Indian Companies as Customers, Competitors & Collaborators

Indians are very good at adopting a dual identity. The fluency in English combined with the familiarity with Western concepts can lull the Westerner into believing that Indians are quite like them. But Indians do have some distinct tendencies in how they approach business. Given the rise of India as a market and the Indian global companies, non-Indians will increasingly face Indians as customers, competitors, and collaborators. This article examines how Indian companies play each of these roles. While the traits presented here are the general Indian tendencies, the answers are complex, with many differences in a country inhabited by more than a billion people.