Apple in India: Culture shock and a steep learning curve?

Apple’s work in India is extensive, and the company is learning a lesson it likely already knows, but one that any business attempting to boost business in new territories needs to understand: Every Country Is Different.

Building business in new nations takes time

The work in India is extensive. Apple and its supply chain partners are opening factories, the company plans to open its own stores, and the nation is seeing a steady increase in sales of products from across the Apple ecosystem.

But it’s not easy or straightforward, and an FT report explains some of the challenges Apple has faced as it works to get the India project up and running:

• In one case, a factory making iPhone casings reportedly has to discard around half of the casings it creates.
• Apple product leaders and engineers despatched to oversee production and deployment of new factories in India are experiencing logistical issues, such as extensive traffic jams and very long commutes. We’re talking hours of wasted time.
• Cultural differences, in this case Apple is finding that some tasks which may take days or weeks in China take place across a much more extensive time frame in India, with one ex-Apple engineer complaining there “just isn’t a sense of industry”.
• There are complaints that contract manufacturers promise to get things done but then become slow to respond to concerns.
• Another cultural difference is visible in Apple’s culture of secrecy, which may be hard to maintain with production there.
• Bureaucracy is also a problem, compounded by fragmented governance. One entrepreneur told the FT, “everything in India is an obstacle”.

All of these challenges reflect the need for multinational businesses, or any business entering a new environment to take the time to understand the local cultural environment. With that understanding, challenges become more predictable, and solutions become more easily reached.

There are many world orders

Global business should already understand the challenge of managing teams in different cultures, and there is a difference between – and even within – every nation.

Some nations are individualistic, others are communitarian. That’s why it is so important that business leaders are empowered with the insight they need to understand how to navigate the culture they are working in. India, for example, is a multilingual, multi-ethnic society with sometimes major cultural differences between regions.

These difference are extensive.

That is perhaps part of why the Business Culture Complexity Index marks India as a challenging place to do business.

It’s a context in which, “We’re from Apple,” will cut some ice, but, “We’re from Apple and we respect the difference between California and Chennai,” probably works even better.

That’s not to say Apple’s teams aren’t working on it.

The growing revenue and market position Apple has accumulated there across the last couple of years is evidence of how their commitment delivers results. I imagine they are learning constantly as they pursue the goal of building business in India.

That there may be some challenges getting there isn’t terribly unusual.

It would be more of a puzzle if there weren’t.

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