Cultural Differences – how to succeed in India

There are so many rules that I can think of for maximizing your chances of success when you run an operation in India. This week, one of the rules that really came to mind was the idea that you can never take what seems to be a no brainer situation at face value.

This weeks situation was one where we were to move into our new office in Pune. Everything was set for the move, scheduled on January 31st. In the western sense, every eventuality was covered. However when I arrived in Pune on the 30th, I began to wonder about what could go wrong at this late stage. My instinct told me that we needed an alternative plan. I asked my team to come up with a plan B. During the day we worked on the alternative plan and guess what, it became apparent through the day on the 30th that we would have to invoke that plan. The unthinkable looked like it was going to happen and eventually it did!

In the end, the move went ahead as planned with the usual teething issues. But there was a sting in the tail. Just as the move was happening, it became apparent that the submarine cable linking Asia to Europe and East Coast US had been cut causing a major Internet outage across India and the rest of Asia as well as the Middle East. The result, a shiny new office location, fitted out on time, designed to provide services to western based clients but with no network connectivity at all. As I write this, the team are working furiously to try and rectify the situation.

It just goes to prove, in India you need to think of the worst case scenario, and then double it and think what else could possibly go wrong! With that attitude in mind, you just might succeed in India!