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Globalization: May 2008 Archives

The Cappuccino Trend

By
Molly Lewis
  on May 16, 2008 5:05 PM

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India’s economy has grown at double to triple the rate of the United States and the European Union in the past five years, sparking a reverse brain drain from countries that lured away many of its best engineers, computer scientists and doctors in earlier years.  These coconuts – brown on the outside, white on the inside – are drawn back to India by the rapidly growing economy and increasingly world-class lifestyle. 

And then there’s the cappuccino crowd, which novelist and Financial Times journalist Gautam Malkani describes as “outwardly white and brown inside.”  Sue of Rang De Basanti is the standard-bearer of this group, but these days there are plenty of Americans and Europeans attracted less by India’s remarkable history than by its exceptional economic prospects.  Institutions and individuals from the West are entering India in ever greater numbers, drawn by a dynamic economy that is only beginning to tap into its vast human and natural resources and its rapidly growing consumer base.  I’m one of a dozen Americans who have joined Mahindra & Mahindra’s offices in India over the past three years to participate in Mahindra’s growth story. 

 

It’s time to think beyond the traditional paradigm of foreigners as customers and start thinking of them as colleagues.  I’ll focus on what I know: working with foreigners in the first ten years of their career.  How can India Inc. derive the most value from them? 

 

  1. Learn to hear ‘no’.  Many Americans and Europeans are allergic to hierarchy and are quick to speak their mind.  They may come off as arrogant or rude to colleagues who haven’t worked for them before, but their objective is productive – to move projects forward on schedule, to play devil’s advocate, and to question and cast aside weak ideas.  Don’t take offense, but be prepared to listen and respond to their analysis.

  1. Philosophy is the new finance.  India’s education system separates students into clear-cut tracks based on their core discipline, while most Americans receive a liberal arts education that exposes them to a wide variety of disciplines.  Plenty of history and philosophy majors in the US go on to prestigious roles in investment banking and management consulting after graduation.  Likewise, Americans and Europeans working in India may not have paper qualifications in business or finance, but you can take advantage of their versatile skills by engaging them across strategic, financial and technical domains.

 

  1. Get to know your customer.  A foreign employee can be a fount of wisdom on culture and communication when you need to understand customers, suppliers or partners from the same region.  They naturally have a more intuitive understanding of what drives preferences and decision-making.  Keep in mind that there are limits to the insight created by a shared culture.  If I wanted to size the market for SUVs in Spain I’d much rather have a market research consultant on hand than a Spaniard.

If this mini-treatise on working with Westerners isn’t relevant to you now, give it a few years.  The cappuccino trend is here to stay, bolstered by the world’s new flatness and the rapid growth of Asian economies.  When you do end up working with one of us, don’t get frustrated – get some value out of it.

 

Doing business globally

By
Jaspinder Kang
  on May 8, 2008 2:58 PM

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"So how is your wife & family, my brother?"

Seems like a very harmless question... Right?

WRONG!

The answer depends on where you are and who you are asking this to.

If you are in the Middle East (Syria, Saudi Arabia etc.) you can expect this question from someone you met for the first time 5 minutes ago. It does not matter that he is purely a business contact or the fact that he has never met your family and chances are that he never will! He will ask this question and not only are you expected to answer it but also ask the same of him about his family.

However, if you travel from there to Europe (especially parts of western Europe) and out of habit ask this question, you better be prepared for a cold stare and a retort like "What is it to you?"

THIS is the softer side of doing business Globally... So many countries, so many cultures and a multitude of sensibilities. Just like a small gesture can win the hearts of a business associate (e.g. tapping a Sudanese on his left shoulder to greet him), an out of place gesture (like extending your hand to shake the hand of a lady in certain countries in the Middle East) can end your business proposition before you have opened your laptop.

In each country, in fact even in a country's sub regions, one has to contend with these subtle nuances. While one needs to be very business-like and formal when in Japan, one has to be friendly and pleasant in Iran. In the Middle East, they say, you have to become a friend before you become a business associate. While one can quote a straight figure in Europe, one has to necessarily negotiate in the Arab world, where the thrill is in the prolonged and often highly animated discussion over non-issues!

There are books that can be written on eating and drinking habits... it is so true that one man's food is another man's poison. Same is true for dining habits as well. You can't be a teetotaller and expect to be a successful businessman in China... where toasts raised with local rice wines will cross double digits at every meal.

I remember having scotch with local dealers at a business meeting... at 10 am. When I shared this with my father (a strict fauji), all he could say was "Now you are a true alcoholic!"

It is not very different when it comes to duration of lunch breaks. While the definition of a business lunch in some countries is a quick sandwich or salad, in Serbia it is a 3-hour plus marathon 4 course meal... each course accompanied by suitable liquor! I dare say more gets accomplished over lunch than in a boardroom.

Doing business in Africa is yet another ball game. In some countries one does not go for a business meeting without a gift in hand... and don't be shocked if the host opens the gift in front of you, asks you how much it cost and actually asks you to keep the gift as he would prefer cash instead!

An important rule of the game in Africa - even if you have to say 'no', say it with a big smile... and the harder the 'No', the bigger the smile!

So after reading the above... are you feeling more confident of doing business overseas, my brother??

Mahindra's New York Film Festival - soft power and identity

By
Parmesh Shahani
  on May 8, 2008 2:06 PM

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pic2.jpgJoseph Nye of Harvard coined the term 'soft power' to denote the cultural pull that a nation exerts over other nations, in terms of its influence. This is opposed to its "hard power" which is exerted by a military, poilitical or economic push. So, think of institutions like British Council, Alliance Francaise, think of blue jeans, American pop music and fast food brands like McDonalds, and closer home, think of Bollywood movies, bindis and chicken tikka masala. All of these are ambassadors of culture, and have been used by their respective countries very cleverly, in order to make themselves liked by others. But soft power is not confined to cultural diplomacy efforts of nations alone.



In today's globalized world, the profits of several corporations are larger than the GDP of many small countries, and we see that large corporations often behave like countries. For many of these corporations, their identity is strongly linked to their home country, and these corporations often use their soft power from their home country to their advantage, when they operate in other countries. Indian companies, which have been over the past few years confidently been venturing abroad to operate in new markets, are no different.

One such example of this soft power in action is the Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival, held in New York every November. Now, on the face of it, why does a company that so far has only been selling tractors and software in the US need to support a film festival on an east coast city, where it has no real presence?

But consider this. The festival is an event that bridges two kinds of cinema - independent Indian cinema made in India, as well as Indian films made abroad, and these could include films by Indian film-makers living abroad, or films by non Indian film-makers but with Indian themes. In that sense, it portrays a very different kind of hybrid and global India to the world - and it does so in New York city, the most international city in the world. The event also has workshops, public discussions, parties and an award function, and it is usually well attended by thousands of people over the course of the week that it is held, and these are not just desi folks, but a whole international spectrum of nationalities.

We realize that what the festival is really about - is conversations. Conversations between films and film-makers, between film-makers and audiences, between audiences themselves, and at a larger level, a conversation between Mahindra itself, and the US about what it means to be a global Indian company. A conversation that will define the public perception of Mahindra if it decides to expand its range of products and services in the US. And what is the crux of this conversation? I think that the name of the festival itself indicates the answer. Not just Indian, not just American, but Indo-American. Yes, the global Indian company, just like the global Indian person, is a hybrid. It reaches out to the world, but is also rooted in its Indianness. 


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