ETIQUETTE AND BEYOND

Bookmark ExecutivePlanet.com. You may not need it today, but when you have to negotiate a meeting in Japan or buy a gift for a supplier in Brazil, this is the place to get some advice. Sure, you took great notes at that seminar on intercultural business protocol last year (or was it the year before?), but I'll bet you can't find the notebook. The great thing about the Web is that it's on-demand education.

ExecutivePlanet has information on business etiquette and culture for 37 countries. Click on any of the featured destinations to find advice on negotiating, entertaining, making appointments, gift giving, respectfully addressing others, business dress, acceptable business conduct, and welcome topics of conversation. There are also links to related Web sites.

The information in each topic area is bulleted and easy to digest, although some countries are covered better than others. The Web links are useful — in the Russia section, for example, one of the six links is a U.S. State Department Web page on using electronic equipment and computers in Russia. However, some countries could use more attention. Several have just a single link to a consular information sheet.

The discussion boards could turn this from a good site to a great site. At this point, however, traffic is extremely slow.