Danfoss is world-leading supplier of technologies for several industries. Headquartered in Denmark, Danfoss employs people globally and serves customers in more than 100 countries.

Danfoss is a long-standing business partner of C3 Consulting. Since 2006, we’ve trained a broad range of managers and employees, teams and project groups to communicate and collaborate globally.

We frequently run open courses in country-specific cultural training for Danfoss, focusing on countries such as India or China. Here the participants get practical tools to communicate and collaborate effectively with colleagues and other stakeholders from these countries.

The participants on the open courses come from different departments and employee groups. This creates a dynamic atmosphere and facilitates knowledge sharing across the organization about collaborating with the specific country/culture.

Examples of other types of training we've provided for Danfoss:

• Danish cultural training for international employees
• Cross-cultural team training for various departments in and outside Denmark
• Cultural training for relocation: We’ve prepared individual employees and families for working and living in Denmark and for relocating to countries all around the world – e.g., the USA, India, China, Singapore, and Germany

Since 2011, C3 Consulting has also collaborated with the former Sauer-Danfoss on strengthening the implementation of their global strategy. The company is now a segment of the Danfoss Group and we continue the work as part of our broader collaboration with Danfoss.

See testimonials below on some of the training programmes we've provided:

• Cultural training for international assignments globally - Danfoss
• Online Danish cultural awareness workshop for Indian subsidiary - Danfoss
• Chinese cultural training - Danfoss
• Country-specific cultural training for groups and expats - Sauer-Danfoss
• Chinese and Indian culture courses - Sauer-Danfoss

C3 collaborates with Danfoss on cultural training programmes for individual employees and their families, preparing them for international assignments globally. This is what Senior Specialist in Global Mobility, Anne Stounberg Keller, says about the collaboration:

"Since spring 2015, we’ve been collaborating with C3 Consulting on cultural training for our employees and accompanying families who are assigned to work and live abroad.

This cultural training creates value for us in several ways. 

It gives our international assignees and their families the essential cultural understanding in order to cope with the transition between their own culture and the one they’re assigned to. The cultural training prepares them for the challenges that might arise and this makes the transition as smooth as possible. In this way, C3 functions as a 'bridge-builder' between the home culture and the new culture.

At the same time, our future expats gain practical tools they can use to navigate during their international assignment.

It’s our experience that the cultural training creates value, not only for the international assignees, but also for any accompanying family members – both accompanying partners and children can take part in the training. This makes the families feel closely involved in the relocation process, giving the whole family a sense of ownership, which is a vital element of a successful relocation.

I’ve only received positive feedback from employees and families who have participated in the training. They’ve all been really happy about it.

My experience is that the collaboration with C3 on the cultural training is very flexible. As a client, we are always met with an open mindset and an 'everything-is-possible' approach. So far, there hasn’t been a location that C3 could not provide cultural training for.

It’s also very easy to organize the individual training programmes – we simply initiate the process and then C3 takes over and coordinates all the practical things such as the focus of the training, the time, place etc. That’s really a relief for us."

Anne Stounberg Keller
Senior Specialist, Global Mobility
Danfoss A/S

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For example, Indians and Danes will typically have different perspectives and understandings. These differences in perspectives or opinions are only disclosed when the projects or tasks are not going well.

The learning is that when you are having global projects, it is very important to align the expectations with everybody, including the manager. This applies to all multicultural environments and not only to Danish-Indian teams.

Having said that, it is also good to identify the risks as a global team or multi-cultural team, in a risk assessment workshop. All these kinds of teams should be aware of which risks are at play for the different team members.

What did you become aware of in relation to your Danish colleagues?

I became aware of many different things in relation to my Danish colleagues:

• Differences between High context and Low context cultures
• That a Danish manager need not be the subject matter expert
• That Denmark is a society with high trust and low competition
• That starting something wrong is better than doing nothing
• How to use the ‘Iceberg model’ and the ‘4R model’ to navigate the cultural differences

Is there something you will or already do differently after the workshop?

Yes – for example:

• Start doing (even if it is wrong) rather than doing nothing :)
• Ask when in doubt
• Speak up
• Understand other’s perspective (nobody is wrong, it is just a matter of perspective, the way we are raised in different societies and cultures)

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Testimonial on C3's Chinese cultural training for Danfoss:

"Perfect! This seminar should be mandatory for anybody who is in direct or indirect contact with China and the Chinese, but especially for the managers who take decisions on a strategic level.

There is some truth in the saying ‘it’s easy enough in theory, but in practice...’ and this became apparent to me on this well-planned and dynamic seminar. During the seminar I learned important and necessary information and had a thorough training in the mind-set of the Chinese – experienced by the trainers themselves. It was very convincing!

I warmly recommend continuing the concept, whereby the participants prior to the seminar refer to and describe actual cases they work with – and where these cases are included in the training on the seminar. This makes the training relevant and close to the real working day."

Per Nørskov Mikkelsen
Director of Operations, Temperature Sensors
Danfoss A/S

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Testimonial on C3's country-specific cultural training for groups and expats at Sauer-Danfoss:

"Sauer-Danfoss has by now collaborated with C3 Consulting for a little more than 18 months and we can already see the positive effects which the cultural courses in Chinese and Indian culture have had on our employees.

C3 applies a unique training-concept, which very quickly enhances the cultural self-awareness and the interest in the collaborating country and its people – regardless of the employee’s own culture.

The employees participate in an active dialogue that includes both knowledge sharing and specific company challenges.

In addition to our open culture courses, C3 has functioned as a sparring partner and coach for individual international assignees, which has given the assignee as well as the accompanying family confidence and peace of mind.

C3’s customized approach to the individual market and to us as a client make us feel confident about using C3 and their competent trainers on a global level."

Tatjana Harttung
Director, Global People Development
Human Resources

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