The cultural divide between business leaders in the Western world and their counterparts in the East can manifest itself in the simplest of situations. To get an idea of how, think of a business lunch or dinner.

This business custom would not seem to be fraught with potential cultural landmines. After all, everyone eats regardless of where we live on the planet.

But the potential for missteps lies in each party's expectations when these gatherings happen.

For example, Chinese businesspeople see business lunches and dinners as an opportunity to show respect and develop relationships. Any hard sell will come later. For Americans, these meals are simply a setting where business deals take place. Certainly, there is still an expectation of being polite and respectful, but the talk quickly shifts from pleasantries to business.

Once, many years ago, I was involved in such a lunchtime meeting between a Chinese delegation and an American business. The Americans didn't even bother to arrange for the meal to take place in a nice restaurant. They ordered out for sandwiches and met in the office, talking business as they ate.

It was a shaky start to the relationship, with the Chinese side feeling disrespected.

These days, leaders have plenty more to concern themselves with than different ideas about business dinners. It's a volatile world, with trade wars, tariffs, and real wars affecting how we do business in the global economy. Technology, especially artificial intelligence, is also advancing at a rapid pace, creating potential new problems even as it solves old ones.

In many ways, such volatility is not new. The world has faced crises........

© International Business Times