Like everywhere else, politeness in India is considered to be a virtue.

You’ll quickly find that most Indians will go out of their way to be friendly and helpful to you. A traveller will frequently be asked about his nationality, name, marital status, and children, though the limited spread of English tends to restrict the scope of most conversations to simple things. It can be a bit tedious to go around like a walking curriculum vitae, but just keep smiling. This quaint curiosity is built on the best of friendly intentions, and it is part of India’s charm.

While English is certainly the language of business in India with foreigners, remember that the English spoken is British English. Therefore, avoid common British-American misunderstandings, such as "tabling this for now" (British English means "let’s put it on the table and talk about it now"), and the use of American sports slang "that idea is from left field." Even common American business acronyms, such as ASAP or FYI may not be understood in India – avoid them.

So, before you plan your trip to Mumbai (known until 1995 as Bombay) or New Delhi, keep these cultural tips in mind.

The traditional greeting in India is the "Namaste."

Hold both your hands at chest level in a prayer position and bow slightly to your associate. Additionally, this greeting may be accompanied with a garland of flowers being placed around the neck. It is expected that you remove the flowers almost immediately and set them aside, for to keep them on indicates a lack of humility. Indians seldom shake hands, when greeting people, other than during the course of official business.

The handshake is also commonly used (usually a little softer than the common American grip). Good friends may clasp each other’s hand with both hands.

It is important, however, that men should avoid touching women, even in business settings. Unless she extends her hand first, men should not reach out to shake a woman’s hand.

Remember, your Indian associate may very likely be Muslim, and in India, this means respecting Moslem customs. In devout Muslim homes, women are separated from men, and usually stay amongst themselves in a separate part of the house.

Remember also that cows are considered sacred incarnations of life by devout Hindus. Therefore, do not serve beef at meals. Also, avoid gifts made of leather (leatherbound books, attaché cases, picture frames, etc.). A wonderful gift to your Muslim associate would be a fine, silver compass. They use a compass to locate Mecca and perform their daily prayers. Many Indians do not drink and/or are vegetarians, so if you are inviting someone out for a meal, it would be a good idea to inquire beforehand about tastes and preferences.

It’s a tradition in India to be served a sweet, often accompanied by tea or fruit juice, when first meeting someone either at home or in the office. Accept it graciously and you may expect a wonderful meal to follow.

In both business and social settings, it may appear to you that servants are being somewhat mistreated. Be prepared for versions of this kind of behaviour. Traditional to Indian culture is the caste system, which, though now illegal, still has pervasive influence. Remember that for thousands of years, people were organized according to who serves whom, with everyone serving someone and expecting obsequious obedience from others.

Avoid offering your opinions about politics, social mores, etc. in India. The best way to win friends, and subsequently accomplish your goals in India, is to admire what you can (and there is much) and humbly inquire about everything else. Indians are eager, to extremely eager, to explain their country and their beliefs to foreigners, which could make for interesting conversation.

Indian management and decision-making is such that your Indian associate may seek the advice of trusted others (friends, family members, etc.) before making a decision you might be waiting for. Therefore, do not expect meetings to always result in a decision, especially if you are only in the beginning stages of a business relationship. You need to take time to build a relationship, an essential precursor to business, however frustrating it may be for the time-conscious American. Meetings should be viewed as vehicles for relationship-building and information-sharing.

During your discussions, you may notice your Indian colleague shaking his head from side to side after you speak. Particularly true of South Indians, this unique "head-wobble" is merely your Indian associate’s non-verbal way of letting you know that he is politely listening to what you have to say. This side-to-side movement does not, as Westerners might suspect, signal disapproval.

If you don’t know with whom you need to speak to in the Indian organization, the general rule is to start as high up in the hierarchy as possible. Lower-level people will not make the decisions you require. That’s why it is sometimes best to be introduced to your Indian counterpart through an intermediary. Rely on your Indian "middleman," they are invaluable as contact makers – without them, you will waste time with the wrong people and not know how to conduct yourself at the meeting when you finally reach the right person.

However, most important thing to keep in mind is that, India is in a transition, dynamics are changing. People in metros are now tending towards more matured professionals. A key thing, opportunities are seamless, you just need the right way ahead.

- DeTimes

Yahoo’s decision to purge 1000 staff members primarily from its United States operations (some in Europe) has been hot news this year. What we didn’t know when the announcement was made was that Yahoo was planning to expand its base in India.

Yahoo is establishing a new lab in Bangalore with a focus on long-term research. The lab will be “a center of excellence for next generation search and advertising technologies, focused on making the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers.”

According to the Washington Post, the new lab will be headed by Rajeev Rastogi (previously the head of Bell Labs India) and will hire “sociologists, micro-economists, and computational scientists among other categories of staff for the lab.” The exact number of employees the new lab will hire was not disclosed, however the figure is believed to be in excess of 500 people.

The move towards lower cost Indian operations is far from new, and Yahoo already has 1500 employees in India. The decision may raise eyebrows in the United States where offshoring jobs is still fairly unpopular in the broader community, despite its popularity in the corporate and startup sectors.

Really interesting comments on the articles:

1. Yahoo can fire expensive USA workers and hire for less in India. Other U.S. companies can lay off their expensive U.S. workers and outsource jobs to third world countries for less money. Then, these expensive US workers with massive student loans won’t’ find jobs because they are in India. They will be denied opportunities for the remaining jobs here because their student loans are in default (listed on their credit report) as a result of being out of work. ( U.S. companies will not hire you because of your credit report. You might steal something.) The remaining jobs will be $8-9/hour retail jobs. They will not hire these out of work workers because they are overqualified and might quit. So they hire illegals instead. These out of work professionals will have lot’s of time to surf Techcrunch and complain about outsourcing. (This is from US)

2. It will be interesting to see what tangible benefits comes out of this for Y!. The value proposition for offshoring to India has been in free fall of late. China looks attractive on paper but most will confide that in practice China is VERY difficult to do software development in due to language/Time zone/Govt./IP protection problems. Eastern Europe seems to be the best offshoring alternative right now and Y! might do better to try this lab there. I have to agree on the assessment of the quality of IP that comes out of India. Over a billion people have had an opportunity to create the next big thing for the last 10+ years with no determinable results. (Another one from US)

3. “Over a billion people have had an opportunity to create the next big thing for the last 10+ years with no determinable results.” Big result needs not only talent but Funding! There is immense talent in India (silicon valley guys might agree with this) but they lack in funding. Yahoo has recognized just that! Microsoft, Google already have R&D centers in India. This picture might change in another 10 years! (From India)

4. Remember, your corporate leaders and politicians have told you that the only jobs that are being outsourced are the LOW end jobs. Advance jobs such as research and innovation will remained in the U.S. Guess again. Anyway, I think it’s about time that the U.S start sharing it’s wealth and technology with the rest of the world. It’s about time that the other countries can take advantage of the intellectual capital that the U.S has held on for itself for a long time (half of which is anyway Indian). Sharing is good, it’ll only make this world a better place. (One more from US)

- DeTimes

A booming economy is causing a unique problem for India Inc: There just aren’t enough top honchos.

This problem has its roots in the early days of globalization, industrialization and brain-drain but was realized by India Inc when economy started booming in 2005. According to the L&T chief, Mr. A M Naik, the term “Manpower Crunch” is not enough to describe the shortage of top bosses in India Inc. He should know. L&T had to turn to the global market when its search for a vertical head failed in the domestic market.

“The executive search firm refused to take the assignment if the candidate’s offered remuneration was under US$ 500,000 (≈Rs 2.25 Crores in 2006) annually. This when the position is two levels below ours (board member),” says an exasperated Naik. For the record, the gross emoluments of the board members, including commissions and retirement benefits, is under half the above figure.

Sharing Naik’s concern is Baba N Kalyani, chairman of India’s largest auto component manufacturer Bharat Forge, who says the biggest obstacle to growth is lack of manpower. “Today acceptance of our products in the global markets is not an issue. Finding people is a big challenge,” he says.

The paradox couldn’t be starker. The world’s second most populous nation is facing one of the severest of people crunches, especially at the rarefied senior levels. And there are no signs that the crunch could ease any time soon.

A recent study found that more than 66% of the Indian companies changed their CEO in the last 5 years. The turnover rates for IT stood at 88%, BFSI at 70% and Pharma at 67%, which is phenomenal.

There is a vacuum at the top level since the people who left India in the 70s and 80s would have been in senior level positions. This is where we are vastly hit by the brain drain. I am also writing this article sitting in Singapore, but I am here to help only Indian companies find manpower from global markets and begin the reverse drain process into India. I certainly love my country. We, at DeConseil, only provide services to Indian companies on wider geography.

The real problem is because candidates have unlimited choice which only means closing any particular position is more time consuming than ever before. This is where employer companies must ramp up their decision making process and make it more efficient and less time consuming.

A decade ago, cross-vertical movement was not common. But today, with the rising stars like Retail and Telecom, it has become inevitable, which is a good thing also. At the top levels, people are more generic unless it is for a specific function. So looking at General Management skills is more important rather than Vertical knowledge. It is more important for Executive Search partners to have this vertical knowledge to find a more fitting and an apt candidate from across the business spectrum.

Even before the domestic growth took-off in 2006, the foreign MNCs started acquiring talent at higher remuneration. With more and more investment going into capacity building, new infrastructure, this shortage has become even more acute.

The shortage has two faces. A company’s growth and its attrition figures. IT, Retail, Insurance and such new sectors raking in 100% growth y-o-y this situation is unlikely to get better even in the near future. IT companies typically have more than 30% attrition rate, which simply means that a new company is added every three years. This is more acute with ITeS outfits where even a 100% attrition rate is not new. Few of them have already seen it by now.

Let’s look at the corollary of this shortage. It only means a spike in compensation levels because demand is more than supply. 10 years ago, a Rs. 1-Crore package would have made front page headlines. But today, it is a common thing. However, a different view is available from HR Directors. Here, consultants can give you a better input. It is also pointed out that pay for performance has also taken a huge leap forward.

Just around 2004, pay for performance averaged at 30% of CTC, which today has gone up to as high as 150% (constituting almost 66% of the CTC), especially in positions like Sales, Marketing, Treasury, etc.

I strongly believe, this shortage is here to stay in spite of fears of a slowdown. This is the time when BOD should start taking more risks with their Human Capital and start developing cross functional expertise. L&T has already marked up the retirement age to 70 for its BOD, up from 65. Shopper’s Stop is hiring expatriates since it finds no experienced hands in India.

New hunting grounds are opening up as the NRI community is heading towards the Indian soil.  A good amount of foreigners are showing interests in working in India on local terms. Both of these are certainly welcome, as they might ease things a bit.

- DeTimes

If the recession does go full swing across the U.S., how will global leaders prepare and avoid the potential damages?

Recession is US can cause serious troubles in several ways.

1. Global leaders press the panic button. In that case, most decisions that they make will go wrong. Then the time is to find a new job. Lay-offs, Margin stress, Resource unavailability, unemployment, etc. will hit the economies big time.

2. The valuation of several companies may go down due to fears and heavy selling of stocks. This may lead to a lot of M&A. In that case, depending on each destiny will be defined.

3. Global leaders have to enable more commitment from their own people relationships. If all the people go an extra mile to bridge the deficit gap, then there is no deficit. This will be a key.

4. Interest rates will go further down, leading to more lending in difficult times on indecisive projects. This can cause pressure on the economy to a great extent like what we saw in case of the sub-prime mortgage loans.

5. Desperate measure will be taken. This is inevitable. But if they are wisely taken, then US can counter the recession well. Else, other emerging economies will develop (only those are self reliant). I see this as benefit to a lot of other economies who have a balanced trade with all continents. A stronger Asia is in the making...

Global leaders must do what is necessary; get more out of their own people. If their own people add value, business will not suffer as much as they would do otherwise. The call is, to get their own resources in place and combat recession as a coherent team.

Bad times and good times are a matter of fact. Everything is temporary. But how soon you can see the daylight again, remains to be seen.

  - DeTimes

The latest India Today magazine confirms my fears. (See, that's the way it is, "I told you so"!)

HR Experts rank in the list of "niche talent" which are seeing a shortage of talent. The others being Pilots, Merchandisers, Auto Designers, Architects and Urban Planners, Actuaries, CEOs (!), Dieticians, Graphic Artists and Drilling Experts (for oil!).

Some other notable numbers from the article are:

16 million new jobs are likely to be created this year. Services will lead the way with IT and ITES sectors adding 350,000 new people, followed by Retailing with 125,000 jobs, Financial Services with 120,000 jobs, Telecom with 100,000 and Hospitality with 50,000 jobs.

The Hewitt Annual Salary Increase survey also finds that in the Asia Pac region, Indians will get the best salary hikes at 13.7%, followed by Philippines with 8.1% increase.

40 million is the number of registered unemployed in the country.

27 million are employed in the organized sector.

333 million are either underemployed or belong to the unorganized sector.

There are 20,000 recruitment firms in the country.

3,000 of them are in Bangalore!

Barely 10% of corporate India uses formal executive search firms, feels Rajeev Vasudeva of Egon Zehnder.

There are talks of specialized Accounting and Banking recruitment firm Michael Page International planning to enter India, the article notes.

Classified ad revenues for print job ads have remained almost flat the last 4-5 years, while online firms have been growing at 15-20%. They cost 10% of the print classifieds cost for an organization.

We are most definitely in for interesting times ahead! And specifically about the scarcity of talent, I told you so! - DeTimes

It may sound immature to label it as the 'European brain drain' but an large number of westerners are finding jobs at Indian BPOs and other offshore outsourcing ventures. Call them "adventure workers" if you want, but an increasing number of westerners who join the Indian work force from the U.S. and Europe are quite serious about their careers.

It has been sometime since India's outsourcing and information technology firms have been hiring foreigners at higher and middle levels for their expertise. Now, however, workers from abroad are seeking lower-end jobs as well, such as answering phones at call centres, for a pittance of what they earn in their home countries.

These foreign workers are being seen as emblems of a reverse movement of human resource, as opposed to the more usual Indian brain drain to foreign shores. Typically, the salaries of foreign executives in India are much lower than their earnings abroad and at par with Indian employees, but most firms ensure that their stay here is comfortable by ensuring health insurance, free lodging, special leave structure that allows travel back home as well as providing an environment that is professional.

Surveys by Nasscom and Evalueserve in the past have also indicated that the passage of jobs between India and the U.S. and the U.K. is not a "one-way street." Recently, an industry report by consulting firm McKinsey and NASSCOM has forecast that India's business services and IT exports are expected to surge more than 25 percent a year to $60 billion by 2010. But there are going to be severe hurdles in the form of manpower shortages, rising salaries and infrastructure needs that may make Indian firms look at international locations to conduct operations as well as hire foreigners.

Indian IT companies have set up offices in the U.S. and also China, but they have been largely restricted to marketing, generating new clients as well as establishing a countrywide network that have created very few jobs and that, too, mostly for Indians. In the last couple of years, however, there have been several steps by several IT firms such as Infosys, Wipro and Satyam that have grown rapidly in scale to hire Western employees to deal with local populations abroad and the need to penetrate markets further.

Observers say that overseas professionals feel comfortable working in Indian tech firms, as over the years these firms have imbibed global practices that are inherent in their operations now. As Indian companies continue to expand operations worldwide, they have adapted their management practices and strategies to compete in the global marketplace. Until recently, most Indian software companies employed Indians in key positions in global positions around the world. An onsite posting or assignment was a plum perk that the companies offered budding MBAs and other consultants wishing to move towards marketing or sales.

Indian companies have now begun to realize the significance of having local hands in local markets and have started recruiting sales and marketing people in local markets to represent them. This has not only created a familiarity among foreign workers about Indians and India, but also acted as a push to look for placements when the going is tough abroad.

-DeTimes