Lift Report

Over recent years, India has been moving ever further into the consciousness of the European economy. What many may perceive as a completed transformation from developing country to a high-tech location for IT outsourcing and call centres is reaching a new zenith as India becomes the latest of Asia’s latest economic miracle countries and an investor in the world economy with a series of spectacular company takeovers. These include acquisition of the UK’s Jaguar and Land Rover car producers by the Indian enterprise Tata in the spring, and fairly recently also the takeover of Europe’s premier steel manufacturer Arcelor by Mittal Steel.

Headlong rates of growth are providing the country which calls itself the world’s biggest democracy with the political, legal and economic conditions needed to make it a major trading partner for European business. Added to this, the majority of Indian industry’s top managerial players received their education in Europe and the USA, are familiar with international business practice and customs, have an excellent command of English, and are ambitious and highly motivated.

A degree of scepticism still remains towards India as an economic force on the part of many Europeans. This is undoubtedly due to the images we continue to nurse of the other India: As a country still steeped in dire poverty, in which a vast chasm exists between rich and poor, in which suppression and exploitation are rife. This contradictory picture does not engender confidence in the prospect of economic and professional success in cooperation with Indians. This makes it all the more important to find out more about the rules of play in dealing with Indian business partners and colleagues.

A country’s culture prescribes the way it thinks, feels and acts, and is omnipresent in the everyday world of work. Managers from the West working in India frequently report the resistance and problems they encounter in applying their normal working methods and leadership style, as many of the behaviour patterns we consider normal may suddenly be considered inappropriate in the Indian setting.

Culture may be viewed as a system of values which the members of any group, organization, society or nation grow into during the process of socialization and which offers a directional framework by which we can come to terms with a complex environment. The patterns of perception, of thinking and behaviour which evolve within this framework serve as yardsticks by which to measure our own behaviour and the behaviour of others. It is this framework of cultural standards which determines what is considered right and wrong, polite or rude, tactful or lacking in respect. Cultural standards are anchored in the history, philosophy and religion of a culture group and are relatively insensitive to transitory change. A long-term transformation in living conditions of the kind which has been in evidence for some years in the Indian subcontinent can bring about a permanent adjustment of cultural values and standards in line with the new circumstances. However, such a process of adjustment usually takes place gradually and unconsciously over a period of generations, until the new rules become established and are taken for granted by society.

When we come into contact with members of other cultures, it can happen that accustomed codes of behaviour can suddenly give rise to difficulties, as they are interpreted by the other person from the viewpoint of their own cultural orientation system, which under certain circumstances can lend them a completely different meaning. A gesture we may consider to be polite and amicable may be perceived from a different viewpoint as impolite and arrogant. This in turn can lead to a reaction which, when measured against our own cultural yardstick, appears to be inappropriate. A negative spiral of misunderstandings is created coupled with irritation, frustration and growing mistrust.

In order to escape from this type of negative spiral or to prevent it happening in the first place, a more profound understanding of the foreign culture is essential. Only in this way are we able to see through the eyes of business partnersand colleagues from other cultures, allowing us to understand and appreciate their behaviour. The aim of any interculturallearning process is not to adjust totally to the other code of thinking and behaviour, but to gain the ability to observe situations from the perspective of the other culture and to consequently gain confidence and security in dealing with business partners and colleagues from this culture.

The explanations provided in the following can provide an initial step in the intercultural learning process towards a better understanding of your Indian business associates and colleagues.

I would like to start by presenting a short case example to highlight some of the potential difficulties which can impede cooperation:

As the newly appointed national Managing Director of a large lift corporation in India, Herbert Mayer is being pressured by headquarters. He has scheduled a meeting with his Indian Director of Sales and Marketing Mr Gupta to discuss the business plan for the coming financial year.

Mr Mayer is impatient and annoyed when Mr Gupta arrives 15 minutes late to the meeting. Without apologising for being late, Mr Gupta greets him with a smile and mentions that he had to give his wife a lift on the way to work. Instead of getting straight down to discussing the business plan, Mr Gupta begins by asking personal questions such as whether Mr Mayer is satisfied with his accommodation, whether his family has already tried Indian food and whether he has yet become accustomed to the Indian climate. Mr Mayer cuts Mr Gupta short, remarking that there would be an opportunity to discuss personal questions later and asking him to get to the point. Mr Mayer points out that a quarter of an hour has already been lost by Mr Gupta’s late arrival. Mr Gupta responds with irritation and begins his presentation. He describes the sales and marketing organization and then looks in detail at the various market segments, describes the careers of the different sales and marketing managers, details of previous product startups and so on. Mr Mayer is bothered by the lack of focus in the presentation and considers many of these details to be irrelevant. After around 20 minutes, he interrupts Mr Gupta with a request that he moves on to the annual planning for his department.

When Mr Gupta presents the estimated annual sales costs and target earnings, Mr Mayer interrupts him again to ask how he arrived at these figures. Mr Gupta explains that his estimates are based on previous market growth rates, adding that he would be pleased to revise the figures if required. Unsatisfied with this explanation, Mr Mayer asks about what concrete measures were envisaged in order to achieve these projected earnings. Mr Gupta appears unsettled and explains that he has already informed the regional sales managers and that if Mr Mayer agrees to this procedure, he will elaborate on further details to ensure achievement of the stated targets. Despite being asked repeatedly, Mr Gupta is not in a position to provide a list of concrete measures and the relevant time schedule. The meeting ends without a satisfactory outcome. For Mr Mayer, who considers it to have been more of a waste of time and is disappointed. Mr Gupta appears confused and dejected, and offers to hold a more detailed presentation in a week’s time.

How can we explain Mr Gupta’s behaviour?

Some suggested solutions are provided at the end of the articles, although you will certainly have had one or two fl ashes of realization as you were reading.

In Indian society, enormous importance is attached to the family. It represents the main element of socialization and forms the unquestioned focal point in the life of any Indian. An intact family unit is considered a status symbol which guarantees social recognition for each family member. The term family in India refers to the extended family. Within the extended family, the hierarchical position of the family members is arranged according to age and gender. A clear division of roles also exists. The oldest man of the family enjoys absolute authority as patriarch, and is responsible for arranging all important family matters. The mother is often assigned a mediating role between the individual family members, who are generally affectionate and emotional in their treatment of each other.  Consequently, children in India grow up with very closeknit emotional ties. They are cared for and learn to live with other family members as part of a community. Parents do everything in their power to achieve the very best for their children. Consequently it is the norm rather than the exception that one third of the family income is spent on school education. Children understand at a very early stage that parents have to invest an enormous amount of energy and financial resources to facilitate their education, and attempt to repay this by doing their umost to achieve. Once the children are established in careers , it is the expectation of ageing parents and the perceived duty of children to care for the older generation. Wherever there is any doubt, the family takes precedence. This is reflected in professional life, where many a Western boss has been astonished by the fact that Indian colleagues can suddenly disappear on extended leave or even resign from the company at the drop of a hat due to a crisis in the family.

Consequently, for an Indian not only does the family take top priority, it actually brings obligations which always take precedence over work. Indians distinguish here between the inside world, which encompasses not only family but close friends, and the outside world which includes bosses and colleagues. Where it serves the interest of their family and helps to strengthen it, Indians appear to be selfish in the way they treat the outside world.

The strong family orientation felt by Indians and life in the extended family have been an economic necessity throughout India’s history. The changed living conditions brought about by industrialization often make it impossible for families nowadays to live under one roof. But although lack of space and horrendous rents in large cities are giving rise to an increase in nuclear family units, this long tradition has remained. Consequently, despite being physically separated the same sense of unity and solidarity exists in families and binds them together.

Enormous importance is attached in India to a strict hierarchical structure to ensure social order. This defines which position is held by each individual in society, and regulates the way in which people behave towards each other. The rules of expectation and behaviour linked to a particular role are clearly defined in India and are strictly adhered to. For Indians, behaving in keeping with their assigned role provides the assurance of recognition and confirmation of their status.

The role model for company bosses in India derives from the position of the father figure in the Indian extended family. Like the head of the family, the company director in India represents a focus of power and authority. He takes all the important decisions and is strict and determined in his treatment of staff members. At the same time, he treats them in the role of the benevolent and kindly father figure who is interested in them both professionally and privately, and who intervenes with a helping hand when urgently needed. Employees repay this with respect, awe and obedience. The relation ship between manager and employee is consequently based on mutual expectation, which entails elements on both the professional but also the emotional level. Table 1 summarizes the different expectations placed in managers and employees within the framework of Indian corporate culture.

Indian employees consequently expect to have a task described for them in detail. The importance of an assignment is judged by the number of times the instruction is repeated. It is also quite customary for one and the same assignment to be explained several times. In addition, regular feedback is expected about work progress in the form of recognition and attention. Consequently, in India a manager cannot expect that an assignment once understood will be independently brought to a conclusion unless he regularly enquires about its progress. A simple reminder, an e-mail or a few encouraging words or advice are all that are required.

If Indian employees are forced into independent action by Western managers, they not only feel ill at ease (they feel they are exceeding their competence and impinging on the power of their boss and other senior staff members), but also overtaxed. The younger, more junior and technically inexperienced they are, the more this applies.

Consequently, management in India revolves very much around the people involved and less around the matter in hand. While in the West, the assignment and its completion take clear priority, in India this is much more about the relationship between boss and employee and about mutual understanding and trust. If everything on the relationship level is deemed to be in order, then those involved can turn their attention and full motivation to the task in hand. If these conditions are in place, Indian colleagues will be pleased to go the extra mile for their boss – because it is the boss’s concern – and what is important to the boss becomes a matter of importance to the employee too.

The ambition which is observed among the Indian people is also explained by their awareness of hierarchy: Rising up the ladder is not only a matter of material gain, it also offers enormous attraction in terms of status. Indian business culture offers plenty of scope for advancement, particularly given the finely graduated internal hierarchies and sophisticated incentive systems existing within companies. In many ways, rivalry and competitiveness play a major role in creating and confirming systems of superordination and subordination.

The way in which paternalism has evolved as the preferred style of management in India is due to the fact that the hierarchical structure of life in the extended family has represented the normative principle of organization. As explained above, Indians are brought up less to express individualism in the form of self responsibility, independence and initiative, but rather to fulfil their given role within the body of the family, the group, the company.

The style of management, fulfilment of the employee’s role and the relevant qualifications required all form an integral system in India: An Indian employee acts within the scope assigned to him by the hierarchy, the extent of which is defined precisely by his position, for which he must have the necessary technical qualifications and personal commitment. Different types of training can consequently vary widely, and employees are integrated into the overall system depending on their qualification. In the professional environment, the role assignment and role conformity we have looked at in family life is expressed in a distinct division of labour.

Given this background, however, it is important to remember the significance in India of always keeping face. This works on two levels: Firstly if the subordinate fulfils the expectations of the superior, and secondly if the superior only expects the subordinate to deliver what he is capable of. This places stringent demands on management in India, and even more stringent ones on business partners from the West who aim to successfully utilize the tempting framework conditions which prevail in India in the role of customer or client.

As has been outlined above, India has a relationship-oriented culture. The development and cultivation of relationships play a major role in society. Indians endeavour continuously to form new connections, which leads to splinter groups forming within society made up of a wide-reaching network of contacts. Welcoming and meeting rituals can consequently take a long time as the individuals involved feel their way through verbal exchange to form a picture of the importance of the person they are talking to. This begins with simple questions about the area they live in, their family and education, and ends with a skilful probing to find out how well connected they may be. It is important for Indians to be acquainted with public figures – if not personally then at least through an aunt or second cousin. A broad-based informal system of relationships serves to improve the individual’s own power base. One of the ways in which Indians define themselves and their status is by the extent of their personal network, and this is something in which they invest a lot of time and commitment. People who have contacts among important figures in society have an enormous advantage.

As in many Asian countries, for instance, new employees or suppliers are not selected on performance but by merit of family or social connections. This is not considered as nepotism in India, but is based on the premise that someone you know is someone you can trust. Trust can only be gained through on-going personal contact, which takes time: An invitation to dine out in a restaurant, then home to meet the family, and so on.

Trust is seen as the underlying requisite for fruitful cooperation and success. It is only once you know who you are dealing with that it is possible to judge whether or not the person can be trusted and is someone you wish to work with. This makes developing a functioning network of relationships one of the greatest challenges in Indian professional life. A lot of time is invested in strengthening contacts. It is often not enough to be introduced to someone through a mutual friend or to have met someone at an event. In India, it is not unusual to meet up with potential clients without any concrete reason simply to become acquainted in advance, develop a certain relationship of trust and so smooth the way for later cooperation. A decision who to do business with often does not depend on rational or material factors, but rather on how long and how well you know someone, the degree to which you trust them and past experience with the person concerned.

As outlined above, what Indian colleagues require first and foremost in their everyday work and project processing is a trusting and personal atmosphere if they are to perform on the material level. This also gives rise to a different perception of possible areas of conflict encountered in working together: While Westerners will openly address issues such as poor performance, schedule delays and quality problems, Indian employees tend to play down material problems and not to admit to mistakes. For them, lack of respect, inadequate leadership and open criticism hold far greater significance as sources of conflict.

In India, time is an elastic concept. Anyone who has experience in arranging visits and meetings with Indian business associates will know what is meant by this. There is always a tomorrow. I.S.T. is the abbreviation for Indian Standard Time, but it is also used to mean Indian Stretchable Time.

Time is not seen as something absolute in India. Unlike our Western perception of time as a linear concept, life in India is characterized by a cyclical perception of time which reflects the recurrent nature of everything. Everything repeats itself. The concept of cycles, whether daily, yearly or life cycles, is a predominant one for Indian people. As a result, Indians think rather in terms of phases within these cycles than of concrete points in time. For an Indian, it is consequently more important whether a business associate is younger or older or whether the appointment is due to take place in the morning, evening or at a certain season of the year. The precise date or concrete time of day for the meeting is of secondary importance by comparison.

The Indian concept of time is consequently a concentric and all-encompassing one which strives to include every eventuality of day-to-day life. This certainly also has something to do with the fact that it is frequently difficult in India to adhere precisely to any plan due to the poor infrastructure, the catastrophic transport conditions in Indian cities and other unforeseeable obstacles. Dates and deadlines are often viewed only as rough guidelines which should be aimed at. Consequently, business appointments in India are frequently noted down only as tentative arrangements. As a result, delays and laborious processes are not viewed in a negative light, but instead rather as the norm in Indian business culture.

Another characteristic of the Indian way is that of simultaneous working, entailing parallel processing of several different assignments. Indians are used to their work flow being frequently interrupted and do not consider this a hindrance. In this regard, Indian employees demonstrate a high degree of flexibility and tolerance to stress. If a task is categorized as high priority, then no effort is spared.

Also when it comes to planning, Indians demonstrate a high degree of spontaneity. This is where their enormous talent for improvisation comes into its own, and it is why they plan rather for the short term and attach great importance to remaining flexible. It is due to this approach that in a country still dogged by uncertainty and shortage of resources, a well-developed ability exists to respond quickly to changed conditions.

The Hindu faith believes that all members of society are linked by a type of dependency on each other. The roles they are assigned complement each other. All the rights, obligations and restrictions associated with any particular role are prescribed by an unchangeable law and must be adhered to unconditionally. According to the widespread belief in fate, everything that happens in the world is in some way predetermined. Consequently Indians believe that events are not influenced by and cannot be changed by man, but rather that the circumstances in which each individual lives are predetermined by the behavior of that individual in a former life. It is the duty of every devout Hindu to accept this fate without complaint and to recognize and fulfil his own destiny in the present life and so exert a positive effect on his Karma. This is the only way he can be sure of rising higher in the next life and so move a step closer to the ultimate goal of all Hindus: Release from the cycle of reincarnation and achievement of the state of “moksha” and consequently redemption. As a result, each individual is not responsible himself for what happens in this life, as it is the result of his Karma, in other words the sum total of his good and bad deeds. This ideology has been formed by a religion with a history stretching back thousands of years which still continues to play a major role in the life of Indians and which plays an instrumental role in directing their thoughts and actions.

In this context, it is easy to understand the enormous optimism which is often encountered in people from India. For an Indian, something positive can potentially be gained from every situation, as he assumes that within the higher context, every event has a purpose and in the final reckoning will result in something positive.

Fig. 1 provides a summarized overview of the fundamental elements of Indian business culture:

As a relationship-oriented culture, the overriding goal of the Indian style of communication is to maintain and strengthen personal relationships.

In India there is an unwritten law of etiquette that the straightforward word “no” is not used. So how do Indians say “no” when that is what they mean? By not saying “yes” and by avoiding making a positive statement in a context in which a “yes” is clearly desired or expected. If you ask an Indian the way, for instance, he will never tell you that he does not know it. He would rather tell you to go the wrong way. Similarly, in India a request is never refused. Generally you will be assured that acceding to a request will be “no problem”. In reality all this means is that the person involved will endeavour to comply with the request, even if he knows that he is unlikely to be successful. Consequently, a “no” answer is only ever communicated by indirect means.

Difficult messages can be communicated indirectly in two different ways: One by not saying something, and the other by making insinuations, as the two sample dialogues indicate.

Anyone used to a direct, open style of communication will often miss the indirect signals being given out by Indian business partners, which can result in misunderstandings and problems, as Fig. 2 illustrates.

What has been directly and clearly communicated from the perspective of Indian business associates and partners is still perceived as an indirect form of expression from the Western perspective (as illustrated in the sample dialogue between Kartik and Joachim). Becoming familiar with the Indian style of communication, picking up on the subtleties of Indian communication and developing sensitivity to non-verbal signals are all decisive to successful interaction with Indian business partners and colleagues.

1. Never accept the word “Yes” alone as an answer. Pay attention to what the person says next.

2. Do not confuse Indian “head wagging” (rocking the head from one side to the other) with “no”. It means “I am listening” or even “yes“.

3. Try to recognize the different ways of saying No in India:

4. Note the ways in which an Indian will intimate that he is behind schedule

5. Note the ways in which an Indian will indicate that something is not possible

6. Learn how to recognize when an Indian is asking for help

7. Note how an Indian formulates negative feedback/criticism in response to a suggestion:

Conversely, Indians perceive the Western style of communication to be direct and often offensive as illustrated in Fig. 3. Expressing criticism or addressing unresolved points or problems directly, persisting and confronting the relevant person is viewed at best as unusual and impolite, at worst as insulting and aggressive.

Finally, it is all about getting to know your Indian business partners better. Only in this way will you be in a position to really understand their behaviour. This also entails obtaining clarity about who it is you are dealing with, their social/religious group, their educational background and their role within society and the company.

But let us return to the case example described at the beginning. While reading, you will undoubtedly have recognized the different values, ways of thinking and behavior patterns which collided with each other during the meeting between Mr Gupta and Mr Mayer. Fig. 4 summarizes the most important points.

But what can Mr Gupta and Mr Mayer now do to ensure better understanding at their next meeting?

Because of the enormous diversity which characterizes the country, there is no such thing as a typical Indian. Your encounters with people in India will confirm all your initial prejudices – but on closer observation you will find quite the opposite is true. I would like to finish by recounting the well-known Indian fable of the elephant and the five wise men:

On this note, I would like to wish you every success in discovering the Indian elephant. Succeeding in business in India depends heavily on developing cultural sensitivity. Only when you approach the Indian elephant from a number of different perspectives will the whole picture open up to you.

Davies, Paul (2004), What’s This India Business. Offshoring, Outsourcing and the Global Service Revolution, London, Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

Kolanad, Gitanjali (2005), Culture Shock: India, Singapore, Marshall Cavendish.

Klinger-Paul, Cosima (2006): Business- Guide Indien: Ohne Chaos keine Schöpfung, Deutscher Wirtschaftsdienst.

Storti, Craig (2007), Speaking of India. Bridging the Communication Gap When Working With Indians, Boston, Intercultural Press.

Wolpert, Stanley (2005), India, Berkeley, University of California.