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How To Lead A Successful Organizational Culture Change?

Author Naveen Kumar Categories Article Leave a comment

Organizational culture change is a difficult and daunting task. It requires strong leadership, clear communication, and strategic planning to ensure that the desired changes are implemented
successfully.

To lead an effective culture change in an organization, leaders need to understand change
management concepts and be able to identify the tools and solutions needed for success. Change management consultants play an important role in helping organizations execute successful cultural change initiatives by providing valuable insights into strategies and best practices. In this blog post, we will discuss how organizational change management consultants can help you create a successful culture change program within your organization.

Define Your Target Outcome

Leading a successful culture change is to define your target outcome. You must have clear goals and objectives that you want to achieve with the culture change program. This will help you clearly define what success looks like and provide a roadmap for how to get there. Additionally, it is important to have an in-depth understanding of the existing culture, so that you can determine which aspects should be maintained while introducing new ideas and initiatives.

Develop the Plan and Timeline

Once you have identified your target outcome, it is important to develop a plan for implementing
the culture change program. This involves clearly defining each step of the process and setting
milestones with due dates for completion. It is also important to be realistic about how long it will take to achieve success and create a timeline that allows for a gradual shift toward the desired outcome.

Identify Resources Needed

Once you have defined the plan and timeline, it is important to identify the resources that will be needed for success. This includes both financial resources and personnel resources such as
project managers, team members, and consultants. It is also important to identify any external
resources that may be required, such as partners or vendors.

Communicate and Engage Stakeholders

When introducing organizational change, it is important to communicate with stakeholders throughout the process and ensure that everyone understands why the changes are necessary.
Additionally, it is essential to engage stakeholders in meaningful dialogue so they can provide
valuable feedback on how best to implement the program. Open and honest communication will help build trust and create a sense of buy-in from those affected by the changes.

Analyze Results and Refine Strategies

It is important to monitor the progress of your cultural change program and make adjustments as needed. This requires analyzing the results of previous efforts to identify areas of improvement. Additionally, it is important to regularly assess the program’s performance and refine strategies as necessary to ensure success.

Strategic Change Management Consulting Services

Change management consulting services can provide invaluable assistance when dealing with intricate organizational changes. A good consultant will possess the expertise and experience to
help create a roadmap for the cultural transformation desired by your organization. They will be
able to guide how to effectively manage the transition and work with stakeholders, both from
within and outside of the organization. Additionally, consultants can help identify areas where
intervention may be necessary and recommend strategies for overcoming any challenges that might arise during the change process.

The Benefits Of Working With Organizational Change Management Consultants

There are several benefits to working with organizational change management consultants.

1. Knowledge and Expertise

Consultants are experts in their field, having the necessary knowledge and experience to help
organizations successfully navigate complex changes. They can assess the current situation,
recommend strategies for improvement, and guide organizations in achieving their desired
outcomes. Additionally, consultants can provide valuable insight into the process of
transformation, helping organizations identify any areas where intervention may be necessary.

2. Increased Awareness

Organizational change management consultants can help increase awareness of the change process and help stakeholders understand why it is important. They can also provide valuable input into how best to communicate the changes with different groups, as well as discuss any potential challenges or issues that may arise during the transition. This helps ensure that everyone understands their role in making the change successful.

3. Shared Responsibility

The use of organizational change management consultants helps to share responsibility for leading and managing the transformation process. Consultants are often able to bring a fresh perspective which can be invaluable when navigating complex scenarios. Additionally, they can provide objective advice on how best to proceed and work with stakeholders both inside and outside of the organization for maximum success.

4. Cost Savings

Using organizational change management consultants can help bring cost savings to an organization. By providing expert guidance and offering objective advice throughout the process, they can help reduce the time and resources required to complete changes successfully, thus saving money in the long run. Additionally, consultants can identify areas where intervention may be necessary and suggest strategies for overcoming any challenges that might arise during the transition.

5. Sustaining Momentum

Change management strategic consultants can also help to sustain momentum during the transformation process. They can provide advice on how best to communicate the changes with
different groups, as well as discuss any potential challenges or issues that may arise during the
transition. By providing valuable input into how best to manage the process, they can help
ensure that organizations remain on track and continue to strive for their desired outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, partnering with a consultant for organizational change management is a great way to ensure the successful implementation of organizational changes. Consultants provide valuable expertise and knowledge which is essential for navigating complex scenarios. They also increase awareness of the process among stakeholders and share responsibility for leading and managing transformation projects.

Finally, consultants can help save costs by reducing the time and resources needed to complete
the changes successfully. Thus, organizations that are looking to make significant organizational transformations should consider utilizing consulting services.

office building

6 Benefits of Workplace Diversity, How To Create A More Inclusive Environment

Author Akhilesh Mandal Categories Article 1 Comment on 6 Benefits of Workplace Diversity, How To Create A More Inclusive Environment

All around the world businesses are recognizing the value of workplace diversity and actively trying to create an environment that is inclusive, diverse, and welcoming. With advances in technology, globalization, and a more mobile workforce today, companies are increasingly becoming aware of the advantages of having a diverse mix of people from different backgrounds working together. Diversity in the workplace brings with it several benefits- both tangible and intangible. Let’s look at 6 of these benefits in detail:

Benefit 1 – Fresh Perspectives

Having employees from different backgrounds brings new perspectives into the workplace.

Problem-Solving/Decision Making: better decision-making and problem-solving as people with different experiences come together, share their ideas and collaborate. A diverse workforce is likely to have a variety of skills, abilities, and knowledge that can be used to solve difficult problems.

Innovation: A diverse workforce can also lead to greater creativity and innovation. With different perspectives, experiences, and ideas being brought to the table, it opens up a variety of possibilities that would otherwise not be explored. It encourages employees to think differently and come up with unique solutions to problems.

Benefit 2 – Improved Morale

Having a diverse workforce can improve morale in the workplace as people feel like they are part of something bigger and that their contributions are appreciated. This belonging leads to:

Increased Motivation: With a diverse workforce, employees are more likely to feel heard, understood, and appreciated.This increases their motivation and encourages them to work harder as they can see that their efforts are making a difference.

Higher Retention Rate: A diverse workplace usually has a higher employee retention rate as people feel supported and valued by the organization. Employees are also less likely to quit due to a sense of belonging and feeling like they are part of something bigger.

Benefit 3 – A Broader Customer Base

Having a diverse workforce brings people with different perspectives into the company, which can be useful when trying to understand customers from different backgrounds. It also shows potential customers that the organization is:

Welcoming: Having a diverse workforce sends out a message that the company is open to people from all backgrounds and welcomes everyone. This can lead to customers feeling more welcome, understood, and respected.

Diverse Marketing Strategies: With different perspectives in the organization, companies are better able to understand their customer’s needs and design campaigns and strategies that target different audiences. This can lead to more customers and a broader customer base.

Benefit 4 – Improved Reputation

A diverse workplace will reflect positively on an organization’s reputation in many ways. It shows that they are dedicated to creating a safe, inclusive environment for all employees, which can:

Attract New Recruits: Having a diverse workforce can encourage talented people from different backgrounds to apply for job opportunities. It also sends out a message that the organization values and respects people from different backgrounds and is open to hiring them.

Increase Investment Opportunities: Investors usually look for companies that promote diversity as it shows that they are committed to creating a safe and inclusive environment. Therefore, companies that have a diverse workforce can often attract investors who want to be associated with an organization that values diversity.

Benefit 5 – Legal Compliance

Diversity in the workplace is also beneficial from a legal standpoint as certain laws protect the
rights of minority groups such as:

Women: An organizational culture that promotes diversity and inclusion for women can prevent discrimination in the workplace.

People with Disabilities: Organizations are legally required to ensure that people with disabilities receive equal opportunities in the workplace.

People of Color: Organizations are required to comply with anti-discrimination laws and ensure that people of color receive equal opportunities in the workplace.

Ethnic Minorities: Organizations need to make sure that they are not discriminating against people of ethnic minorities and are providing them with equal opportunities.

Benefit 6 – Eliminate Potential Bias

Lastly, having a diverse workforce can help to eliminate potential bias in decision-making processes. Having different perspectives on board helps to ensure that decisions are based on:

Research and Data: Having people from different backgrounds can provide insights that are based on research and data rather than personal opinions or preconceived notions.

Objective Thinking: Having diversity in the workplace leads to more objective thinking as there are different perspectives available for discussion. This helps to ensure that decisions are being made with the best interests of the organization in mind.

Tips For Improving Diversity In The Workplace

There are many ways to increase diversity in the workplace, such as:

Creating an Inclusive Company Culture: Organizations need to create a culture of inclusion and acceptance so that everyone feels valued. This can be done by providing training on unconscious biases, setting up affinity groups for different backgrounds, and creating mentorship programs within the organization.

Recruiting Diversely: Companies should make sure their job postings reach a wide range of candidates from different backgrounds. They should also evaluate their recruitment processes to ensure that they are not biased toward any particular group or demographic.

Developing Internal Programs: Organizations should design internal programs that foster inclusion and respect for all employees regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. These programs should include diversity awareness training, workshops on unconscious bias, and initiatives that promote the development of diverse leadership teams.

Conclusion

With a greater focus on fostering diversity and inclusion, organizations can reap many benefits
from having a diverse workforce such as improved customer relations, a better reputation with
potential investors, legal compliance, and more objective decision-making processes. To ensure that they can reap these benefits, companies should focus on creating an inclusive culture, recruiting diversely, and developing internal programs. All of these efforts will help organizations create an environment of acceptance and respect, which is essential to promoting a diverse workforce.

Noor bank Success Story

Customer Story – Noor Bank

Author Akhilesh Mandal Categories Article Leave a comment

 

In 2018, Hofstede Insights had the opportunity to assist Noor Bank's bank-wide culture transformation. Noor Bank was awarded the prestigious "Best Transformation and Strategy 2019" and CEO John Iossifidis the award for "Best Transformation Leader". To honour this, Banker Middle East Magazine published 2 special reports highlighting the importance of Culture in today's changing world.

Noor Bank was awarded the prestigious "Best Transformation and Strategy 2019”

CEO John Iossifidis the award for "Best Transformation Leader”

Hofstede Insights analytical and data-driven approach enables a very hands-on, pragmatic and strategic approach to culture. It enabled us to transform our bank into a new direction by understanding the cultural tendencies in the various groups of our bank, and surgically choose follow up actions respectful of the various nationalities within the bank.

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Corporate people shaking hands

M&A and Culture in India

Author Akhilesh Mandal Categories Article Leave a comment

India is likely to be the world’s fastest growing large economy this year (The Economist, May 2022).

There is an ever-increasing number of Indian organisations who are partnering with organisations from other nationalities. Often, the same organisations are simultaneously collaborating and competing in different markets or product segments. In this melting pot of multi-dimensional relationships among organisations, there is one central element that plays a significant role in the success of these operations – that is Culture.

Culture provides a distinct competitive advantage to a business. It manifests itself in multiple ways depending on the business model of the company. Looking at the Indian business landscape, the scenarios where culture has been proven to be a critical factor for business success in India are:

1. Inbound M&A: An organisation from a different country entering India through the acquisition of
an Indian company
2. Outbound M&A: Indian organisation acquiring an overseas organisation
3. An Indian organisation ‘rebadging’ customer’s employee as a part of a strategic outsourcing deal
4. An overseas organisation establishing a subsidiary in India
5. An existing multinational operation competing with an Indian homegrown business

Entry into India via M&A (Inbound M&A)

India’s attractiveness as one the fastest growing large economies has resulted in a steady flow of M&A, which surged from 9% in 2015 to 20% in 2018 (ref: India M&A report 2019 Bain & Company). While these M&A may be grouped under several categories of archetypes, we will focus our attention on people and culture integration, to inbound M&As only at this point. Several large headline deals have been inbound M&A, such as Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart, and IHH’s bid for Fortis Healthcare and so on.

The dominant India entry deal is aimed at tapping into India’s growth within the acquirer’s core business lines. For example, the Rosneft-led Russian consortium acquired Essar Oil to play a role in one of the fastest growing energy markets of the world. Another common deal is targeted at the acquisition of certain capabilities in the Indian market. For example, Fosun has acquired a stake in Gland Pharma’s operations in India to expand its manufacturing footprint and add more products to the pipeline with the aim of exporting products outside of India. Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart, serves both above objectives, providing entry into one of the fastest growing retail markets and access to Flipkart’s leading edge e-commerce capabilities.

In each of these cases, whether the sector is e-commerce, Pharmaceutical or Energy & Utility, as in the cases of Flipkart, Glen Pharma or Essar oil respectively, organisational working practices and people integration remain critical for smooth operation of these merged entities.

If the organisation is coming in from the Anglo-Saxon countries or some of the western European countries, they should be aware of the fact that there are many differences in comparison to India in terms of attitudes to certain very basic dilemmas in society.

Let’s take the attitude towards hierarchy to start with. India is a hierarchical society. There is a clear acceptance of uneven power distribution. In egalitarian societies, lower-level employees can freely ask questions to the power holder without offending that person and expect to get answered. The same may not be true in India; There could be many other dimensions where these kinds of differences may occur depending on which country the acquiring organisation is coming from. Clearly, awareness of and sensitivity to such national culture differences is critical for building a boundaryless team.

Understanding national culture differences in an inbound M&A operation is the first step. The second is awareness of the differences in working practices too, aka organisational culture. While both the entities (the acquiring and the acquired) may be outcome-focused, the degree of their result orientation may significantly differ. For example, one could follow a judicious mix of Process (how) versus Result (what) as opposed to pushing for Result at any cost, without bothering to follow the process. Again, this is just a difference in one dimension. There could be other differences too in terms of the balance between Task vs People, the focus of control from internal to external and so on.

Outbound M&A

When we consider those Indian organisations who are acquiring a niche player outside India, we talk about outbound M&A. These are also called Scope deals, which strengthen market leadership, accelerate top line growth by adding attractive market segments or new capabilities. Some deals blend both scale and scope, but the vast majority lean one way or the other. Large Indian conglomerates across sectors, particularly in Minerals & Metals, Automobile and IT, have found themselves executing such deals either for scale or scope. The cultural implications that we discussed in the case of inbound M&A are equally applicable in these deals.

One word of caution here is, since these are typically mergers of un-equals, the acquiring company may tend to make the acquired entity align to its working practices, which may not deliver desired results if the acquired entity, though smaller in size, has a stronger organisational culture.

‘Rebadging’ Customer’s workforce

Focusing on large Indian Information Technology Services (ITS) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES), industry players who enter sizable Strategic Outsourcing deals with their customers, we talk about ‘rebadging’ a customer’s workforce. Since a part or all of a customer’s business process is outsourced to the Indian entity, a part or all of the customer’s employees who were executing those processes get ‘rebadged’ as the Indian company’s employees. These customer’s employees who move from say a bank or an insurance company to an Indian IT Company, may experience a change of organisational culture, including a change of brand and employment experience. This may result in their disengagement with the Indian company. It’s critical for both sides i.e. customer and the service provider to  carefully consider each other’s organisational culture and make necessary adjustments for continued engagement and performance of these ‘rebadged’ employees.

Foreign Subsidiary in India

This is a classic expansion of an overseas organisation into India to make its goods and services available to the growing Indian market.  Unless it is a joint venture with a local Indian player, these operations demand that the overseas organisation be fully aware of Indian cultural nuances with respect to its own national culture. Failure to do so could be very costly in the short term and provoke the loss of trust in the long-term, leading to a significant loss of business.

MNC vs. Home-grown Indian Companies

Home-grown Indian companies are closing culture gaps with MNC operations in their bid to attract, engage and retain top talents.  Whether they are Indian companies such as ITC, Godrej, Dabur competing with Unilever, P&G in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) space; Tata Motors & Mahindra’s playing neck and neck with Volkswagen, Fiat or Renault in the Automotive sector or Piramal, Dr Reddy, Cipla giving steep competition in the pharmaceutical market, the important point to note is that there is a war for talents in India. The organisational culture shaping their Employer Brand is a key determinant of attraction, engagement, and retention of talented employees and therefore a key arsenal to win the best talent.

Short case study ( Illustrative only)

An interesting case is Walmart’s acquisition of Flipkart - a home-grown e-commerce leader in India. We will restrict ourselves to dive in a bit deeper only from the standpoint of culture - what kind of cultures came into play in such an amalgamation and where one would see potential gaps that must be worked on. But, first, a brief outline of the companies themselves and a sense of their culture presumably reflected by their values.

Flipkart: Indian e-commerce leader with a runaway success of a start-up.  In 2007 two young Indian entrepreneurs founded this e-commerce outfit to sell books with a princely sum of about 7000 USD from their own money.  By 2018, a decade after its inception, Flipkart’s valuation stood at 21 billion USD.

Tag line: A decade of Disruption
Values: Integrity with Audacity, Bias for Action, Customer First.

Walmart: An American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962.  As of January 31, 2021,  with 11,443 stores and clubs in 27 countries, operating under 56 different names, Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue, with US$514.405 billion, and also the largest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees.

Tagline: The business of Better.
Walmart Values:

  • Guided by good
  • Service to the customer, Respect for the individual, Strive for excellence, Act
    with integrity.

Clearly, these two organisations brought two different cultures on the table. Walmart’s organisational culture is characterised by Set Practices, Hierarchical Process, Stability and Thoughtful planning. In contrast to this, consider what Flipkart brought on the table. Defining attributes of Flipkart organisational culture were: Innovation, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Flexibility and Agility. One cannot
overemphasise the need to align these contrasting work cultures if these two companies were to synergize at an employee and organisational level, the most critical ingredients of an M&A integration.

And what about the national culture differences? Walmart corporate team, predominantly filled with American nationals, as opposed to Flipkart’s leadership team, constituted by Indians, clearly have different cultural perspectives. As we discussed earlier, as far as National culture goes, Hofstede’s 6D model tells us that the USA has a significantly lower score in Power Distance Index (PDI) than
Indians.  Also, Americans score way higher on Individualism than Indians, resulting in their attitude towards autonomy which is quite different from rather collectivistic views of Indians.

In summary, the culture an organisation would strive to nurture post M&A is clearly a collective leadership decision based on its business goals and strategic intent going forward. Be that as it may, the leadership is well advised to carefully consider the culture gaps of both organisations before embarking on a certain direction.

Corporate meeting

Negotiation – The Indian way !

Author Akhilesh Mandal Categories Article 1 Comment on Negotiation – The Indian way !

India is a fast-growing economy and in today’s networked world India is increasingly becoming an economic force to recon with. An ever-increasing number of people from halfway around the world are finding themselves across the table (or these days across computer screens!), negotiating business deals with their counterpart coming from this mystic land of apparent contradictions and confusions.

Negotiation, a key component of any business dealings, has never been easy. More so, when you are dealing with a cross border situation with an individual or a group of people who come from different cultural backgrounds. Inability to understand cross-cultural behaviors or even better, anticipating such behaviors could potentially make or break a deal.

So, what are top 5 critical factors that anyone aspiring to do business with India should be aware of?

Here they are:

Respect

Indians demonstrate an interesting mix of collectivistic and individualistic traits with a slight leaning toward collectivism. So ‘saving face’ is important and so is not letting the group which you identify with down. In other words, be respectful of others and very often you demonstrate that by controlling your emotion, not criticizing in public and most importantly asking open ended questions to ‘save’ the responder’s face.

Decision making

Most organizations, particularly the brick-and-mortar ones, are rather hierarchical. Line of authority is clearly drawn out. Be aware of the line of authority and follow the same. While lobbying with influencers may be helpful, the decision maker would rarely delegate authority to decide. Bargaining Prices are often negotiable. Indians love to bargain and get a substantial reduction in price. The bargaining process can be long and drawn-out with a finally agreed price substantially lower than the initial price.

Patience

Overall duration till deal closure could be unduly protracted, demanding a lot of patience. A lot of bureaucratic delay too is expected particularly while dealing with governmental agencies. Showing impatience in these situations could be counterproductive.

Communication

Expect indirect communication which may be context heavy. In absence of a direct answer, one may learn to get at the truth through a series of open-ended questions while ensuring to ‘save the face’ of the responder, to assess the situation and draw conclusions. Keeping the above factors in mind, so how does one go about ‘negotiating’ in India? We need to take a closer look at the Indian cultural idiosyncrasies through the lens of Hofstede’s 6D model and attempt to understand winning behavior while negotiating with Indians.

Who decides around here?

To answer that we need to ask - Is Indian Society hierarchical? The answer is yes. In the language of Hofstede’s 6D Model India scores reasonably high on the dimension of Power Distance. What it means is that, typically, in Indian organizations real power is centralized; in general people down the line are dependent on the boss for the direction and decision making. Indians appreciate and respect this top down hierarchical structure with uneven distribution of power.

So how does this acceptance of unequal distribution of power with the boss holding the authority to decide and communicate her/his direction downward, play out in a negotiation process in India.

First and foremost, do your homework in getting a good understanding of the organizational structure and, most importantly, the organizational hierarchy leading to identification of the decision maker. Collect data of the priorities and expectations of the decision maker and customize your pitch accordingly. If the decision maker is not immediately approachable ensure your proposition is presented to the key influencers who are listened to by the decision maker. Additionally, be aware that in a hierarchical society the level/ hierarchy of the negotiator is important and the same is ideally at par with that of the decision maker.

I or We or Both?

After the Power Distance the next important dimension that plays a significant role in an Indian’s behavioral tendency is Individualism. India, with a rather intermediate score of 48, is a society with both collectivistic and Individualistic traits. The collectivist side means that there is a high preference for belonging to a larger social framework in which individuals are expected to act in accordance with the greater good of one’s defined in-group(s). The Individualist aspect of Indian society is seen because of its dominant religion/philosophy – Hinduism. The Hindus believe in a cycle of death and rebirth, with the manner of each rebirth being dependent upon how the individual lived the preceding life. People are, therefore, individually responsible for the way they lead their lives and the impact it will have upon their rebirth.

What does this mean in terms of predictability of behavior of an Indian negotiator? A distinct facet of Indian negotiators is the simultaneous presence of their individualistic and collectivistic tendencies. Most Indians are highly focused, objective oriented, and aggressive. Yet, they are also group and family oriented and extend their loyalties to those close to them. This duality grants Indian negotiators a competitive edge.

The combination of individualistic and collectivistic traits, as well as of Western and Eastern mind-sets, gives Indians a unique negotiation style. One needs to take into consideration the organizational culture alongside national culture characteristics to get more clarity on the strategy to be adopted in the negotiation process. In general, collectivistic behavior may be more dominant in a family run promoter driven organization while an Individualistic behavioral tendency may be expected in a more modern organization shaped by technology. The cases where individualistic behavior plays a dominant role, one more dimension of Hofstede 6 D model namely Masculinity (MAS) comes into play.

This is our next dimension to dive into, to see how the same impacts in a negotiation process.

Do Indians like to win?

Who doesn’t? Perhaps a more appropriate question to ask then is, given a choice between Achievement and Quality of life, which direction the balance would point to? The answer for India is Achievement.

India scores 56 on this dimension of Masculinity and is thus considered a Masculine society. India is actually very Masculine in terms of visual display of success and power. The designer brand label, the flash and ostentation that goes with advertising one’s success, is widely practiced. However, India is also a spiritual country with millions of deities and various religious philosophies. It is also an ancient country with one of the longest surviving cultures which gives it ample lessons in the value of humility and abstinence. This often reigns in people from indulging in Masculine displays to the extent that they might be naturally inclined to.

In the context of negotiation, all the above imply one may expect Indians to negotiate hard to win. This could mean there would be protracted discussions over a long period. Indian negotiators would try every trick in the book to drive a hard bargain. At the same time, the conversation would be very indirect, thus causing confusion to a typical western businessperson who would be normally familiar with direct communication with clear yes’s or no’s.

Course Correction, midway?

Yes, there is every possibility of deviation from a plan without adequate notice, thus springing a surprise change element unapologetically.

This stems from the fact that India scores 40 in the dimension of uncertainty avoidance. In India, there is acceptance of imperfection; nothing must be perfect nor has to go exactly as planned. India is traditionally a patient country where tolerance for the unexpected is high; even welcomed as a break from monotony. People generally do not feel driven and compelled to take action-initiatives and comfortably settle into established rolls and routines without questioning. This also implies that conformance to an agreed plan is not considered obligatory.

In the context of a negotiation, this low uncertainty avoidance means changing direction, introduction of new variables along the way and consequent course correction. The recommended strategy to counter this to keep an open mind, expect the unexpected, and do not show emotion if new viewpoints crop up without giving you a lot of preparation time to react.

Short case study

Kohn Lever is the IT head of a large American Bank who wanted to outsource a large part of their non-core processes to multiple offshore partners in India, Philippines and Brazil starting with India.

After careful evaluation, Kohn and his team shortlisted three Indian partners – 2 of them are home grown large Indian IT services company and the third one is the offshore center of a large American MNC.

Kohn started the final negotiation discussion with the Business Unit Head of the BFSI (Banking, Financial Services & Insurance) vertical of this large Indian IT company and was very satisfied with the progress as it was going smooth with hardly any points of major contention and also Kohn has successfully negotiated a great price. At this point Kohn gets invited for a meeting with Amit Kumar, the CEO of the Indian out-sourcing partner. With the expectation that this would just be a formality and they could finally start the delivery

process soon, Kohn was keen to meet Amit. To his surprise, the CEO proposed a significantly different structure and went to great length to explain why it made sense for both the parties to pursue the newly proposed structure and most importantly their inability to continue the earlier proposal. Kohn was not prepared for this unexpected turn of events. At the same time after having done all the due diligence on this partner, he considered that going back to other short-listed partners at this point would be even more time consuming. In effect he had little choice but to go back and align his internal resource plan and phasing of the processes to be outsourced.

In summary, let me quote from the great book on the subject - ‘Negotiate like a Local’ by Jean-Pierre Coene & Marc Jacobs who have characterized 7 mindsets of international negotiation and categorized India under the ‘Marathonians’. For the Marathonians they caution: ‘.. unlike other groups where you see a negotiation as a linear process, for this group, it is much more like a never-ending circle of negotiation and renegotiation’

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