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

In the Wall Street Journal, Professor K. Kumar of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) writes on the increasing importance of entrepreneurial businesses for new economic growth. Specifically, “opportunity based entrepreneurship…seeks to revolutionize the world by leveraging new technology and creating new markets. [It] is usually based on significant innovation in the realm of technology, business process or the like and is set up to grow, right from inception.” These businesses are called “gazelles,” given the fast pace at which they grow and create new jobs.

In India, says Kumar, the majority of entrepreneurs have been average, small business owners, which don’t foster expansive job creation. How can Indian entrepreneurs begin to apply their ideas and energy towards lucrative, opportunity based businesses? How much does the Indian culture inhibit an environment where the “gazelle” model could take hold?

In a culture that values innovation and creativity, e.g. in the US, risk and failure are standard milestones along any successful business path (in other words, they are welcomed norms). In a culture that values stability and coherence with one’s family and community, e.g. in India, risk-taking is usually avoided at all cost, given a measure of historical pessimism towards change. The concept of destiny as an external, uncontrollable outcome is a part of the Indian cultural heritage, which can stifle innovation. For those business owners who are innovative, many Indian governmental policies and actions have not allowed them to make real their cutting edge business ideas.

However, Kumar notes that “there has been a significant increase in the number of government innovation funding programs to support new ideas falling into various domains.” Still, “the near total absence of expertise on the part of the government machinery to assess and respond to risks associated with innovation, renders such resources inaccessible to those who need and deserve them.”

What aspects of Indian culture, like the prevalence of a team mentality, could be used to promote the “gazelle” model? What aspects of other multicultural societies have lent themselves to a propensity for innovation and job creation?

Click here to jump to the article in the Wall Street Journal.

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