During all my travels from Mexico down to Argentina, I’ve always been struck by how the culture in this extended region is similar to that in India. By culture, I mean the shared societal values and the resultant behavior. This is a great launch pad for business collaboration since so many international ventures fail due to lack of ‘cultural fit’.
Some of these shared values across India and Latin America include:
- Collectivism, especially with special emphasis on the family (la familia) – identity is tied to group membership
- Hierarchy (High Power distance) – inequalities in power are natural and expected
- Indirect Communication – important to respect people’s feelings, cannot say no directly
- Particularism – Behavior tailored to situations and contexts
- Polychronism – Time is adjusted to suit the needs of people
- High Context – Shared assumptions between members of the country or in-group
Of course, there are variances across subgroups and regions, but overall these common values seem to hold. In subsequent posts, I will elaborate and give examples of the associated behaviors and the resulting business impact.
These value definitions are based on the work of Geert Hofstede, Trompenaars-HampdenTurner and Edward Hall.
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