PAUL RENAUD, International networking and its importance How important is it to network internationally? Let me give you a few insights… While traveling in different countries for work it was common for my job to end at one point. Either because of contractual obligations or I had met the objectives of my tasks and my employer needed to hire someone local to replace me. Then after a while in this new country I thought to myself: “ Well my family is here; the kids are in school and they like their new friends; I liked the people of this country…so I thought ‘I can make it here!’” Despite huge cultural and language differences, I was intrepid. I went on to live and work in just about every region in the world. The sheer fact of living in Brazil, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Haiti and Algeria, while surrounded by complete strangers was
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daunting, but I knew that I had to network if I wanted to work (and hence, eat). My hosts in these new countries were friendly, but ‘friendly’ doesn’t cut it when you need to work. After all, I was a ‘foreigner.’ As it turned out I discovered that living in this new country was a lot tougher than I expected. I found this out the hard way. I soon remembered that, in general, networking was a whole lot easier at home in Canada among friends and family. If you find yourself in a new culture it’s a lot more complex because you’ve got many dynamics happening all at same time: Different cultures; different customs; different religions; different outlook on work and family life. It was more complex but at the same time it was a lot more fascinating. It was incredible what I learned.