MAKE IT IN INDIA
Global CEOs, Indo-US Insights
Ranjini Manian & Joanne Grady Huskey
Westland; 208 pages; Rs 250
The rather basic production values of this book make it better suited to placement in a railway station book kiosk than a serious bookshop. Its timing, to coincide with Barack Obama's visit as chief guest on Republic Day - the cover has clumsily executed cut-outs of Mr Obama and Narendra Modi greeting each other - suggests an opportunistic quickie. Likewise with the title, a play on one of Mr Modi's taglines that has left businessmen puzzled and hopeful at the same time.
Cultural knowledge of the Other is a perennial requirement of Western multinational executives. In the seventies and eighties, they wanted to know everything about "The Japanese Way". After that, it was the Chinese. The demand for knowledge of Indian business culture has been decidedly moderate, in keeping with its standing as an investment destination. Still, with China slowing, Brazil in trouble, Russia absorbed with conquests, revolts and sanctions, who knows, India may emerge as the top-of-the-pops among the BRIC competitors for global investment.
The good thing about this book is that it addresses two sides of the business culture equation, Indian and foreign. There are 18 chapters with functional headings, such as "First Contact", "Working Styles", "Women on Board", "Communication Styles" and so on. The fact that the observations comes from leaders with hands-on experience in global businesses reduces the suspicion of stereotyping to which books of this nature are often prone.
"Think about this book as your unique private attendance at a celebrity dinner," the authors urge. In truth, what's on offer are hors d'oeuvres, small, digestible homilies broken up into subheads and boxed highlights, a favoured technique of a certain type of self-help book.
Some of the advice is silly. In the chapter titled First Contact, the authors suggest that "western names are best remembered written down and then practiced so that they are pronounced right." But not all Western names are pronounced as they are spelt. The authors, for instance, take the opportunity for some name-dropping, mentioning that the name of one of their "VIP clients Bezos's name was pronounced 'Bay-Zos' and not 'Beesoz'…".
If that's the case, why bother writing it down, unless you're doing so phonetically? And how would writing down a name like, say, Cholomondeley help, if you did not know you should be pronouncing it Chumli? Or that Giles can be pronounced "jiles"? A British editor once deputed to Business Standard struggled manfully with the magnificently named Dwijottam. Eventually, he resorted to addressing him as "er", to no one's offence, until he discovered with relief that he could call him Dijit, the nickname assigned by long-suffering non-Bengali colleagues. Some free advice from someone whose name is distorted almost on a daily basis: pronouncing names correctly is flattering but, in truth, both cultures understand when pronunciation is mangled and rarely take umbrage. Dijit, for one, was always amused.
There are some obvious observations, such as R Krishna Kumar saying "when you begin a genuine conversation with cultural understanding, taking interest in the person…it will flow much smoother into business discussions in the company." But there's also useful stuff, such as Stuart Milne, CEO of HSBC Bank in India, saying, "One of the things I recommend…is not to oversell the India story and not to undersell the challenges that India faces." True, in a public relations firm, I listened in silent amazement as a colleague told executives of a major American aerospace company that Gurgaon was considered the Singapore of India.
The chapter on women is proforma save for some interesting examples of men creating genuinely enabling environments. Ravi Venkatesan, former chairman of Microsoft India, describes how many men at senior levels would schedule meetings at 7 pm but women would have to leave at 6 pm to do housework and supervise their children "and therefore could not participate or did so unwillingly". His solution: "we radically shut off the electricity at 7 pm, so they [the men] couldn't hold meetings after 6 pm! This made it not just a women-friendly place but a people-friendly place…". Then Phil Spender of Ford explains how they made longer safety jackets to cover the saris of women workers who felt uncomfortable wearing overalls on the shopfloor. This sensible sensitivity is to be set against some of the annoying superwoman triumphalism that the authors and some of the women leaders offer.
Interpreting the head wag, explaining why Indian men wear so many rings, decoding the peculiarities of dealing with bureaucrats (don't push them around, says David Sloan of Eurasia Group, USA), understanding why Americans ask so many questions, meeting protocol, Make It In India pretty much has it covered. It may not be high management literature but a useful and low-cost way to while away time on a flight or short railway journey.
Global CEOs, Indo-US Insights
Ranjini Manian & Joanne Grady Huskey
Westland; 208 pages; Rs 250
The rather basic production values of this book make it better suited to placement in a railway station book kiosk than a serious bookshop. Its timing, to coincide with Barack Obama's visit as chief guest on Republic Day - the cover has clumsily executed cut-outs of Mr Obama and Narendra Modi greeting each other - suggests an opportunistic quickie. Likewise with the title, a play on one of Mr Modi's taglines that has left businessmen puzzled and hopeful at the same time.
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But the shabby appearance is deceptive. The co-authors of this book, who are co-founders of a relocation firm, are astute businesswomen. They have managed to gather some A-lister corporate names - such as current and former CEOs of Ford, Facebook, Microsoft, Nokia, Biocon, Tata - to offer advice on business culture for foreigners investing in India and Indian companies working with foreign investors, the kind of stuff that doesn't figure in Doing Business rankings. Messrs Manian and Huskey call it "the wisdom of the trail" but it is also a useful showcase of their clientele and business contacts.
Cultural knowledge of the Other is a perennial requirement of Western multinational executives. In the seventies and eighties, they wanted to know everything about "The Japanese Way". After that, it was the Chinese. The demand for knowledge of Indian business culture has been decidedly moderate, in keeping with its standing as an investment destination. Still, with China slowing, Brazil in trouble, Russia absorbed with conquests, revolts and sanctions, who knows, India may emerge as the top-of-the-pops among the BRIC competitors for global investment.
The good thing about this book is that it addresses two sides of the business culture equation, Indian and foreign. There are 18 chapters with functional headings, such as "First Contact", "Working Styles", "Women on Board", "Communication Styles" and so on. The fact that the observations comes from leaders with hands-on experience in global businesses reduces the suspicion of stereotyping to which books of this nature are often prone.
"Think about this book as your unique private attendance at a celebrity dinner," the authors urge. In truth, what's on offer are hors d'oeuvres, small, digestible homilies broken up into subheads and boxed highlights, a favoured technique of a certain type of self-help book.
Some of the advice is silly. In the chapter titled First Contact, the authors suggest that "western names are best remembered written down and then practiced so that they are pronounced right." But not all Western names are pronounced as they are spelt. The authors, for instance, take the opportunity for some name-dropping, mentioning that the name of one of their "VIP clients Bezos's name was pronounced 'Bay-Zos' and not 'Beesoz'…".
If that's the case, why bother writing it down, unless you're doing so phonetically? And how would writing down a name like, say, Cholomondeley help, if you did not know you should be pronouncing it Chumli? Or that Giles can be pronounced "jiles"? A British editor once deputed to Business Standard struggled manfully with the magnificently named Dwijottam. Eventually, he resorted to addressing him as "er", to no one's offence, until he discovered with relief that he could call him Dijit, the nickname assigned by long-suffering non-Bengali colleagues. Some free advice from someone whose name is distorted almost on a daily basis: pronouncing names correctly is flattering but, in truth, both cultures understand when pronunciation is mangled and rarely take umbrage. Dijit, for one, was always amused.
There are some obvious observations, such as R Krishna Kumar saying "when you begin a genuine conversation with cultural understanding, taking interest in the person…it will flow much smoother into business discussions in the company." But there's also useful stuff, such as Stuart Milne, CEO of HSBC Bank in India, saying, "One of the things I recommend…is not to oversell the India story and not to undersell the challenges that India faces." True, in a public relations firm, I listened in silent amazement as a colleague told executives of a major American aerospace company that Gurgaon was considered the Singapore of India.
The chapter on women is proforma save for some interesting examples of men creating genuinely enabling environments. Ravi Venkatesan, former chairman of Microsoft India, describes how many men at senior levels would schedule meetings at 7 pm but women would have to leave at 6 pm to do housework and supervise their children "and therefore could not participate or did so unwillingly". His solution: "we radically shut off the electricity at 7 pm, so they [the men] couldn't hold meetings after 6 pm! This made it not just a women-friendly place but a people-friendly place…". Then Phil Spender of Ford explains how they made longer safety jackets to cover the saris of women workers who felt uncomfortable wearing overalls on the shopfloor. This sensible sensitivity is to be set against some of the annoying superwoman triumphalism that the authors and some of the women leaders offer.
Interpreting the head wag, explaining why Indian men wear so many rings, decoding the peculiarities of dealing with bureaucrats (don't push them around, says David Sloan of Eurasia Group, USA), understanding why Americans ask so many questions, meeting protocol, Make It In India pretty much has it covered. It may not be high management literature but a useful and low-cost way to while away time on a flight or short railway journey.