Do We Need to Understand More About Indian Culture?
Having traveled and lived abroad as much as I have, and also having conducted so many research projects globally, I feel I know quite a bit about various cultures, religions and politics around the world. Still I was surprised by a small article in yesterdays’ local paper and realized I don’t know enough about Indian culture.
Though mentioned in the news now and then, it seems separation of church and state is more or less taken for granted here in the US and most of Europe. I realized I have never heard much about the issue in India. Anyway, apparently an Indian business school just named a Hindu monkey god “Hanuman” as its chairman!
The position comes with an incense-filled office, a desk and a laptop computer. Four chairs will be placed facing the empty seat reserved for the holy chairman, but all visitors must enter the office barefoot.
According to the Schools Vice Chairman, Vivek Kangdi, “When we were looking for a chairman for our institution, we scanned many big names in the field of technology and management. Ultimately, we settled for Lord Hanuman, as none was bigger than him,”
Curious why this got so much media attention? Also wondering if we need to learn more about Indian culture? [Obviously a lot of us in market research off-shore to India, I’ve done so in the past myself a few years ago (more on that in another post). India it also going to be the worlds largest country/market soon.]
-Tom
9 responses so far ↓
1 Devesh // Jun 10, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I guess there’s nothing else CNN and Fox could get their hands to report on…If Jesus can be the co-pilot for some, why can’t Hanuman be the Chairman of a business school… Its the belief, the faith we are talking about…one may have in something the other doesn’t and vice-versa… Personally, I find the whole situation nothing but funny…
2 Anon // Jun 10, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Does Hanuman have anything to do with the US co. Humana (HUM)?
3 Souri // Jun 10, 2008 at 5:53 pm
What if one suddenly discovers oneself at the town square wearing nightdress?
That person’s excuse could be anything for sleep walking to being kidnapped by aliens & being dumped at the town square.
You are free to draw your own conclusion.
This is one of those inexplicable ones. This is incredible India.
4 Democrati1 // Jun 10, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Apparently Lord Hanuman is making a lot of news lately. He is also popular with US Presidential candidate Barack Obama: http://www.time.com/time/politics/whitehouse/photos/0,27424,1811278,00.html
No way this guy is getting elected now
5 PlanetOFapes // Jun 10, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I’m wondering how we can off-shore market research to them. How are they to understand and analyse consumer behaviour over here if their culture is so different?
6 Bryan // Jun 10, 2008 at 10:05 pm
My guess is that there is a little bit of monkey business going on in the technology market at schools in India. I think they may now have a credibility gap.
Or could it be a ploy to get free publicity to attract someone?
Certainly it must be a slow news day for CNN et al…
7 Beth // Jun 11, 2008 at 8:29 am
(grin) - You have to understand the culture in which the school exists - because outside that understanding it of course doesn’t make any sense at all. That one move will attract a specific niche of students and that may be the group of students specifically targeted for some other unapparent reason. Check it out before you dump it.
8 Mark // Jun 11, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I saw this story as well. In brief, my reactions were: 1) Slow news day (as others have pointed out). 2) It made me think of that fad a few years back where management gurus were quoting “The Art of War”. 3) I wondered what it would feel like to be one of the other candidates, and finding out who you lost out to… (seems like the sort of position that would be advertised in “The Economist”).
9 Tom H. C. Anderson // Jun 12, 2008 at 8:58 am
Could have been a nice SEO coup, but I wasn’t able to find their URL anywhere on the web. They should have registered the name Humana.edu and some sort of slogan “Guru of Business Gurus”.
Almost any PR is good PR, but business is a very internationally competitive field, and India is trying so hard to get business in the West. I’m not sure how great of an idea it was on a macro level. If countries had an executive communications/pr department, this decision might have been blocked.
Of course, then Korean companies would also be forced to act differently, as I’m sure the Korean government would prefer Samsung and LG to be thought of as Korean not Japanese.
The joys and pains of globalization…
Leave a Comment