A friend shared several articles on the rise of Indian in large US companies on Wechat, a popular social media in China. Sundar Pichai at Google and Satya Nadella at Microsoft are impressive successes of Indian immigrants in America. The rising wave also includes the recent appointed dean of Harvard Business School (Nitin Nohria), University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Sunil Kumar), and several other large US corporations and institution.
These articles from the Chinese media consider the following factors:
- Strong network within the community: many Indians help each other in the workplace, such as job interviews, promotions etc.
- Focused on relationship in leadership: the tradition of apprenticeship makes Indian leaders more likely to participate and build strong relationship and loyalty with subordinates.
- Others: IIT as the ultimate elite school has produced half of the top Indian leadership; strong language skills; and early exposure to the American culture.
Some of these summaries came from the vantage point of comparing with the experience with recent Chinese immigrants in America. Indeed, the background of these Indian leaders are very similar to mine, and many of the technical immigrants from China in their mid-career. We grew up in places were poorly developed, went to good universities, came to the US to pursue postgraduate education, and stayed.
The focus on relationship in their leadership was an interesting observation, but makes sense after thinking about my own experience with friends and coworkers from India. My own observation to add:
- Continue to pursue the next career goal: I know more Indian co workers than Chinese who completed an MBA in early career. I attribute this to the Chinese philosophy of “Zhi Zhu Chang Lie”, knowing having enough makes one happy. Many Chinese become technical expert and stop. My Indian friends more often have eyes on the top spot of the company
- Strong family and community: this observation is very superficial, but it is often breathtaking to participate in the Indian family and friend gathering, weddings and other ceremonies. Community is a salient part of the Indian culture. My most awe experience is the best table tennis club in the US is not by Chinese, who dominate the sport, but hosted by the Indian Community Center in the bay area (http://www.indiacc.org/tabletennis). These communities can often serve as the backbone for strong leadership. The individual pursuit of excellence or happiness is different from taking everyone with you to pursue a common goal.
Alas, I congratulate my Indian friends for their rise in American Businesses, the diversity will be good for all.
