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Frank Cutitta has been around the tech industry for decades and both one of his plum assignments was managing the international expansion of IDG properties during the company’s glory days. The assignment took him to more than 100 countries and some truly awful travel experiences, one of which he shares with us. Today, Frank is building the Center for Content Analytics for HIMSS Media, the healthcare IT association. He’s also a snowboard instructor, and his story about how that came to pass is pure Frank. We appended a pre-show recording to the end of the podcast that tells how a 64-year-old guy continues to mix it up with the teen punks on the slopes.

We spoke to Frank about what marketers need to know to work with non-American audiences and product teams, and how they should become more sensitive to local customs and ways of doing business. It has become a lot easier in the days of LinkedIn and Internet searches: you can quickly do some basic research on your connection and find out where they were educated and what their backgrounds are. You need this research if you are going to avoid some common mistakes when you go abroad and try to understand how to enter a new market. Frank spends some time talking to us about why it is important to combine a global body with local options, just as the major car companies do when they globalize their brands.

His post on how understanding finger gestures for tablets and how they differ across the globe is worth ready: one person’s gesture for “okay” could signify a variety of other things in other cultures, such as a particular body part or the number zero. It gives new meaning to the Internet of Things, for sure. Another post on how B2B can marketers avoid FOMO in their jobs and not attach to the newest shiny object is also worth reading.

Follow Frank on Twitter at @fcutitta.

About David Strom

David Strom is a former editor-in-chief of Network Computing and Tom's Hardware who has written two computer networking books and thousands of articles about B2B IT.

About Paul Gillin

Paul Gillin, host of FIR B2B, is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. Full bio