033: Cultural Differences in India with Neil Miller

Cultural Differences in India About This Week's Guest Neil Miller Neil moved to Chennai in January 2010 with his wife and four suitcases. In this podcast, he talks about Cultural Differences in India. He prepared by reading a lot of good books and meeting a lot of knowledgeable people. However, nothing could have prepared him for what he experienced trying to start his own business and then working with a mid-sized family-owned Indian company. Every time that he thought India would finally get the best of him, he was able to add a layer to his understanding of India. His goal is to provide the most useful, helpful, insightful, and accurate information available in India. His 3 tips to become more culturally competent are: Ask "Why" if something is happening around you that you don't understand. Even if what you see, hear or experience looks or sounds weird, don't hesitate to ask what is going on. Dive deep(er) into the local culture if you're staying for more than a year in another place. Don't only stick to the expat circles and/or the lunches in five-star hotels. Meet local people, get into their homes, and eat food together. Consider that someone else's culture might be better than yours in their country. E.g. Leadership in India is more paternalistic. Americans can look at this and judge this negatively. But in a country like India, this style of management can be very functional. Be humble that their ways of working work for them. Interview Links Links that are mentioned in this episode: Website: http://learningindia.in Website: http://madrasmediamarketing.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/neilandindia Build Your Cultural Competence In the Culture Matters podcast, we interview real people with real stories. Every other week there is a guest with broad international experience and lots of cultural insights. I interview real people with real stories. To subscribe directly using iTunes or Stitcher, Click here, or here (or click any of the images below). How To Get In Touch With Culture Matters I'd love for you to get in touch. There are a couple of ways you can do this: Via this website: Just use the “Ask Your Question” tab on the right of the screen and leave a voicemail Email me at chris.smit@culturematters.com Send me a Tweet: @chrissmit Finally Thank you so much for taking the time to read this far, and to listen to my Podcast. I hope you will be back for the next episode of the Culture Matters Podcast! In the article doing business in India, we talk more about this subject. You can read it here. An interesting podcast on cultural differences in India can be found here Cultural Differences in India on Culture Matters