2011

Intercultural dinner with Ranjini Manian on “Doing Business in India”

Glimpse into parts of her speech by clicking here.

In the light of growing importance of the Indian automotive markets this year’s round table event was followed by an intercultural dinner taking up the theme “How to do business in India”.

As a special guest Ranjini Manian, a renowned and very successful business woman from India, spoke about intercultural understanding between India and the rest of the world and how her company puts its vision of creating “empowered global citizens through real life solutions” into practice.

Her company Global Adjustment Ltd. started in India in 1995, with Ford Motor Company being one of the first clients.

Since then she supported the families and workers of many globally active businesses (e.g. Nokia, BMW) to adapt to India and helped them to become successful in India. Ranjini Manian’s highest credo is that “always both sides need to learn and understand how to do business with each other.”

Knowing India

“Whatever you say of India, the opposite is also true: India is modern, it is also traditional. India is manual, India is also super-technically savvy”. This is mirrored in many interesting facts “There are 69 billionaires in India, but the opposite is also true: 450 million Indians live on less than USD $1.25 a day,” was one among many other impressing facts the Indian CEO and Founder of Global Adjustments put forward. India is also one of the countries with a very fast growing population.  “Did you know that 262 babies are born in the world every minute? Out of them 51 are born in India while China only comes second – at a great distance – with 28”.

These facts are certainly among the reasons why the world is coming to India lately. The potentials of the growing middle class and the very young population (average age in India is 25) with more than 350 million English speaking people should generally not be underestimated. “India is going to have wealthy consumers and a capable workforce for many years to come,” Manian promised.

Doing Business In India

But India is not only promising. Likewise, there are several challenges multi-national firms might have to face when engaging in investments on the Asian sub-continent:

Rich vs. Poor Divide is Immense

According to Manian the fact that filling a luxury car with petrol is often more than the monthly salary of the driver that drives the car is a striking everyday life example of the social imbalance. In her experience it is absolutely mandatory to manage this gap with corporate social responsibility activities. “Taking land from villagers, for instance, will always affect their self-esteem of being a land lord. It is not all about money for Indians, suddenly they are landless and that considerably lowers their status in society.” In this regard Manian recommends the creation of education or health opportunities which could also be an appropriate give back, besides giving former land owners jobs in factories.

Differences In Management Styles

“Indian culture usually does not allow saying ‘no’ straightforwardly. Instead Indians love to respond with questions,” which is one of the major intercultural issues between Indian and Western business partners (see box on the right side for an illustrative example). Indians also love to be part of the bigger picture.  Therefore, giving a holistic view on the company’s strategy and treating Indian workers as an integral part of their own workforce are among the most important recommendations to become successful.

There Are No Pan-Indian Solutions

Last but not least Manian made clear that successful regional strategies are of particular importance for nationwide long-term success in India. “You cannot look at India as pan-Indian – India is not one. You have to deal with people differently from state to state.” To find the way through the often complex rules and state structures in India it is advisable first to succeed on a regional level before going national.

Notwithstanding that Manian concluded: “Of course, it is also fine to come in on your own, if you don’t want a joint venture.” She named examples like BMW and Ford which successfully accessed the Indian market on their own. “However, an Indian expert advisor is still a must to negotiate with the people and the local government,” she finally emphasized how she interprets her role as a mediator between the widely differing cultures.

Explore Ranjini’s new book Upworldly Mobile - India’s first tool to enhance Cultural Intelligence!

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