"How to Do Business in India - Do's & Dont's of doing with business with the fastest growing large economy in the world". - Bernice Paolozzi
One of the fundamental components of Indian culture, vital for success in doing business with India, is an understanding of the traditions and ways of communicating that form the basis of India’s society. It is a very creative blend of cultures, religions, races and
languages.
India’s identity and social structure are protected by a rich cultural heritage that dates back at least 5,000 years, making India one of the oldest civilisations in the world. In India, religion is a way of life and must be respected in order to maintain successful business relationships. The traditional caste system, which was a direct outcome of Hinduism was eliminated. Despite this attitudes still remain and both aspects of Indian culture still influence the hierarchical structure of business practices in India today.
Indian culture is a very spiritual one which gave birth to the concept of fatalism. The notion of Karma and that everything happens for a reason is still significant in the decision making process of many Indians. It also influences the concept of time in India and as a consequence business negotiations may take longer and are never rushed.
India’s strong sense of community and group Defined orientation mean a greater acceptance of hierarchical settings. In India, there is a noticeable lack of privacy and a smaller concept of personal space, where several generations often live together under one roof. For Indian business practices this places an additional importance on interpersonal contacts, avoidance of conflict and a more indirect approach to communication.
Meetings in India will generally begin with friendly small talk. This may include personal questions about your family and is seen as a way of building rapport and trust before business.
In India, the family unit is highly valued, therefore showing interest and respect towards your Indian counterpart’s family is vital for establishing successful relationships.
In Indian culture disagreement is rarely expressed in a direct manner. The word ‘no’ is often avoided and is replaced by other non-verbal cues and indirect communication.
During negotiations, trust and well-established relationships with your Indian counterparts must be in place before any form of business can take place.
Indians appreciate punctuality but may not reciprocate it. It is advisable to make appointments at least one month in advance and confirm them when arriving in India. A flexible schedule will prove useful. Business appointments should ideally be made for late morning or early afternoon, between the hours of 11 and 4.
Making decisions is often a slow and thoughtful process in Indian culture. Deadlines
should not be rushed as impatience is seen as aggressive, rude and disrespectful.
Within the system of hierarchy in the Indian work place, senior colleagues and especially elders are obeyed and respected. Discussions are almost always lead by the most senior person.
Final decisions rest with the highest-ranking business executives, therefore it is important to maintain strong relationships with senior figures in Indian business.
It is the responsibility of the senior management to monitor, check and look after their Indian subordinates.
Face and self-esteem is an essential part of Indian culture, therefore any individual criticism in business situations must be done carefully and with sensitivity.
Despite the distinguished hierarchical system, the relationship between an Indian boss and his employee can be similar to that of close relatives. This is a direct influence of the community life experienced for thousands of years in India.
Do use titles wherever possible, such as “Professor” or “Doctor”. If your Indian counterpart does not have a title, use “Mr”, “Mrs”, or “Miss”.
Do wait for a female business colleague to initiate the greeting. Indian men do not generally shake hands with women out of respect.
Do remain polite and honest at all times in order to prove that your objectives are sincere.
Don’t be aggressive in your business negotiations – it can show disrespect.
Don’t take large or expensive gifts as this may cause embarrassment. If you do take a gift make sure you present the gift with both hands.
Don’t refuse any food or drink offered to you during business meetings as this may cause offence. In addition, it is useful to bear in mind that traditionally, Indians are vegetarians and do not drink alcohol.
”Top Tips to Achieve Optimum Personal Health" & 5 tips for optimum health integrating Eastern culture into Western life.?
One of the key most important top tips is always waking up in the morning with a positive attitude and always going to bed at night with a great sense of gratitude for the day that has just been achieved no matter how crazy, challenging and unusual the day was.
Learn the science of yoga breathing. Pranayama is the breathing exercise practiced in Yoga. When we find ourselves in a stressful situation one of the best techniques to calm and centre ourselves is to take a deep breath. When in a chaotic and stressful situation, if we have not been trained, the automatic response is to hold our breath. When we do this it completely tenses up our whole body and we become rigid. We go into a FREEZE not FLIGHT or BREAKDOWN not BREAKTHROUGH solution frame of mind. The Importance of Breathing is it is the only means to supply our body and its various organs with oxygen.
There Are 4 different stages of breathing, High breathing, low breathing, middle breathing and complete breathing. Breathing exercises improve your blood pressure and heart function
Learn to love your liver. More than ever, now with the stressful chaotic daily lives we require to know how our liver functions and why it is considered the engine centre of our bodies. With today’s chemical and toxic environment and so much processed food it is important to keep our liver detoxed. 3 detoxes a year will keep our liver in good order. Fix the liver and good health will always follow. Do a liver detox every 3-4 months.
Take Epsom salts baths as much a possible. The name Epsom comes from mineral waters found in the area in England called Epsom. Epsom salts has dozens of health benefits.
A daily hectic and chaotic stress full life can drain the magnesium from our bodies, Magnesium is necessary for the body to bind adequate amounts of seratonin, a mood –elevating chemical within the brain that can create feelings of calm and relaxation. The magnesium sulfate of Epsom Salts acts as a muscle relaxant, and by easing muscle pain it helps the body to eliminate harmful substances. Epsom Salts neutralizes any body odours and softens the skin. A 20 min soak in an Epsom salt bath before bed is a amazing way to guarantee a wonderful night’s sleep.
Learn to weed the garden of your mind. For the first time in history it is now being accepted that we are what we believe and we are not what our genes and family health was. It is now not accepted that just because your mother or father had a heart health problem then you are at higher risk to have the same. Our minds have full ability now through
Visualization techniques and balancing the 3 frequencies within our brains, to change each organ and function of our bodies to better and more. Just as we have talked about how our breathing can balance all our body the mind has the same power. In India meditation is taught from an early age. In the culture of most Asian societies it is believed that once you can calm the mind you can calm the rest of the body. There are lots of meditative techniques now available on the internet. We have 50,000 thoughts a day and each one of them manifest. Then they come back around to us like an echo or boomerang. If you take what we see in front of us as a projector of our minds then we have to take responsibility to keep our minds calm and clear, just like our liver.
Learn to love yourself right now. In today’s society when you ask someone do they love themselves, they usually can’t answer you. It has been proven through scientific research if a child or person does not love themselves enough first they will feel isolated and alone. It is most important to love our body and mind as we are today. We have become an over-entertained culture. There has been for many years now lots of media advertisement and so much information on how we should look, what we should wear, so a lot of people of now are in a sea of confusion of what they really want and who they really are and what they really like.
So it is time to stop, take a deep breath, take an Epsom salt bath, quiet the mind and love yourself for who you are today.
On Being Citizen of the World, Asian/EMEA Executive, Award winning Entrepreneur ( "Best Female Entrepreneur in Europe, Middle East and Africa & "Special Judges Award for Ethnic Entrepreneur"), Corporate Culture & Spirituality, Minister of the Eucharist. & What role you have to play being all of that? & What do you think & how do you think about the Enterpreneur's role as/on a larger perspective. & about Corporate Culture & Spirituality as & how far have it succeeded, & what's there future.
To me being a Citizen of the world keeps me in the awareness that every action I take daily affects the eco system I live in, every other person on this planet and every other living organism. So I take responsibility of living consciously and choosing my actions wisely and considering everyone around me plus the global picture. That's how I consider being a citizen of the world.
I believe that currently the financial/corporate world is receiving a teaching that they must take responsibility for every action they take and consider that their new approach to the commercial world is more ethical with a higher level of Governance. I would call this putting a "conscience into the business/commerce world".
India has a very big role to play in showing the western world what the new world leadership model is for the commerce world considering India has a very high population of young people, just like Ireland has a very high population of young people. It is these young people who now have to be supported to become the leaders to find the innovative solutions to sustain and maintain and tidy up any negative residue from the old traditional model that is obvious has served its time and now must be replaced with the new innovative model.
As a mother of a 21 year old and a 15 year old, I consider them to be the new leaders of the now and the future of a positive environmental citizen of the world global village.
Your study & take on Religion (Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Christianity) , what’s difference & similarity they all share, Religion & Spirituality - how does one go about finding it knowing it or following it?
The one strand that I have learned through all the different methodologies and modalities of all the different religions I have studied is that meditation helps the person and the mind to take responsibility and see clearly for making decisions that would affect their daily lives. Also that some religions have become too big and institutionalised and lost touch with the people whom they were designed to support. The young people of today do not feel comfortable with the old models of institutionalised religion and the young people are much more comfortable with interfaith and interculture religions that integrate modalities of music, dance and environmental beauty of nature. So just like the old financial system has to be remodeled, so do all the world religions so they are better suited to the new young Dynamic citizens.
Everyone is an aspect of each other, so we are all brothers and sisters. Its much easier to do business with someone you consider to be your brother or sister.
What is WorkthatWorks and Avant Garde all about?
Works that works is the brainchild of Archana Trasy. It is a dynamic innovative marketing and entertainment model that has its finger on the pulse for the local Indian and Asian market and also the global market. With Archana's extensive Bollywood experience and contacts, we make a great dynamic team due to having the same ethical belief and value system. I consider it is good to view and treat everyone in front of you with respect like your brother and sister and then its easy to create a sustainable family business model. Work That Works infrastructure is created on this smart thinking model.
In addition to this I am also involved with Anushree Priyadarshini in Avant Garde Consultancy which is a publishing agency building bridges between Western authors and Eastern publishers, providing opportunities at both ends to have a new market and variety content respectively.
As an Advisor on Smart Thinking, What you define Smart Thinking as , and how you potrey the World to be doing some Smart Thinking, if yes how, if not why not? What you have to say in context to Asia ( focus on the value of an ethics based approach in dealing with today’s challenges in the Global Re-Mix )?
Smart thinking for me is using the whole mind. Not just the left brain model. An example - our current global environmental issues have come about through linear left brain thinking not whole mind creative mind thinking. As an example, I have found Asians are very naturally smart mind thinkers / whole mind thinkers / holistic mind thinkers. They Understand the concept of cause and effect and that for every action there is a reaction. In Asia I have also seen how anything that has a life force running through it is respected and considered negative to destroy. Many studies have shown that a really good holistic or whole mind creative thinking team with both men and women of different ages tend to achieve the unusual targets that others cannot. Most young people I meet or know, are natural smart thinkers because they have a very relaxed, positive outlook to challenges in their lives.
Tell us more about IAHV/EICC Corporate Cultural Spirituality Leadership in Business & Ireland India Trade & Tourism Forum?
For clarity these are two different events. The IAHV CCS is a non government organisation second biggest NGO in the world so their values are based on ethics and governance in the corporate world. My visit to the Ashram in Bangalore showed me that the organisation is very much based on service to humanity including having a very strong ayurvedic medical centre and a very unique prana breathing technique that I believe is beneficial to all people to learn.
The Ireland India trade & tourism forum were events organised on the ground in Ireland to bring awareness of India to business in Ireland to expand their horizons.
Social & Commercial Enterprise? Your role as a Social & Commerce Business Developer & about efforts on Empowering Youth? Restoration Projects? About the Connect 4A Model?
Due to the demand of questions being asked about how to do this and that I created the executive mentoring model on my website and made it affordable and accessible to everyone involved as I was beginning to be asked the same questions from different people in east and west. I use the Connect 4A methodology through all my initiatives and projects. That's how it came to be formed.
What you have to say about- New Wave Trends for Marketing Books,
As I said in my transformational article, since the 1960s the digital Age and computer are the only way for people to market themselves in the global village whether you are marketing a book or a service the future of anything to do with marketing is the computer and the internet in the worldwide global village.
Your being an Executive Mentor & Counsellor? Role, Plans, Efforts, Future?
Being an executive mentor/counsellor is very easy for me to do due to my extensive knowledge and experience both in professional and personal. My plans for this is to let it organically form as I have created an infrastructure around myself for easy access and awareness through my website
Efforts & Role for Health & Wellness & Environmental Issues
The way forward for health wellness & environmental issues is positive thinking. We are currently in a major transformation in health wellness & environment so we have to take each day as a unique day and we have to forget yesterday at the start of each day. We have to wake up thinking, "great a new day" rather than negatively. Our daily thoughts are much more powerful than people know. So once we stay focussed on positive thinking and say positive words and have much gratitude for every little thinking we then will keep balance for hew and live in a very progressive and comfortable environment.
Small business will play a key role in this local and global transformation. The current so-called recession is not a recession, it is a slowing down to allow for a transformation to happen". Comment & give feedback on this one.
When a business is in transformation or when a person is in transformation it is much more sustainable if it happens slowly. If the transformation and change happens too fast it can bring shock to the system or company, so slow change is much more sustainable and it also gives breathing space to enjoy the new fresh emerging ideas from individual people rather than from big corporate models. Small businesses with the internet networking them together is a fun new unusual way of doing business and it brings a strong sense of community and of equality and sharing. As they say in the East, letting go the old makes room for the new to have the space to breathe inspiration into the environment.
Ireland
Mob: +353 85 1913 707
Skype: bernice.paolozzi
berpaolozzi@gmail.com &
info@bernicepaolozzi.com
Web: www.bernicepaolozzi.com
www.ipositivenowhealth.com
www.epositivehome.org
Italy
0039 327 9785007
bernice@italymeetsindia.com
www.italymeetsindia.com
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