D
That reminds me of a 2 year consulting gig I had in the late '90s, working with Citibank. One of the teams, about 60 execs from 42 countries, was working on the front end of the consumer business, trying to create one face to the customer worldwide. We were process mapping the user experience when applying for an account, and were at the point where we were looking at country-specific issues that needed to be addressed, like the really restrictive privacy issues in Chile. After a week of that, contributions kind of petered out, so I asked if there was anything that we'd missed. The VP from Hong Kong raised her hand and asked about mistress accounts! I've never heard that many execs go that quiet that quickly. Mistress accounts? She couldn't believe no other country offered them. Basically, a husband could set up accounts for his wife and how ever many mistresses he had (the wealthier, the more). He could see and fund them all, but none of the women could see any of the others...especially his wife. So, we included mistress accounts in the process definition.
EDIT: A couple of years later, when I had a 9 month gig in Korea, I went into a Citi branch in Seoul to get some cash from an ATM. I inserted my debit card, and the ATM immediately switched to English. I withdrew 3000 won (a little less than $300). In less than 10 seconds, the ATM output my cash and printed a receipt...in English...with the withdrawal amount, the current exchange rate, the amount of my withdrawal in US$ AND my new balance at my bank in Chicago! I blurted out "it worked!" and all of the Koreans around me looked at me like I was from outer space, thinking "of course it worked, ATMs give cash". That had no idea what I was referring to.
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