- Expert on corporate culture, regarded as one of the world’s most influential management thinkers
- Advises corporations on how to manage cultural and business differences across international borders
- Consistently listed within the ‘Worlds Top 50 Most Influential Management Thinkers’
Fons Trompenaars is regarded and listed as one of the top 50 most influential management thinkers alive.
Fons is known all over the world for his work as consultant, trainer, motivational speaker and author of many books on the subject of culture and business.
He studied Economics at the Free University of Amsterdam and followed this with a Ph. D. from Wharton University in the USA with a dissertation on the differences in conceptions of organizational structure in various cultures. He experienced cultural differences firsthand at home, where he grew up speaking both French and Dutch, and then later at work with Shell in nine countries.
Since 1998 Fons Trompenaars has worked as a consultant for Shell, BP, ICI, Philips, Heineken, TRW, Mars, Motorola, General Motors, Nike, Cable and Wireless, CSM and Merrill Lynch.
He has spent over 30 years helping Fortune 500 leaders and professionals manage and solve their business and cultural dilemmas to increase global effectiveness and performance, particularly in the areas of globalization, mergers and acquisition, HR and leadership development.
Books
Fons wrote ‘Riding the Waves of Culture, Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business’. This book sold over 120,000 copies and was translated into French, German, Dutch, Korean, Danish, Turkish, Chinese, Hungarian and Portuguese.
He is the co-author of ‘Seven Cultures of Capitalism, Building Cross-Cultural Competence’ and ’21 Leaders for the 21st Century’ with Charles Hampden-Turner and ‘Riding the Whirlwind’, a dynamic new take on creativity and innovation.
Fons has co-written an article with Peter Woolliams entitled ‘Lost in Translation’ regarding culture and failure which was published in the April 2011 online issue of the Harvard Business Review.
Awards
In 1991 Fons was awarded the International Professional Practice Area Research Award by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). He was mentioned as one of the top 5 management consultants, next to Michael Porter, Tom Peters and Edward de Bono in a leading Business magazine in August 1999.
He is ranked in the ‘Thinkers50’ to be one of the most influential management thinkers alive and shortlisted as making substantial strides in the contribution to the understanding of globalisation and the new frontiers established by the emerging markets.
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