Summary: Submit your comment, sit tight and in time it will appear. No need to retype or resubmit it if you don’t see it appear right away.

A buddy helped me fix my recent blog technology problems. As part of his fix, submitted comments now go into a moderation/hold pool, and then I approve them for publication. Most bloggers do this anyway. Before, all comments appeared as soon as they were submitted. Some days I will get this holding tank sooner than other days to click on the approve button so your comments appear for publication. Will depend on work flow. All non-spam comments will be approved for publication as submitted. I am advised this new process should help better prevent some of the tech problems I have been having lately.

I am of the view that as a general rule in business, the deal and its details, and whether they make sense for both sides and the transaction is profitable, are the main drivers of success.  Not the cultural differences and nuances.  I.e, it is critical that you master your skills and coursework in OB, Econ, Stats, Marketing, Accounting, Finance, Operations, Strategy, MIS, Law, Negotiations, Ethics,  etc.  This international field study is not an excuse to minimize your performance in those areas.

When this rule is violated, or when people enter a deal and do not understand the core business issues and what they are agreeing to, chances are there will be big trouble and a monetary loss (not profit), lawyers retained and lawsuits filed.

This includes not just domestic but also global business and transactions in places like China and India.

This is not to say that the cultural understandings and sensitivities that surround any global business transaction are not important and/or that the many cultural insights you will take away from this field study are not important.  They are.

However, I would caution you to not necessarily buy all the hype you may hear that your deal will die if you hand your business card over with one hand versus two, or that you will lose your potential Chinese client if you pass on their late night dinner and karaoke invite to return to your hotel for some sleep because you are jet lagged.

But for an excellent case study and example of a possible exception to the general rule and weighting scale I note above, see this excellent recent front-page Wall Street Journal article, Lenovo Goes Global, But Not Without Strife, on the cultural difference struggles at China-based Lenovo between American and Chinese management.  Clearly, in this case, cultural differences and misunderstandings are jeopardizing success.

(As an aside, the last few years of our trip we visited Lenovo.   An excellent host and an impressive firm.)

Others, including Dan Harris of the always good China Law Blog, have written similar posts on this topic.  See, e.g., the CLB’s recent post, China: When Cultural Differences Matter.   (I had hoped to make this post last week but Dan and others beat me to the punch.)

Late or not, check out the WSJ article.  Good stuff.  Your thoughts?  Are you less or more stressed now about whether your business cards are perfectly translated into Mandarin?

Final point: In China my experience has been that it’s okay to make cultural mistakes and gaffes as long as the other person feels that you care about them, their culture and are making an sincere effort to understand and connect.   It is not okay to not care or be a person who does everything right and by the book but your heart is not in it (the Chinese (and Indians) are not stupid; they can sense a faker and somebody only interested in making a buck a mile away).

As part of this course I encourage you to start thinking more about how the world sees us, versus how you see the rest of the world.  This will help make you a better, more effective business person in the future.  It will also help make your experience in China and India more meaningful.

To that end, please peruse Dan Harris of the China Law Blog’s recent post, President-Elect Obama: The China View.

Let’s try to keep this post and topic on track and relevant to an MBA and MS in IT program and what you study in your core and elective coursework.  With respect to the Obama win, what does that mean for US-China business relations?  Our two economies?

Do some digging and what other resources can you find  to share with us that shed additional light and a different take on the topic of this post?

What about India?  How do Indians and their business stakeholders see this development?

Of course, this conclusion depends what you are measuring and/or what you value.

Many of you are reading Fareed Zarkaria’s, book The Post American World for your book review this quarter.

A good discussion has been going on over at the China Law Blog re: one of the central themes of this book.

Click HERE to check it out.

And here is a nice short  video of Zakaria talking about four things that he believes bode well for America.

Your thoughts?

Post by Professor Jay Singh.

The below videos provide you with foundational information to get you thinking about India, and business issues related thereto.

1. India Rising - (10:14 minutes; ABC News)

An interesting commentary on the reasons behind the emergence of India as a global leader. Check out the comments by Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys regarding the number of applicants applying for IT jobs with the company. The Indian IT industry has a reached a point where they are now starting to employ US graduates. This largest and most diverse democracy is identified as the most pro-US country outside of the US. Comments by Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat, illustrate his sentiments on the peaceful nature of this country as well as the tremendous potential that he sees in the population that comprises of 700 million citizens (that is almost 2.5 times the US population) under the age of 35. The video also explains how entrepreneurship does not bias against the poor in India.

2. India Shining by Colin Mutchler (6:04 minutes)

A narrative by a professor from INSEAD business school with campuses in France and Singapore. He mentions his experiences from a class that included 20 students, 2 professors and several entrepreneurs, business persons and venture capitalists in the cities of Mumbai and Bangalore. Phrases used tro describe India in this video are functional anarchy, chaotic democracy, lumbering elephant, and 20th century head on a 19th century body. It also mentions how the rapidly improving services sector in India is causing a brain gain rather than a brain drain. Up to 70,000 business leaders from the likes of the Silicon Valley are heading home annually to take advantage of the booming economy. The quote at the end of the video very aptly summarizes the professor’s experience.

3. Amitabh Bachchan recites India Poised Anthem (2:13 minutes)

Amitabh Bachchan is the biggest super star the Indian movie industry (Bollywood) has ever seen. He has also had his fair share of successes and failures as an entrepreneur. When he speaks India listens. In this video he truly motivates the Indian population to feel a sense of pride and optimism. He talks of optimism versus skepticism that is India.

4. Taj Mahal (8:31 minutes) (do search noted above)

Should we again be able to add India into the trip one of the treats for all students on the International Business Trip, 2009 will be the Taj Mahal that has recently made it into the 7 wonders of the world. This beautiful mausoleum, made entirely of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones, was built by Emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal over 400 years ago. More information on this a UNESCO World Heritage Site (1983) is available here. Enjoy the toe tapping bollywood music in the background.

5. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (8:22 minutes)

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), are an elite group of seven autonomous engineering and technology oriented institutes of higher education established and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Government of India. The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India after independence in 1947. Admission is very competitive, given the huge population of India; the undergraduate acceptance rate through JEE has a low ratio, around 1 in 55, with about 300,000 annual test takers for about 5,500 seats. Imagine that!! The IITs were ranked third-best worldwide for technology, after MIT and University of California, Berkeley.

This video gives an excellent overview of one of the institutes.

6. The William Jefferson Clinton Science & Technology Center (6:23 minutes)

While the video titled Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur helps illustrate the high standards of engineering and technology education in India, this video provides an example of the paradigm shift in mass education in the world’s second highest populated nation. Vinod Gupta, an IIT’ ian, moved to the US to seek a career as did a record 70% of his fellow graduates (this is what they mean by brain drain, which has dramatically decrease to about 30% in recent years). With President Clinton’s support he established a school that helps provide cutting edge education in science and technology at high school level to over 550 students from nearly surrounding 31 villages.

7. India ‘Vision 2020′ - A Creative Documentary (7:21 minutes)

This documentary provides a vision of an India in 2020 where:

The annual GDP growth rate will be 9% (presently at 6.8%)
Only 10% of the population will be below poverty line (presently at 25%)

Nuclear power stations will provide 20,000 MWe power
Remote services will contribute $133-315 billion in revenues to the Indian economy

This documentary may have romanticized some of the facts but is not too off from the future that is India.

8. The Simpsons - India Outsourcing (7:28 minutes)

This episode was good enough to cause belly splitting laughter but it appears to have been recently removed. This episode makes light of the outsourcing issues that had the pundits in the US running scared not too long ago. Last heard, Homer was deported from India wonder why …

What are some of your takeaways from one or more of these videos?