India Culture Tips
Strategies for Success in India
• Intensive management is viewed, for the most part, as good management. As a manager, provide explicit instructions and guidance to your teams.
• Clarify anything with a written checklist and open-ended questions.
• Ask for input since many may be reluctant to provide unsolicited feedback. Be conscious to save face when asking challenging questions in front of a group.
• Ask for regular feedback and frequently follow up on tasks in order to maintain schedules and meet deadlines.
• Avoid asking questions that can be answered by a “yes” or “no”.
• Ask questions in several ways to ensure that the way the question was phrased did not impact the response
• Prepare several “what-if” scenarios to help drive change.
Key Business Values in India
• Respect for elders and authorities
• Trust is very important, and is developed through building strong relationships over time
• Preference to work collaboratively
• Family obligations may take precedence over work
• Preference to not give or receive bad news
• Avoidance of giving overt negative response
• Relationship-building activities may take precedence over meeting schedules and deadlines
• Reluctance to take undirected initiative
- from RW3′s CultureWizard® Pocket Guides, also available on CultureWizard Mobile
