A British Businessman’s Guide to Negotiations and Business Meetings in Lithuania

For multinational businessmen, there are always numerous intercultural challenges to deal with. Acquiring and maintaining an in-depth understanding of a nation’s business culture is absolutely vital if one wishes to achieve success abroad. Conducting business in Lithuania can be a tricky task and your company should take great steps to ensure that a culturally sensitive approach is maintained at all times. Business operations are
incredibly formal in Lithuania – almost old-fashionably so. This will come as a surprise to any entrepreneur who has experience of business life in other Baltic states, but that is simply the nature and the way of things – and you must conform if you wish to fit in. Whilst this will be more a point of bewilderment, rather than annoyance, for British businessmen, the similarly prevalent custom of dragging out and lengthening all negotiation procedures will undoubtedly prove to be more frustrating. Again this is simply something that has to be dealt with as there is no way around it.

Lithuanian companies employ a deeply hierarchical structure and you will rarely witness anyone challenging the most supreme of your Lithuanian business counterparts. This is worth keeping in mind as addressing a junior member of staff and fishing for his/her opinion over the head of the lead negotiator will be deemed offensive. You do not need to create hierarchy where it does not exist within your own negotiation team, but respect the nature of theirs. Lithuanians are deeply modest in all of their working procedures and they always tend to communicate in a calm, collected and non-emotive fashion. This can make business counterparts very difficult to read – so you must be very wary during negotiations. Maintaining a similarly reserved approach in your own communication will elicit a positive response from your counterpart and built up a rapport – which in turn will negate any need to play mind games or indulge in subterfuge.

Meetings in Lithuania are usually populated by people of the highest possible status – as far as the circumstances will allow. In the UK it is perfectly acceptable for a member of staff who is evidently junior to sit and observe but this will not be accepted in Lithuania. A slightly more bizarre custom is the practice of providing an ‘attendee list’ accompanied by short bios of each member of your negotiation/meeting attendance team. Again, this is simply a harmless custom that you needn’t wrack your brain trying to understand, but it is nice to be pleasant and conform to your hosts’ requirements.

Finally, there is an act which is not readily expected but which will gain you limitless amounts of favour from your Lithuanian hosts – and that is the translation of all travelled documents into Lithuanian. Utilise high quality Lithuanian translation services, provided by a good translation agency, and render all of your transcripts, forms and documents into Lithuanian. Your hosts will happily conduct the meeting in English (and you should therefore provide all documentation in English also) but they will deeply appreciate the sentiment of providing translated documents. This tip, above all, will ensure that your Lithuanian business meeting or negotiation goes smoothly.