Business Etiquette: Negotiation Ended with Business Card Faux Pas

2008 June 9
by Carol Bory

Hanah Cho, a journalist from baltimoresun.com, shares a story of a Korean business card etiquette misstep.

“Jeffrey Jones, a longtime Seoul resident and attorney with the Asian country’s largest law firm, Kim & Chang, recalls one negotiation that went sour because an American official began folding up the card of a Korean counterpart on the other side of the table.

The offense? A business or name card was not treated with respect in a corporate culture where it’s largely viewed as an extension of a person.

‘Things deteriorated from there,’ Jones says, only half-kidding. ‘That negotiation ended.’”

Some key tips for exchanging business cards in Korea and Japan are:

  1. Have one side of your business card printed in the language of the country you are visiting.
  2. Use both hands to give and receive a business card.
  3. Present the business card with the receiver’s language facing up.
  4. Place the business card on the table in front of you, not in a jacket or pant pocket.
  5. Do not write on the business card in front of the person.

from → Business Etiquette