Working with India

Globalization requires effective international and cross-cultural collaboration. When project teams from Western cultures first come into contact with colleagues from the Indian IT and BPO industry, prejudices against the new and unknown are typically amplified. This book is a start on the journey of cultural appreciation for managers, project leaders, and offshore coordinators working together with Indians. It is also a resource for business managers and company strategists seeking to understand the softer aspects behind the headlines that the Indian IT and BPO industry so frequently creates. Being both academically well researched and an account of the author's many years of personal experience in India, the book opens with a description of cultural dimensions that help to break down culturally driven matters. It provides background information about India as a country and a social system. Examining the development and current status of India's IT and BPO industry, it moves on to describe the dynamics of its workforce. The book then provides practical information on how to communicate, negotiate, and interact with Indian colleagues, and intelligently utilize expatriates. It closes by formulating recommendations for a more effective collaboration.

Wolfgang Messner is a director with Capgemini India in Bangalore and responsible for offshore delivery; he is experienced in business consulting and managing cross-cultural teams. His association with the IT industry on the subcontinent dates back to 1998 when he was an expatriate project manager for Deutsche Bank in India. He also spent a term as visiting faculty for marketing at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

He holds a doctorate in marketing from the University of Kassel (Germany), an MBA from the University of Wales (UK), and an advanced degree in computing science after studies at the Technical University Munich (Germany) and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (UK).