Prof. Geert Hofstede

We were delighted to secure Prof. Geert Hofstede as a speaker for our expert forum this year. With Prof. Geert Hofstede, there's really no need to explain who he is. What Sigmund Freud was to psychoanalysis, Geert Hofstede is to intercultural research. His empirically determined cultural dimensions and research work are still influential even decades after they were first published (IBM study, 1980). Geert Hofstede has accumulated numerous visiting professorships and honorary doctorates at universities around the globe. He is currently the 16th most frequently cited author in international management consulting worldwide. Our own intercultural study results on Russia, Estonia, Slovakia, China, France, and England were also best interpreted using Hofstede's cultural dimensions. On November 7th, 2008, Prof. Geert Hofstede spoke at the TWIST headquarters about his most important research findings and the latest developments on his cultural dimensions. After an extended break for coffee, snacks, and networking, we had the opportunity to ask him questions about intercultural issues and problems in everyday business life, to get to know the personality of this worldly-wise 80-year-old gentleman, and to benefit from his life experience. Due to the large number of people attending, we had to limit the number of participants to a maximum of 70.