I was grocery shopping in Perth where I tend to live for a little over half a year trying to be prospective researcher and hoping someone would fund me for all those bizarre ideas I get. Dad are you one of them?
Well, like always I tend to deviate from the core subject. Coming to the point of grocery shopping. I was at an oriental shop trying to identify the pulses and cereals and attempting to figure out in which dish they are supposed to be a part of. Mom its time for you to write a cook book to help beginner cooks like me! They were kept in huge open containers for display. Like shopping in India, I put my bare hand into the container and picked up a few grains and started to examine them like a seasoned grain dealer although I did not know what I was looking at. Within a few seconds, the shop assistant made aware that I made a mistake. It did not strike me at that very moment that I should not have. I did buy some of the pulses that looked familiar to me, unaware of their nomenclature.
On the way back I wondered how shopping styles varied from one country to another. I then connected it with a book that I was reading with great interest. It is a book called “It Happened in India” written by Kishore Biyani, one of India’s well known businessman. He is the founder of a humongous shopping chain in India under the brands of Big Bazaar, Central, Food Bazaar and Pantaloons.
In this book he always mentions about the Indian way of shopping. There are some things we Indians do when shopping. First, we always look for low prices, although sometimes we do give the saying “penny wise, pound foolish” it due and meaning. Secondly, I think we are keen examiners of the articles we buy. That is what results in people picking up grains and examining them before buying. If one has observed, most grocery stores in India have samples of all the grains in stock displayed in small bowls on the cashier table with a hand written price slip carelessly poked into it. This example of touching the grains we buy is one classical way Indians shop. Kishore Biyani illustrates in his book how he used the Indian sentiment to build his consumer empire which is worth a few million dollars today.
Like every other variation that we see between different countries, business too should be country specific. In my opinion, irrespective of the trade, the strategies should be country specific and locally oriented. This gives businessman an opportunity to blend in well into the local culture and make the consumer feel he is part of the fiesta.
Well, I am a dentist by profession and I fell in vain trying to have a dental practice the Indian way. I am now in the process of reaching a summit in a field that seemed odd to many of colleagues. My dream is to be a researcher, is there an Indian way of doing research? This would open up a whole new endless debate which would eventually not change much.
Anyway, where do the international business graduates fit in here? Can someone enlighten me on this?
