Never has it been more important to understand how executives from different cultures communicate and interact with each other. It's so important that we make sure that we bring The Culture Factor to London Business School in the first week of the Sloan programme, a one year full-time Masters in Leadership and Strategy, so that we can ensure that our incredibly diverse group of students understand the cultural lens of their fellow classmates. We have been fortunate to welcome Marc Jacobs from The Culture Factor in the last three successive years to deliver an immersive and fun workshop. The student feedback is always so positive that the workshop is a key fixture in their academic syllabus at London Business School.

Providing a lay audience with a framework for explaining cultural differences in just 90 minutes is a challenge. Marc Jacobs mastered this perfectly. He crafted an immersive, interactive experience for Luxembourg City’s tour guides that vividly illustrated how cultural environments shape individuals. He showed how this influence affects social organization and everyday interactions, and he highlighted how our ingrained expectations can lead to misunderstandings when engaging with cultures unlike our own. His methodology, emphasizing a global perspective rooted in local context, paired with practical guidance tailored to tour guides’ everyday responsibilities, proved exceptionally valuable.

Negotiate Like a Local” by Jean-Pierre Coene and Marc Jacobs has been an invaluable resource in our executive level degree programmes at London Business School. The book’s research has been applied across multiple classes, helping senior leaders appreciate that cultural norms profoundly shape negotiation styles and decision-making. Students consistently remark on how the insights challenge their assumptions and broaden their perspective, enabling them to approach cross-cultural interactions with greater empathy and effectiveness. This practical framework equips executives to navigate global business with confidence, fostering mutual understanding and better outcomes. A must-read for anyone leading in today’s interconnected world.

Mr. Jacobs performance was light-hearted, humorous, and highly engaging, successfully capturing and maintaining the attention of the audience throughout. His insights into cultural diversity were not only thought-provoking but also directly applicable to our client relationship management strategies in a global content.

Further developing the intercultural competencies of our leaders is an important part of our Euroports Leadership Programme. We selected The Culture Factor Group to deliver a workshop on understanding and managing cultural differences and their impact on communication and behaviour in our global organisation. The workshop was very impactful and the feedback from the participants overwhelmingly positive (score 4.5/5 in 2024 and 4,8/5 in 2025).