Ours is a diverse nation with multiple official languages, a rich bouquet of dialects, and hundreds of cuisines. India’s culture has absorbed the nuances that came from many invader-imposed rules, traditions, and learnings. Its market has seen the tyranny of poverty as well as the glorification of wealth and individual brilliance.
India’s modern economic journey began in 1991 with liberalisation. It opened up the market and domestic talent, which would be seen as cheaper labour (both in labour and knowledge forms) by overseas companies. The economic liberalisation and global technologies have produced a generation different from its conservative parents. The Gen Y mixes Indian values with the western outlook. Its huge English-speaking and highly educated professional base is luring multinational corporations that want to explore India’s service capabilities and opportunities in research, engineering, and innovation.
Despite their perceived contemporary views, young Indians remain traditional in many ways. They’re proud of their nationality and intend to take their country forward in the 21st century.
The back story
Since the economic liberalisation, many global companies made a beeline for India to manufacture their products with the skilled labour available here, as well as to sell them in a huge consumer market. India has been a big opportunity for makers of cornflakes to burgers to cars and mobile phones to personal computers to toys, to name a few.
Many Asian entities came in also due to the proximity with the logistics base, so that they could export back to their home markets. In the late 1990s, Indian manufacturing wasn’t ready to ‘make it for the world’. The quality perception about Indian manufacturing across most sectors still had to improve. Even Indians thought the same. For example, a luxury car of a foreign brand could sell better with their CKUs (completely knocked units) imported into India and assembled, rather than made 100% in India.
There were several management consultant research reports published in the mid to late 1990s on how Indian consumers would be the best thing to happen to brands in many consumption sectors, with people opening their wallets, thanks to the projected ‘purchase price parity’. Many of those prophecies came true, but with a lag of five to 10 years.
However, what the Indian corporate sector saw was the emergence of cultural directions and dominance of various global brands that came to India and set up local or regional base. Among them were Asian brands from China, Japan, and South Korea. Their styles of leadership were, and still are, very different from the way an Indian management works.
Read More at https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/prime/economy-and-policy/unique-working-style-weekly-reporting-to-home-base-management-lessons-from-eastern-cultures/primearticleshow/90360708.cms
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