Being Upworldly Mobile means equipping yourself with the cultural intelligence tools to succeed in global business.

As we all know, India’s time to evolve into Super power status has already come, and leveraging our cultural aspects is going to really be the soft-power that endures.

I wanted to share three facts with you:

Number of foreign companies currently registered and operating in India: 3,138

Number of MBA graduates in India per year: 100,000

Scope for cultural misunderstandings due to a lack of a common norm of global behaviour: INFINITE

This is what made me write my newest book “Upworldly Mobile”.

In my first book “Doing Business in India for Dummies”, I had mainly addressed the challenges of working successfully with Indians from an expatriate perspective. But in Upworldly Mobile, both sides benefit.

What is unique about this book?
Because India is flush with B-Schools and technical centres which deal with the theory and principles of academics and management, a lot of intercultural behaviour area is left uncovered.  Increasing our CQ or Cultural Quotient is the need of the hour and a common minimum platform of international behaviour is a must for Indian professionals to succeed.

I think what makes this book unique are the stories in it, which are drawn from real life experiences of these past 16 years at Global Adjustments, of interacting with business leaders from over 75 nationalities and globally-minded Indians. I have retold real-world scenarios in a simple, entertaining and easy-to-read format where you could pick any page and dip in and out of the book. Upworldly Mobile focuses on the practical, hands-on aspects of doing business with expatriates.

Who should read Upworldly Mobile?

Upworldly Mobile is intended for any Indian professional or budding professional, having to deal with expatriate colleagues virtually or in person – in India or abroad.

And expatriate managers would benefit from reading it too.

Because they are working equally hard to understand what makes Indians tick.  By reading Upworldly Mobile, the expat gets an idea of what his Indian teams don’t know, and he begins to see things through different cultural lenses. For example, he understands that a limp handshake is not a sign of weakness in an Indian but a sign of respect for someone senior. These are written in the form of pull-outs, titled “Insight for Outsiders”.

What is the gist of the book?

There are 4 main themes spread over 6 parts in this book.

One is: Knowing yourself as an Indian, and being able to succinctly describe your own culture to a listener. For example what drives you as an Indian and the importance of family and the permanence of tradition in our lives, which places events connected with them ahead of even our work, at times.

A second is knowing what drives the expatriate – for example, the book deals with the correct procedures for meeting, greeting and negotiations with an American vis â vis say a German or Japanese.

A third aspect is to strengthen areas we need to build confidence in: Like the art of networking and small talk to build business relationships. Or even being able to say a solution-oriented ‘No’ when we can’t meet deadlines

And finally, various cultural intelligence tools which help us gauge the situation and adapt to it, knowing there are different backgrounds to behaviour which allow two sides to meet on middle ground.

Upworldly Mobile focuses on strengthening Indian roots and flying on global wings.

Success is being comfortable with who you are. My team at Global Adjustments and I are comfortable with any culture we do business with. If we can do this, then anyone can.

I want to leave you with a Sanskrit saying “paropakaraya punyaya” – making others comfortable gives instant success. I wish India all success as a global presence.

Thank you for reading my first blog entry on “Being Upworldly Mobile”. I would love to hear your thoughts and personal experiences on the topics of this book.

Warm Regards,

 

 

Ranjini Manian

CEO, Global Adjustments Pvt. Ltd.

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