Learning India

Making sense of the subcontinent

Filed Under: #PowerPlays, #TimeIsEternal, On the Job, Podcast, Team Management

Episode 11: Patrick De Ridder

 

“Calling me on a Sunday is a sign of…”

Your first answer might be rudeness, unprepared thinking, or an invasion of privacy.

But add 17 years onto your India journey and you end this sentence with “respect”.

 

Podcast

Meet Patrick De Ridder, a student of Indian business and philosophy, and the next guest on Working with India. He came to India in 1997 and has stayed on, starting a business consulting company in 2006 for French, Belgian, and Dutch companies entering India.

Patrick was destined to be a “librarian writing books on philosophy” before India captured his imagination. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: #TimeIsEternal, On the Job

When “10 minutes” doesn’t mean 10 minutes

Expressions of Time

 

“Sanjay, I need that report in my inbox now.”

“Yes sir, just two minutes.”

Ten minutes later.

“Sanjay, where is that report? You said you would have it to me eight minutes ago? Why can’t you meet your own deadline?”

 

India’s relationship with time is misunderstood. You might have an image of India where nothing runs on time, promises are broken, and time is completely insignificant.

But that’s not (totally) true. Even though the basic outlook on time is completely different in India, time is still important. Projects have to be completed, trains have to leave, and marriages must be fixed at a particular time.

Yet, time is a persistent struggle for outsiders in India. Why? I think it’s possibly an issue of semantics (among other things). [Read more…]

Filed Under: #ChaosBeatsLogic, #PowerPlays, #TimeIsEternal, On the Job, Podcast

Episode 9: Amar Vyas

Podcast

 

Sometimes it’s nice to know you aren’t the only one…

When you come to India for the first time, you may wonder if you are the only one who notices the massive differences: the cows on the road, the work culture, the late night dinners. Is it ok to point them out? Can you laugh about them or is that taboo?

It’s always nice when someone else confirms that things are different, hard, and great.

Today’s Working With India podcast is with Amar Vyas. His name has been on a few of the latest posts (NRI: Now Returned to India and the Oterap Principle) and this is a chance to hear more from him.

I really enjoyed this conversation because it comes from someone who understands the inside and the outside.

Amar will share about:

  • The huge social risk of going to a town and not visiting family there
  • His initial irritants at moving back to India such as not getting any voicemails
  • A livable response to working with India’s working class
  • Why you might want to think twice before ignoring that call from a colleague on a Sunday
  • Why patience in India is the best skill you can have

Here are some of the links mentioned in the podcast:

 

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Filed Under: #See1See100, #TimeIsEternal, On the Job

I’m the Chief Guest – now what?

Chief Guest

 

Have you ever been invited to be the chief guest of an event in India?

All sorts of events need guests and speakers (business, cultural, religious, educational), and outsiders, even on short trips seem to be a great choice for these things.

We’ve already talked about what to do if you are supposed to introduce someone, but actually giving a speech is a whole other thing entirely. Here are some things you need to consider. [Read more…]

Filed Under: #GreyIsWhite, #PowerPlays, #ThinSkinned, #TimeIsEternal, On the Job

How to Ruin Your Relationships in India

Runining Relationships

 

You repeatedly email and call an old contact who won’t reply or pick up.

The manager of your Indian operations suddenly quits for no apparent reason.

You get a legal notice in your office mailbox.

 

Even though Relational Capital can be straightforward to build, it can be a pain to maintain. And worse, it can all come crashing down very quickly. Months or years of effort can be reduced to nothing in what seems like an instant.

Sometimes it is necessary to intentionally end a business relationship in India, such as calling out a vendor who is using unscrupulous practices. But more often, you will find yourself bankrupt in Relational Capital with someone without a clue as to why. Relational Capital is high-risk/high-reward and can be a dangerous game to play.

Thankfully, there are patterns in the ways that outsiders lose all their relational investments, and you can learn from those of us who have lost more than we have gained. The following items are character traits that most Indians hate about other people, particularly outsiders. [Read more…]

Filed Under: #See1See100, #TimeIsEternal, On the Job

10 Ways to Get Rich Quick in Relational Capital

Building RC

I knew I had to have a lot of Relational Capital with this guy.

As a foreigner coming into a new company who was likely to shake things up a bit, it was imperative that I had a large pool of Capital coming from the CEO.

We sat down at a coffee shop. I guessed from his name that he was the kind of South Indian that only ate vegetarian, so I refrained from the Spicy Chicken entrée. He casually mentioned that he had visited an Ayurvedic retreat center with his wife, and I mentioned all the ways that the ancient Indians seemed so much more advanced than us today. I asked what his kids were studying in college and what he hoped their futures looked like. When talking about ethics, I mentioned a few things I had learned in a book about the Mahabharata.

Sooner or later you will realize that building Relational Capital is essential for doing business in India.

Although Relational Capital is present in every culture, different cultures put different weight on how important it is to do business. There are some pockets in my home in the US where Relational Capital means a lot (getting a job through an alumni network at a business school) and others where it doesn’t mean as much (getting a job at Walmart). [Read more…]

Filed Under: #ChaosBeatsLogic, #PowerPlays, #See1See100, #ThinSkinned, #TimeIsEternal, Daily Living

13 ways to be a gracious god in India

Being a good god

Marty was a bit nervous about his first trip to India. He was visiting a team he had worked with for a few months, and was delivering some additional training to them.

A driver with Marty’s name greeted him at the airport and tried to take Marty’s bags. Marty felt a mix of suspicion and do-it-yourself-ness, and got into a small tug-of-war match to take his bags away from the driver.

When he walked into the office after freshening up, the entire office stood up with smiles to greet him. Marty gave a mostly blank look and tried to quickly find a place to set his things down. The head of the office came and asked if he’d like to join him for tea. “No thank you, I’ve got to get a few things organized here first,” Marty said.

After getting settled, the team took Marty out to lunch. On the way, Marty said he was still feeling a little jet-lagged and wasn’t very hungry. After looking over the menu, Marty selected a single bowl of soup. “Don’t you want some rice or Indian breads?”, the team asked. “No thank you, I’m trying to watch my carbs and my wife says I need to eat less gluten.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: #GreyIsWhite, #PowerPlays, #See1See100, #ThinSkinned, #TimeIsEternal, Daily Living, On the Job

How to Recover from Offending Someone in India

Offended Bird

You made a careless phrase.

…or you forgot to cc someone on an email.

…or you unknowingly made a senior person look bad.

…or the hint of sarcasm in your email wasn’t taken the right way.

…or you forgot to invite someone to a meeting.

 

If you stick around India long enough, it’s not a question of if, but when you offend someone.Therefore, instead of discussing how to avoid it, let’s talk about how to recover from it. [Read more…]

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© Neil A. Miller, LearningIndia.in, and Madras Media Marketing LLC 2013-2015. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.