As in the article “Working in India” Already discussed in detail, as an entrepreneur and manager in India you constantly operate in the area of ​​tension between local conditions and your own values. On the one hand, this requires, where necessary, adopting the unusual authoritarian leadership behavior - and on the other hand, strictly rejecting the widespread bad habits such as personal humiliation and astonishing lapses in tone - or whatever else you may encounter that is unpleasant.

The human resources area as a breaking point

The cultural differences are particularly noticeable in joint ventures. Because your Indian JV will always be an Indian company and will be managed as such by its partner. Please do not underestimate this point! The sometimes completely contradictory views of management often lead to Failure of our own joint venture in India.

Of all business areas, human resources management is probably the one where the two worlds collide most obviously. Unfortunately, employees in India are generally not valued as much as we do here in Europe. It is rather the exception to invest in personnel and their further training. Instead, it is not uncommon for a graduate to be paid less than was previously contractually agreed, for the employee's salary to be paid chronically too late, or not to be paid at all in the event of termination. Quite apart from these and similar harassment, pressure and completely excessive targets are at the heart of everyday working life. Ultimately, the American term “human resources” – i.e. “human resources” – applies much better in India than the German word “personnel management”.

Exporting your own corporate culture to India

Most of the time (especially owner-managed) companies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are particularly proud of their specific, family company culture. On what they and the previous generations have laboriously worked out and built up, on that certain something that defines the company today.

We therefore recommend that you discuss the topic of company culture with your potential joint venture partner at a very early stage of the discussions. Basic questions here could be:

  • How do we want to treat and value our employees in the future?
  • Do we intend to pay them regularly and on time at the end of the month?
  • Maybe we even provide them with a proper canteen?
  • Do we ensure that your social rooms are always clean, or do we even want to offer sufficient, suitable rooms?
  • Do we plan to have them monitored comprehensively with CCTV cameras…?
  • Are we planning to set up a training department based on the European model and further qualify our employees?... or is the effort for ordinary workers too great for us?
  • Do we encourage cooperation or competition between employees?
  • How do we deal with our suppliers?
  • Do you always get paid on time for good services, even if we only use a supplier once?
  • How do we communicate with our customers…?

We advise you to think seriously about these things, which you may take for granted, together(!) with your Indian partner. Record what is important to you. Maybe you would also consider working on and outlining the corporate culture of your (new) Indian branch in a workshop? This could contribute enormously to mutual understanding. And finally, if some points are particularly important to you, you should have them set out in writing in your joint venture agreement.