KPN has been in India for nine years. The telecom company works there with various partners on ICT solutions for their business processes. In the Netherlands, there was simply a shortage of well-trained ICT staff, so it is now up to their man in Pune, sourcing manager and transformation coach Jasper Fortuin, to make all the cooperation between the two countries run as smoothly as possible. "I don't want to tell them what to do, I want them to see for themselves that it works better in a different way."
Jasper's first day at work in Pune felt surreal. A car with driver arrived to take him to the office, as it is done in India. There he was received by a large welcoming committee. "Your first day is always a searching day, one where you feel a bit lost. Now I was also starting in a new country with a different culture, so I did have jitters in the back seat.
But I arrived and all the managers were there to make me feel good. It was different from being shown to your office with a note saying the Wi-Fi password."
Nothing is as important in India as a good relationship of trust
According to him, this servant attitude is very typical of the relationships on the work floor in India, where hierarchy still prevails. A challenge for Jasper. His task is to implement the new KPN structure, without management, in India as well. "I want to work with our partners as equals, but here I am both customer and white, so I am automatically at the top of the ladder. That means that everyone listens to what I say and agrees with it, while I am looking for their insights. That is the only way we can improve the processes.
Jasper and his team
To achieve this, the liaison must work on building a strong bond of trust. That is why Jasper focuses mainly on the soft side of cooperation, such as team building. In this way, he builds a working environment in which everyone can function optimally and therefore 'fly faster'. "But it was more difficult than I thought. I had thought of an approach beforehand that did not immediately work. I started, for example, with one-on-one meetings with all the managers. I wanted to get to know them not only professionally, but also personally. But Indians don't want to talk about that at all, so I had to use a lot of tricks.
In India, too, patience is rewarded in the end
Yet Jasper now sees results. While in the first months he received no response when he asked for an opinion or input, now his employees know they can safely voice their criticism to him. One of Jasper's most important lessons is that patience is rewarded. "I've really had to mould myself in recent years. If it goes well, I praise my people for their contribution. If things go wrong, I first look at myself: how should I have done this differently? Or how should I have communicated to get everyone on the same page? This is the only way I can make sure I don't lapse into the same hierarchical approach, but create a working environment where people themselves think about the best ways to tackle a task, instead of simply doing what they are told.
Jasper meets King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima during their visit to India
Jasper's patience is also regularly tested in India. Not only at work, but also in daily life, deadlines and showing up at appointments on time are not as important as here. "That's one of the aspects of Indian culture that you have to embrace and not get angry about, you just can't change that". He would, however, like to see the country's deep-rooted corruption dealt with more severely. "That's really a point that I struggle with, because I don't really want to take part in it. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with it in my job, but I do in my daily life. And if you can arrange something in two days for an extra 10 euros instead of two weeks, then you start having doubts."