Till few years ago I used to write my thoughts regularly. Then it stopped. Suddenly, I started observing some events that made me think and write again.

First, the events:

1. I was interviewing a young candidate recently, engineer/MBA, who was working for a reputed organization. I asked about the culture there. He said, it was all good and informal, but his new boss has come in from a big bank and he has brought the culture of ‘Sir’, which he is not comfortable with.
2. I had a nasty experience with IKEA recently. Every time I called the Call Centre the agent would call me by my first name.  Once I addressed the person as ‘Ma’am’ and the lady immediately took offence. She asked me to address her by name. I understand that this was possibly due to their training, but if they address anyone of my father’s age by first name they would lose many customers.
3. Organizationally, we continue to grapple with a situation where we would prefer employees to call everybody, including people who are of the age of their fathers and uncles, by their first names. Obviously, it is like water off the back of a duck. It doesn’t work.

My tryst with this cultural change began when I moved to a business school from an engineering college. We came from traditional Indian middle class background. All siblings are ‘Bhaiya and Didi’. I can’t imagine calling my sister by her name. She is less than two years older than me. We used to have intensive ragging in engineering hostels. And our seniors became our best friends after that. But for our entire life they became ‘Sir’. Even people one year senior to us, and may be younger to us in age. It continues till now. All seniors are “Sirs’. I then moved to B-school. Suddenly, I found many of my new batchmates had prior work experience of many years. They were all grown up men. Same was the case not only the batchmates but our seniors too. And we had to call them all by their first names. It took intensive efforts and obviously some time for me to get used to this situation.

I joined an Indian conglomerate. Once again, we were back to ‘Sir’ – I must admit that in those days there were few ‘Ma’ams’. But we were far more broadminded now. Few years later we had a new CEO who joined us from a big MNC and returned from London. He urged everyone to address him by his first name. Alas! He failed. Few of us who were from MNC background were comfortable, but all desis like me continued with customary and safe, ‘Sir’. He is still a ‘Sir’ for me.

Life moved on. I had now changed significantly and was comfortable with first names. Till once again I saw this battle raging in another organization. A new and modern CEO, coming from a British multinational, issued a fiat that no one will address him as ‘Sir’. I could see the discomfort of people around me. Many confided in with me about their discomfort of calling him by name. He had to fail and he failed.

This issue continues to come back in my life again and again. Only good part is that by now I am comfortable in either of the situation – of calling people by name or being called by my name. Having said that, there are valuable lessons for the corporate world.  

Adopting and respecting the culture of the populace where we operate is a very important determinant of success of any organization. We have many MNCs who have failed in India despite having best of brands and products. General Motors, Ford, most foreign banks, global mobile operators etc. have all failed in India. Only those who adopted to Indian culture flourish here. McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Hindustan Unilever, Toyota etc. are some of successes. In all these cases, not only they have Indianized, but are exporting locally created products to other countries. On a lighter note, exports include our own desi talent also.

Anyone who has worked in India with national responsibilities would know the cultural differences in all our states. How it is so very different to operate in TN than in Punjab and in Maharashtra and West Bengal. This is one reason why global experience alone is not in great demand in Indian organizations where predominant customer base is in India.

Culture of the people – is the crux. There is nothing right or wrong. There can be no imposition by force. We are a country where we touch the feet of elders, don’t call them by names, don’t call our father as ‘my old man’, where we call river Ganges as Ganga ji, where we call Bharat as Bharat Mata. We are deeply reverential people for elders, authority figures, rivers, Sun and Moon, fire, earth, water and air, mountains and trees and the list goes on. In this situation how can we make people address their elders by first name by giving reference to organizational culture? Organizational culture has to subsume itself in the societal culture, not the other way round. At best, some parts of both can be adopted, without impacting sensitivities of people.

Having said that, what is the objective of addressing each other by first names? It is to primarily to bring in a culture of openness. That’s a noble objective in a modern organization and much required. But can this be achieved only if people address each other by first names? Or, can we have openness even if people addressed seniors as Sir & Ma’am? I think all this is too simplistic. It is a much wider issue. More on this, may be one day.

My Little Thought of Life on this issue is that anything business organizations do, must be consistent with the cultural ethos of the populace. Whether it is about their customers or their employees. Organization has to adopt the culture of the society and not the other way round.