Book presentation in Portugal

Compilation of the venue and speakers of the book presentation

On the 4th of July one of the members of the Cooperative was happy to present her book once more. This time for a room full of Portuguese businessmen, academia and (former) colleagues ánd former professors of Vasco Freitas Silva (co-author). In a pretty Casa do Corim, in Porto, the book was received with enthusiasm, with wonderful contributions from Teófilo da Fonseca and Rosario Moreira.

Da Fonseca emphasized how he, with extensive experience working abroad, recognizes the issues as well as the usefulness of the solutions found in this case study. Prof. Moreira mentioned: “It is not easy to write about the Portuguese – Angolan relations. It is very sensitive, but this story shows courage and the book is written with due respect.” And again, like last year, beautiful Portuguese guitar music confluenced with African rhythms.

The book: Cultural Confluence in Organizational change; a Portuguese venture in Angola (Vasco Silva and Alette Vonk).

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Saskia Maarse

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Saskia Maarse is a Dutch intercultural speaker, trainer and author. For six years, she researched how Dutch culture is experienced by people from other cultures. She did so through in-depth interviews with entrepreneurs and managers from 30 different countries. She wrote two books on the subject: Tutti frutti – Success in a colourful and entreprising Netherlands and Onder de zeespiegel – collaborating and living together with the Dutch.

Saskia’s fascination for cultural differences started at a young age. She worked in tourism for over ten years, including several years in France, Spain, Italy and Austria. Her work experience abroad and her subsequent trip around the world broadened her view of the world and its inhabitants. Her research provided Saskia with much: more cultural awareness and extensive knowledge about Dutch culture in relation to other cultures.

Saskia’s mission is to provide as many people and organisations as possible with cultural insights and awareness in an accessible and inspiring way, so that more understanding of different cultures is created.

“During our team building day in Openluchtmuseum Arnhem we have had the pleasure to enjoy a very interesting cultural awareness workshop focussing on the Dutch culture in comparison with other cultures, how other cultures see us Dutch and what we can learn with the 6 principles of intercultural working from Saskia Maarse. The diverse group that we were with 25 people, 6 nationalities and even more cultures (including Frisian and Limburg) were really enthusiastic and even more understood the importance of good communication (verbal and visual) in international business.”
Marko van der Smitte, Sales Director Alfa Laval