|
 |
|
|
| Indian businessmen mindset |
A collaborative entrepreneurship is emerging. From Mumbai, Clint Misquitta
“To truly nurture life
We need rapid growth based on bold and innovative thinking
Such growth comes from envisioning a grand future
And, then moving towards it with firm, steady and rapid steps.”
Excerpt from the Reliance Industries Annual Report by Mukesh Ambani
A new world has emerged in business. And India is at its centre. An Indian business man sporting a chic Italian suit, at a rendezvous with an English colleague at a French restaurant and later relaxing with Russian Standard Vodka while watching CNN. Alas, the business world is indeed shrinking in size at rates that we cannot imagine. A global business scenario now presents itself and India is the spot light. Faster communication, better transportation and infrastructure; the digital revolution and financial flows accentuate the need for a novel approach to business.
A new world requires a new way. This is what is needed to sustain and develop in today’s age. Today being globally competitive is India’s advantage; and we have emerged as a global powerhouse due to our vast strength in Human Resources and a firm cultural grounding that supports business in the current economic scenario. The way you think has a lot to do with your culture. To understand contemporary Indian business mindset, we would need to understand the history of Indian thinking which has been influenced by its culture. Over the last 3000 years, we have a rock solid cultural base that has developed copiously like sediments. Off course, this is like a double edged sword; everything has a positive and a negative. We shall see how these cultural nuances have shaped the business mindset and traditions and also see the positive and negative manifestations of the same.
Respect: Every Indian is brought up to respect his/her elders. This is engrained into each individual no matter the back ground or social class. Indians by virtue of the culture learn to be accommodating, adjusting and flexible. You have an Indian making forays into every continent and successfully running businesses. Indians adapt.
We are people centric; with a billion people we don’t have a choice. Customer is king – this is not an alien concept. And off course, we make great hosts. Visitors cannot soak enough in Indian sunshine and hospitality.
The downside is that many Indians are unassertive because we love to accommodate; we do not know how to say “No”, and over commitment can be a very dangerous cross cultural business barrier.
A conservative outlook: Manage with what you have today and now. Be conservative; save for a rainy day. Indian people are used to paucity and prepare for it; this is also what held us in good stead during the lean patch experienced in the recent economic downturn in 2008. Being conservative - An important financial lesson in the business world.
Social Structure: A robust social structure that divided people based on what they do developed from ancient times and in many ways forms the fabric of Indian culture. This translates into business mindset as being very hierarchical. Thick layers of reporting and a strict line of control exist in traditional Indian organizations even today. The bureacracy may delay decisions but also lead to sound decisions once taken.
These traditions still form a part of the Indian mindset in small ways or big. We cannot escape them. Even today in global context these traditions still exist and form an integral part of the Indian businessmen mindset.
Pre-Independence scarcity led to a nationalist economic platform which emerged post-independence; this agenda worked - imperfectly, but pragmatically. In the young years of free India we adopted socialistic and capitalistic patterns and the results were not great.Yet men like Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata and Walchand Hirachand launched business enterprises not with a profit motive, but in a spirit of adventure to put India on the international map. These men laid the foundation of free enterprise in India and acquitted themselves creditably with altruism, efficiency and foresight in the face of adverse conditions, market uncertainty and the alien British government. The turn of the century saw liberalization and the mindset spelt external liberalization, public investment, Green Revolution and Internal liberalization. These small shifts elicited large productivity responses because the economy was operating well below its potential.
Today, the world is shrinking and Indian businessmen are quick to catch the global business temperature. With a change of dynamics comes a change in attitude. And that has come. India has cultivated a legion of entrepreneurs. No longer businessmen. The mindset has evolved from competition to collaboration. Unlike the generations before them, young Indians are no longer obsessed with India's poverty, but with its future.
Indians have always been entrepreneurs. India was ranked fourth in world trade with a market share of 2.5 per cent as against 0.7 per cent today. And that entrepreneurial gene pool has begun to resurface. Indian businessmen have focused on their strength which is manufacturing and off course their human resources. Abundance of labor and now abundance of skilled and employable labor is increasing as companies are developing their employees to make a paradigm shift. Besides, a bold new India is stepping up to be counted, the Indians emerging vibrant and confident of their abilities. The mindset does not make allowances for fear of failure.
Another area of mention would be shift towards quality. The first time any Indian company got the Deming Award was in 1998. Same goes with the TPM Excellence award. Of all the software firms in the world certified at the highest level of CMM level 5, three-fourths are in India!
The good news is that entrepreneurial behavior is contagious. Entrepreneurial mindset is nurtured and new ideas, segments and markets are constantly being created in India.
Texas Instruments which first set up a global Research centre in Bangalore 20 years ago. Several others flocked and, today, there are 100 global R&D centers in Bangalore. Prior to 1995, venture capitalism was unknown in India. Venture investment in India in 1996-97 was $20 million; last year it reached $1 billion!
Another heartening example is of Mr. Venkat Subramanian, an IITian who traded a high-profile job for founding a social entrepreneurial firm in BPO segment. You will see a fertile mindset across all social segments too. Mumbai’s Dabbawalas and their six sigma supply chain management system is a perfect example of the same.
There is also a sense of sustainability and nurturing. Chairman and Chief mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd, is a visionary entrepreneur and nurturer. He says: “I want to be a catalyst for entrepreneurship. The best way to do this is through starting a venture capital fund”. If one were to ask him the reason behind his interest in entrepreneurship, Mr. Murthy has a simple answer to offer: “I have always believed in entrepreneurship as an instrument for creating jobs, which is the best way to solve the issue of poverty in a country like India”.
And this is precisely the driving force behind his latest venture Catamaran Investment Pvt Ltd - a venture capital fund interested in investing in early stage companies, primarily in India, across various sectors. The objective is to look at opportunities offered by entrepreneurs in a wide variety of fields. Mr. Murthy has sold 8 hundred thousand shares in Infosys to raise about Rs. 170 crore. His wife Sudha, who helped Narayanamurthy to start Infosys, also sold 20 lakh shares of Infosys to mop up 430 crores. This is entrepreneurship at its height.
All in all, Indian business mindset has been a sum of centuries of evolution. A huge sum of collective experience that has made its way down the Indian gene pool. A subconscious memory of a richness of life that has been sculpted through the cup of suffering. Famines, wars, freedom struggles, invasions have all come together to give India a robust mindset for business. India today, is a proud torchbearer of everything that represents a new world. A beacon of fertility in a globe that is now seeking her fruit.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
Post-graduate Degree in Human Resources from the Mumbai Educational Trust and Graduate Degree in Commerce from Mumbai University. He presently works at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. Recently published "Ruthless Dictators", by Magna Publishers. |
|
|
|
