Getting India right: Making smart choices and focusing on people and team ! Part 2

Continued from part 1 ........ 

1. Choose your battles, focus on your key goal and key markets, and make it known to your team:

a. Make smart choices:

• Everything is possible in India but nothing gets done until your goal and target is well defined. Do not diffuse your energy; take one opportunity at a time, do it well and then expand into other areas. Investment is limited for a perceived unlimited opportunity! .The moot question to ask is focus on niche market or mass market.

• Focus on allocating the resources and time at the right place, right time and for right returns! 

b. Build a focused team, people matters:

• Make your goals, strategy and tactics known to your team and patiently train them so that they can deliver on the plan. 

• Communicate, listen, clarify and rephrase! 

• Keep the team united and focused.

2. People are key resources in India, treat them with a humane touch:

. Respect people, their cultures, and their background! Be humble.

• People in India are very resourceful, intelligent, diligent, ambitious, and hard working which makes them very self-respecting and competitive in performance. Do not make the mistake of thinking that passion is aggressiveness!

• Frankly everyone counts in India so treat people equally; communicate and interact at all levels. You cannot get your work done if the last man in the supply chain is not respected or ignored.  A strong hierarchical culture is accepted on surface but hated inside.

• Respect and develop to engage. In order to gain respect, give respect.

• Tolerate mistakes to learn and unlearn. Help people take some risks, create a safe environment for people to grow and thrive. 

• Respect people, their investments in the company, their talent and skills. Ensure that aspirations of people and company go hand to hand. Employee engagement scores, sub 20% to above 90% in 2 years!  

• It’s not always about money. Employees and their families celebrate promotions, bonus and increments. Most MNC’s with flat structures tend to underplay the emotions behind the job which does not help build trust not a long term retention.

• During your spare time on a travel trip, it’s ok to have a nice haircut and a movie in an air-conditioned cinema! It beats the heat and creates bond!

3. Patience with a single minded focus on a goal is a virtue; it takes time and effort to build trust, reputation, a strong sustainable and value driven business model. Many corporates have taken decades before they started to make money.

4. Listen, understand, learn, and unlearn before giving sermons! 

• India has too many god brokers. What applies internationally does not necessarily apply in India. 

• Most executives tend to superimpose the international policies locally which works in form but neither over substance nor in spirit!

5. Never take things for granted, understand your environment – watch out for competition, breach of IP and security, changing regulations and practices and culture! 

6. Real work and delivering on result is valued versus just talking! 

• People recognize your ability and strength quickly.

• “Garbage in is garbage out”; you will get back what you give it is just a matter of time.

7. If you make a commitment, fulfil and deliver! 

It goes a long way in creating trust and integrity for yourself and the business. Customers and talent then has a reason to celebrate in your long term success!

8. Pay it forward! 

• If you are taking on an existing team then help the existing team to succeed and at the same time hire the best! 

• Engage in a charity – it is one best stress reliever! You will never feel the guilt of ignoring the downtrodden or the unlucky ones.



Continued part 3, Getting India right: Building connections