Erin Meyer

Erin Meyer is an Affiliate Professor in the Organisational Behaviour Department at INSEAD and specialises in the field of Cross-Cultural Management, Intercultural Negotiations, and Multi-Cultural Leadership. Erin is also the Programme Director for two INSEAD executive education programmes: Managing Global Virtual Teams and Management Skills for International Business. She is also the author of The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business. Erin’s work focuses on how the world’s most successful leaders navigate the complexities of cultural differences in a global environment.

Living and working in Africa, Europe, and the United States prompted Erin Meyer’s study of the communication patterns and business systems of different parts of the world. Her framework allows international executives to pinpoint their leadership preferences, and compare their methods to the management styles of other cultures. Erin has taught thousands of executives from 5 continents to decode cross-cultural complexities impacting their work, and to lead more effectively across these differences.

Erin has published articles in Harvard Business Review (“Navigating the Cultural Minefield” May 2014 and “China Myths/ China Facts,” January 2010), Harvard Business Manager (“Confucius Says,” September 2009), Singapore Business Times (“Debunking China Myths,” June 2009 and “Managing Cross-Border Teams,” November 2010), Forbes.Com (“The Four Keys to Success with Virtual Teams,” September 2010), South China Morning Post (“Eight-Scale Tool for Mapping Cultural Differences” May 2014), The Jakarta Post (“When to Speak Up, When to Shut Up” April 2014), Times of India (“A Business Man’s Guide to Manners” September 2014). She has been interviewed by Fareed Zakaria on CNN and by Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg Surveillance (August 2014). Her case, “Leading Across Cultures at Michelin,” won the ECCH 2010 European case award for best human resources management case of the year.

Erin appeared on the Thinkers 50 “On the Radar” listing for 2013. In addition she appeared in the October 2013 edition of British Airway’s magazine Business Life on their list titled “On the Up: Ten Dons to Watch”.

Erin's business experience includes leading multi-cultural teams as the Director of Training and Development at HBOC and as the Director of Business Operations at McKesson Corporation. In addition Erin spent 7 years as a Country Director for Aperian Global, an internationally positioned cross-cultural management firm. Other experience includes running a training organisation for Asian immigrants in the United States and teaching English students in Botswana. Her clients include companies such as TNT, NovoNordisk, L’OREAL, Johnson & Johnson, Michelin and KPMG.

Erin is American living in Paris with her French husband and two sons.

Read case studies by Erin here.

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• erin.meyer@insead.edu