I might be biased when I say this, but I do believe it – India is the most interesting and fascinating country in the world. At the same time, it is also the most complex.
In the beginning of my time in India, I misunderstood many things, misjudged many people and underestimated many ways of doing business. During my years in India, I have learned, adapted and changed. This book is about sharing these learnings and experiences with readers. The typical reader is either the westerner who has lived and worked in India or has worked with Indians or is curious about India as a market. Or it is the Indian who wants to understand how westerners think or work in the Indian context.
This book answers many of the questions that are of fundamental importance if one wants to excel or succeed in India. Had I had answers to these kinds of questions, my own runway would have been much shorter in the beginning of my India-journey.
During Johan's 7 years in India, he gathered extensive experience doing business in the country with an international footprint. He dealt with thousands of people in various business contexts and conducted hundreds of sales meetings: a large portion of these were with Indians, but he also worked with people of around 20 other nationalities.
While Johan has successfully sold more than 45 management consulting assign-ments, primarily to Indian Managing Directors of global corporate courses and to global CEOs, he attributes much of his learning and insights to the hundreds of busi-ness meetings he had but which never converted. Of those that did materialise, Johan was involved in the delivery of more than 40 management consulting as-signments, interacting and interfacing with more than 400 employees and leaders, in various Indian cities (from Ludhiana in the North to Kozhikode in the South), across business sectors.
