Business Success in India

While there may be higher prospect of benefit from doing business from another country, but there is equal risk of ending up with a shattered dream, if the companies do not know how to get the most out of the new environment. Running an organization away from native land and with workers having different type of cultural and social background requires comprehensive knowledge on several factors that are associated with the entire business venture on a foreign land.

Thus ABC Firm, with high hopes of getting the responsibility of formulating a compact package of do-s and don'ts for XYZ Company for their upcoming venture in India, explores the nuances of policies that can bring all-round development not only for all who would be associated with the business process, but also to the environment which it the business would be operated from.

In the process, this essay touches down the issues that reside within the primary framework of global business policies, like Multiculturalism, Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Governance and Human Motivation, with special emphasis on their interpretation in India.

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2. 0. Background: Essential Preconditions of Global Business While globalization has brought in plethora of business opportunities to organizations, it carries its set of tangible and intangible preconditions to achieve success by doing business on a foreign land.

Understandably, some of them are universally applicable to any business venture, besides the special elements that are required to deal with the dynamism of globalization. Those special elements too can have their subsets, like the specific culture of a religion, the attitude of the mass towards the types of businesses, or their expectations from the foreign business houses.

These subsets too can get extended further. For example, the if XYZ wants to do business in India, it has to know about its culture, which have several subsets, like Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Parsee or local Christian culture.

Accordingly, the issue of motivation in the prospective Indian employees too may vary according to the specific background of any Indian employee. On the other hand, issues like business ethics is somewhat universal, where the fairness happens to be the chief element of exchange. However, the perception of fairness may be influenced by the general attitude of Indians, regardless of their personal religious or cultural background.

Therefore, this too is nonetheless a delicate issue and needs to be dealt with extreme caution and care, and same approach should be maintained in the case of CSR or any general cultural endeavour of the company. The issue of corporate governance is embedded with effective leadership and proper application of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). However, ABC Firm observes that the issue of managing and exploiting the unique elements of Indian culture should be given top priority as that involves human capital even beyond the company pay-roll, which can easily make or break the company.

3. 0. Multiculturalism Multiculturalism is a "Doctrine asserting value of different cultures coexisting within single society; globally, vision of cultural diversity deliberately fostered and protected" (The Globalization, 2000). Handling such a situation thus commands learned skill and training. For example, India often introduces herself as a country enjoying "unity in diversity. " This can be misleading to many; as in real term, this country is vast and diverse both in terms of topography and religious practice, besides general lifestyle.

There can be hidden tensions between different sects of the same religion, as there can be direct differences of opinions among different religions. These are extremely sensitive issues and should be taken into serious consideration before selecting the zone of operation. The site selection is important on other grounds too – because the more there will be like-minded people the better for the company, as they would not have to dig deep into the cultural diversity of the India as a whole.

However, it is always preferred to have a first hand knowledge about the customs of major cultures, as it is difficult to find an Indian region totally run under mono-culture, i. e. , people belonging to same religion and identical lifestyle and philosophy (India, 2008). 4. 0. Nuances of Core Indian Culture Though Hindus dominate the cultural scene as the majority of the population, the Muslims are next influential element of the society, besides Christians. However, the constant confluence of these big cultures has resulted in cultural exchange and to a pleasant degree of tolerance in most of the places.

The evolution of the leading languages in India is an ample example of that, as modern Hindi language often contains Urdu words, which come from Muslim culture, while the language of the metropolis reflects global flavour, by accommodating any word from any language that it finds effective for communication (India, 2008). Each major culture of this region is rich in heritage, and India holds a special place for philosophers – as this country has a rich tradition of philosophy that have been continuously flowing from all major religions.

Accordingly, Indians irrespective of their religion regard a host of philosophers like Philosopher-king Vikramaditya, Swami Vivekanand, Sant Kabeer, Philosopher-king Akbar, M. K. Gandhi, Holy Mother Teresa or Guru Govind Singh (India, 2008) This is a land of poetry and folk tales too – people become still moved by the ancient songs belonging to any culture. In fact, if there is any effective catalyst of unity in India, it is this flow its folk tales and music. This is indicative of their high emotional level and sensitivity in trivial issues.

Otherwise, the majority of the Indian population is content with the fulfillment of their basic needs, which too mostly confine within average lifestyle and access to their religious practices. However, it is due to some basic differences in lifestyles due to the influence of their respective religions, a tendency of creating communities with people belonging to same religion can be noticed, though the metropolises or even the semi-urban towns in this country are gradually mellowing into the common culture of globalization.

In all, it is an intricate maze of culture prevailing in India and thus the ABC prescribes thorough and systematic cultural competency training for the managers of XYZ training before anything. There are many models (like the one placed below) to choose from, and XYZ would do well to equip their managers before taking the next step. 5. 0. Cultural Competency Training Developed by the researcher Miu Ha Kwong (2008), this model is known as Kwong's Model, which aims to develop multicultural acumen of the managers. The advantage of this model is this that it can be customized according to the need of the company.

Kwong's model has three parts in it like below: 1. A fundamental framework: Guided by communication theories, this module works towards developing the cultural sensitivity and awareness among the managers, with special emphasis on attitudinal and cultural development of them. 2. Essential Components: This part contains the essential elements of culturally competent practice. 3. Assessment and Reorientation: This part deals with assessment process to increase the efficacy of application under the framework set by the company.