What's in a Name

The Story Behind Cultural Savvy
By Joyce Millet, Founder & President

It started in a college classroom

My curiosity about the world started early, but it took shape in a college classroom.

I was a political science major who wandered into Asian history courses taught by former diplomats and educators from China, Japan, and India. They didn’t teach history as timelines or memorized facts. They taught it through lived experience — and that’s what made it real to me.

Those courses — and the relationships I built with those professors — pulled me in a new direction.

From classroom to immersion

A year later, I joined a study‑abroad program led by the professor who had first opened my eyes — the Japan specialist. She took a small group of us through Asia, introducing us to the people who lived the histories we had studied: local business leaders, community members, and practitioners who understood their cultures from the inside out.

It wasn’t tourism. It was immersion. Each place, each conversation, each moment revealed something new about how culture shapes how people work, communicate, and make decisions.

Those months made everything I’d learned in the classroom real — and they made me realize I wanted a career that would take me back to Asia and deeper into this world. That decision set the course for the next decade of my life.

From experience to identity

After graduate school, I spent a decade working inside local and global companies across Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan. That’s where I learned how business actually works on the ground—how trust is built, decisions are made, and culture shapes leadership.

The challenge? No one had prepared me for any of it.

I had to figure it out through observation, missteps, and mentorship. Later, in San Francisco, I watched other talented, experienced leaders hit the exact same wall: high stakes, zero preparation, and costly missteps when crossing cultures.

I knew I wanted to start a consulting firm that gave leaders the real preparation I never had.

But first, I needed a name.

The Building Blocks of Cultural Savvy

C – Customs
Traditional ways people act and live.

U – Understanding
Shared knowledge and empathy across differences.

L – Language
How people communicate and express meaning.

T – Traditions
Values and practices passed down over time.

U – Unity
A sense of togetherness within a group.

R – Rituals
Repeated actions that reinforce identity.

A – Adaptation
The ability to adjust behavior across cultural contexts.

L – Learning
Continuous application of Cultural Intelligence.

S – Sharp
Quick to notice cultural cues.

A – Astute
Able to read situations with insight.

V – Versatile
Adaptable across contexts and expectations.

V – Vigilant
Attentive to nuance and shifting dynamics.

Y – Yielding
Strategic flexibility; adjusting without losing direction.

At the core are the building blocks of culture.

This is the foundation of Cultural Savvy.