How India Works

An article in the Harvard Business Review once said that the most valuable skill for the 21st century manager is the ability to work across cultures. Around the world, it is increasingly recognized that an understanding of a country's work culture plays a significant part in success at one's job. Every group of people has subtle drivers of behaviour, values and beliefs, an understanding of which could help you navigate your way around the workplace. Indians are no exception. We have some innate strengths that we seldom take credit for. Like the uncommon capacity to deal with ambiguity and to think on the fly; the emphasis we place on forming and sustaining relationships at work; and the willingness to go beyond the call of duty as we see our jobs as an extension of our personal lives. And then there are traits that may confuse the uninitiated at first and need some getting used to - such as saying 'yes' to an assigned task when we actually mean 'no', our flexible attitude to time, and the famous Indian head wag. Based on extensive interviews with corporate leaders - Indians as well as expatriates and repatriates, who offer insider and outsider perspectives on the psyche of the Indian in the workplace - How India Works is a guide to the cultural nuances and complexities of working in India. It will make your life in office a little easier.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

For a nation that has one of the highest growth rates in the world, India is plagued by poverty and corruption. Sixty years after Independence, India accounts for around 36 per cent of the world's poor. The deepening fault lines between the haves and the have-nots have given rise to skewed development and widespread discontent. William Nanda Bissell, Managing Director of the successful Fabindia chain, believes India's poverty is a direct result of its poor management by ruling elites who have mastered the art of winning elections but have no interest in the deeper issues of governance. He argues that economic development that consumes large amounts of natural resources and generates enormous pollution is not a luxury available to countries that are beginning their development now. Instead, he proposes a radical, new paradigm for development that delinks consumption from quality of life without destroying the natural environment in the process. Making India Work echo the ideas and beliefs that underpin the Constitution of India; but it ventures beyond the hackneyed phrases of development to focus on strategies which can, Bissell believes, end poverty in India in five years.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1871.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1873.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.