International experience assessed
Why did I come to UK? Why did I pursue the Cranfield MBA program?
These and a few other questions keep surfing every now and then in my conversations. My answers to such questions almost sound like pre-recited by now. As I celebrated this month the completion of 3 years of my professional career in UK, I thought - what would be my key note from my real "international experience"? As always, there will be a one or more contentious observations, many will disagree with them; but then should I care??
I had worked in India for 13 years and quit to come to UK to gain some international experience. At a very basic level, this just meant stepping out of my country and work with non-Indians. However, at a more tangible level, it also meant stepping out of my comfort zone (now who remembers ZOUD!!), exposing myself to unchartered waters - be it cultural, philosophical or even the weather (remember, I chose UK!!). It meant putting significantly extra effort to understand the different ways people work, their preferences or lack of it, etc. etc.
There is one key difference between the skill set used here in UK and that used in India. At the cost of generalizing, I believe that we Indians are excellent at functional knowledge but we fail significantly on people skills. In fact, while we love to deep dives in almost everything, getting into details etc., we do not show sufficient sensitivity to the people dimension.
It is the reverse in UK - Britishers are by and large very good on people skills, but cannot match us on functional skills. They are great at big picture discussions but avoid getting into details.
There isn't (and shouldn't) be a conclusive view on what is better. You need the right balance to be better than your peers. It is from this perspective that I would put my money on an Indian manager who has worked in UK for some years. The experience of emerging markets supplemented by that in a developed country would provide one with a robust and valued profile. You don't see that many British managers with "Indian experience", do you?
P.S. To all regular followers of my blog: I did not realise this post was left in draft mode for so long!
These and a few other questions keep surfing every now and then in my conversations. My answers to such questions almost sound like pre-recited by now. As I celebrated this month the completion of 3 years of my professional career in UK, I thought - what would be my key note from my real "international experience"? As always, there will be a one or more contentious observations, many will disagree with them; but then should I care??
I had worked in India for 13 years and quit to come to UK to gain some international experience. At a very basic level, this just meant stepping out of my country and work with non-Indians. However, at a more tangible level, it also meant stepping out of my comfort zone (now who remembers ZOUD!!), exposing myself to unchartered waters - be it cultural, philosophical or even the weather (remember, I chose UK!!). It meant putting significantly extra effort to understand the different ways people work, their preferences or lack of it, etc. etc.
There is one key difference between the skill set used here in UK and that used in India. At the cost of generalizing, I believe that we Indians are excellent at functional knowledge but we fail significantly on people skills. In fact, while we love to deep dives in almost everything, getting into details etc., we do not show sufficient sensitivity to the people dimension.
It is the reverse in UK - Britishers are by and large very good on people skills, but cannot match us on functional skills. They are great at big picture discussions but avoid getting into details.
There isn't (and shouldn't) be a conclusive view on what is better. You need the right balance to be better than your peers. It is from this perspective that I would put my money on an Indian manager who has worked in UK for some years. The experience of emerging markets supplemented by that in a developed country would provide one with a robust and valued profile. You don't see that many British managers with "Indian experience", do you?
P.S. To all regular followers of my blog: I did not realise this post was left in draft mode for so long!
posted by Sandeep Gupta at
4:23 pm
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