Saurabh Srivastava, left, the chairman of the Indian Angel Network, meets with young entrepreneurs in New Delhi. Sanjit Das for The New York Times

Hold on! For a society known to be among the most group-oriented and hierarchical in the world, entrepreneurs were a rare, almost non-existent breed. In fact, Saurabh Srivastava, who founded IIS Infotech in 1989 had to wait 2-1/2 years to get permission just to start the company.

But all that’s changing. Along with other like-minded pioneers and entrepreneurs, Srivastava started The Indian Angel Network that not only gives money but sends young, bright entrepreneurs to the Network’s own “boot camps” for mentoring. Do you think India’s younger generations will be able to breakthrough the cultural values of their elders to build innovative, profitable businesses? Read this New York Times article and let us know what you think.

Sure, it’s indisputable that Indian tech giants have their pick of excellent talent, but what about the cultural issues that make people hesitant to break out and take massive risks? Does this business behavior exist on a large scale in India?

Charlene

RW3 CultureWizard

Photo courtesy of currencyhut.com

For weeks and months the Euro crisis has been front page news. Each article brings us closer and closer to the provocative question: Are there too many different cultures to make this work? Are there too many different perspectives that cannot coalesce into a unified whole?

This week alone there were two articles in the German paper, Der Spiegel, that speaks directly to this issue: “We Won’t Pay: Greece’s Middle Class Revolt against Austerity” and “Resenting Greece: Slovakia Threatens Euro Rescue Package”

As the crisis continues, do you have doubts about the future of the Union? Let us know what you think.

Charlene

RW3 CultureWizard

Whether you’re an expatriate or business traveler, part of a global team with members in Vietnam or working with Vietnamese customers, the following culture tips will prove essential to your success:

+ If someone disagrees with what another person says, rather than disagree publicly, a Vietnamese person might simply remain silent.

+ The concept of face is extremely important to Vietnamese. Saying a direct no to someone may cause that person to lose face. Face may also be lost through a person’s own actions such as publicly displaying emotion, losing self-control, becoming intoxicated, or rescinding an order.

+ The teachings of Confucius have had a strong impact in modern Vietnamese society. Confucianism stresses duty, loyalty, honor, filial piety, respect for age and seniority, and sincerity.

+ Vietnamese are very conscious of age and status. Everyone has a distinct place in the hierarchy, be it the family unit, the extended family, a social or a business situation. Be aware of the implications of hierarchy when managing a Vietnamese workforce.

+ Vietnam has a high context, indirect communication style. As such, it is important not to accept what is said at face value because the Vietnamese generally do not express their opinions clearly, as is more common in Western countries.

+ It is quite common for Vietnamese to ask what would be considered personal questions in more Western cultures. Expect to be asked about your age, marital status, or how much something costs.

+ There is a very distinct generation gap among the Vietnamese. Quite often the political systems they have lived through shape a person’s viewpoint. These differences are more apparent in the north where the changes have been the greatest.

- from RW3′s CultureWizard™ Country Profiles

RW3 CultureWizard

Just how relevant do you find hierarchy in the workplace? Do you work best if left on your own, or does a more rigid structure help keep you in line and motivated? A recent opinion piece in Businessweek makes a pair of expert-given arguments regarding hierarchy in the workplace.

One expert condemns hierarchy as a vestige of 20th century thinking that ultimately stifles ingenuity and zaps motivation. The other sees it as a necessary reality of effective management, that when applied intelligently keeps an organization motivated and on track.

What I found most interesting was how the article was written from a North American, corporate perspective. It doesn’t frame its arguments against the all-important cultural notion of where and with what group a hierarchical or non-hierarchical approach to management might work best or worst. Of course, the overarching question is: today, can we really afford to neglect the work styles of our global colleagues? For many of us, we are beyond a workplace where we only interact with co-workers from our own culture.

Everything we’ve experienced at RW3 CultureWizard, including years of studying the role culture plays in the workplace, tells us that arguments such as the ones posed by Businessweek are completely country- and culture-relative. For instance, a non-hierarchical approach might work for Google in the US, but how about Google India, where hierarchy is an entrenched cultural value and the definition of a “good employee” isn’t nearly the same as in the US?

Would you thrive or falter if your workplace approach to hierarchy suddenly shifted in the opposite direction?

Adam

RW3 CultureWizard

Analysts say that cultural differences between continents make alliances difficult…Clearly there are cultural differences between European or US-based (carmakers) and Japanese manufacturers and, with the exception of Renault/Nissan, alliances between Western and Japanese (carmakers) have often ended without tangible results, Unicredit analyst Christian Aust said.

(Click here to read the article in the Economic Times)

So the Suzuki VW merger is no more. Once again, things went bad due to “cultural differences.” How surprising?

According to the article, “VW CEO Martin Winterkorn, earlier this year, blamed slow progress in the Suzuki partnership on the Japanese consensus-driven corporate culture.”

I find the above quote rather amazing, and not because a German company like VW found themselves challenged by the “consensus-driven” nature of Japanese corporations. That’s completely understandable. Rather, because a CEO would seemingly know enough about culture to have that insight, while simultaneously appearing so culturally oblivious as to make such a statement about their Japanese partners and completely disregard the deeply held Japanese value of saving face, and to do it, no less, “earlier in the year,” before the VW-Suzuki partnership had officially gone bad. A wonderful bit of cultural contradiction within one statement, no?

I looked up some photos of CEO Martin and, not to make this blog post personal at all, at 64 years old he still cuts an impressive figure. I imagine he has a fitness trainer to help him in that department. I also imagine he has lawyers and accountants to help him manage many other aspects of his personal and professional life, but I can’t help but wonder, does he have a intercultural coach or trainer? And after the failure of Renault-Volvo, BMW-Rover, Peugeot-Mitsubishi and, most famously, Daimler-Chrysler, does anyone in the automotive industry keep a coach or trainer on staff?

And my final thought on the subject, to which I’d love to hear your feedback:

Given that so many of the major auto companies are led by engineers, might their more analytic minds and scientific, left-brain training inhibit them when it comes to the more emotional, nuanced and right-brained thinking and feeling that connects us to the way culture influences – often unconsciously – our way of being in the world?

Food for thought.

Adam

RW3 CultureWizard

Whenever traveling overseas for either work or pleasure, I always make a point to wake up as early as possible and head out into whatever city I happen to be for an early morning walk. There is something so pure about those first daylight hours, as markets set up their stalls, bakers pull buns from ovens, baristas clang, click and tap their espresso machine’s in non-stop action and a city comes to life. It’s a wonderful opportunity to glimpse a city in its most honest state, as it goes about getting up on its feet and taking its first breath of the day – a time, in my opinion, when a city makes no excuses for its idiosyncrasies and calls no special attention to its wonders.

Vietnamese fruit chips

For me, it’s one of the real joys of what I do and the reason I got such a kick out of this Travel+Leisure article recently sent to me by a colleague. In it, its author deliciously recalls his delight in visiting foreign supermarkets, describing the shelves of foreign goodies with the relish of a collegiate art major walking the halls of the Louvre for the very first time. What supermarkets are to the article’s author, outdoor markets are to me, particularly during those magical early morning hours as vendors, merchants and mongers upload their goods and arrange their stalls. That time when the first grandmothers of the day arrive to pick the freshest catch or brightest basil in Venice and half-asleep school children stuff a still hot pain au chocolat in Paris, or mini coconut dumpling in Bangkok into their mouths without the slightest inkling that the thing they eat with little awareness and appreciation, I would gladly travel halfway around the world to enjoy. For me, walking through a foreign outdoor market, just past the crack of dawn, in meandering route to a morning meeting or conference I may or may not care to be at, is a little gem, a curious antidote for the often long flights and challenges of international travel.

So, global business maven, what’s your weird and wonderful little gem, your fluorescent lit supermarket or early morning outdoor market, that helps to make it all worthwhile?

Adam

RW3 CultureWizard