Management Perspectives

Having decided to write on a complex issue like ‘culture’, I decided to first do a little research about what exactly this commonly used charismatic word means. Oxford English Dictionary defines culture as 1. the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively - a refined understanding or appreciation of this. 2. the customs, ideas, and social behaviour of a particular people or group - besides of course biological meanings relating to bacteria, etc. It goes on to define the verb ‘cultured’ as “refined and well educated” and another noun ‘culture shock’ as the ‘feeling of disorientation experienced when suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture or way of life’.

I found the last phrase ‘way of life’ as the most interesting—and logical. So, clearly, culture is not just literature, arts, music, dances, theatre, scriptures, mythology, or our literary festivals; not even just the way we dress up, eat, conduct ourselves with close family and friends; neither is it merely our ancient temples, forts, palaces, cave paintings, sculptures…it is actually a combination of all these and more...it is our ‘way of life’, the way we live! There is culture of individuals, societies, communities, religions, corporations, institutions and countries as a whole. In short, culture is all pervasive. A close analogy from the world of business will be IT (information technology) that is now an integral part of all businesses—small or big—from standalone shops to gigantic market places, education, manufacturing, services, research, healthcare, governance, elections, public procurement, and distribution systems…..everything depends on IT. To my mind, in a simplistic manner, I think ‘culture is the way we deal with perfect strangers’.

Before proceeding further, let me illustrate my point with couple of personal experiences from my travels — first about America, that land of opportunities, once the greatest democracy in the world, a depository of best education and research, etc. Sadly, their culture is not something to be proud of.

I received my first shock many years ago. I was staying with friends in the suburban New Jersey town of Wayne. I was to take a flight from Newark airport. My host was getting late for his office and so dropped me some place not far from the airport — “5 minutes by taxi,” I was told. I tried to hail many cabs but all were occupied in the peak hour traffic. The clock kept moving and it was getting dangerously close to the flight departure time. I became panicky and started waving at every passing car. Soon a beautiful long limousine stopped, the driver pushed a button to lower the right side window glass and asked where I wanted to go. As I started to pour out my tale of woe - “Never mind”, he said, “I can take you if you pay $20.” The guy looked prosperous and I thought he was joking. Nevertheless, I got in and sure enough he drove straight to the departure terminal at Newark. I thanked him profusely and as I was getting out “Hey, you are forgetting the twenty dollars” reminded my benefactor! Anyway I managed to check in for my flight. It’s a different matter that the taxi would have cost just a dollar.

The second encounter was worse. I was entertaining a Swedish friend and his Indian wife in restaurant restaurant in New York. From the moment we entered this glittering place, we were treated like royalty. Elegant females flitting around the place, ushering guests to their tables, beautiful damask linen, gleaming silver and crystal, wine steward suggesting the best that France and Scotland could offer, and an even more snobbish captain to help you order. Everything went off like a dream sequence and after 2 and a 1/2 hours, we were truly sozzled and satiated. I asked for the check and it was placed before me on a sparkling silver salver.

That was when I noticed a bold printed slip right on top: “To appreciate the good service, may we suggest you tip a minimum of 15 per cent for the waiter and another five per cent for the captain.” I was dumbfounded by the audacity of it all so looked askance at the Indian lady; she just shrugged and muttered in Hindi “Guess you have to pay otherwise these guys will create a scene.” So I counted out the money - I had no international credit card those days and wanted to pick up the printed sermon and the bill. “That’s not for you, Sir, I will just get the receipt”, bellowed the big bully from behind as he whisked away the salver from under my nose. Soon he was back with the tear off counterfoil of the receipt, duly stamped and signed but without mentioning any amount. With a benevolent grin, our worthy captain announced that it was my prerogative to fill up the same. Exploit the company expense account and hell with the IRS! As long as you pay them 20 per cent, they didn’t care what you claimed from your employers.

And now, I will narrate about a very different country—equally great as far as technology and manufacturing are concerned but the opposite in many other ways. Circa 1974 - as invitees on the inaugural JAL jumbo flight, from Bangkok to Tokyo, we had been put up at the spanking new Hotel New Otani. After a delightful teppanyaki lunch at the Rose Gardens, we took the elevated monorail to Tokyo Central, from where we would take the tube to our hotel.

Armed with the address of the hotel in Japanese, we were quite ready to venture out on our own. A motley group of 14 to 13 men and a lone woman, from India and Pakistan— most of us were in this wonderful country for the first time. No one understood a word of the Japanese language. Perfect colour coding of the metro lines made transiting underground fairly easy. We were discussing whether it would not be better to get down at an earlier station from where the hotel should be closer. Despite looking around frantically we could not locate anyone who would follow English and guide us. Suddenly a young school girl—perhaps 10 or 12 years old—got up from her group, came up to us, curtsied—as only the Japs can—and in halting English asked us to disembark at the next station from where she would put us in taxies for the New Otani nearby.

Gratified with her gesture, we followed her out of the train. She called four cabs and gave instructions to the drivers. Out of politeness I asked her if one of the cabs could drop her at her house before going to the hotel. Her answer floored us completely; “No, I thank you, I go back, take next train to my station.” Imagine a young kid, leaving her school group and her train to help strangers—and that too without asking. This was definitely a different world!

On another occasion, I was roaming around the Shinju-ku area looking for a particular store. I stopped two teenagers and showed them the slip of paper on which I had written the store’s name. Very apologetically they shrugged and showed their ignorance, all the time mispronouncing ‘sorry’ as ‘solly’. A few minutes later, I heard someone me out, and looked back to find the same boys running up to me, all smiles and bidding me to stop.

I was amazed when one of them said “We telephone, we find your store, we take you” and beckoned me to follow till we reached the place I was looking for. “’Solly’, we did not know first,” was their parting sentence, leaving me completely stumped with their extra ordinary painstaking decency. In yet another encounter, it was the taxi driver who was just too good. I wanted to visit the Taiwanese Consulate for a visa. The hotel concierge had written the address in Japanese and asked me to show it to the driver. This place was located in some Godforsaken, crowded area and with their funny street numbering system, there was no way I could have found the place on my own. The taxi driver saw the address, nodded affirmatively, and started. Throughout the half hour that we were on the road, going through a million turns and intersections, he must have spoken to his office on the radio phone at least twenty times, always looking at the address slip and obviously making enquiries. Not once did I notice any hint of annoyance on his face. There was a big grin when he finally pulled up and pointed out the small signboard in an old office block.

I thanked him, saw the meter and handed over enough yens to cover a generous tip. As I tried to open the door, it was locked. My good man turned back, smiled, and motioned for me to wait. Only after he had fished out the exact change from a conveniently hung pouch in front and handed it over to me, did he unlock the doors, indicated a firm no to the tip and bowed a hundred times, apologising for the long time it had taken him to find my destination. How do you explain such humility?

A friend tells me of yet another pleasant experience. He lost the handbag containing his passport, money, tickets, etc. on a shopping trip. His frantic call to the Indian embassy received a cool response; there is no need to worry, just leave your contact number with us and relax; you will get your bag. Sure enough, there was a call from the embassy within half an hour. Someone had found the bag at a shop, seen the Indian passport, and called our embassy to tell them from where it could be collected. Nothing was taken from the bag, not even the cash. There are numerous such cases of the Japanese sense of concern for others, their helpful nature, their disdain for gratuities and tips, and their desire to go out of their way to help aliens. All this co-exists with their blatant sense of overkill in business, their use of all overt and covert measures during negotiations, which only strengthen their enigmatic image for the rest of us lesser mortals.

There is of course much more to ‘culture’ than just these stories. I have recently come across an excellent write up about the ‘1944 Bombay Plan’ conceived by Mr. J R D Tata and some other industrialists including Mr. G D Birla and Lala Shri Ram, who had all anticipated India’s imminent independence from the British and thought about the need to tackle the country’s economy—brought to zilch during the 200 years of British rule. The detailed paper—which naturally stung the British viceroy and even the Secretary of State in London who tried to stifle wide circulation of the same—is a beautiful example of the ‘corporate culture of the companies involved’ who took it upon themselves to prepare the yet-to-be-born nation. The document emphasised on ‘prosperity for all’ and talked about ‘food with adequate nutrition for all’, textiles, edible oils, leather and basic industries like power, mining, engineering, armaments, transportation, and also consumer goods mentioned above.

‘Giving to the needy’ is yet another important aspect of culture. Traditionally, our ancestors always believed in philanthropy— some were known to regularly assign as much as 10 per cent of their earnings (daswansh) to charity. But some of our present-day individuals like Azim Premji have been more generous donating almost 10,000 crores in 2021 alone and that too without much fanfare. Recently the families of Mind Tree co-founders have donated 450 crores to the Indian Institute of Science for building an 800-bed hospital and a medical school in Bengaluru. Also, from the same city, founder chairman of the same company (now heading another company) has set aside 250 crore for research in the neurological field.

For over a century, Tatas have made giving a tradition. Starting the country’s first ever pension scheme in 1887 at Empress Mills, Nagpur (one of their first businesses set ups in 1877), India’s first Provident fund in1901, maternity benefits for workers in 1921, funding ASI’s efforts to do archeological excavations in 1912 that led to the discovery of Mauryanperiod construction of Patliputra (near what is now Patna) including the fabled 100-column throne room of emperor Ashoka, financing India’s first ever Olympic team to Antwerp in 1920, backing of the Sarda Act in 1929 that made child marriage illegal, setting up Tata Memorial Hospital in 1941, Tata Institute of Fundamental research in 1945, deputing personnel from Tata Institute of Social Sciences for registration of refugees in 1947, and persuading Nehru ji to initiate the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund in the same year. Not to forget the setting up of the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Bombay in 1969. That’s ‘corporate culture’ at its finest. No wonder there are often cases of ‘misfits’ in a company due to difference in culture and serious issues when two companies try to merge.

As I have mentioned in the beginning; arts, music, dances, theatre, scriptures, mythology, literature festivals, ancient temples, forts, palaces, cave paintings, carvings, and sculptures are all part of our glorious heritage and culture, but if I was asked to name just one phrase to describe culture, it would definitely be ‘Way of life’ and the manner in which we deal with perfect strangers.

To end the write up, permit me to recall an amusing incident, at a friend’s dinner, almost half a century ago. The host was introducing me to one of the guests—head of a big British company in India. As we were shaking hands, this venerable gentleman pulled out the pen in my jacket’s front pocket and tucked it into one of the inner ones, saying “Krishan, never put your pen in the front pocket even, if it is a Mont Blanc. This pocket is only for a silk square.” We met many times after that and he enlightened me about using shirts with double cuffs and links, no pocket on shirts worn with suits, matching socks with ties, belts with shoes….and also “don’t ever cut your bread, you only break it, your breakfast eggs should always be sunny-side-up with a rash of fried bacon, some mashed potatoes and grilled tomato halves on the side, let your tea brew for 10 minutes before pouring it into your cup, never sip it at a temperature higher than 140 degrees Fahrenheit, of course without adding any milk or sugar.….”. Excellent primer for British culture—how to dress up and eat—but totally wasted on a rustic like me, who avoids wearing suits as far as possible and enjoys his piping hot kadak chai with malai from a glass; also, often eats his masala omelet for breakfast rolled up in bread or a parantha while being driven to the office!

I will stick to ‘way of life’ as the best definition for culture. Amen.