In the mid-1990s I asked the gentleman next to me on a trans-Pacific flight from Delhi to San Francisco whether he’d seen the fabulous Taj Mahal. “I saw that 27 trips ago before I began my biweekly commute to Bangalore.” “Why Bangalore when there are so many more interesting things to see in India?” I asked him. “I’m a half owner of a software company in Bangalore. It’s a sort of Silicon Valley of India.” I asked, “You shuttle back and forth every two weeks? What a schlepp.” “Yes, I kiss the golf course near Palo Alto goodbye just to make sure my Indian partners are doing business the right way—my way. Technically, I’m retired—at age 47—but as you can see, I’m not. India’s a fascinating but exasperating place. I have an on-and-off love affair with it. I always end up going back for more. Seeing India can become addictive.”
Budding Superpower
In the decade since this revealing encounter I’ve watched India, the biggest economic laggard on the planet, blossom into a country that some economists predict is heading for superpower status—even edging out dynamic China next door by mid-century. The economic reforms that have jolted India began in 1999 and continue apace today as the Indian economy racks up an annual 8 percent growth rate, less than China’s 10 percent but still impressive.
In November, if arrangements work out, a delegation of some 400 American business leaders will tour India, sponsored by the Bush Administration and billed as the largest such mission ever sent to a single country. “That’s a reflection of our interest in India,” Assistant Secretary of State Richard A. Boucher said.
Trade between India and the United States now amounts to about $26 billion a year and is growing at a breakneck speed of 21 percent annually. One goal of the American mission is to pry open the door to foreign investments in restricted Indian industries like banking and retailing. In tandem with this campaign there’s improved air service to India, a country that’s half a world away.
Primer for First-Timers
What’s to know about this come-from-almost-nowhere giant with more than a billion citizens, formidable monsoons, 1,600 languages and dialects (15 of them official, 24 spoken by at least a million Indians), a full-dress British legacy (including governmental pomp), three principal religions (Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist) plus three smaller ones (Jainists, Sikhs, Zoroasters), and all of this packed into real estate the geographers call a subcontinent—in fact, a third the size of the United States?
Lucky for corporate travelers bound for the capital, New Delhi, or Mumbai (Bombay), India’s Wall Street, or Bangalore, the computer-industry hub, that English is the language of choice in government and business circles rather than Hindi, the dominant native language spoken by some 30 percent of the population.
Once your ear adjusts to the clipped, fast delivery of English with a British accent, you’re all set to learn, communicate and find your way around. Even so, it doesn’t hurt to know a few words in Hindi such as namaste (hello) and shukriya (thank you).
In any case, you’ll find a common U.S.-Indian bond in the mutual passion for going out to the movies—or seeing them on the growing number of TV sets and computer screens. In Mumbai, Bollywood, as the cinema industry is called, grinds out full-length Indian-style soap operas 365 days a year, usually tales of the young innocent villager who seeks love, sex and success in the big city with plenty of speed bumps along the way.
Getting Around Mumbai
A great port partly developed by Britain’s empire builder, the East India Company, Mumbai (pop. 18.4 million), formerly Bombay, is the nation’s business and financial capital. The “New York of India” is a refreshingly friendly and informal place to do business. Veteran visitors to the city’s crowded streets, jam-packed bazaars, trading companies and financial offices enjoy the chalta hain (laid-back) lifestyle. The Bollywood image rubs off on the city, just as Hollywood does in L.A.
But there are plenty of traditional social signals worth knowing to help explain local oddities and prevent you making missteps.
Appointments: E-mail or phone at least a month in advance to set up an appointment—ideally between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.—and reconfirm upon arrival in Mumbai. If possible, keep your schedule flexible to accommodate last-minute changes.
Punctuality: Almost no one in Mumbai gets anywhere on time. When a Mumbaikar phones your hotel and says, “I’ll meet you in 15 minutes,” assume it may be a half hour. The snail’s pace of business—by western standards—can be frustrating from slow messenger services to delays in assembling Indian contacts for a business meeting. To combat traffic gridlock, try to book a hotel near your meeting places.
Greeting: Shaking hands is the standard greeting, even for American and other foreign women travelers. But don’t be surprised if an Indian woman presses her palms together upon meeting you—it’s a traditional namaste greeting. If she’s wearing a sari (loose-fitting, colorful garment that forms a skirt and head covering), you should let the woman extend her hand before you extend yours.
Communicating: Though most Mumbai professionals speak good English, they’re often hard to understand because they sprinkle their talk with local slang and confusing grammar delivered with a heavy accent. Don’t freak out over this piece of information: There’s a local dialect called Bambaiya Hindi, and beyond that nearly a dozen other languages such as the official Marathi, spoken at the state level, and Bengali, Gujarati, Konkani, Malayalam, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. But thank goodness that Mumbaikars involved in commerce generally use English.
Jobs & Titles: Exchanging business cards that nail down exact names (sometimes long and difficult) and titles is important; and have a good supply because running out is considered rude. Note that Indians define jobs very precisely, reflecting in a small way the country’s traditional hierarchical caste system. Like many Asian businesspeople, Mumbaikars tend to say “yes” to a proposal—not to lose face—when they’re really promising more than they can deliver.
Dining: Forget breakfast meetings. Business begins somewhere between 9:30 to 10 a.m. Lunches frequently stretch out to an hour and a half. Alcohol is a no-no at lunch, but OK at dinner. Note that Indian women, if present at your meal, can feel uncomfortable around drinkers.
Entertaining: It’s largely what you’re allowed to eat that matters in India’s curry-and-spice dining culture. Many Hindus, especially in south India, are vegetarians for religious reasons (and you can find their cuisine in some Indian restaurants in America). If they’re meat eaters, Hindus will choose chicken and goat dishes but not any with beef or pork. Muslims, more than 14 percent of India’s population (and the dominant religion in neighboring Pakistan), won’t eat pork; and if they’re conservative Muslims, they’ll only eat halal (ritually slaughtered) meat. If you’re planning to host a business lunch or dinner, try to find out what your guests can eat—though Mumbaikars will understand if there are dietary slip-ups.
Clubland: Don’t be surprised if your Indian contact invites you to his club for tea, a cocktail or lunch. The British were good teachers when it comes to Indian appreciation of the fine points of club life, from the intimacy and privacy to true snobbery that separates members from the rest of the masses. Indians can be as uppity toward outsiders as the British were to them. The club you visit is likely to be a slice of Victorian England. And if it’s a cricket club, do a bit of homework so you’re not totally baffled by the game.
Conversation gambits: Keep off the controversial topic of corruption and crime and the eyesores of slums and beggars, both of which abound, and talk instead about politics (byzantine), family (central to Indian life), sports (cricket, of course, with soccer close behind), and food (from breads like poori and naan to tandoori chicken and vindaloo lamb curry).
Dress Code: Business suits are fine for lunch. Mumbaikars often take off their jackets in the office (where you’ll find occasional “casual Fridays”) and at dinner. Western women should avoid short skirts and low-cut tops, but you can make up for this modesty with jewelry—gorgeous and plentiful in India with gold, from bangles to earrings and necklaces, the favorite of Indian women. Some Mumbai hotels, by the way, set aside rooms just for female travelers—and some train cars (called carriages) are women-only.
Not For Your BlackBerry
Along with the dos and don’ts, keep in mind that Indians are some of the world’s cleverest negotiators. Here are some soft guidelines—to follow or simply know about—if you’re shuttling around India on business:
Key Values: Remnants of the now-abolished caste system still show up in the somewhat rigid organizational structure of Indian businesses. Another influence is the spiritual concept of fatalism—everything happens for a reason—which can lead to long, drawn-out negotiations that can try your patience. And, Indian business experts point out, collectivism based on India’s strong sense of community that came from several generations living under one roof encourages Indians to accept a lack of privacy, avoidance of conflict, and the importance of smooth interpersonal contacts in business dealings.
Corporate Ladder: Senior executives hold most of the trump cards in decision-making—not all that different from work practices in the United States. The higher-ups lead discussions and make final decisions. For American business travelers—and other visitors—it’s just time-wasting to deal much with subordinates if you have any major proposal or project in mind.
Saving Face: Yet there’s a strong bond between an Indian boss and his employees similar to the relationship between close relatives. Because of the importance of “face,” participants in a meeting, whether high or low on the status scale, rarely criticize without framing their comments diplomatically. All told, the negotiating process can be slow, if not ponderous. Complain about far-off deadlines? It can be interpreted as a sign of impatience—and disrespectful.
Meetings: Orchestrate your participation in a business get-together pretty much as you might in Europe or elsewhere overseas. Before hard bargaining, schmooze in a one-on-one meeting—maybe over lunch—or limit your comments to pleasant small talk if it’s a group. Contrary to the protocol in most other countries, it’s OK—in fact, desirable—to say a few words about your family and inquire about your host’s family. Use titles such as “Professor,” “Doctor” or just “Mr.” wherever possible.
Body Language: Go out of your way to help establish an atmosphere of trust—essential to move negotiations forward. If the Indian across the table turns down your proposal, he’s likely to use non-verbal cues like body language and avoid (often awkwardly) saying “no.”
The Dancing Elephant
In many countries business is business—with cultural and religious factors hardly shaping commerce. Not so in India where temples, mosques and British formalities are ubiquitous. For instance, just to comply with India’s official export procedures and permits—a hangover from ingrained British procedures—takes 88 days compared to 46 in China, the Confederation of Indian Industry recently complained.
Obsolete Rickshaws: You can see the clash of old and new cultures in minor changes—for instance, last month’s banning of bicycle rickshaws in Delhi to ease traffic jams in the famed Chandi Chowk market, the heart of the city’s ancient quarters. So now you’ll have to take a bus (awful) or taxi (expensive) to the small lanes where vendors sell irresistible goods from brightly colored cloth to dazzling diamonds.
With such a complex mix of mogul trappings and modern advances, it’s a wonder that the new India can make its elephant dance. But it does—from streamlined office buildings in Mumbai to posh tent camps in the camel land of Rajasthan rented by Abercrombie & Kent “adventurers.”
Lost on most executives and managers who travel the high-level business circuit is the fact that some two-thirds of India’s population still live in 650,000 villages (and counting).
Maharajah Magic: One major stage prop that adds glamour to India’s village grit is the legacy of the Hindu Maharajahs and Rajahs and Muslim Nizams and Nawabs who held sway over some 500 “native states” and controlled about one-third of the subcontinent’s territory up to the time when the British departed in 1947.
They don’t make feudal autocrats anymore like this crowd of super-rich, decadent rulers. Private armies, emeralds the size of a pigeon’s egg, stunning costumes with diamond collars, priceless treasures stored in palaces, forts and armories—these were the extravagant trappings of the potentates who differed widely in lifestyle, clan and character. Some developed their lands, educated their subjects, and played the role of enlightened despots. Others preferred to play polo and shoot tigers. Once considered undisputed royalty with a special status and untold riches when the British Raj was the landlord, they’re hardly visible today since the partition of the subcontinent into two nations, India and Pakistan, and the government’s expropriation of their princely properties.
Yet the Maharajahs remain a role model for some of today’s upwardly mobile Indian industrial and financial tycoons. For example, their former estates are thriving as resort hotels managed by such families as the Oberois. With Maharajah finesse the powerful House of Tata founded in the 19th century has its tentacles into many phases of Indian business from the Tata Iron & Steel Company (TISCO) to the Taj Group of hotels, resorts and palaces, along with a noblesse oblige commitment to support do-good social projects.
Prominent among India’s modern Maharajahs are corporate computer whizzes. For example, Bill Gates and his Microsoft troop have interests in Hyderabad, a city north of Bangalore that was once the fiefdom of the Nizam of Hyderabad, considered the world’s richest “businessman” because of his Golconda of gold and diamonds. The taxman finally laid the Nizam low, and his 21st century replacement in Hyderabad—Microsoft’s founder and the world’s richest executive—would seem to be a perfect fit.
Walkup to a Miracle
If you know what went on in India for most of the decades since the end of World War II, you might use the word “miracle” to describe the nation’s amazing recent turnaround.
Five-Year Plans: In the 1950s and 1960s, India mismanaged several ambitious five-year plans that the United States supported—if only because India was (and still is) the world’s most populous democracy and a target of the Communists during the Cold War. The country’s flirtation with the Soviet Union, which among various ventures built a major steel mill for the Indians, embittered many American officials, particularly idealists who were banking on India’s becoming an economic showcase of democracy. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Nehru positioned India as leader of the “Third World.”
Protectionism: During the postwar decades the government repeatedly took a protectionist stand on most outside offers of economic aid and corporate investment. It wrapped red tape around just about every proposal for American companies to invest in projects that would help lift up the poverty-stricken country. The government nixed offshore oil drilling. It stiffed various IBM ventures, back when the company was the world-renowned “Big Blue.” And when Coke, for example, proposed to bottle its soft-drink potion for thirsty Indians browbeaten by tropical weather, the government shut the door and encouraged the creation of a competing drink in reprisal, only to discover no one liked it. Right now, some of the same standoff is re-occurring in skirmishes with Coke and Pepsi.
State-run Industries: Petty parliamentary wrangling and sheer chauvinism led to the continuation of state ownership of many critical industries responsible for building a better infrastructure of energy, telecommunications, highways and air transportation. While its British legacy provided a government based on orderliness, the Indian government sounded at times like an Oxford-Cambridge debating society—with one step forward for every two backward.
Sticking Points: Hovering over all this have been the sticking points that have inhibited closer U.S. relations with the India that Washington would like to love: the ongoing tug-of-war over who owns Kashmir, squeezed between India and Pakistan in the northwest, and India’s active nuclear weapons program that offsets Pakistan’s. One source of stability in all this is the highly regarded, 1-million-strong Indian Army. Even more heartening is the current Bush Administration proposal to share peaceful nuclear technology, which could play a role in providing India with the energy source it needs to fuel growing industry.
For business travelers with eyes open, the country has one aspect that seems strangely familiar: the proliferation of corporate cubicles. On his third visit to India recently, a business analyst based in China put it succinctly: “China is the ‘Factory of the World’ while India is getting to look like the ‘Office of the World’.”
On a Side Note...
Flying to Indian Cities is Getting A Lot Easier
Smoothing the way to closer relations with India is the increase in long-haul flights to Delhi or Mumbai. Continental, for one, has pushed into this new market with a 14 hr., 30 min. nonstop to Delhi out of Newark, and so has Virgin Atlantic from London to Mumbai with CEO Richard Branson in colorful Indian garb at the celebratory launch. Flagship airline Air India still takes 23 hrs., 25 min. from JFK with two stops in Paris’s Charles de Gaulle and Mumbai, but provides improved cabin service.
Inside India, where domestic air service was notoriously bad just a few years ago, not to mention chaotic airports, Jet Airways is now getting good reviews as it, too, goes international with flights to London and Newark. Jostling for front-runner in the long-overdue Indian discount-fare market are Air-India Express (offshoot of Air India), Air Sahara, Go Air, Kingfisher Airlines and SpiceJet. Stay tuned for rapidly changing schedules, fares and amenities.
India’s Educated and Ambitious Middle Class
So vast is India’s population—over a billion and likely to become the world’s largest because of China’s one-child “family planning”—that even a small well-schooled percentage amounts to millions of potentially productive professionals in the work force.
It’s creating a middle class that when marshaled efficiently can provide high-tech services such as healthcare and software design. In south India, for example, there are hundreds of thousands of young, ambitious Indians in and around Bangalore (1,200 miles from Delhi), variously called “The Garden City,” “Pub City” or “India’s Silicon Valley.”
Why are Indians so smart in computers, accounting and medicine?
“They’re good at numbers,” several Indians told me. “They get an excellent grounding in math in the school system the Brits helped build.”
But with increased sophistication in their lives and career choices, many Indians are dissatisfied with the hourly wages and work conditions in monotonous jobs like call centers in Bangalore. Fed up with repetitive “tech support” work, they now want to upgrade to actual staff or line work in companies that design and turn out products from textiles to IT equipment. Or—in a brain drain of talent—emigrate to countries like the United States with higher living standards and better pay.
True, outsourcing (often simply called offshoring) has made multi-millionaires out of many Indian entrepreneurs. But the ebb and flow of workers to fill those jobs has led to some gaps in employment. The ironic result: Some companies are outsourcing their outsource work and subcontracting it to companies in low-wage countries like Romania.
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