General context

In times of growing globalisation, corporations are faced with a triple challenge:

Succeed the co-operation between business units in dealing with the different objectives and ambitions of the counterparts   Organise projects based in remote facilities in different countries   Overcome misunderstandings due to cultural differences.

Pierre de Bartha and Jochen Peter Breuer (1987)

When business units in the same country have to work together, the success depends on the manager's skills in defining business objectives compatible with the goals of both units and managing the hidden human agenda (power struggle and personal affinities). This management task is highly demanding, because the so called "emotional viruses" poison the relationship and generate a climate of mistrust.

When two or more different countries are involved, the complexity is tremendously increased: the long-established, often unconscious mechanisms of interpreting other people's behaviour break down due to cultural differences in the value systems and the meaning of messages. This adds a new dimension to the process: misperceptions and misinterpretations of the intentions of the other party can lead to frustrations, suspicions and mistrust. As a result, the "soft" issues of human behaviour, i.a. the ability to identify and treat the emotional viruses, become a key factor for the make-or-break of a co-operation.

JPB's approach

JPB proposes an approach to this challenge, especially in the French-German context, where JPB has acquired over 20 years of experience. JPB has a profound understanding of the differences in French and German education, values and business traditions and its consequences on work methods and motivation, and has identified the most efficient way of overcoming misunderstandings and utilising complimentary characteristics to reach a common goal.

This unique experience allows JPB to offer its client a speedy and efficient method, called "mentalmerger®". The main idea of mentalmerger® is to make people merge in their head. Like a top athlete, who can only win with a strong mental attitude, unaffected by the emotional viruses (fears, doubts …), corporations need executives and key-players who precede on a basis of confidence in their shared capacities to reach the ambitious objectives.

Pierre de Bartha and Jochen Peter Breuer (2005)

The mentalmerger® Process integrates the work on the hard issues such as the definition of compatible business objectives with an emphasis on the soft issues, whether they originate in general human character or whether they stem from French-German or any other cultural differences. Each use of this method is tailor-made to handle the specific needs of the client's situation.

"Thinking does not change the world,
but thinking does change people,
and people do change the world."