I consult companies to help them get a no non-sense perspective on India, and to enable them to understand the market and the regulations.
In my experience it is very easy to get lost in the euphoria of entering India, sidetracking rational analysis. India is a large growing economy, and is a country worth looking at from investment perspective. At the same time, it is easy to believe that India has as large a middle class as the UK, without realizing that your prospective customers might be thinly spread across the country. It is easy to get too impressed with the big cities where most of the infrastructure is without thinking what might be the situation once you are in the rural India or smaller cities. The hospitality of the Indian bureaucrat and politician might impress you, and you might think that all is hunky dory there, without realizing that walking the talk is a different game altogether.
From the marketing perspective, people behave differently depending on their cultural backgrounds. An average middle-aged adult in the West has a different worldview than the one with a similar financial background in India. The former would have most likely been brought up in an environment of security provided by capitalism, and his expenditure profile would be different from the latter, who might have been brought up in socialist insecurities. The former might like to travel; the latter might prefer to invest in a house.
Indians who were in their teens when India started to liberalise are growing up in a very different culture altogether. Their backgrounds influence their likes and dislikes: how they live, how they date, what they consider to be "cool", what they want to achieve in life, what drives them.
I have developed Indian subsidiary operations of two hi-tech European companies, and presently live in Vancouver (Canada). I consult on an hourly basis at the rate of US$ 150. I am available to make presentations and respond to your queries on your strategy.
I have an MBA (1993) from Manchester Business School (UK), and Bachelor of Engineering (Computers). I accept only short assignments. I work full-time in the resource sector. I also do a fair bit of freelance writing (www.jayantbhandari.com)
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