After spending two weeks in Portugal, I thought that not much would change when I came back to the United States, but I was completely wrong in thinking that. Of course, nothing about the US itself has changed, however, my perception of the culture we live in is completely different than it was before. From my trip, I learned about how critical it is for Portuguese companies to value communal thinking and how many times at the center of their decisions are how to combine economic, social, and environmental welfare. Now that I have come back to the US, it is a lot more obvious to see that the culture in the business world is almost completely centered around competition between both employees and other organizations rather than growing together. While competition drives companies to become better overall and to continue growing, which is extremely important for any business, my group and I discovered that in Portugal, competition is never at the forefront of their motivation for change. Instead, they are constantly looking for ways to benefit both their company and society together to make the best decisions possible for everyone. Many times, our business mindset here in the US can be so focused on a company’s economic welfare in the short run that we can forget that focusing on social and environmental welfare can also help companies profit more long term. Nowadays, this perception has slowly begun to change in the United States, however, the focus on more long-term thinking that is shown throughout the culture in Portugal gives their businesses a different kind of opportunity for growth. Overall, this new perspective has given me a chance to see a new way of thinking and operating a business that I will be able to pull from in the future.
