Setting up a GCC: Cultural Sensitivity

 This might not be an immediate challenge but becomes important as the India Center grows. While this could be a huge topic in itself, the following are two major ones that will impact the quality of communication between India and other sites. 

·      have High Context (indirect, rely more non-verbal communication, relationship-oriented), 

·      exhibit High power-distance (automatically respect and value elders and higher-ranked people, hierarchy conscious)

 

Both these means dropping hints, having difficulty to say NO to seniors, long conversations and/or email before coming to the point etc., Further people do not easily speak up, but tend to sulk later. Most people are uncomfortable talking about their contributions and even have difficulty accepting sincere compliments (though they’d be yearning for recognition!). Even seasoned experts tend to keep quiet unless specifically asked to weigh-in. Many people take a lot of time to open up and express their true feelings/opinions.

 

Couple of best practices are:

• Arrange a formal “cultural sensitivity” training for people on both sides
• Make expectations and assumptions clear
• Go first, Go positive, Assume noble intent on everyone’s part and give more benefit of doubt
• Periodically review the need, cadence and duration of every meeting across the globe (people may resent too many evening calls but may not tell due to cultural norms discussed above!)

 

Good to know:

• The DEIB issues in India has a different flavour than what is seen in the western world. Assuming it is the same and expecting people to participate in similar ways (on initiatives) usually would make people annoyed.
• Most people in India accept working outside the standard office hours to interact with their counter parts on the other side of the globe. However, we need to strike a right balance (of having people involved and #meetings outside standard hours)

Related posts on "Setting up a GCC":

• Introduction
• Location within India
• Choice of the Site Leader
• Regulatory approvals
• Hiring the core team
• Hiring enabling team
• Infrastructure
• Scaling up and Staffing models
• Setting-up the India team to succeed

Setting up a GCC: Setting up the India center for success

Assuming that the setting-up activities are done and that the GCC has become operational, it  is critical that the leadership team sets clear expectations to the team in India and set them up for long term success. A great Site Leader who acts “in spirit” as the CEO or the founder for the GCC, can make it lot easier for the parent team. Some best practices include:

• Immersive induction training for the senior people, at the parent company where they learn about the business, technology and customers and get to know senior execs and the key people they’d be working with.
• Setting up a 30day and 90day goals and set-up a regular quarterly review of the performance of the site (this is outside of the standard program review meetings and other agile ceremonies). Arriving at site maturity matrix and setting goals to move to highest levels can really work wonders.
• Set-up a Board of Directors (possibly outside of the legal requirement), made up of key stakeholders. This group should meet regularly as a small team (different from the quarterly meetings mentioned above) and have the Site Leader talk about goals, challenges and the help-needed, and the board could offer their perspective and guidance. I’ve seen that this idea creating a strong bond, help build commitment and help succeed beyond what is merely expected.
• Allocate considerable budget for travel (both from India and to India) of key stakeholders. Have the India leaders actively participate in strategy and other such meetings, where appropriate. 
• Encourage senior technical and management leads in the India center to actively participate and contribute to company-wide initiatives.
• Do not restrict the India center to mere execution, and provide opportunities to contribute for architectures, long term plans, idea generation and innovation. This helps both to unlock the immense potential and also to retain people.
• To fully utilize the potential of the GCC, it is important to grow other functions too (Product, Services, Customer Success) especially after the engineering team mature. Some even move sales backend, IT and such functions too.

Good to know:

• Expanding work to low cost centers invariably creates anxiety and insecurity amongst a few and it has the potential to derail the broad objectives. It is essential that everyone in the parent company be upfront briefed about the reasons for opening an India center and possibly allay their fears.
• While India has made rapid progress on technology front, there still exists several 3^rd world challenges. Further, there are certain cultural aspects (see next section) that mandates certain changes to be made in the way people (in the parent company) work. Leads and managers leading people in India, might need specific training on managing people remotely.
• Too much matrix management during the initial days makes life difficult for people on both sides. It is better to have only the Site Leader report directly to the parent organization. Even folks in support functions like HR, finance etc., should have only dotted line reporting to their functional heads in the parent company, atleast till the site attains certain maturity level.

Related posts on "Setting up a GCC":

• Introduction
• Location within India
• Choice of the Site Leader
• Regulatory approvals
• Hiring the core team
• Hiring enabling team
• Infrastructure
• Scaling up and Staffing models
• Cultural Sensitivity