Cultural differences

This blog references a topic opened by a fellw-MBA student from my alma-mater Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Her name is Gretchen and her blog can be found on http://fuqua-abroad2009-india.blogspot.com/. This post is my perspective on her posts related to Teamwork and random-ramblings.

First of all, thank Gretchen, this is a great topic you opened up. Also weaknesses are weaknesses and this post done try to condone any weaknesses in ISB or the Indian setup.

But honestly, I feel a little let down that an MBA from Duke cannot realize that different parts of the world have different traits and the idea is not to hide / criticize them but to master these differences. For E.g. as a generalization, Indias are not punctual and are last-sec heroes, Brits are snobbish and not open to change, Germans take life too seriously, Italians & French too easily while imagine the environmental disaster if the entire world were filled with the mighty Americans in their gaz-guzzling SUVs... Guess you get the point.. We all differ..

She mentions about team-members not pulling their weight, but that happened to me in Duke too. Its not Indian / American per se, but simply a function of time crunched schedules of MBA students. And more so at ISB where students pack in 33- 36 courses in 11.5 months. Thats a lot of studies and very little time. Off course there will be those who think they have done a great job by being at ISB / Fuqua / any top MBA school and will simply refuse to work too hard, but again this is a reflection of realities of the business world. Again as a budding manager, we must learn how to deal with it. Why do many MBAs simply expect things to happen? Isnt an MBA just a toolkit, it is not a magic password to every door in the world but simply something that enables us to work hard and open the door. So why does she expect a perfect world? Maybe because US B-schools for all their undoubted intellectual horsepower and brand values, give a very well-defined and definite simulation of the real world, and maybe the exceptional processes simply make their students less adept at handling change. Maybe I am wrong, but this appears perfectly logical to me..

She also talks about those irritating differences such as delaying assignments, not having set team assignment meetings or talking on the cellphone. Again not trying to gloss over the so-called Indian traits, but these are the norm for every culture. When I first went to Duke, I hated how students would arrive late in class, leave early, basically would not give a damn about sensitivities of other students.. Now I realize that these are simply American traits, their emphasis on freedom.. Gretchen face it, cultures vary, so one has to be more tolerant of differences.. And as a potential future CEO, you or me, need to learn ways of adapting ourselves to these differences.