HOW TO BE SUCCESFULL IN MOROCCO Introduction Morocco is a country located in North Africa, bordered by Spain, Algeria and western Sahara.

Its capital city is called Rabat and its population in 2010 was 1,6 million. The population of whole Morocco is more then 31,6 million. The climate is mediterranean in most of the country. 98,7% of the population are muslims. Morocco is a constitutional monarchy. These are the basic facts about Morocco, and they should be considered when doing business with Moroccans. Also the various cultural aspects which we will describe in this paper should be taken into account.

Religion In order to run a successful business in Morocco, we must respect the Islam religion. For us that is one of the most important issues to consider. We know that muslims are required to pray five times a day, so we would give out muslim employees the time and space to practice their religion which is a way of life, rather then just religion. Our business would have a rhythm that fits into Moroccan habits. That mean that their weekend would not be the traditional Saturday and Sunday, but Thursday and Friday. Friday is a holy day for muslims so everything is closed and many companies dont operate on Thursdays. During the holy Ramadan month, muslims are only allowed to work for six hours per day and they are not allowed to eat, drink or smoke during day time. That is something that we would recognize and smoothen our rhythm of working slightly during Ramadan. The Concept of Shame, Hshuma Some values may be hard to understand for some westerners working or

travelling there, at least if they have not studied it beforehand. At least for manager heading to Morocco offers a great amount of new challenges. In Morocco the way others see individual is extremely important, because their self-worthiness is externally focused in their culture. Honor and dignity reflects immediately on their extended familys reputation. Taking care of ones respect and keeping face is essential for good relations, and can lead easily to taking actions, which look good in public and gives status for a family, even though the actions their self may not be intended or desired. Hshuma, as an understanding of shame, will occur when other people know that one have behaved inappropriately, for example one of the most terrible things is to break the promise already made.

Etiquette Organizing a meeting in Morocco requires a noble dress-code. It should be formal and conservative such as dark colored conservative business suits for men and elegant dark business suits or dresses for women that covers the arms with the sleeves and the legs are covered till under the knees. One of the rules is also to avoid expensive accessories.Everyone who is working in the company is dressed accepting the Morocco rules for the dress-code as well as the culture mention that people get judge by appearance. So everybody has also the responsibility to take care of their own personal hygiene. Having a business card is good in every business sector but avoid to give it with any formal ritual. Business cards should have a printed side in French or Arabic and it should be presented that way to the customer. In every meeting a French interpreter is hired to help in the communication between English and France, because Moroccos language of business is French, but in general classical Arabic. In the Company everybody speaks some frames of French and Arabic even if the main language is business English.

Doing Business In Morocco is quite important having an enlarged number of connections, since here it is more important who you know and how useful your contacts are

rather than your cultural background. Anyways moroccans won't start a business until they got to know you in a very detailed way since its based on the fact that in Morocco they deal only with people they respect so there should be a long period of pre-business before the actual sitting on a table and deal. The useful connections are well seen since in Morocco businesses are always surrounded by a strict bureaucracy and it takes many steps before getting an official approval so by having good contacts it would be possible to skip those steps and have faster deals. When you have to go to a meeting always come on time although it will be very possible to wait since they don't have fixed schedule and other meetings may end later than they should due to longer dealings and conversations since moroccans tend to over haggle, so make an appointment for that meeting in advance and confirm it only couple of days before. One thing to remember is not to plan any meeting on the Ramadan period and during fridays between 11:15 and 3 p.m.This because in the first case during the Ramadan the muslims cannot eat during the daytime so they would never have the strength to handle a long meeting and in the second case because it's the praying time for muslim so they won't be reachable. In the beginning of the meeting you will be served mint tea as a moroccan tradition of greeting; during this long meetings be prepared to be interrupted quite often, there might be chances also to see people coming in the room and start talking about something else, you can join the discussion but its polite to let him-her finish and then after he left we might get back to the previous discussion if needed; this is caused by a very open-door policy in the company and this is led as well in the business meetings. An open-door situation is seen also in the decision making, even if the companies are mainly hierarchical so that the boss makes the final decision, he or she must receive a group approval and after that he-she can finally deliberate the conclusion. When doing business in Morocco its good to remember that they will look for a long-term relationship and their way of doing it is a very slow process, as we said they like to haggle and the like to go trough the ideas many times so that would take a long time in the process and we should not try to make it quicker because it would be seen as an insult and the result won't be positive at all. We have to remember as well that, with this concept of shame, they don't like to lose their faces in public so if we have to point something out it's better to do it in private and not during the business meeting, as it would create embarrassment and the person would not understand what's the real problem and he-she would see you as an enemy more than a consultant. This slow processes, slow haggling and concepts of losing faces are all due to this relationship-driven culture where the public relations and the personal image are very important in order to make good businesses and reach higher spots in the companies.

Sources: http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/morocco-

country-profile.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mo.html