Dutch impressions on Indian honchos

NA has launched a special book on Business Adventures in the Netherlands. In this DNA Conversations, Girish Ramachandran, director, Europe at Tata Consultancy Services, Meera Sanyal,  country executive (India), ABN Amro Bank, Hans Ramaker, consul-general of the Netherlands, shared thoughts on doing business with the Tulips country.

Tell us your first experience about the Netherlands…
Girish Ramachandran: I went in the year 2000. I was initially asked only to look after the Dutch operations as the country head of the Netherlands… I had come from the US and knowing the pace of the business in the US, I was eager to get started in the Netherlands… I met this customer and told him can we get started in the first meeting…. and his reaction was ‘Hang on Girish, you have two options. First one is to slow down and option two is continue to be the way you are, and I will call up your boss and you can take the plane next day back to India’… so that’s how I started my journey in Netherlands, continued there for nine years, and its been an extremely pleasant experience.

How long did it take for you to understand the Dutch way of working?
Ramachandran: Well, I am still learning and after spending nine years there… it’s a nice country it’s got its differences with India, but there are a lot of similarities as well, like for example, the focus on relationships to do business is extremely strong… I always feel that Dutch do business with the people they want to do business with.
Meera, how did your journey with the Dutch begin?
Meera Sanyal: I have been with ABN Amro for 17 years… on my first work visit, I was meeting senior people in the organisation and at one lunch, I was asked a couple of questions like do you have English newspapers in India… I was completely dumbstruck. The next day, at lunch, a very senior person at the bank asked me how long it takes to go from Delhi to Calcutta by elephant… I thought it was a joke, so, with a completely straight face, I answered and we kept talking about the elephant and the journey and at some point, I realised the gentleman was serious and I said ‘By the way, we can also take a flight’. But equally, there was a group there that knew India. For example, the lady who was serving us lunch had been to India four times. One of the things we did was to invite people to break journeys in India. I would invite them to visit the Taj and arrange for their trip on the way to any business. That was the starting of our journey.

Is there a reason why you choose to stay with the bank after 17 years? Something Dutch?
Sanyal: I would say yes, it is to do with the culture of the organisation… Things that I would describe about the Dutch is their protestant work ethic — they work very hard, they expect you to work very hard, they don’t expect you to waste money… you can call it stingy, but it is saving for what is worthwhile… blowing up money is not encouraged… and equally is the focus on doing what is right. They are basically an outward-looking nation, that’s what I learnt. It’s a small country and yet, they have some of the biggest multinationals in the world.

What about the work culture in terms of an Indian woman doing business with the Dutch companies?
Sanyal: As women in India, we have had a level playing field in our generation. I think there were women before us who faced barriers and opened the way for us. As Indian woman abroad, I think the real key is to be comfortable in your own skin, you have to be who you are… I don’t think you face barriers… there is an element of being exotic abroad… I wear a saree in India and abroad.

Hans Ramaker, how has your perspective changed with regards to India?
Hans Ramaker: I slightly disagree with Meera when she says that there was not that much interest in India those days. If you go to a bookstore today and ask for a book by Jan Breman, a professor in sociology at the University of Amsterdam, you will get a collection of his studies on India. That was not because he wanted to do them, but because there was a big interest in India is some circles. I don’t think people really believed that you had to travel from Delhi to Kolkata on an elephant back. But it is certainly true that the perspective has changed… people were looking at India as an exotic country… now they think of India as a business partner.

To procure copies of the book
Business Adventures in the Netherlands published by DNA which is priced
at Rs 500, e-mail us on international @dnaindia.net