As someone who rose out of poverty to lead a Fortune 500 company, Hector Ruiz is acutely aware of the importance of diversity in the workplace. “Because of their cultures, their religion, their surroundings, their family, people think differently,” Ruiz says. And yet, even Ruiz, the current CEO of Advanced Nanotechnology Solutions, admits to having made mistakes in this area - most notably, the mistake of failing to gather diverse perspectives.In this lesson, Ruiz explains a mistake he made while running a communications business for Motorola. In order to promote a certain consumer product in China, Ruiz and his team put together an advertising campaign they were proud of, only to find out that the Chinese people were offended by it.“It really taught me a hard lesson,” Ruiz says, “because it’s something I should have known better, especially [as someone who] came from another country and another background.”Principles for International SuccessAn awareness of what customers an...