PRAISE IN THE PUBLIC !!

 

This is 'one' very important thing one has to understand, if anyone wants to deal with the Indians. Indians want to be in the lime light. Indians are starving for praises in the public either by radio, TV, newspaper or in the public meetings. This one important aspect is never under stand by the Americans, Europeans and Japanese.

 

Indians like to be called to the meetings. Their name should be on the invitations. The name should be on bold letters and font. After name printing of title is very important. Print his/her title !. Don’t forget. Do advertise about the function or public meeting. Put posters and big digital banners carrying his name and photograph through out the city, sometimes through out the state. Indian states are bigger than most of the European countries. On the day of the function assemble hundred thousands of people. Hire buses and Lorries and bring people. This is applicable to religious, political and public functions or meetings.

 

The dais culture is very important. The most important person should sit at the centre. He/she will have a different chair mostly a ‘king chair’. There will be a tough competition for the seating arrangement who has to sit ‘close’ to the central chair. It is a tough proposition and every body wants to share the dais. Some times it is funny to see there are more chairs on the dais than on the audience. If you are not giving a chair to him on the dais that means it is an insult to him.

 

Ever one on the dais should be given a chance to speak. It is protocol. Speech time may be reduced but chance to speak must be given. When it is your turn to speak, you must address first the person sitting on the ‘central’ chair and keep on addressing all the person sitting on the dais. Of course name followed by the title.  This roll calling will take a lot of time and energy, but be patient and do it sincerely. Then come for the speech. In corporate functions you have very few people on the dais.

 

This attitude ‘praise in the public’, even you call this as an Indian psych. Call each one to the dais and honour him with shawl and mementos. Do it on every possible different public occasion. Praise the individual on the meeting in public by listing what are the good things he has done and will do. Never mind go over board and praise him. Indians feel very happy and honoured. Often Indians use the word ‘he has created the history’ by doing this. History will be often created and broken in the public meetings in India. Even some people will hire professionals to praise. Praise the individual lavishly. It is a very important ritual in India, which most of the foreigners do not simply understand. Grease the individual ego in the public is an art the foreigner should understand to deal with the Indians.

 

In India, if you do not praise the leader or your boss, that means your relationship with your leader is not good, your are not sharing his ideas and going along with him. If you praise, you are with the boss, if not you are out. If your boss compliments you, your job is safe, if not watch your back. Even in the more professional setup keep all the good adjectives at the tip of your tongue to compliment your boss. Phrases like, ‘He is a visionary’, ‘He is my role model’, ‘He is my guru’, ‘I have learnt a lot of things from him’, ‘He turn around the company’, ‘Sir, you made a excellent, thought provoking and inspirational speech’ .……..is common.

 

On the public front it is still worse. The reception our political leaders get will make most of the foreigner insane. The reception our cricketers got after winning the T20 world cup, the reception our medallist got after Beijing Olympic 2008, almost all the foreigners will think we are crazy. Most of the time the followers even indulge in violence to defend their leaders image, ideas and ideology. Some of the followers even pore petrol or kerosene and burn to death, to show their loyal to their leaders and sign of support to their leaders. Damaging the public property, buses, Lorries and shops, are the most common.

 

You need some brut arrogance to survive in India. If you are modest and self-deprecation you will surely sent to the recycle bin as early as possible.

 

Japanese are on the opposite side. Japanese are not accustomed of praises and compliments as in India. From the childhood the Japanese are taught to be modest. Japanese self-deprecate themselves. Japanese consider modest and self-deprecation are highly admirable qualities. Japanese often used to say, ‘I am only the president of the company. I don’t have much power. I may not think, I am able to do this or take this decision. I have to consult with others’. But equal position in India, Managing Director, will say on the spot, it will be done. That is the sign of power. Power is most important for an Indian manager.

 

If you praise Japanese, embracement is the common reaction. Japanese declaim the compliments and it is considered proper etiquette. Japanese consider the individual praising on the meetings and in public brings in comparison among the individuals in the group. In Japan, support and encouragement are important but it should be given to the group as a whole. In particular professionals may not welcome compliments because professionals are expected to achieve in their fields. If you praise then for their accomplishment, it means, as if they don’t have talent, and in spit of lacking the talent they achieved. This is especially applicable for the person holding senior position.  Japanese are expected to be up-to-date and responsible for keeping himself informed.

 

Indian style of compliments will not go well with the Japanese and Japanese consider it as ‘fake’. If you want to compliment, a simple and a sincere “Thank You”, will be well accepted by the Japanese. In the organization, include the employee in the discussion and ask for his opinion.  

 

 

 

 

INDEPENDENCE IN INDIA; INTERDEPENDENCE IN JAPAN

India is a divided country. Indian trust on other Indian is low. One has to prove himself over a period of time by words and action that they are trust worthy. India is a country of hero worship. Some of the individuals go to the extend of semi-God status. The rise of the concept of ‘individualism’ goes to the Indian education systems. Children go to the school at the age of three. They are taught, train and evaluated separately. The children are ranked first, second, third and go on respectively. The pressure on the children is so much to perform and be best among the best. This leads to the intervention of the NGOs, social groups and Government to abandon the marks and ranking system to more acceptable grading system. This system creates tough competition among individuals. Friends are all competitors during the period of studies and in work. Bright students do not help the weak students. In fact the upper middle class and the middle class focus on education make India a knowledge hub and a fertile ‘brain’ hunting ground for the Americans and Europeans.

Indians have a strong motion, ‘I must come up in life’, ‘I must achieve’, ‘I must earn tons of money for me and to my generations to come’. Independence has advanced meaning here. It is not only I must be independent, my sons and daughters also should be independent. This is certainly applicable at least on ‘financial independence’. That is why individuals amaze wealth in India. Indian ‘black money economy’ may be as big as ‘white money economy’.

Money makes almost all the things in India. There are lot of proverbs in India regarding the importance of money. ‘Even if you are dead, you need money’. ‘Even the dead open its mouth, if it smells the money’. Materialistic is a symbol of success in India. In Japan samurai culture, money has been thought to be somewhat course or crude and Japanese does not like to discuss about money.

Japanese education system develops the interdependence. At schools, the children are assigned to groups. The performance of the groups will be evaluated. The brighter students help the weak students in their group. So the over all performance of the group will go up. Students will identify themselves with the group. Students are all learned to be interdependent and work as a group. Out of the group is the worst punishment one will get. Japanese education is one of the competitive and best in the world.

In India, individual is different, organization is different. There is a saying, ‘You may go, I may come but organization exists for ever’. There are some chairmen and CEOs, their image is bigger than the organization itself. There are some cricketers in India, their image is bigger than the game itself. There are some film personalities who can enter politics and change the state and results of election. Individuals should be called to the public meeting and honoured with shawls and mementos on every possible occasion. Praise the individual on the public by listing what are the good things he has done and will do. It is a very important ritual in India, which most of the foreigners do not simply understand. Grease the individual ego in the public is an art the foreigner should understand to deal with the Indians.

Every month, quarterly, half-yearly and annual individual target will be given. Individuals will be evaluated monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annually separately. It is a rigours process in sales. Numbers are more important. If you don’t have the numbers, you will be terminated. Incentives, increment and bonus are all based on numbers and your boss recommendations. If you dependent in an organization, that means, you don’t have the competency to occupy the chair and you don’t have the executive stature to command others. You will be dumped and out of the company with in six months. The employees will work in an organization, on an average, of two years, that’s it.

In Japan it is very difficult to separate the individual from organization, in which he/she is working. Since Japanese like harmonious relationship, an employee fell absolutely comfortable on dependent on other employees – Inter dependable among employees. This forms a chain of human network or human unit and works smoothly. Organization and employee relationship is life time and it is rare an organization fires an employee. Organization is dependent on employees and employees are dependent on organization. In Japan the success goes to the organization. Once Mr. Konosuke Matsushita, Founder of Matsushita Electrical Co. Ltd has said, “No matter how outstanding, a businessman will never receive an accolade from the Academy of Art, nor will he be awarded a Nobel Prize. But, all the same, he will at least have the satisfaction of having made a contribution to the wellbeing of humankind just as valuable as that of any other virtuoso.”

HARMONY (WA)

Japanese maintain harmony in the inter-personal relationship and in the organization. Japanese often express ‘apology’ to others, a proper bowing apology (SHAZAI). Japan is “apology first” culture. It is deep rooted in the Japanese culture (YUZURU). This does not mean they have committed mistakes and offer apology. The apology is to maintain the smooth relationship in the workplace and in the society. If anything is less than the customer expectation, Japanese apologies. Even if a small mistake has happened, Japanese apologies first and focus to fix the problems. Although the mistake is by overlooking or they did not committee it, Japanese apologies and proceed to make the things right. Things will return to normal soon. They don’t spent energy and time on crucifying the person responsible for the mistake.

Harmony gives trust and warmth among the employees in the work place. In order to maintain the harmony, Japanese hide their true feeling and put the smiling face. Japanese does not say ‘no’ directly because the direct ‘no’ will disturb the harmony between the two persons.

In Indian culture, it is totally different. Indian work place is a competitive one. Always pushing a head is the only option to survey. To get the things done, do what ever it takes, but within the company policy. Never make mistakes and that is the end of it for you. The other people are waiting for this moment to crucify you. People will
exaggerate the problem, make you as a ‘bad boy’ and sometimes terminated your employment. Indians focus on people and not fixing the problems. Never express an ‘apology’ unless you have no other option. If you ‘apologies’ that means you are responsible for the problem and the consequences. Than the matters come to a grinding halt as guilty parties are singled out and punished.

Indians if committed mistakes, they don’t accept. First cover it up at any cost. Do all sort of background work to make it right. They will try to convince others that it is right. Then they will issue statements like ‘it is misunderstood’, ‘it is misquoted’ or ‘it is taken out of context’. The excellent way of getting out of the things is put the onus on the organization. ‘I did not do it, the organization did it’. I did not punish you, the company want this punishment’. Indians make it as if the ‘name of the organization’ is having two eyes, brain, ears, two hands, two legs etc and doing all those things.

If you want to be noticed or heard by the organization, make some ‘noise’. Make noise but don’t bite. If you are a silent performer you will be killed silently. You will not survive in the Indian companies. Make noise and project yourself as initiative taker. One important thing, you should know how to take the credit for yourself on others performance. This may sound shameless but never mind. ‘Make noise’ has one very important application in India. It is on the roads while driving. “Sound Horn” often on every possible turnings, cuttings, over taking, crossings etc.

RESPECT

This context is limited to the organizational life. Employees show of respect towards another employee, towards his own group, company and the customers. Indians and Japanese are very different in this behaviour.

In Japan ‘show of respect’ is important in corporate and social life. Japanese wants ‘harmony’ with in the group and in the organization. So, Japanese give proper respect to others. They speak politely. Japanese don’t even see eye-to-eye, since it is the show of disrespect (rudeness, overconfidence) while speaking to their superior. Japanese organization preserves the self-esteem of their employees. All the employees are put through rigorous etiquette training. Exhibiting respect is a part of every day corporate life. Front line people dealing with the customers use ultra polite languages which has human touch, sincere and gratitude. Customers will be treated with at most care at the time of speaking and servicing. Even at the time of disconnecting the telephone, Japanese wait until the customer to disconnect the phone first.

At the time of meeting, if the superior address an employee, the employee stands erect, as a mark of respect and respond positively to every request. If an employee wants to convey a message to the seated superior, the employee will bend his waist and lower his head to the same level. Subordinates or employee will never walk a head of superior, walking slightly behind shows the respect and difference.

In India, you have to buy respect. Yes !. Buy respect. It is big difference. In fact the value for the human life is coming down. In India politeness and humble is a sign of weakness. It is sign of ‘you are not confidence of yourself’. Stiffness, out right straight forward and arrogance is the sign confidence. Managers abusing and threatening their subordinate and subordinate hit back is a common thing. Tension and pressure among the employee is prevalent. Working in an Indian organization is like inside a pressure cooker. Subordinates uses the word ‘Sir’ do not mean it is sign of respect, it more out of a protocol. Subordinates are expected to be loyal to the boss rather than respect.

All the Indian company vision and mission statement put customers first. All the available new and fancy words will be used. It is all only on the paper. It is all only to talk inside the meeting room. Don’t take it seriously and literally. At the time of dealing with the customer it is totally different. The end user and customers are cheated every day and all walk of life by the companies. Poor quality of product and no proper services to the customers. The credit card charges and interest will drive you mad. It is a licence to loot the public. The private bank uses ‘goondas’ as collection people to beat and threaten customers. The customer service people will call and abuse the customers. The telemarketing people will call and disturb you. If there is a ‘conflict of interest’ between the customer and the company, company interest comes first.

ACT FAST TO SEND OUT !!

In Indian organization, I have found one thing that is very interesting and different. It is very important observation. At the time of your employment the employees are subjected to the company policy, employment terms and conditions, rules and regulations and local division procedure set by the division head. Any deviation will not be tolerated. If deviation takes place the company will tough on an employee, sometimes it may be as worse as termination. But if the company wants to terminate the employee service or accepting the resignation letters of an employee, all the HR policies will be violated by the company. Termination and forced to write resignation letter and acceptance will come into effect immediately. The employee is lucky, if he gets relieving order and all the dues from the company in time. The employee is really lucky, if he get good remarks if the future prospective employer asked about the employee. Usually the future employer asks an employee, before recruiting, two or three reference the employer can ask about you. One reference must be your immediate boss to whom you were reporting in your last assignment. This reference verification is very important to secure the future job. Your past boss should give good opinion about you is also very important. So at the time of resignation or termination make sure your boss don’t have any hard feelings about you. If there is any bitter experience, at the time of exit, spoke to your immediate boss, one last time and make sure that he will give good certificate about you to the future employer. Exit an organization as smooth as possible. Don’t fight with your boss at the time of exit or after you gave the resignation letter. Never make this blunder. At the time of reference verification your past boss bad remarks put you in trouble to get the future job.