Mr. Muneer Alam [Part1]
Geomanage had a chat with Mr. Muneer Alam, Chief Executive, Japan Branches, Bank of India few days ago. Mr. Alam gave his views on challenges involved in doing business in India and Japan and how to overcome those challenges. He also talked about his personal experience in Japan. Let's read what Mr. Alam has to say about all these.
Regarding Business
Challenges faced after coming to Japan. How did he overcome those challenges?
Every country is different and so are its people. If we are looking to be successful in a foreign country we must accept this basic fact. In my opinion the biggest challenge for doing business in any foreign country is adaptability. One cannot be successful at business unless one adapts to the local style of thinking and working. When I first came to Japan, I had many small problems. But I started to adapt to the local way and slowly those problems became unimportant. I strongly believe that once you are open to accepting new things and the other problems can take care of themselves.
Major differences between doing business in India and doing business in Japan?
The predictability of getting things done is very less in India in comparison to Japan. I will give you an example. I have some visitors coming next week so I wanted to get a lamp changed in my office. I called the management and they arranged everything and notified me that it will be done on Friday. I know that they will definitely do that on Friday but I am a little restless because I am used to Indian style where we are not sure if the guy will actually come on the agreed date. This is mainly because unlike Japan, a major part of the services sector is unorganized in India. However, things are changing fast now.
Also, we commonly see that Japanese companies are slow at reaching at a decision. However, once they have decided something, the execution is fast. Whereas, the Indian companies will reach to a decision fast but the execution is generally slow because of various factors.
Goals while in Japan?
We have been providing reliable services to ethnic Indians and also some Japanese customers. Now, I would like to extend the customer base to Japanese companies also. I want to now reach out to more Japanese customers and invite them to have accounts or fixed deposits with us. Our main target would be small and medium Japanese corporations. We have been in Japan or more than 60 years now. We have overcome all challenges and crisis including the current one and the one in 1997. We work on solid principals and are partially owned by the government of India. Hence, I would be happy if I can build some Japanese customers and infuse faith in them through our credible service.
Link：Japan Branches, Bank of India
Relation：Atul Lokurkar（from GeoManage）