How to explain India

During my professional career in India I have always been exposed to try to explain India as a market. With the change in government and the assumed turnaround of the economy, this task is more than ever important, working for a Multi-National Company in India.

But how to explain Leaders, who have never been to India but read in the Financial Times, that India will be the fastest growing economy in these days to come.

As one knows that ‘learning’ always starts with the already known, I have to compare India with something known to my European friends. Being fully aware, that India cannot be compared with any other economy; I am left with no option than to compare.

So, I do a chart to only be surprised myself:

So many similarities were not expected and nowadays I can spend hours talking on this single chart. Starting from distance and travel time between locations, covering the aspects of different culture, climate, food, language, laws or even ethnics, it has become a ‘walk in the park’ to visualize the dynamics of India.

If still not satisfied, I start to give examples: How would a Norwegian Key Account Manager approach an Italian Retail Chain? Why does Germany not keep the same product assortment as Spain? How many companies keep one marketing department or strategy for entire Europe? Is the shopping behaviour on consumer goods the same in Greece and in Switzerland? And the story goes on..

Being fully aware that I don’t give full justice to the diversity of India (it is more diverse than Europe), I am blessed to have a good starting point to explain India as a market to complete strangers to our culture and economy.