The advent of diverse team

A Belgian works for a Japanese automobile major in the US and reports to an Indian. Sounds interesting? Well, welcome to the world of multi-cultural teams in companies. What was thought of as unthinkable during the cold war days and protectionist regimes is now a reality. People from varied cultures work in a team and help the company achieve its goals. Of course, the idea sounds good as variety brings in divergent thought processes and new ideas. But, managing diverse teams are a challenge as the company needs to channel these ideas to tangible results. A simple thumbs-up gesture throws up different meanings for people from various cultures. It is a marvelous achievement of behemoths like- IBM, GE, Procter and Gamble, Google, Apple, Royal Shell, etc for successfully managing the cultural nuances and produce startling innovations.

Learning from Indian Premier League (IPL)

IPL was the best example for cultural management. In each IPL team four foreign players and others local player are there and coach may be from different country. It seemed the team that came last (Knight Riders) in the tournament had among many other reasons the rift between foreign players and Indian players. Technical this team was among the top on paper, having some of the best players. The lesson from this is that whether it is sports or business when teams are formed with diversity (from different culture in this case) they should understand each others cultural bias and differences and work around it to be successful.