Posted by Ross Hall on January 29, 2002 at 13:17:19:

In Reply to: Re: KM-research topics relevent to India posted by Akhil Shahani on January 28, 2002 at 23:48:25:

First of all, let me restate my vested interest. I can only speak from experience and trying to sit between the two cultures.

Clearly I need to refine and restate my argument so there is no misunderstanding. Perhaps my view is tainted slightly because I always find myself working with Westerners who seem hell bent on recreating the Raj in their own image!

"1. The high levels of illiteracy contribute to the need for tacit knowledge exchange in many (but by no means all) exchanges;"

Literacy is an issue and isn't as cut and dried as the figures suggest. Figures as high as 75% and as low as 40% literacy have been banded about. But then Abe Lincoln did warn us about statistics!

However, pure literacy is not the issue. The issue is that of language. India is a country that has at least three languages in use in any one state. English and Hindi are widely spoken, but there will also be a state language. Add to that regional variations (discussed below).

Oh, and then there's the keyboard! Hindi characters are different from Marathi ones from Romanic ones! (glib point, but worth making!)

That said, we could argue that Europe has a 90% literacy rate, but that means nothing when English, French, German, Spanish, Italian etc are spoken in different bits of the continent!

"2. But... the high levels of illiteracy lead to a feeling of superiority amongst the literate, so they tend to ignore the illiterate anyway;"

Seen it in action and experience it on a very regular basis I'm afraid. Can't say more than that.

"3. Even amongst the literate there can be variances, such as people who can write Marathi or Gujrati, but can't write in English or Hindi;"

Regional variations can emerge in the language from village to village as would be expected where mass literacy was introduced relatively recently. As just one example - if memory serves me correctly - the word for fish in Marathi means water in one village's variation of Marathi.

Nor can you assume that going to university will mean all people will speak the same language. A friend of mine is fluent in English and Marathi. His wife is fluent in Hindi, almost fluent in Marathi. He can't speak or read or write Hindi, she has a basic grasp of English.

Biggest tip I've ever given anyone when it comes to language in Indian is - don't think India = country, think India = confederation.

"4. The Stormin' Norman approach to project management - any plan is bound to succeed if executed with extreme violence - rules due to the cheapness of even skilled labour, leading to brute force in numbers rather than skillful deployment of intellect"

I've even seen this in computer programming and other "intellectual" applications. The approach is brute force because the labour is cheap. Put it simply, there are a lot of people with the skills the employer needs, so it becomes an employer's market.

This is not to say ALL projects are run this way, there are some fantastic projects underway that involve cutting edge thinking. It is the AVERAGE that we need to consider.

A couple of other observations...

* Infrastructure.

Don't underestimate it. A couple of years ago I was at a company who experienced a power cut in the middle of the working day. Turns out this is a fairly regular occurance, so they have a back up plan - write everything down on paper. If they can't find it on the computer they'll go hunting through the paper. Last I heard the "thursday afternoon powercut" was still taking place and they were still working between paper and computers!

Or the company that designed a fantastic Intranet site to support knowledge sharing. Unfortunately many of their staff couldn't get much more than a 9kbps modem connection, a few managed 14.4. The site was so slow to download it fell in to disuse within days of launch.

Hence the KM solution needs to stretch out beyond just computers, training etc. The infrastructure matters and again it needs a new pair of eyes to be willing to stand up and say "wow, this is pretty poor really. We need to work round, over, under or through it."

* Culture.

My gut feel is if I got in a room together with Akhil and we actually talked we'd pretty quickly realise what the other meant! This is one of those situations where the subtleness of culture will escape words.

I keep trying to remember the quote from Indhira Ghandi, something along the lines of "Once you can accept all the beauty and pain can live side by side you will understand India."

* Last Words.

I stand by my comment. I do not believe that a US model can be dumped in to an Indian company any easier than a round peg in a square hole. The two business cultures, personal cultures and economies are very different beasts.

Sure, Indian can learn from the US models, the UK and the EU models. But it shouldn't follow them slavishly as I have heard some suggest. It needs to find its own variations, themes and models which work within the subtleties of its own cultures.

Regards,

Ross ;-))

• Ross Hall : consultant, writer, speaker

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Follow Ups:

• Re: Response to all the comments Akhil Shahani 02:10:40 01/30/02 (1)
  • Re: Response to all the comments Ross Hall 03:58:37 01/30/02 (0)

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