Understanding Indian Business Etiquette: A Guide for Mary's Expansion

This essay delves into the intricacies of Indian business etiquette, offering a comprehensive guide for Australian business owners, specifically using the case of Mary, the owner of 'The Aroma Shop,' who aims to expand her business to India. The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding Indian business practices and cultural nuances to ensure successful interactions and establish a favorable first impression, particularly when meeting with Mr. Sharma, a manager of a popular store in India. It explores essential business etiquette, including communication styles, presentation, and interpersonal behavior, highlighting the significance of politeness and respect. Furthermore, the essay utilizes Hofstede's cultural framework to analyze the cultural differences between India and Australia, focusing on dimensions such as power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence. This analysis provides Mary with valuable insights into adapting her business strategies to the Indian market. The essay also suggests practical steps Mary can take, such as understanding the local market, adapting to communication styles, and considering potential challenges like finding business partners and navigating cultural differences. Ultimately, the essay aims to equip Mary with the knowledge and strategies necessary to navigate the Indian business landscape and achieve her expansion goals.

RUNNING HEAD: COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS 0
Communication in Business

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This essay is designed to understand the business etiquettes those are used in India and the
steps used in business that must be follow by any company or individual to flourish their
business in India. This essay is based on case of Mary an Australian she is an owner of ‘The
Aroma Shop’ and a small factory in Newcastle, she want to set-up her business of Chilli
sauces, pastes, chutneys and jams in India. To establish her business she is going to meet Mr
Sharma a manger of popular store in India. This essay will explain how Mary will conduct
business in India and with the help of Hofstede’s cultural framework Mary will come to
know the way she need to follow while communicating with Mr Sharma. The essay also
includes essential steps Mary needs to make the meeting successful. This essay focuses on
communication skill to enhance the meeting and to avoid the chances of cross-cultural
miscommunication.
Indian business etiquettes refer to the way of conducting and leading the business activities in
the country. The basic business etiquettes are applied when the business were at working
mode. Business etiquettes include the systematic approach that will help business owner in
establishing and running business. To grow the business in the country the people should
know how they should treat the other people and business etiquettes help them in knowing
this concept. The basic business etiquettes of the business is the owner should be polite
towards others. It is important that the people should know that while communicating with
other what information they should share and what not (Laleman, Pereira and Malik, 2015).
The person need to presentable during business meeting, because there pleasing presentation
will tell the financial position and reputation of the company. While doing business the
person needs to adopt the polite behaviour toward its employees that will make the working
of company smooth (Carbaugh, 2013). The owner must listen to its employees and take their
opinion to make the working easy. By following basic etiquettes, the company can survive
and expand their business in long run.

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A better understanding of culture of particular region play a vital or significant role in
exploring and expanding business activities in International market. Mary can use Hofstede’s
cultural model to understand the cultural issues and to reduce the barriers of Indian Market.
The Hofstefde’s theory is based on the six dimensions, by taking these six dimensions the
model provide or give scores to every country (Hofstede, 2011). The score provide by the
theory will help in comparing the culture of different countries. To understand the cross
culture difference of India and Australia Hofstede’s culture is been followed. The Six
dimensions to discuss the cultural difference of India and Australia are discussed below.
First dimension is Power Distance, the score which India gets in this dimension is 77,
whereas the Australia scored 36 (Hofstede insights, 2018). The difference between scores
makes a huge difference between both countries. The score suggests that power of
organisation is unequally distributed in India. This difference will help Mary in establishing
business in India.
The second dimension includes Individual Versus Collectivism, in the dimension the score of
India is 48 while the score of Australia is 90 (Hofstede insights, 2018). This sores states that
the Australia has a highly individualistic culture. The case study suggested that Mary want to
establish individual business in India, it going to be very hard for her to survive in the
collective market of India.
The third dimension involves Masculinity verse Femininity, in the said dimension the 56 is
been scored by India and 61 is scored by Australia (Hofstede insights, 2018). The scores are
relatively similar that means Australian market considered as a masculine society same as
India. This dimension is going to provide benefit to Mary in doing business in the same
masculine culture. The both countries are regarded to be masculine bodies and therefore the
business can be carried in both companies with the same business strategy.

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The fourth dimension is Uncertainty Avoidance the score earned by India is 40 whereas the
score gained by Australia is 51(Hofstede insights, 2018). This score states that Indian market
is very uncertain in relation to the future possibilities this can create a problem for Mary
while carrying out business in India. This dimension in Australia is intermediate whereas in
India it is high.
Orientation is the fifth dimension of Hofdtede’s theory, in this dimension India earns the long
term orientation score of 61 while on other hand in this dimension Australia score 21
(Hofstede insights, 2018). The score of Australia suggested that it is a normative culture,
while in India the culture plays a very vital role. This can be a problem for Mary, as she has
to face many various difficulties in performing business in Indian with various religions. The
culture of India and Australia is very much different and can become a big hurdle for Mary to
start her business.
The six dimension is Indulgence, India has score 26 and Australia score 56 that suggests that
India has a restraint culture (Hofstede insights, 2018). The restrained communities do not
waste their time and efforts in controlling the gratification of their wants and desires. Because
of this, Mary can take ample of benefits form the Indian Market.
Here some suitable adjustment is been suggested to Mary so that she can establish her
business in Indian market. To establish business in India involve a huge cost and the
techniques that business includes can be overwhelming (Zhang, 2013). The business of Mary
involves products like Chilli sauces, pastes, chutneys and jams and to attract target customers
Mary need to develop and enhance her brand image in Indian society. The main problem,
which Mary is going to face, will be finding a suitable business partner who can help her in
set up the business in India. Mary is an Australian resident and she did not know anything
about the economic condition or market of India and due to lack of information Mary might

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face various issues and problems. The Mary does not consist of proper knowledge of the local
market of India and that can harm her business activities or business can suffer. Above all
these problems, main or big problem, which she is going to face, is a problem of
communication being an Australian it will become hard for her to communicated with Indian
people. The all Indians are not aware of English language and are not confortable in
communicating with tourists properly hence, it will become the problem for Mary to
understand the wants or demand of customers.
To establish business in India Mary need to be aware about the needs and requirement of the
Indian population. For every business, installing of machinery and equipment is very
important task, for Mary understanding the working of the Indian machinery and equipment
is quite difficult. Before setting her business in India, she needs to learn the working system
of Indian machinery so that she can meet the requirements of their customers. To run the
Indian machines and equipment Mary need to take some special training and due to this
training, the cost of product may increase the cost of product. Mary is going to establish new
in Indian market so the future of product is uncertain and due to that the profits of business is
uncertain. The Indian market involves huge cost of investment but the chances of getting
success in Indian market are less (Venaik and Brewer, 2013). That suggest establishing the
business in Indian market will not ensure the profit and success of business.
Before establishing the Business in Indian market there are some recommendations made to
address the issues and problems and to reduce the cost in Indian Market. For every business,
it is important to follow the provided recommendations for its effective working. In the
present time to grow the business, it is important for every business to be active on social
media or on other internet sources and need to keep on updating about the product. Social
media has a reach to inform about product on large scale (Ngai, Tao and Moon, 2015). To
promote the product in India, Mary can hire any advertisement agencies of India the

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advertisement will help her in promoting and distributing the product. The one more strategy
Mary can use is she can connect with the other business of India who is doing same business
to promote her business effectively (Mead and Jones, 2017). It is recommended to Mary to
hire employees, best employees for business provide them proper training and give them
opportunities to involve in the job so she can focus on the promotion of business efficiently.
To carry out business in India she should know the all defined laws and policies. She must
get in touch with various authorities. To set up business in Indian Mary need to focus on
Indian culture, rules and norms. It is suggested that she should follow Business etiquettes
effectively. With the help of Hofstede’s theory, she can become more aware about the
cultural conditions of India that will help her in communicating with Mr Sharma in very
effectively.

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References
Carbaugh, D. ed., (2013). Cultural communication and intercultural contact. Routledge.
Hofstede insights., (2018). The culture factor, Retrieved from https://www.hofstede-
insights.com/country-comparison/
Hofstede, G., (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context. Online
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Laleman, F., Pereira, V. and Malik, A., (2015). Understanding cultural singularities of
‘Indianness’ in an intercultural business setting. Culture and Organization, 21(5), pp.427-
447.
Mead, R. and Jones, C.J., (2017). Cross‐Cultural Communication. The Blackwell Handbook
of Cross
‐Cultural Management, pp.283-291.
Ngai, E.W., Tao, S.S. and Moon, K.K., (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs,
and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information Management, 35(1), pp.33-
44..
Venaik, S. and Brewer, P., (2013). Critical issues in the Hofstede and GLOBE national
culture models. International Marketing Review, 30(5), pp.469-482.
Zhang, Y., (2013). Expatriate development for cross-cultural adjustment: Effects of cultural
distance and cultural intelligence. Human Resource Development Review, 12(2), pp.177-199.