CASE: Prospecting in India - How to successfully prospect in India?1

Why do many prospectings in India end in failure even though there is goodwill on both sides? Where do the misunderstandings come from? Prospecting is even more difficult when there is a cross-cultural dimension.

Prospecting for an American company in India

The American company Globaltech approached several reputable software companies in Bangalore and asked them to study an interface adapted to the Indian market for its best-selling software in the United States and Europe.

Once the most suitable partner was identified, Globaltech set a date for the Indians to present a first draft one month later.

Preliminaries

During the time leading up to this new meeting, Steven, the American project manager, was not surprised at first to be frequently asked by his Indian contacts about many of the interface specifications and requirements.

But the flow of email exchanges did not stop, and the questions from the partners became more and more technical; he then started to worry that the Indians were stopping at details that he considered still of little significance at this stage of the project.

The next meeting

So he decided to postpone these new questions until their next meeting. The e-mails stopped and his intuition was confirmed at the deadline: the Indian partners did not show any sign of life on the agreed date.

He calls them back several times and gets only a request for an extension. The doubt turns into anxiety.

QUESTIONS:

1. How can we interpret the contrast between the Indians' involvement at the launch of the project and their surprising discretion during this first deadline?

2. How can we understand that they let the date of their interview pass without even alerting Steven?