Traditions. Presents in Business

There are many more various occasions and situations which we will discuss in our next issues but for today we want to tell you about the presents offered in business, occasions for offering presents and how the recipient perceives them. The starting point of an empiric survey (220 people managers of first and second organizational level) was a question about how often does the offering of gifts takes place and to this 84% of the persons surveyed present gifts to their business associates. This high percentage shows the position of the gift culture in the sphere of business relations and about a quarter of the grantors regard gifts as an important element of business relations while the same quantities of recipients do not consider gifts that important.

Although gifts are often determined as a gratuitous voluntary offer, naturally the offering of presents has its own certain objects but this should not be understood as that the presenting of gifts has the intention of "giving bribes". On the contrary, the presenting of gifts is rather intended to develop and encourage the business relations, express profound respect and gratitude, as well as the presentation of the company. These aims might be on one hand correlated with the company that receives the gift or the recipient himself. For example, the aim of giving pleasure to someone or support a good pennyworth. On the other hand, the aim is correlated with the company offering the gift (presentation of the company or its production).

We call your attention to the image, which implies that a certain suspiciousness and falseness from the side of recipient exists in the business sphere. The grantors proclaim way more noble motives while the recipients assume that the grantors have hidden motives behind the gift. They suppose to some extent (if not completely) that the grantors have economic aims. The survey of recipients concerning their expectations turned out to be utterly problematic so definite answers came across extremely rarely. On one hand this happens due to the influence of the socially desirable behaviour on the respondent: the questioned people did not want to confess openly that they were waiting for the gift at all. This is clearly observed in the oral interviews. On the other hand the low level of expectations is a means of preventing disappointment thus it can be concluded that the recipients do in fact experience certain expectations.

When the percentages of the actual and expected groups of granters were compared, a noticeable contradiction was discovered. 80% of the surveyed people receive gifts from their suppliers but only 16% of them expect these presents from them. Clients, associations, institutes, consultants and jurists play a subordinate role concerning the expectations of presents.

Our magazine conducted its own survey. We asked two questions: What kind of gift would it be nice to receive from a partner? And what kind of gifts do you receive most often? Here are some of the answers
Murad Ibragimov (executive director K@SSA.UZ)
My companions mainly present me with watches, ties, pens. Of course it is nice to receive presents but sometimes I feel that it is an insincere practice. I also make presents and the cost of presents mainly depends on the companion, his "solidity" and my own sympathy towards him. Russian companions are very glad to receive any Uzbek present but especially happy when they are presented embroidered souvenirs with gold skullcups and knifes.
Yaroslav Tsoy (commercial director UVL-AVTO)
My partners usually presented me with practical souvenirs. I give presents taking into the account "range" of the partner and in this case the presents may be good lighter or even a car. There is an Uzbek ceramic called a babay (an old man) in my collection of presents and once I was even given a big live fish from Sirdaria which was very nice.
Nodira Rakhimova (general director Uzbekistan-Japan JV Aruji Travel)
There are many Japanese jugs in my collection which are usually filled with local vodka called "sake". Especially for woman it is prepared light. It is a practice in Japan to present picture-miniatures and I also have a collection of them. I like the presents of little mirror's very much though the partner apologizes for modesty of it I do like it very much. Such presents oblige to nothing. Our tourist guests receive with pleasure caricature on fat greedy rich and rag handmade bags for little bottle of water. Now very seldom buy chapan (Uzbek traditional dress) and embroidered skullcap.

I like to make presents considering the national peculiarity and traditions accepted in the partner's country. For the Japanese it is miniatures and for Korean's it is Uzbek figures or a cosmetic collection. One incident reminds me when I presented a package of chewing gum "ORBIT" to a receptionist in one of Uzbek hotels who had a very gloomy face. I said "You have beautiful teeth so this is for you" and gave her the gum. She began smiling and apologized for the lack of attention because it turned out that she had a hard day.