A bridge to Stockholm: Tech Mahindra's Tryst with a Swedish Customer

Abstract

This case study discusses the experience of an Indian IT outsourcing and consulting company –Tech Mahindra (TechM) Limited – with a Swedish customer. It discusses the challenges faced by the company, based in Pune, India, in executing a project on account of cultural gaps. TechM, an Indian multinational provided services across the globe in the areas of engineering, information technology (IT), networking technology solutions, business process outsourcing (BPO), and telecommunications, had an IT and engineering development collaboration with Saab. The NC project, started in May 2012, faced several challenges at the beginning on the cultural and execution fronts. Raghav, the project manager who had been given this challenging task by Dinesh, had overcome these initial hiccups and made steady progress to reach a level where the client was satisfied with TechM’s service delivery. .

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Issues

The case is structured to achieve the following teaching objectives:

• To develop an appreciation for the importance of understanding national cultures while managing international projects.
• To apply Hofstede’s national culture framework to an organization operating in a multicultural context.
• To develop a structured program to orient the employees to a customer country’s culture .
• To develop an evaluation system to assess the suitability of candidates to work on projects in a foreign country taking into account the cultural fit.

Keywords

India, Sweden, Multi-Cultural Teams, Cross Cultural understanding, Cultural Intelligence, Hofstede’s national culture framework, Cultural Fit, DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME, Mistake Proofing, Poke Yoke, Service Delivery Excellence, Lean Management, International Projects, Cultural Gaps, Recruitment, Training

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