I first came to India when I was 23. I had come as a typical backpacking tourist, and ended up spending two months in the country. This was 20 years ago, and I spent my first night in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. It was a very interesting experience. I was overwhelmed by the over spirituality of the country and its multi-cultural dimensions. It is very different from today where my colleagues spend the first night at an Oberoi or a Taj — there is a huge difference in the way you experience the country.
(This story appears in the 22 January, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
This is one of the nice article i have read.:). Great going Clas. I normally see people of other land criticising india. First time seeing a man who analyzes the multi cultural nature of India and got adjusted to them. Wish u and ur family a great future ahead in India :)
on Jan 26, 2012If Mr Neumann happens to be one of those Westerners who thinks, "Hey life in India is cool, why do Indians want to go overseas at all?" then he probably does not know the myriad advantages he enjoys as a foreigner in a country that does consider the white race superior. Although they may not say that. Consider the attitudes of North Indians who consider themselves superior to South Indians, the higher castes who consider themselves superior to the lower castes even if the lower caste may be equals in terms of education and wealth. That is the Indian attitude. White foreigners get to benefit from it. But the experience of a black skinned African who chooses to work in India with the same qualifications as the white man who have a different story to tell.
on Jan 22, 2010very good writeup. we need to explore and go to place not only if have a reason. go out without a reason and explore when you retuern you would have more reason to why you went and explored more. <br /> cheers.<br /> Sachith <br /> Recruise india.
on Jan 27, 2010Westerners working with/in India need to reset their cultural barometers. Despite the "globalisation" of work, cultural differences derail more cross-border efforts than any other factor, and at great cost. There are certain cultural elements in the Indian work environment that are exactly opposite to those of the west, and western managers who work in India without an awareness of these elements, and how to manage them for positive effect, risk failure. <br /> Orientation to hierarchy (where rank is more important than efficiency), polychronic time (where who people are and what they are dealing with is more important than a deadline or punctuality), and indirect, high contextual communication when discussing anything that can be difficult, problematic or challenging, are all issues to be mastered. Indian staff for example, simply wont tell the manager that they need more information to complete a project: it is the manager's responsibility to tell them everything they need to know, and if the manager doesnt do that, then staff does not ask. This is precisely the opposite of western "empowerment-based" management style, and the result is usually a vacuum. Cultural knowledge is not only about working with linguistic and etiquette issues, though there are certainly plenty of those to master in India, as well. It is about understanding at a fundamental level how to manage the differences in values that exist between the subcontinent and the west.
on Feb 10, 2010