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Business Etiquette

Please contact us if you would like further information on admission requirements, tailored modules, course lengths, dates and/or fees.

Module 1: Manners today

Content

• An introduction to manners today:
  • where do they come from?
  • what’s still valid and what is now considered old-fashioned?
  • who decides?
• Ensuring the kind of positive first impression that can lay a sound foundation for successful business relations

Module 2: Body language and non-verbal communications

Content

• an introduction to body language
• perception and interpretation
• non-verbal communications and their constituent parts
• what to pay attention to in dealings with others (eye contact, eye language, poise and foot positions, facial expression, hands and gestures, seating posture at meetings and other work-related events, voice and intonation, respecting personal space)

Module 3: How to invite/entertain successfully, and what small gifts to offer and bring

Content

• what should a business invitation say (and what shouldn’t it?)
• getting the form and the tone of the invitation right
• dress codes on invitations and what they mean
• letters of thanks
• spoken and written thanks
• using modern media: mobile phones, SMS text messages, email.

Module 4: Business dress

Content

• Business dress
• tips on good business dress and appearance for women and men
• combining colours
• fabrics and patterns
• shoes and socks
• shirts and ties
• jewellery and other accessories.

Module 5: Secure social style

Content

• welcomes and introductions
  • who should greet whom
  • how to introduce people to each other
  • how to introduce yourself
  • using the familiar forms (e.g. “tu” and “Du”) in languages that have them
  • who offers the “tu”/“Du” to whom
  • handling business cards
• small talk
  • good discussion topics
  • telling stories and anecdotes
  • taboo topics
• first contacts and how to make them
• the roles of the sexes: businesswomen today

Module 6: International manners

Content

This module looks at the main differences in what is considered good and bad manners in:

• Arab countries
• Jewish societies
• Asia (especially China, Japan and India)
• North America
• Latin America

Further countries can be focused on upon request.

Module 7: Table manners and etiquette

Content

• Table manners
• Seating
• Choosing food and wines

An additional module on wines can also be provided on request. This will include practical tastings, and will focus on expanding participants’ knowledge of wines for business and private events, including information on:

• winegrowing
• wine regions
• recommendations
• faulty wines
• which glass for which wine

Module 8: Practice makes perfect

Content

Practice aperitifs and dinner: the participants attend pre-dinner drinks followed by dinner to put what they have learnt into practice. This, combined with video training, permits further training and instruction in areas such as:

• making small talk
• first contacts
• welcomes and introductions
• looking after guests

This module needs to be held at an appropriate location, such as a staff restaurant with a separate seating section, a public restaurant with a similar separate section, a hotel or a conference facility that can offer catering services.