Reality Bites — The demise of Indian business culture — lessons learned

Reality Bites — The demise of Indian business culture — lessons learned

I have faced many challenges in my career, but nothing surmounts to a rotten character. I would like to share a story about a businessman, who has, through his own shortcomings and personality flaws, made me lose more faith in a culture connected to my ancestral heritage, while at the same time reinforcing certain values to always lead with character, respect and trust. For confidentiality, I’ll call the businessman “Johnny” and the Company, “Company X”

Its a sales process that any sales person would have nightmares about.

I met Johnny earlier in July 2015 ,through a mutual connection. In October of that year, I once again was introduced to him via a celebrity during the a well respected healthcare conference in San Diego, with the notion of helping a well known foundation with their technology initiatives. I was excited at the time, seeing an opportunity to build a solid relationship with a well known foundation and foster new paths for my emerging startup.

I first met Johnny personally for coffee in San Diego, late 2015. From that initial discussion, the opportunity arose to help them use our conference platform for a signature conference in the Fall of 2016. Albeit a small amount of revenue, we saw this opportunity to provide pivotal growth as it would trail-blaze future opportunities, so we took it very seriously.

Little did we realize the ride we were about to embark on.

Between Nov 2015 — through today (May 2016), on several occasions, Johnny had confirmed using our solution for that particular conference through verbal and written communications, starting with a verbal handshake in late December 2015. As a result of these commitments, we spent time and effort on several activities during that period, including the sharing of a confidentiality agreement, drafting of technical requirements, presenting of a written proposal, meeting with the conference organizer to discuss specifications and finally, the coordinating with the marketing team to discuss branding.

As the months proceeded, we noticed that despite his consistent affirmations on the project moving forward, it was very difficult to reach him on contract signature. I always gave the benefit of the doubt, assuming he was constantly traveling and extremely hard to reach. Yet, despite his lack of communication, on the rare occasions that he did reach out, he consistently reinforced the fact that this was a done deal. I n fact, around mid march, we even met Johnny again, in person, along with his staff. He went through the contract, marked it up and we agreed to all of the terms. Again, all signs were positive and he indicated that they would sign off within a few days.

This pattern has continued through today. We are now well into May 2016. Still no signed contract from Johnny, despite consistent promises and commitments.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’ve been in a Sales career most of my life. I completely understand that nothing is final until signed and that prospective customers can be flakey. But I’ve never seen flakiness to this extent, except when I was dealing with business development efforts in India, in the past. In fact, in all of my dealings with representatives of American corporations, I personally can’t recall a single time when a commitment was made from an individual to me, that didn’t eventually go through, especially for a smaller size deal. In the case of Johnny, I’ve now had nearly a dozen verbal and written commitments from him.

In reflecting this morning as I went out for a walk to unwind from all this with my dog, I started questioning if all Indian business culture is really like this — lack of character, untrustworthy, and disrespectful. Even though I have witnessed this behavior with my own eyes for 3–4 years with my former startup, I guess I’ve always been in a state of denial. The truth is, that I have lost faith in the business culture of Indians. One might think I am stereotyping, but my growing disdain for Indian business culture is very unbiased, as any friend of mine would vouch for the huge heart and spirit that I have tried to maintain for that country. Reality has bitten, as my heartful desire to work or be associated with that culture is quickly fading away. Instead, a feeling of a culture clouded with distrust and deceit has crept in. In my opinion this will always hinder India’s path of potential even as the current prime minister touts the progress of the country around the world.

More importantly, although it is a loss in terms of time, money and opportunity for Company X, this entire frustrating experience has been a big motivator and driver for me to take Company X to further heights and drive forward, more relentless than ever. It is also through experiences such as these that one realizes how lucky it is to have grown up in a country with a high standard for culture, integrity, trust and moral standards.

I write this , not only as a means for myself to vent, but also as a take-away for young aspiring entrepreneurs. As you climb the path of success, money will come and go. Maintaining truth and honesty will be your single constant and a true mark of your character, which can never be taken away. I’ll leave you with a favorite quote from Gandhi:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.”

Onward.

A timeline highlighting examples of this experience:

July 2015: First introduction to Johnny through a mutual connection

October 2015: Another introduction to Johnny via a well known celebrity

Dec 15 2015 *via email

Delivered the Company X data security and architecture document per Johnny’s request

February 25, 2016 *via email

Contract and NDA sent to Johnny

March 15, 2016 (iMessage):

Johnny: “Will confirm. We should be on track. Back in La Jolla and will meet with XXX from YYYY and get it done by Friday”

March 27, 2016

Facebook Message from Johnny

“All good my friend. Sorry things have been late to respond. I am back in La Jolla today and heading out tomorrow. I am waiting on a go from the team. Will check with them again tomorrow and make it happen at all cost! …Thanks. You all will definitely implement it..”

March 28, 2016 via text

I sent a long note to Johnny requesting once again to confirm the contract signing

March 28, 2016: via text from Johnny:

“We can proceed. When is the first payment due?..

April 7, 2016 via PayPal:

Money request from Company X for initial deposit sent to Johnny

April 18, 2016 via email from Johnny”

“the App is not a high priority and that is why it slowed down. They are focused on securing sponsorships.”

April 18, 2016

Met in person with the main organizer of the conference. Discussed all open issues and strategies for the App. Composed a detailed email outlining all the key open issues.

April 25, 2016

Met with the Marketing team to discuss marketing requirements for the conferences

May 9, 2016:

Johnny confirmed to meet on May 11 with me.

May 11, 2016:

Still no word from Johnny. The organizer of the conference, who met with Johnny a few days prior, sends me a text, “…meeting w Johnny was good. Your email was helpful. Thank you! He is still exploring app vendor options and I’m sure will be in touch w you soon as he is decided!”