Communication takes some figuring out in India

BANGALORE ? People talk about globalization all of the time, but few people have thought deeply about some of the implications.

One of these is what some refer to as the death of distance. Communication satellites and high-speed telephone lines allow instant communication with other countries and have reduced the costs. Denver is 20 hours by air from India. These two factors put India at our doorstep.

With India so close and communications so easy and cheap, it means many companies along the Front Range will be doing business here eventually, even if the thought has not yet entered the company?s plans. India will be the fourth-largest economy in the world in a few years, which means the opportunities are mind-boggling.

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Preparing to do business in India is like mastering a piece of software. It requires study and practice.

The analogy is apt because working successfully in India requires that you know which keys to press and in what order. Learning the basics should take about 40 to 50 hours, but your study will never end. This is a deep culture with many layers.

A good international MBA program focusing on India includes everything from history to negotiating styles and from business values to accounting practices. Before moving to the MBA level, though, there are three basic questions I hear over and over: safety, health and communicating.

Safety is usually the first pressing question. Americans don?t travel outside the United States much. Only 16 percent of Americans have passports. When you combine the lack of international travel with the paucity of news of the world we get, it?s no wonder that Americans think the world is much more dangerous than it really is.

It?s true that there is antagonism toward the government, but the antagonism does not extend to individual Americans.

I have traveled all over India, and I?ve always felt safe with one general exception, which I?ll get to in a minute. None of the Westerners I work with here have ever experienced any violence. Indians are friendly, open and generous with their advice. They will keep an eye out for you.

The exception is this: Every Westerner here agrees that they?ve all felt unsafe on the roads. Indian drivers are among the most aggressive in the world, and the traffic is dense and chaotic.

Several times I?ve paid a rickshaw driver 25 cents to take me to the other side of a four-lane road. Or I?ll find an old woman and walk next to her as she crosses, under the assumption a driver is less likely to run down an old woman.

When you hear of incidents involving Westerners, it?s usually people who got tangled up with drugs, prostitution, gambling or alcohol. Or sometimes women are not dressed appropriately.

The second basic question is about health. There is trash everywhere, open sewers, mangy stray dogs, lots of dust and pollution. During a typical day you will turn doorknobs, hold handrails, shake hands, pick up newspapers and magazines.

I have never gotten sick in India, and yet I buy food from street vendors, drink tea from stalls and try new foods when I visit people?s homes. Here?s my secret: I wash my hands before I eat.
It always amazes me to watch a group of Americans come into a restaurant and eat and no one washes their hands. If they are in bed sick the next day, should they blame India?

Whether or not you get all of the inoculations and take anti-malaria pills is up to you. Most Americans get the shots and take the pills; most Europeans do not. Personally I believe in bottled water, hand washing, and DEET morning, noon and night.

A third question is about communication. How are you going to talk to people? About 50 million Indians speak a variety of English, but it will take time to adjust your ear to the accents. You would have to do the same thing if you did business in Scotland or England.

In this vein the phrase, ?Yes, I speak English? has many meanings. Adjust your rate of speaking and your vocabulary until you are sure of the level of English of the person with whom you are speaking. You will be amazed at how much communication is improved if you slow your rate of speech by 10 percent. Repeat, rephrase and ask questions to make sure you understand them and they understand you.

Communicating also includes nonverbal elements, and in India these are very important. India is a passionate culture, and there are lots of gestures and body movements when they talk. They stand much closer than Americans, so your personal bubble will be violated often. People will stare at you, so accept the fact that you look a bit goofy and don?t take offense. Men may put their arms around you.

One more gesture, and maybe the most perplexing, is a waggling of the head when they agree with you, similar to the movement of a bobble-headed doll. Indians do it all the time, and Americans always interpret it as meaning no, but here it means yes. If you give a presentation and no one in the audience is bobbling their heads, it means they don?t agree with you.

Larry Caldwell, a former Boulder resident, is director of GeoAgenda.com LLC, a consulting firm that helps American companies and employees prepare for projects in India. The Web site is at www.geoagenda.com. E-mail is lgc@indra.com. His telephone in India is 091 98806 58494.