It’s not about the number of meetings you have, but the number of cups of chai you drink. That’s how I tend to measure success nowadays. In India, business gets done by who you know. It’s a cliche, but in India, it’s a fact. It’s all about personal connections, and meeting the right people. It’s sort of like walking through a jungle and knowing you have to get to the end, but not really knowing what path you need to take. The only way is to have guides along the way (who know the jungle) to get you from A to B. And those guides usually require approvals from higher authorities to proceed/help you out. Half the battle is won if you have a signature/approval from the right person. Which logically makes sense. If you are a large organization and you need control, you can’t have people doing whatever they want to whenever they feel like it . Bureaucratic systems have a negative connotation, but honestly, it’s hard to envision an alternative. (I”m not saying that doesn’t happen, I”m just saying that on paper that makes logical sense). Which means that it will be hard to find people in India who will stick their neck out for you without a) approval, or b) an introduction from a trusted person who vouches for you.
What does that mean for an entrepreneur who is doing things that are new? It means a couple of things.
- You need to figure out the system (i.e. the path to get to the end of the forest) to get the approvals you need to get to do the things you need to do. Why is this a big deal? Approvals take time. Time= money (especially for an entrepreneur) This is the first time personal connections come into play. You need people to tell you the real deal, so you can accurately gauge the work ahead. Also, sometimes there are shortcuts (i.e. if you talk to him, he plays squash with him, and he will take over his position next year, and he is interested in this because he believes this is good for India) which different people can tell you about. You need to always be on the lookout for those.
- You have to weigh the consequences of these approvals. You have to understand that these officials can also say no, and shut down everything you are doing. Just like that. So you have to tread carefully. Sometimes, it’s best if you try to get as much as you can done without approvals, then build a case for why this approval needs to happen (i.e. why is it beneficial for them), and then present it to the proper authorities. You know that it will be beneficial for everyone, but really, they have no reason to trust you without proof. And honestly, you don’t know their motivations. Things are not black and white and it would be naive to think they are. India is a land where everything mixes (family ties, politics, national pride, religion, regional issues, doing the right thing- you name it, it’s an influencer)
- Which brings us to the point of personal connections. If you get people to vouch for you, you can get more done with less approvals. This translates to getting things done faster. Now you still need approvals to scale, but it’s much easier to get said approvals much faster if you a) have a good case as to why it should be approved (with evidence), b) you have someone vouching for you and c) you get the time to figure out who to make it a win for that official and a win for you as well.
Basically, number one takeaway is that knowledge is stored in people (from the janitor to the president). If you don’t like meeting people, and knowing people, and taking time to figure out systems, business in India is probably not something you want to look into. Luckily, this is the stuff that gets me excited. It’s like a puzzle, and the pieces are the bits of information people have stored away, and you need to really talk to people and listen to people in order to put the puzzle together. It takes time, but once you do, you should see the results. You get an amazing tapestry of Indian business. It really takes your breath away sometimes- that a system as complicated as this actually works.
Findings will follow in coming posts