 months) employee performance reviews, feedback to the employee, progress reports to the employer
Duration: 9 months
Price: $28,000
Boosting Team Effectiveness
Types of consulting
- Turning a collection of co-workers into an effective team
- Creating a positive team climate
- The science of effective team leadership and coordination
- The science of effective decision making in teams
- Turning team diversity from a challenge into an advantage
Most training programs include a complete Teamwork Aptitude Assessment. Each employee receives a detailed personal report that details the test results, identifies strengths and weaknesses, and provides a personal development plan and recommendations for the following competencies:
- Teamwork aptitude
- Online collaboration skills
- Communication competencies
- Leadership and team coordination competencies
- Emotional intelligence
- Cultural intelligence
Recent projects:
Example 1. Team-Building Retreat
- Assessment of the company’s needs and employees’ competencies
- Employee team-building training, exercises, and activities that cover the following topics:
- Making teamwork more enjoyable and productive
- Improving decision making in teams
- Improving coordination in teams
- Dealing with cultural and demographic differences in teams
- Post-retreat evaluation
Number of program participants: 14
Duration: half-day event
Price: $4,500
Example 2. Effective Team Leadership Training for Middle-Managers
- Assessment of the company’s needs and program participant’s competencies
- A mix of lectures, exercises, and in-depth discussions that cover the following topics:
- The known challenges and best strategies for being an effective team leader
- Creating a positive team climate
- The science of effective team leadership and coordination
- The science of effective decision making in teams
- Turning team diversity from a challenge into an advantage
- Types of difficult team members and best strategies for dealing with them
- Post-training evaluation and feedback (2 rounds, one week and one month after training)
Number of program participants: 8
Duration: Full-day event and follow-up assessment and feedback 1 week and 1 month later
Price: $8,500
Diversity Management & Compliance
Types of consulting projects:
- Working with people who are different from you
- Awareness of and respect for cultural differences
- Working with people of different age, gender, sexual orientation
- Reducing harassment, bullying, and nurturing respect in the workplace
Recent projects:
Example 1. Workplace Diversity Training, 1.5 hours
- A basic training session on workplace diversity
- Includes review of research, discussions, and min-activities on such issues as:
- Working with people who are different from you
- Effects of workplace diversity on performance
- Challenges and best practices when working with people of different age, gender, sexual orientation
- Legal and ethical considerations in the context of a diverse workplace
- Post-training evaluation
- Includes a certificate that the employees completed the Workplace Diversity training
Number of program participants: 12
Price: $1,500
Example 2. Diversity Awareness and Respect Training, 5 hours
- An extended training session on workplace diversity
- Includes review of research, discussions, and numerous illustrative exercises on such issues as:
- Working with people who are different from you
- Effects of workplace diversity on performance
- Challenges and best practices when working with people of different age, gender, sexual orientation
- Reducing harassment and bullying in the workplace
- Legal considerations in the context of a diverse workplace: Ethics vs. the Law
- Post-training evaluation
- Includes a certificate that the employees completed the Workplace Diversity training
Number of program participants: 32
Price: $4,500
Continued Business Education for Employees
Courses adapted for corporate employees, offered by university professors
- Economics
- Marketing
- Management
- Entrepreneurship
- International Business
Each course includes 12 lectures / 75 minutes
Covers the basics of the discipline, main theories, review of research and evidence, practical implications
Pricing
- Pre-recorded: $100 per employee per course, or $400 for a group of 5 or more
- Live: $500 per employee per course, 10 students minimum.
Assessment of Aptitudes and Competences
The scientists on our team have developed a battery of measurement instruments to assess:
- Cultural Intelligence
- Emotional Intelligence
- General Cognitive Ability
- Teamwork Intelligence
- Cultural Values
- Communication Competencies
- Leadership competencies
- Test of Basic Knowledge of International Business
Each test has been validated in a large international sample and has been shown to predict or explain the differences in performance in the international context significantly.
Each test taker will receive a detailed personal performance review that includes:
- Personal test results and comparison against population averages
- A detailed interpretation of test results
- A review of strengths and weaknesses
- A guide for personal improvement in lacking areas
The tests can be self-administered or accompanied by a training program
See examples of published studies in leading business and management journals that relied on the data collected using these instruments.
Pricing, Single Test
- Single user: $8
- Group rate: $45 for every 10 people
Pricing, Complete Battery of Tests
- Single user: $45
- Group rate: $350 for every 10 people