I visited a major facility, and reviewed all of their operations, and documents.
I found numerous problems, in almost every area.
Upon returning to the United States, I prepared an extensive report, with each and every deficiency listed.
I shared this indictment of the facility, its management, and particularly its Quality Control and Assurance organization, and awaited intense feedback.
To my surprise, what I received, from the head of the Quality Unit, was not any sort of apology, or list of actions they would take, but rather a rather short letter that dismissed our findings as "Nothing more than a listing of GMP (good manufacturing practices) issues."
That was the totality of the response, except for our being told, "A good consultant does not find problems, he fixes them".
And presumably never lets management know about them, or embarrasses the people who have made mistakes.
Learnings and lessons:
The culture in each country affects how information, particularly bad information and criticism, is received.
You cannot allow cultural differences to affect how you perform the assigned job. Honesty and responsibility must be maintained.
_______________________________________________________________
7 Generations
As a consultant from the United States, I am used to being an honest broker, helping a company, whether in or outside of the United States, to develop quality and robust products, and if asked, to help bring these products through the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and to market in the United States.
During my work with one company, I was curious about the culture of consulting, and asked my Japanese contact whether it would be acceptable for someone in Japan to be a consultant, helping a company from outside Japan to come to market in Japan (presumably taking jobs, and profit, from Japanese).
He looked at me and said, "If someone did this, no one would talk to him or his family for seven generations".
Learnings and lessons:
The openness of the United States is not reciprocated everywhere.
Many countries are insular, and very protective of their own.
