Indian Business Etiquettes
The paper explains the Indian business etiquettes and steps that a business must follow to flourish its business in the country like India. The essay talks about Mary, an Australian who wants to set up her business in India and further it also explains various Indian business etiquettes that need to be followed by Mary in the Indian market. The essay also discusses the hofstede’s cultural framework which Mary should follow. It highlights the necessary adjustments that Mary has to make to increase the success of the meeting. The paper largely focuses on the communication skills which a business must possess. More detail of the task has been discussed below.
Indian business etiquettes can be said as the way of doing and leading the business. It suggests the basic etiquettes that must be applied while working for the business. One must have a step by step approach in extending the business. To make the business grow one must know how to treat people. They must be polite towards everyone. This is the basic etiquette of business. While communicating with the public or within the organization one should be aware about what they should share with them and what not. One must be presentable enough during the business as it represents the reputation and financial position of the company. To do business smoothly the organization must be polite towards its employees and must listen to the opinion of each and every employee. These basic etiquettes help the company for a long run and expansion.
Culture plays a significant and vital role to expand and explore the business activities and operations internationally. Hofstede’s cultural model can be used by Mary to reduce and understand the cultural issues and barriers in Indian market. The hofstede’s theory focuses on six dimensions and discusses about the dimension in the form of scores that is given to every country. The scores are the parameters which help in comparing the culture of different countries for instance, India and Australia. The six dimensions of hofstede’s cultural dimensions are detailed below:
The power distance score of India is 77 whereas the score in this dimension for Australia is 36 (Incredible, 2018). This makes a huge difference between the two countries. Hence the power of the organization is distributed unequally more in India. With this establishing a business in India will give no benefit to business owners like Mary (Venaik & Brewer, 2013).
The collective score of India is 48 in this dimension and for Australia it is 90 which make Australia a highly individualistic culture (Incredible, 2018). It is noted that Mary is setting up the business as an individualist so it will become difficult for her to survive in the collective field of India.
The dimension score measures 56 on this dimension (Incredible, 2018). Australia scores 61 in it and considered as a “masculine” society same as India. This will benefit Mary in making business due to same culture. Both the countries are regarded as masculine bodies and therefore the business can be carried with the same strategy that Mary used in Australia (Migliore, 2011).
Cultural Framework – Hofstede’s Model
The score of India in uncertainty avoidance is 40 (Incredible, 2018) whereas, Australia’s hofstede dimension scores 51 (Hofstede insights, 2018). Hence, India is very uncertain about the future comings which can be troublesome for Mary to carry out her business. The uncertainty of future can cause irrational attitude in business. The dimension of Australia is intermediate whereas high in India.
India makes a long term orientation with a score of 61 (Incredible, 2018). On the other hand Australia scores 21 on this dimension (Hofstede insights, 2018) and it is considered as a normative culture. Religion plays a very important role for Indians. Mary will have to face difficulties in performing business activities in India among different religions. The culture of Australia becomes very much different from the culture of India. This can become a hurdle for Mary to promote her business for long term.
In this dimension, India has received a low score of 26 (Incredible, 2018) that means it is a culture of restraint. Restrained communities do not put much emphasis on leisure time and control the gratification of their desires and wants. Thus, Mary can take ample of benefits in the new market (Hofstede, 2011).
The cost of beginning a business in India is enormous, and the techniques included can be overwhelming without nearby information. In Australia, Mary was able to gather customers as these customers knew about her business. But in India, Mary has to first develop her image in the society only then she can attract the customers. Mary also might have to suffer in finding the suitable business owners that can help her to set up business (Kinloch & Metge, 2014). Mary is not aware about the economy of India therefore various problems and issues would be faced by Mary. Mary does not have the local knowledge so it will make her suffer in the business. Mary being an Australian will have to suffer with the problem of communicating with the customers. Here Mary will have to make adjustment to understand the customer’s wants and requirements. Most of the Indians are unable to communicate with the tourists properly. Hence it becomes difficult to make them understand about their wants and desires (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). Mary therefore will have to be sure about what her customers will need and require. Any business today requires machines and equipments for work. Understanding how the Indian machines work will be a bit difficult for Mary. She has to learn the working system of the machines so that Mary is able to meet the requirements of its customers. To know the working of machines Mary will require trainers and ultimately this will increase costs in the competitive market. Another reason of adjustment is that one is not sure about the future profits. Setting of business requires a lot of investment and the business makers are uncertain about the future aspects. Therefore establishing business in another country such as India will not ensure the profit making for Mary in her business (Minkov & Hofstede, 2011).
Areas of Potential Cross-Cultural Miscommunication
There are various recommendations to address and reduce various issues and challenges in the Indian market. It is very important for the business to listen these recommendations and effectively work on it (Bochner, 2013). In order to grow business the organization must keep a daily update of the business over social media or other internet sources so that it can reach out to large number of people. In this case, Mary can contact to the advertising agencies of India where she can promote business by giving ads or distributing pamphlets all over. Mary can also tie up with other business agencies doing the same work (Carbaugh, 2013). This will give Mary a platform to promote her business in an effective manner. It is recommended that Mary must hire employees, train them as professionals and give them opportunities so that Mary can concentrate on the promotion of business efficiently. She must plan strategies with the help of professionals by listening to the opinion of each and every employee. Mary should make effective and unique strategies, policies and plans to run the business functions in Indian market. It is also recommended that Mary must open her business in the locality where she can easily attract the customers and that too in large numbers. She must know the laws and policies to carry business in India and must follow them in an effective manner (Tomalin & Stempleski, 2013). Mary should be polite and humble towards her customers and should greet them with a positive attitude. This will help her to attract more customers and will ultimately increase the profits of the business. Mary must regularly be in touch with other business associates. This will make her aware about the changing trends of business and what changes must be brought in the business parallel to the society. These recommendations will be beneficial for Mary to enhance her business in India (XiaoYan & Umemoto, 2013). It is also recommended that Mary should focus on the skills, talents and capabilities of new workers to uplift the profit in Indian market. It will also help to stand out against the competitors globally.
It is concluded from the above mentioned analysis that Mary will have to focus on Indian culture, rules and norms to conduct business functions in India. It is necessary for her to follow the above suggested Indian business etiquettes effectively and efficiently. The use of Hofstede’s model in the paper is to highlight the steps that business has to follow in order to run the business. The recommendations above highlight the view of how one can set up her business in a comfortable manner. The hofstede’s theory makes an individual understand about the ethics and norms of the business.
References
Bochner, S. (Ed.). (2013). Cultures in contact: Studies in cross-cultural interaction (Vol. 1). Elsevier.
Carbaugh, D. (Ed.). (2013). Cultural communication and intercultural contact. Routledge.
Hofstede insights.,(2018). The culture factor, Retrieved from https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online readings in psychology and culture, 2(1), 8.
Incredible., (2018). Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimension, Retrieved from https://incredible-india-cayla.weebly.com/hofstedes-cultural-dimensions.html
Kinloch, P., & Metge, J. (2014). Talking past each other: problems of cross cultural communication. Victoria University Press.
Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts. New York: NY: McGraw-Hill.
Migliore, L. A. (2011). Relation between big five personality traits and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions: Samples from the USA and India. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 18(1), 38-54.
Minkov, M., & Hofstede, G. (2011). The evolution of Hofstede’s doctrine. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 18(1), 10-20.
Tomalin, B., & Stempleski, S. (2013). Cultural Awareness-Resource Books for Teachers. Oxford University Press.
Venaik, S., & Brewer, P. (2013). Critical issues in the Hofstede and GLOBE national culture models. International Marketing Review, 30(5), 469-482.
XiaoYan, L. I., & Umemoto, K. (2013). Knowledge Creation through Inter-Cultural Communication in Multi-Cultural Groupwork. Intercultural Communication Studies, 22(1).
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