Tips for global giants
Peeyush Agnihotri

Multinationals in India
by Jai B.P. Sinha. Sage Publications. Pages 290. Rs 350.

When in India, do as the Indians do. That has been the theory of a few of the successful global corporate houses, which decided to make India their production base. Applying Darwin’s theory of evolution to the corporate world, it can be said that only those multinational companies (MNCs) will survive, which are most adaptable to change.

In a book, lavishly interspersed with interesting anecdotes, the author has analysed the work culture and attitude of five MNCs from three different cultural zones—Anglo-American, Scandinavian and the Far-Eastern.

Five multinationals—The British-American Corporation (BAC), Swedish Homecare International in India (SHOCII), Hilton Roulunds Limited, Vijendra Mikasha Limited (VM) and the Kimco—were able to earn huge profits only because they synergised their in-situ organisational culture with the management practices most suited to Indian settings. In author’s language, these firms could become success models because they had a glocal approach that is global in perspective and local in implementation.

In the first three chapters, the author has discussed how the Industrial Policy Resolution, 1948, set the ball rolling for MNCs to eye India. With the entry of foreign players, organisational forms of the Indian companies that were earlier characterised by familism in the private sector, bureaupathy in the PSUs and welfare orientation in both, changed. They were subjected to the influences of transnational organisations that were market-driven and strategically oriented yet locally receptive.

The author has devoted a full chapter to cultures—both social and work—prevalent in various parts of the globe. He avers that while cultures are different across the globe yet to adapt to the one of the countries from where one intends to operate is of utmost importance. To quote the author: "Americans are very high on individualism and relatively low but still high on power distance. Scandinavians are characterised by egalitarianism, individualism and very low power distance. Koreans and Japanese are high on collectivism and power distance that are manifested in the differential emphasis on outcome realisation in Korea and process improvement in Japan. Indian culture presents a complex combination of collectivism, individualism and hierarchical orientation. Indian sensitivity to contextual demands and the orientation to combine collectivist and individualist behaviour point to the possibility that the MNCs in India will be able to forge strategies for managing the interface of their own and Indian cultural demands."

The high points of the book are the anecdote boxes. These provide relief, sometimes comical, within the otherwise serious chapters that discuss profit sheets, organisational structure, management approaches and manpower needs of the five MNCs. For example, the one on the German boss and his Indian chauffeur depicts how an Indian driver, a nicely–behaved man otherwise, always made things difficult for his German boss, just because he was not handled properly by the latter.

The book, which is more about human resource management, can be of immense value to those global giants who plan to set foot on the Indian soil with all their production and personnel paraphernalia.

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