Cultural Differences and Business Operations: India vs Germany

This report provides a comprehensive cultural critique of business relationships between India and Germany. It examines the successes of German companies in India, highlighting the importance of understanding Indian culture and market dynamics. The report delves into key cultural differences, including approaches to authority, time perception, adherence to rules, relationship building, and communication styles. It contrasts Indian and German perspectives on these factors, offering recommendations for German businesses operating in India. The analysis covers various aspects of Indian business culture and regulations, such as the Companies Act 1956 and different types of ventures. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for cultural awareness and adaptation to foster stronger Indo-German business ties, referencing successful examples of German companies in India and providing recommendations for effective intercultural business practices.

CULTURAL CRITIQUE ASSIGNMENT - INDIA AND GERMANY

Executive Summary
The business relationship between the nations, India and Germany is quite popular and they have
engaged in various industrial relationships. Several German organizations have already started
making profits from the Indian market such as Volkswagen Group, which is currently working as
an assembling unit in Pune. In addition to it, some other German companies like Henkel,
Siemens and Bosch have also established their business in India. The reason for success of these
companies is that they have made their business decisions after thoroughly studying Indian
culture and market (Kumar and Sethi, 2016).
Some of the cultural differences between India and Germany is studied and analysed in this
report in order to provide recommendations to German people to work in India. The
recommendations are also prepared on the basis of analysis done on this topic. Apart from all
these, there are some Indian rules and regulations like incorporation under Companies Act 1956,
types of venture and so on and it is essential for German person to have all the required
knowledge about it.

INTRODUCTION
Work culture is a hindrance for achieving success in business internationally. The dissimilarity in
business culture in the midst of global business environment in Germany and India exists.
However, the two nations have incorporated strategies to battle them. The cultural differences
play a critical role in the efficient business operations of the organization. It is important for the
people of both the nations to obtain understanding of the each other’s culture so that they can
work efficiently (Borker, 2012).
It is also known to world that both the nations have successful understanding with each other.
However, when the business personnel from one country travel to other countries, they find
several differences in the lifestyle, eating habits and the work culture which can create stress and
burden in the operations of the organization. However, appropriate understanding of the culture
and the working habits can assist a person in adjusting in a different culture.
In this project, the differences between the Indian and the foreign culture has been analysed and
examined. Apart from it, the usage, application and identification of key factors that affects
intercultural business and the influence of cultural values of both the nations is also studied. In
the end, recommendations are designed with the analysis of all these important factors and
concepts.
India and Germany are two awesome nations with a significant cultural difference. The
collaboration of business between the two nations is extremely normal yet not everyone can
understand the dissimilarity in their business culture until the point that they are into some
genuine project. This report depicts the fundamental "differences in culture" amongst Germany
and India as well as the ways through which these differences can be understood better. In the
global frontier, Indian economy is considered to be one of the quickest developing economies
among all the nations. It can be observed that there is a progress in business investment
especially from foreign countries. In other words, outsourcing has become a popular concept
through which the organizations reduce their cost of operations. Working in India offers
enormous advantages for global companies yet there are various cultural differences that can
create miscommunication and increase the struggle for employees who have come from the
foreign locations. In addition, if cultural issues are ignored then it can create some serious effects

on company's financial status. Exploring the difficulties of working together in India can be
troublesome without a complete comprehension of Indian business culture as well as social
culture (Trompenaars, and Hampden-Turner, 2011).
Now, in order to communicate and negotiate with India or its culture; it is essential to fully
understand its culture. Some of the cultural differences between India and Germany are as
follows:
Approach towards Authority: India has a caste based system and the society has its roots in
caste culture; therefore, it puts a high significance on employee status and authority.
Communication between management and supervisors is generally limited that any significant
information or proposal to workers or to down positions labourers will not be communicated.
Without understanding the complications of Indian approaches towards authority and how they
affect business, the foreign companies working together in India will find it difficult to execute
change as fast as possible. And as a result, they will face difficulties in controlling their
employees experience, value and worth. In India, there is culture to follow the orders of the
senior member of their society. They are not straightforward and still follow the orders of their
seniors even when they are doubtful of the efficacy of these actions. They also find it difficult to
say no their seniors. Even when the seniors of the organization are exploiting them, the junior
employees find it difficult to say no.
Changing priority with time: The nature of India is considered to be polychronic. The term
polychronic is defined as individuals tend to change their needs on conditional basis or
depending upon the significance and approach towards regularity or punctuality. Most of the
extensive worldwide industries expect adherence to strict decision making and quick leadership.
However, Indians are more relaxed and are not always on time. Social mindfulness can enable
people to better comprehend Indian ideas of time and create methodologies for managing them.
The Indian attitude towards time is more of a relaxed one and they are little concerned with the
time. Moreover, the Indian people are always late in their deadlines which may impact on the
cordial relations between German and the Indians. On the other hand, Germans are very punctual
and cannot bear delay of five minutes in their schedule. It is important to understand the cultural
differences between both the countries and use them so that proper communication can be
maintained between both the countries.

Strict to Rules: India has a high acceptance to vulnerability and has made a community that
keeps running on the principle of assumptions i.e. on the grounds of set assumptions. It usually
acknowledges social manners and standards rather than guidelines along with regulations.
Despite the fact that guidelines do exist, the low level of adherence to them makes enormous
difficulties for companies setting up business in India, especially those companies following
Indians rules and regulations.
Creation of Relationships: The Indian business culture neither focuses more on hard work nor
thinks about quickly achieving company's goals or objectives. Instead they focus more on
building relationships and gaining trust. The establishment of business in Indian culture is
possible by utilizing awareness strategies which causes companies to create procedures so that
the employees better understand the Indian culture and can stay away from disappointment,
ventures, inability to achieve substantial outcomes and conflict because of various inclinations
for connections and relationships (Moran, Harris, & Moran, 2011).
Communication Language: The most common language to deal with foreign investors in India
is English. The level of English language of some persons is quite high and especially those
persons who are living in urban cities. Understanding Indian English can be a challenge because
of the distinctive vocabulary, articulations and heavy accents. Many individuals are uninformed
of this dissimilarity and anticipate that communication with Indians will be easier. Rather,
numerous worldwide companies mistakenly translate the Indian English and think that Indians
English is the after-effect of their pitiable language skills as well as poor education. Familiarity
with Indian English can enable German person to reduce misunderstanding and loss of time
(Minkov, 2011).
Indians way of Communication: Indians prefer visual language. In simple words, Indians like
to see the entire picture. The impact on relationships, non-verbal communication and feelings or
expressions is few things that are highly preferred by Indians. Thus, Indians will regularly keep
themselves away from saying 'no'. The difference in communication manner can make an
extensive difficulty for somebody who is accustomed to conveying in a more straightforward and
low setting way.

While working together in India; understanding the cultural differences is just the initial step for
German person. German person should comprehend what, why and how to deal with these
cultural differences and this can be done by developing some approaches. The business in India
will enable German organisations to get huge opportunities like opening doors and advantages of
working together in India. It will also help German companies to build up an intercultural
equipped workforce which understand and acknowledge the difference between different
cultures.
German culture is quite different from Indian culture in many ways like Germans do not have
any caste basis system. And due to this, they treat all the people, seniors and juniors as equally.
They like to complete the task within deadline as they are punctual and do not make excuses for
work, the priority of Germans do not get changed as per their needs as they do work in defined
way and do not like to change things on varying conditions. Apart from all these, there might be
some other culture differences present between both the nations because the differences in
business culture between Germany and India is not limited (Singh, et, al, 2013).
CONCLUSION
In this project, the discussion is carried out about the behavioural as well as cultural difference
amid Indians and Germans and it can be inferred that these two cultures have uniqueness. Much
the same as with people, nobody is perfect and great, there will be some plus and minus always
present in humans. So the most ideal approach to manage each other is to adjust and
acknowledge each other's way of life as well as manage wherever it is essential. As it is known
worldwide that India is the most potential market in Asia for German ventures and the other way
around, it will be a joy to see the Indo-German ties getting more grounded and strong frequently.
Some German companies already doing good in Indian market are Volkswagen, Bosch, and
Henkel and so on.
RECOMMENDATIONS
India is a mixed market sector; therefore, the demand to establish business in Indian market is
high. There is an enormous diversity in India; thus customer demands and requirements are also
different. For that reason, German person should make their decisions thoroughly as well as they
should target customer as per their preferences.

Regardless of continuous acceptance of foreign or western products by Indians yet there are large
numbers of Indians who are afraid of foreign penetration in their market. The reasons being
mostly Indians are old-fashioned and only minority of young age groups living in city have
changed their mindset and accepted the western products. Therefore, it is important to
understand Indian culture involvedness before entering German person in Indian market.
Conclusively, it can be stated that it is important to understand that there are cultural difference
between different locations (Hopkins, 2016). It is important to study the difference between
different places and the cultural differences of other people should be respected.

REFERENCES
Borker, D.R., 2012. Accounting, culture, and emerging economies: IFRS in the BRIC countries.
Journal of Business & Economics Research (Online), 10(5), p.313.
Hopkins, B. 2016. Cultural Differences and Improving Performance: How Values and Beliefs
Influence Organizational Performance. CRC Press.
Kumar, R. and Sethi, A., 2016. Doing business in India. Springer.
Minkov, M. 2011. Cultural Differences in a Globalizing World. Emerald Group Publishing.
Moran, R.T., Harris, P.R., & Moran, S. V. 2011. Managing Cultural Differences: Global
Leadership Strategies for Cross-cultural Business Success. Routledge.
Singh, A.N., Picot, A., Kranz, J., Gupta, M.P. and Ojha, A., 2013. Information security
management (ism) practices: Lessons from select cases from India and Germany. Global Journal
of Flexible Systems Management, 14(4), pp.225-259.
Trompenaars, F. and Hampden-Turner, C., 2011. Riding the waves of culture: Understanding
diversity in global business. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.