Same ...but a world apart!

Feb 12 2008 by Sue Scott, Evening Gazette

“WE both speak English, but it’s a different English and sometimes it can be worlds apart,” says Lesley Moody, co-founder of Billingham-based AES Ltd, which was helped into the US market by UKTi North-east and recently cemented its presence there with a $100,000 contract.

Another $450,000 of quotes to install its web-based corporate management and other software systems are on the table.

“UKTi helped by providing advice on the culture, which is quite different,” says Moody.

After five years of regular trips to the States providing back-up to clients, she says the Americans “are just different” to her other international clients. “I don’t know if they are any easier!”

With just 10 employees, Moody finds herself in transatlantic business class more often than she would like. “Going backwards and forwards to get to know people can be very costly, although in our case it’s a necessity,” she says.

And at least it’s given her some interesting insights into the American psyche.

“As far as politics is concerned, it’s interesting with the situation in the Middle East. You get people who are either really pro Great Britain or vehemently against it. On my first or second visit just after the Iraq war began, an elderly gentleman stopped me and started a monologue thanking me and my PM on behalf of the US people for our support, which put me on the spot a bit!”