Working in India – Cultural Differences
When I first started working with Quickstart Global, I remember reading an article on cultural differences. The article clearly stated that you should not try and change the hierarchical nature of business in India. It said that any attempt to do so would end in frustration. At the time, I remember looking at it thinking that’s wrong. India must have changed, all those IT professionals, a bold shining New India with 9% GDP growth, surely they would not want this. Surely an empowered, flat structure with no hierarchy would work. My Chairman, who had worked in India for years also urged caution with my approach. His instinct said I was wrong but he was also prepared to believe that maybe things had changed, maybe there really was a new India.
Two years down the line and I have to say, the article and my Chairman were right. To succeed in India as a successful manager from the west, you almost have to hit the reset button on everything that you’ve ever learnt about management frameworks and style. The western instinct is to empower people to make their own decisions within a given scope, to allow them to learn for themselves the best way to get the job done, to provide an inclusive environment where everyone is striving for the same bigger picture. You get the gist.
To succeed in India though, I now believe you really need to define roles in detail, define processes of what you want people to do, define clearly how an individual will be measured giving clear KPIs, define the organizational hierarchy with many layers showing clear career progression and don’t undermine the hierarchy, define the role of checking to make sure the processes are being followed. That is why quality accreditations such as CMM or ISO are so sought after in India compared to the west. I believe this is the root cause of where companies that struggle in India actually go wrong. You cannot bypass hundreds of years of culture in a single generation. After all, on one side, companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro etc are all incredibly successful yet on the other hand western companies entering India somtimes struggle.
Ultimately, I think a middle ground will emerge however my advice to anyone starting out in India is to start in a very process oriented and hierarchical way initially and then gradually let other management influences in as you become successful and are hitting your original goals.
I told a good few people that the opposite was true. To any of those reading this, I apologize, I’m happy to revisit to impart my experiences over the last couple of years if you want! I strongly believe now that if you follow a simple set of rules, you can definitely succeed and establishing in India can be a very positive experience delivering business value even beyond your initial expectations.
Diary of a globalization champion 
People are good but Work culture in India is not that good. That is the reason why good people do well in western countries.
Main reasons for this are:
(1) Fierce competition – People will bother more about your work then thiers.
(2) Poor System. e.g. Think of buying a house in India and related paper work in gov. You can not argue with gov. officer.
Systems are maid but can be easily broken.
(3) Even the employer having office in west and India will think how to exploit in India. Salary will not be a constraint in West.
But slowly picture will change:
People of india are getting more educted, it could be through TV newschannel as well.
Now even Indians are thinking Globally. There is no boundry for opertunity.
Offshore outsourcing has gained popularity in many countries because it is very cost effective and now the concept of nearshore outsourcing is getting popularity.
India is changing indeed….no doubt about it. However it would not just portray the image you were expecting before in a matter of a fortnight. The changes are coming when:-
[1] Indians venture out of India and bring the western cultural knowledge and try to incorporate it with their organization. I wont say its 100% success but even if 20% of that culture is accepted, it creates a good impact and this percent is steadily increasing, people are more open to accept and experiment with different ways of working/management.
[2] Young Managers are more into understanding why the western way of working without any hierarchical pattern is successful rather than sticking to the older way of going by fixed roles and resp.
[3] Even though employees are given fair amount of freedom to make decisions and learn themselves, at some point of time the manager puts his figure down as he feels the danger of things going out of his hand. He starts with thinking about the growth of the company by trying to bring in the western way of working however end of the day he also fears for his own job security and also fears a competition from the young lot. I won’t blame him for this kind of thinking. I remember when I joined an IT company just after passing out from collage. During my induction, the Delivery Manager warned the PMs against a tough competition from the young lot.
[4] Talking about the work culture in India, I have seen thing changing. There was a time when in order to get a gas connection, one had to bribe a govt. officer. Today if u register an official complaint on the govt. website, a prompt action is taken.
My personal opinion is to strike a balance between the two ways of working, neither try to wipe out the age old way of working culture and on the other hand even try to bring in the western work culture. Slowly but surely one would see the change in a positive direction.
i like what you do
An interesting observation, I must say.
Neal, I kind of agree with most of your remarks should I put myself in your role.
Self-discipline:
Fundamentally, there is a utter lack of self-discipline that has rouged our mental attitude while living out of our own ‘mother-land’ country. I have spent several years living outside India and it is that comes out as a biggest differentiator when comparing relative cultural differences between East and the West. I’ve seen the worst fear [of the total management change in terms of operating style] come true – which has brought a mountain to mole, if that is possibly even a right expression! I’ve unfortunately interviewed and hired a guy – on whom I can perhaps write a book about what level of self-Indiscipline a person can exhibit!
Bureaucracy:
Red-tape and bureaucracy has been imbibed in our culture for ages. If you happen to visit a police station, don’t be surprised to see every member of the staff rising up to pay respect – every single time the chief inspector of the station gets in and out!
The definition of respect is just not there..! The same lot cribs and curse the chief inspector at his/her (may be ;-)) back.
Having mentioned the two devils above does not necessarily buy-in the thoughts that we should shy away from bringing a change of operating style. What is perhaps necessary is to weed out those blockages (mostly to do with wrong people) that does not fit into this new gamut of style and throw them away (that’s my ‘autocratic’ style) rather than not bringing the modern, pragmatic and dignified operating style of management for the good of most and the deserving lot. The young generation have started receiving these changes well – just need someone to mentor, guide and help them see things better – at the same time – weeding out bad vibes!
I sincerely hope the cultural gap between the East and the West become a topic of yesterday. 🙂