As HR practitioners, we all appreciate and understand that there are bound to be cultural differences between different countries and I see the same set of issues when I look at the different working styles of people in India and Singapore.
In India, given our background and issues, people can multi-task. They work with divergent thinking and are able to grapple with multiple sets of challenges in many situations. They (mostly) do not get worked up if five things happen at the same time. They can easily move from one task to another and do this many times over a day. While this gives the ability to handle multiple challenges all the time, it also sometimes affects the quality of deliverables as well as depth of focus that is sometimes required to complete the job. Sometimes this also leads to non completion of tasks on time and on quality.
In Singapore, people are very focused and ensure that each task is completed to standard. They are highly focused on execution. Multi-tasking can sometimes be a struggle for them. It is how they think and work. They have a very high degree of concentration and discipline in execution.
Both of these aspects are very important as a team and we would like to maximise on the strengths of both the cultures. That is the great advantage of working in different cultures.
We at Spice Group have a very clear acquisition and merger/integration process. When we acquire companies, we have a three-dimensional view to the organisation and work:
1. We have our group philosophy about people and work and we have detailed policies and processes that manage the entire employee life-cycle process. These reflect our Spice Brand and their attributes.
2. We need to respect the local laws and regulatory issues in the country we operate. We ensure we are compliant both in spirit and in law.
3. We recognise that every individual is unique and we want to respect that diversity of talent. We want to ensure that people and business “win” in Spice. We invest a lot in people development through our Spice Academy and ensure that there is a high degree of alignment between the will and skill of people.
We believe that through this process we create a win-win thinking in which everyone succeeds. Respect is at the core of all we do.
A.V.K Mohan
Group president, global human resources
Spice Group
