Govindraj Ethiraj: How multicultural are we?

DOUBLE EDGE

A friend who heads marketing for a large US IT hardware multinational told me the other day his firm was swamped with applications for a mid-level position it had advertised on the web.

While scanning the applications, he found, unusually, that the applicants included two Americans, one Australian and one New Zealander. He asked HR to get back to them saying the job profile spanned the Asia-Pacific but was very much grounded in Bangalore. All four (none were of Indian origin) got back saying they were game.

Last week, I was talking to a partner at a Big Four consulting firm. Remarkably, he said, more and more partners from around the world wanted to come and work in India. More so in the last six months, he said. "Once upon a time, people were 'seconded' to India; now they want to come here. Else, it was only Indians going overseas," he told me.

That more and more foreigners want to work in India is not new. So why is it an issue today? Because multi-cultural workplaces are exploding all over the place""the term denoting multi-national rather than just people from different parts of the country. My sense is that gearing up to receive and exploit talent from the world over will be a big challenge and task for Indian companies, as many organisations have already realised or are in the process of doing so.

Indian organisations are not new to working with non-Indians. But, a director with an IT MNC said to me recently, "In India, the only multi-cultural exposure has been really bi-cultural. So you had German, Swiss and American companies from the west, and Korean, Japanese and now Chinese companies from the east setting up companies in India alone or with minority joint venture partners."

According to him, in these cases, the management, because of the ownership pattern, hailed from the home country. So there was a managing director and maybe one more director who were either German or American. Everyone else was local or, in this case, Indian. So while there were some cultural issues, the onus on assimilation lay between one individual or two and the rest of the organisation!

But in the last few years, in industries like IT, telecom, retail, hospitality, among others, increasingly, expatriates are coming in at middle and even junior level positions. This creates an interesting challenge and opportunity for Indian organisations and managers: Challenge because Indian managers are yet not there when it comes to working in truly multi-cultural workplaces, here and overseas.

Opportunity because effectively addressing these issues will help not just companies achieve greater talent integration for the domestic marketplace but also help Indian managers better tackle the world. I recall Ratan Tata telling me in an interview four years ago that one of the biggest tasks and challenges for the Tata Group was going global and going multicultural, not necessarily in that order. At that time, Tetley was just about the only big global acquisition the Tata group had either concluded or attempted.

What has been the experience so far? Largely good. The sense I get from talking around is that Indian organisations are working hard at truly multi-cultural environments. It helps that the India story attracts talent from the world over. In many organisations, such environments have actually helped foster more thought leadership rather than, as one manager put it, cultural leadership.

The problems could be that the Indian weaknesses stand out. As the same manager told me, "Indian managers tend to be high on emotional quotient and low on professional quotient. This is sometimes difficult to comprehend for people from some other cultures." This is of course a commonly mentioned point. And yet, he adds, Indians are extremely flexible and display a strong ability to change.

The bigger challenges lie ahead. If Indian workplaces and environments are to be truly welcoming to people from varying cultures, then we have to work hard to manage our own latent racism. Most managers will tell you that Indians tend to be more subservient to some cultures while displaying distinctly racist attitudes towards others. This is not a generalisation by any stretch. And good organisations have the systems to address this. But the external environment is another story. A mid-level expat manager may not be able to live the cocooned lifestyle expat head honchos are used to.

Another challenge is ensuring young Indians are exposed to multi-cultural environments before they hit such workplaces. Colleges and schools are the most obvious interaction point. At the Indian School of Business (ISB) a few months ago, I noticed several non-Indian students in the classrooms. I was told they were here on long exchange programmes. Obviously the ISB or other institutions like it are an exception.

As I see it, organisations and institutions should set out a few tasks. First, make multi-culturalism an objective rather than an outcome that they have to prepare for. Second, as a corollary, make the working in a multi-cultural environment a virtue and a necessity for personal growth. Third, work towards all of this by creating the systems and processes to handle the inevitable fallouts.

If you look around you, the smart Indian companies, from the Tatas to Reliance, are already doing it. As are the IT majors. It will only accelerate. My sense is that early multi-cultural exposure will make for better managers right here. Or at the very least help understand how an average Jane thinks and reacts in foreign lands, within or outside a reality show.