IMPLEMENTI completed my International Internship Abroad in the Cayman Islands and the below captures a few topics from my discoveries:
What is Global Perspective?: 'the ability to conduct and adopt a multi-perspective analysis of local, global, international, and intercultural problems' While in the Cayman Is. on a daily basis, I interacted with clients that were local, international and intercultural. Some locals even happened to possess sub-culturally characteristics as well. As we know, different cultures respect and treat time differently. Monochronic cultures believe in doing one thing at a time, and are very deadline driven so they are therefore; very punctual. Polychronic cultures believe in attending to more than one thing at a time and see time as a relaxed reminder rather than a strict deadline. When working at one of the local Banks where I interned as a Corporate Banking Assistant, I dealt with both cultures. Being that we would deal with deadlines all day long; especially concerning wires and updating business contracts governed by law. The monochromic culture would stick to the deadlines presented to them, by us the Bank (mostly North American and Europeans). Polychronic cultures (Latin America, other Caribbean countries, locals) however, used to operating in relaxed environments, would always have a problem with the deadlines, both for wires (daily deadlines) and updating their contracts with us according to the time given them (usually 7-14 days). We recognized the cultural differences and, instead of taking offense to the polychromic behaviors, we devised a plan. We came up with a plan to advice the polychronic communities; that wires were due 11am rather than the actually time of 4pm and also gave them a 4-day due date on updating their documents, even though it was not due until day 14. This sought to improve the gap of the actual deadline and when would receive correspondence. The corporate banking team and I, would be required to address and resolve other matters that involved global problems but would gear the department and company towards being a globally recognized and participating company. Global Awareness earned: 'knowledge of the interrelatedness of local, global, international, and intercultural issues, trends, and systems' I participated in Global awareness because I was required to learning and use of knowledge of local and international laws regarding companies that did business in the Cayman Islands or sought to do so. I was required to know local, global, and blacklist laws and policies and countries unable to carry out business in the Cayman Islands. We were not able to do business with some clients if their countries were not involved in; political warfare, government criminal activity etc., therefore we had to be aware of such or perform research before performing an all-clear. I was also required to perform due diligence and check credit applications and criminal records locally and internationally (mostly in America and Europe), before the company was approved to open accounts, or continue business with us. Abiding by local banking system laws, as well as researching international banking system laws, to ensure the both companies were abiding by their respective laws, was also part of my job. New clients had to provide bank policies they were already affiliated with (in other countries), to ensure banking in the Cayman Islands would not be a violation of previous international contracts. A few countries we had to do this for: were Virgin Islands, Bahamas, and Ireland. Global Engagement is....: ' willingness to engage in local, global, international, and intercultural problem solving'. I engaged in Global engagement by identifying, analyzing and solving local, intercultural and international problems with our clients and potential clients as evidenced in the examples above. My responsibility to engage with clients and help solve these issues, not only affected the company I worked for as they sought to become more globally recognized and compliant, but local government as well. The more local banks that worked to be more globally recognized by way of matching international laws and standards, the more successful Cayman would towards staying off the Blacklist. In turn, the above would be better for the Cayman economy and government also, who sought to change local laws periodically, to match international ones to prevent fraud and other financial crimes. In being more compliant with international companies and international laws, we would be able to sell and trade more efficiently, as well as, provide job security for ourselves and the local working communities. |