Imagine an Indian company holding its first joint meeting with a team it has acquired overseas. The presentation goes well, the team asks a few questions, and nobody objects. The leaders leave the call thinking they have everyone’s support. A week later, they discover that several people had serious reservations. Some were waiting to speak privately. Others assumed the proposal was still open for discussion.
That is the kind of problem a company encounters once it starts working across borders. Indian businesses in technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and financial services can spend months working through the details of entering a new market. Yet a decision can still stall because two teams have different ideas about what was agreed in a meeting.
What leaders need to notice
Every workplace has unwritten rules about who can challenge a decision, how directly people give feedback and when a commitment becomes final. A manager accustomed to colleagues raising concerns privately may find an open challenge in a meeting unusually blunt. A colleague who expects a frank discussion may read the same manager’s silence as agreement. Both may be trying to act professionally.
Similar differences can surface in negotiations. One business partner may want to invest time in building a relationship before settling the details. Another may see a clear written agreement as the first step towards building trust. A leader who understands both expectations can make room for the relationship and clarify what each side is committing to.
This is where cultural intelligence, or CQ, comes in. It involves learning how other workplaces operate, being willing to engage with unfamiliar practices, questioning your first interpretation of a situation and adjusting your behaviour when needed. National culture can offer some clues, but so can a person’s profession, organisation and experience. The most reliable way to find out what works for a team is to ask. “How would you prefer to receive feedback?” is a question any manager can use.
Working together when the team is spread across countries
On a video call, it is easy to miss who is struggling to get a word in. A short email intended to save time can sound abrupt. And when headquarters chooses the same meeting slot every week, the same colleagues may have to join after hours.
Leaders can improve things with a few habits. Rotate meeting times so the inconvenience is shared. Circulate proposals early enough for people to think them through and offer comments in writing. End each meeting by recording what was agreed, what remains open and who owns the next step. Above all, follow up seriously when someone raises a concern. People take their cues from what happens to the first colleague who speaks up.
Where local teams need room to decide
An Indian company can apply the same standards for quality, ethics and customer commitments across its operations while giving local teams room to decide how to meet them. An overseas subsidiary, for instance, may need to adapt how it handles customer complaints or trains new hires. A process that works well at headquarters may rely on relationships or assumptions that people elsewhere do not share.
Hiring locally helps when those colleagues have a say while decisions are still being made. A country team may spot why a sales approach that worked in India could frustrate customers in its market. It may also develop a better way of doing things that headquarters can learn from. That exchange is one of the benefits of operating internationally.
What business schools can do
On National Education Day, there is a practical question for management educators. How often do we ask students to work with people who approach the same problem differently? A case study on international expansion is a good starting point. A negotiation exercise can take it further. Give students the same business problem, brief them separately on how their teams make decisions, and let them negotiate. Afterwards, ask each side what it thought the other had agreed to. The gap between their answers can be the most instructive part of the exercise.
Exchange programmes and joint projects with students from other countries can build on that experience. So can deliberately mixed teams in our own classrooms. Students can practise giving difficult feedback, listening through disagreement and drawing out someone whose perspective has been overlooked. These skills develop through use, reflection and feedback.
For an Indian business opening its next overseas office, a telling moment may come long after the launch. A local colleague will spot a problem with a plan that headquarters has already endorsed. Will that person feel comfortable saying so? And will the leaders be willing to reconsider? The answers will tell us a great deal about how well the company has learned to work across cultures.
The author is director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Ghaziabad.
