Banter Without Borders

Japan and India: Diving Deeper into Global Waters

In my previous post, I reviewed two illuminating and complementary podcasts on outsourcing and its application in today’s global marketplace. In the discussion of multisourcing and its attendant complexity of managing multiple providers, the cultural considerations were what resonated for me. When an overlay of country culture is added to the already complicated challenge of managing corporate cultural differences in an outsourcing agreement, the challenge is manifold, even if only two nations are involved.

As with any intercultural transaction, broad questions of communication arise early on: Are the cultures at hand relationship-based or transactional?  Is overall communication style direct or indirect? How does ‘saving face’ figure into the picture, if at all?  What is the role of and protocol surrounding small talk?  Taboos?  Humor?  How is silence used and interpreted?  What is the time frame for establishing relationships?  In the business sphere, additional issues as risk tolerance, leadership preferences, entertainment protocol, perceptions of time, decision making processes and, perhaps most importantly, issues of trust are but a smattering of crucial pieces one would need to assess and address.

Such questions and issues will now be increasingly on the minds of Japanese and Indian companies, as the two nations have begun collaborating in more and more outsourcing arrangements, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article (“India’s Outsourcing Firms Lure More Japan Business”).   As a global coach and consultant, I am naturally delighted to see this, since while the two countries are markedly different culturally, on the business front this seems like a match made in heaven, with timing auspicious for both nations.  The Japanese population is ageing steadily, causing gaps in the workforce (particularly in engineering, as the article states). Indian companies, meanwhile, have been feeling the pinch from the U.S. financial sector and have been busily strategizing in hopes of entering new markets.

That said, Japan and India are entirely at odds in their respective cultural orientations. While Japan is extremely homogeneous and in many ways isolationist, India is one of the most diverse mosaics on the planet, and from this basic difference springs a whole host of cultural contrasts. In short, though, where the current outsourcing development is concerned, there are two critical issues at hand for each country. For Japan, the huge question of trust will undoubtedly be its biggest obstacle. Japanese companies have, through the ages, been notoriously tight lipped when dealing with “gaijin” (literally “outside persons”), and, as the article states, very reluctant to entrust segments of their business to others.  For India, used to the efficiency and speed so deeply embedded in the U.S. business culture, the challenge of balancing this with the perfection and assiduous attention to detail demanded of the Japanese market will surely be its albatross.

Fortunately, both countries seem to be undergoing the coaching and training so necessary in these situations.  The reciprocal nature of such programs, as indicated in the article, with both countries sending participants to their respective new partners’ locations and engaging in multifaceted intercultural talent development practices, is a formula for a successful collaboration. It is a sure bet that if the current alliances are successful, both countries will actively continue down this newly paved path.