Working with India

Company managers and staff working and dealing with Indian contacts

• Create your Cultural Profile
• Access to 70 Country Packs
• Pragmatic, fun e-learning
• Interactive method
• Acquire operational tools

The aim of this seminar is to significantly improve the participants’ effectiveness in their professional relationships with Indian contacts, enabling them to be operational right from the start.

At the end of this training, participants will have acquired the necessary skills to:

• Be aware of their own cultural baggage
• Fully understand Indian context and culture
• Analyze possible situations in which misunderstandings may arise and identify ways of communicating
• Reduce stress and misunderstandings
• Decipher and understand decision-making and negotiation processes

Module 1: Understanding cultural differences

1. Intercultural awareness : the key to success in international business

• Taking stock of one's own cultural baggage
• The basics of effective intercultural management
• Identifying and going beyond cultural stereotypes

2. Key aspects of Indian culture

• The world’s largest democracy. A thousand-year history
• A cradle of civilization at a junction where east meets west
• An economic giant with a booming economy
• From a subsistence economy to a specialized economy
• The emergence of a middle class
• A key player on the world stage politically

3. The impact of values and behaviour patterns on professional dealings and relationships

• An extremely hierarchical society: social classes, castes, community
• Religion
• The key place of the family in Indian society. The role of women
• A continuous view of time
• Reasoning and thinking patterns, communication styles
• Attitudes to risk-taking and uncertainty

4. The corporate world

• Keys to understanding how companies operate in India
• The Indian view of intellectual property and the notion of quality
• A state-managed economy, in the process of embracing liberalism
• Indian economic patriotism

Module 2 : Succeeding in work with the Indians

1. Effective communication with the Indians

• Forming your own “network”
• The importance of small-talk
• Understanding underlying messages and non-verbal communication
• India: a multilingual country
• Indian English or an interpreter: asking the right questions

2. Adapting your working methods

• Building a sense of community: instilling a team spirit
• Superstition within the workplace
• Recruitment, loyalty building, training, knowledge transmission
• Motivating, delegating, providing feedback, boosting self-esteem and handling conflicts
• Anticipating possible obstacles
• Pitfalls to be avoided

3. Successful meetings and negotiations

• The preparation phase: identifying decision-makers
• Taking full account of ethnical and regional characteristics
• Time and deadline management
• Indian negotiation techniques
• Written contracts, their interpretation and implications

4. Final handy tips

• Prudence, patience and humility
• Protocol and etiquette
• Indian rituals and symbols, mealtime etiquette, festivities and celebrations
• Social standards, gifts, business cards, dress code