THE Y-AXIS by Rajesh Kumar

The news came overnight of Microsoft announcing its acquisition of GitHub, something that was rumoured over the web in the last couple of days. I see a considerable outpouring of emotions in the developer community regarding this acquisition. As someone whose first introduction (as a developer) to Microsoft was in the year 2001 learning what as beta versions of .Net development platform, I have passively watched the evolution Microsoft and other tech giants this century. I wasn't great at programming, but this experience, as well as subsequent ones, offered me a good perspective of the tech world. My advice is, watch before you jump in joy at Microsoft acquisition of GitHub. The reasons are as follows: A.  Microsoft has a very questionable record about making meaningful sense with many of its big-ticket acquisitions. Cases in point - Skype(Loosely hanging in its portfolio, we used it a decade back, now we don't), Nokia(yes, the company ...

Since we started www.ideacopter.com at the turn of the year, we ventured into the unknown. But having a very exciting four months and we feel our mission of making marketing accessible to startups is more valid than ever. Marketing in general, but more specifically branding, digital marketing etc is practised in a very unscientific fashion in most startups. But the great thing is that all startups realize Brand is something they can't afford to ignore anymore, especially, if they wish to scale up. We at Ideacopter attempt to fill that gap. Let's see how the rest of the year goes.

Competence has been defined as the ability to do something successfully. It has been linked to intelligence. Therefore, one can say that becoming culturally competent requires one to be culturally intelligent. But what is cultural intelligence? An outsider, who has a natural ability to understand and interpret an unfamiliar culture is said to be culturally intelligent. This can be very useful in today's world when people travel for work quite early in their career. A person who is culturally intelligent(and competent) does not judge things very quickly, rather, tries to get into the next layer of behaviour. The Head-Body-Heart concept stated in the article "Cultural Intelligence" by Early and Mosakowski presents an interesting approach. The authors argue that when stepping into a new culture, one needs to build bridges using 'Head'(Cognitive issues), 'Body'(Physical dimensions such as dresses) and 'Heart'(emotional & motivational). ...

In an age when employees are expected to move across countries for longer durations, or make short term travels across cultures, it is can often be very daunting to be afraid of cultural barriers. Indeed, one of the attributes of a modern successful executive could be the ability to move across cultures effortlessly and be an effective business executive, and without getting overpowered by the gaps. Professor Sheryll Cashin describes cultural dexterity as “the ability to walk into a room and be outnumbered by people of a different race or ethnicity and experience excitement rather than fright”. According to Korn Ferry , Cultural Dexterity combines cultural knowledge, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal skills that can be adapted to achieve improved business results in any cross-cultural situation. Culturally dexterous people are least prejudicial to other cultures. They are able to be themselves, at the same time, are able to integrate themselves with other cultures ve...

As a team leader, nothing is more important than driving the team to success. It is easier said than done because different teams behave differently. One reason is team composition. The second reason is team culture. Team culture, at least partly, inherits from national culture, which serves as its context. Workers in the US for example, while accepting the orders from a superior, may openly express disagreements, whereas, those in eastern cultures, will be more deferential and keep quiet, even if they are not in agreement. So, if a leader bred in eastern culture is transported to lead a team in the US, she/he may feel that the workers are arrogant. On the other hand, a leader from the US culture, if sent to lead a team in the east, may feel the team members are under communicative. Both situations are problems if common cultural grounds are not arrived at.  One also needs to be self-aware, in order to understand how one is likely to be interpreted in the other culture...

One of the greatest cross cultural successes in the business world is the Renault Nissan Alliance. If one reads the differences between the two cultures, it appears too good to be true. In fact, almost unreal.With Mitsubishi joining the allianc e recently, there is another spice in the curry! Despite the obvious contrasts in the French and the Japanese cultures, how do such alliances succeed? The large question is, what are the dynamics of cross cultural alliances, howsoever big or small they are? How does one negotiate in a culture that is markedly different? The Hofstede dimensions provide us a clue! Power distance often tells us the how the communication channels may work. If Power Distance in that culture is high, there is no point in seeking a meeting with the senior most executive. It is unlikely that an appointment will be granted easily! Instead, it is advisable to work with junior executives initially, who will report everything in detail to the boss!! If negot...

The days of a single culture teams have gone into history.Modern international trade exchanges have given rise a highly intertwined business across countries. Take a look at the Boeing 787 aircraft, where the parts come from no less than 15 countries , possibly even more. Teams have become 'virtual' and ever connected. Though this has resulted in a humungous amount of cultural exchange, the downside is that with teams working 24X7X365, cultural issues tend to have a direct bearing on the productivity of teams - a challenge no global organization can ignore. Teams are often formed for projects and dissolved when the project is over.The result is that the Bruce Tuckman's famed stages of teaming - Forming, Norming, Storming and Performing are often compressed and teams expected to be in the performing stage from the initial moment.  Organisationally, one is expected to subsume individual goals into organizational goals but there is a problem with this premise. The organ...