Identifying and Balancing Competing Priorities in an East-to-West Global Development Project

What an opportunity I have had this summer so!  It's been so amazing to come to India, experience a whole new way of life and the Indian work ethic.  The work ethic and mind set is amazing to see and compare how different it is to what I have seen.  As I have said before, the sheer number of people here creates fierce competition between the people here and they are better off for it.  But, as with everything, staying the same is not an option, and the explosive rate of growth is going to slow down sooner or later.  How can the Indian people maintain this corporate boom that the US had years ago (and in my opinion, has slowed down)?   How can they ride this wave for as long as possible?  They need careful thought and planning for the future. 

  The workshop was two days of cross-cultural exposure.  The workshop drew in many corporate (middle) managers from Honeywell around the globe, including people from Sydney, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Fort Washington, PA, and of course all over India.   For the first hour or so on Wednesday, I sat in my seat, grinning ear to ear, looking around the room in amazement as I observed all the different races of people working for one multi-national company as a homogeneous group of people.  I have worked for an international company before, but, I never had this experience there.  When I worked at DSM (a Swiss company) two years ago, I saw the same white faces all the time.  I was never privileged to go to a meeting when internationals came to visit the campus location.  Actually, I don’t even think they came when I was there…  but, still.  The point is that I was experiencing a shrinking business world first hand.

  I have modified the original purpose statement to better represent how I think the workshop went. 

During this two day workshop, Honeywell leaders will be introduced to key decision-making processes and new business models by Dr. Petrick. They will consider the ways that culture leads individuals and teams in different directions and key decision-making practices. Participants will consider the natural tensions that arise between peoples and cultures when relating to design, sourcing and manufacturing choices.  Through interactive group discussion and focused breakout sessions, participants will consider the various types of decisions they face in the innovation process; underlying motivations for these decisions; and ways to identify competing priorities and balance them when making critical choices.

  Topics we examined during the workshop included:

  • How “east to west” thinking infiltrates design, sourcing, manufacturing, and maintenance decisions.
  • Different regional and cultural differences among India, Greater China, Australia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America; how to design to accommodate multiple regions.
  • Attitudes influencing and adding to cultural superiority and how they are related to product ownership – who is the principal decision maker(s) for different portions of the system design? .
  • What was needed to successfully form global partnerships and how they are different from a global services partnership?
  • Challenges of collaboration and the need for face to face interaction, not just virtual meetings.
  • Changes that need to take place on a personal level to effect the company as a whole.
  • The growing Eastern market.
  • Business speak.
  • Effective and innovate brainstorming.
  • Social, regional, and economic barriers to success.

There is no way that I can really encompass everything that happened in the two day workshop.  There was just so much information and so much activity.  I can really only say that I really learned a lot about business in the east and how they think.  How they want to grow and how they want to be on top in the business world.  I started to get an understanding of how they view the western (business) world.

  One of the best thoughts that I heard from this workshop was the idea that a truly successful global partnership can lead to “A whole that is greater than the sum of all of its parts”.  Mathematically, that statement is impossible, but this isn’t math, its people and how they interact in business.  Another great idea that I left with was “You cannot change the world, but you can change yourself to make the world better”

  Before I go, I wanted to thank the people that made this possible for me to attend the workshop, Paul McLaughlin and Gary Bradford, and thank you again Dr. Petrick for leading and directing the workshop.  I really had a great and innovating experience!

  Interesting Side note - there is a pizza place here whose slogan is "Better pizza through Quality and Innovation".   Ok, I like quality ingredients in my pizza, but how much can you innovate pizza?  Isn't it pretty set on how to make a pizza? Rather, how much can you derivate from making a pizza and still call it a pizza?  Well, they really did innovate the pizza.  They have created and serve what they call the "coneitza".  It is what is sounds like.  The pizza is rolled into a cone, stuck in a paper cone (like the paper wrapper on an ice cream cone) and served to you.  Then you eat it, just like an ice cream cone; although I would recommend against licking it.   Voila, pizza on the go.  Wait, isn't pizza mobile enough as it is?

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