What we must learn from the West

BY NARAYANA N. R. MURTHY

We need to reassess our values in order to get ahead, argues one of India’s most successful businessmen

The role of Western values in contemporary Indian society is a subject on which I have pondered for years. I come from a company that is built on strong values. Moreover, various stakeholders of our company—employees, investors, customers and vendors—come from across the globe, and in dealing with them over the years I have come to appreciate several aspects of the West’s value system. An organization is representative of society, and some of the lessons I have learnt from the West regarding values are, I think, applicable to us as a nation. Here are some of them:

Respect for the public good.
Indian culture has deep-rooted family values—parents make enormous sacrifices for their children; children consider it their duty to take care of aged parents; and marriage is held to be a sacred union with husband and wife bonded for life. Unfortunately, our attitude towards the community is very different from our attitude towards the family.

Although we keep our homes spotlessly clean, when we go out we do not think twice before littering. On the other hand, parks in the West are generally free of litter and their streets are clean.

We are also apathetic about community matters.
We see serious problems around us but behave as if they are someone else’s responsibility- For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India.

More than 30 years ago, irrigation expert Dr K. L. Rao suggested solving this problem by creating a water grid interlinking the Ganga and Cauvery and several other Indian rivers. Unfortunately, nothing was done about this.

The story of power shortage in Bangalore is another example. In 1995, it was decided to build a thermal power plant to meet Bangalore’s power requirements. Unfortunately, we have still not started it. Five years ago, because of the constant foreign travel required in the software industry, I suggested a 240-page passport to the government so that frequent visits to the passport office can be avoided. I have yet to get a response from the Ministry of External Affairs.

Could the reason for all this be that we were ruled by foreigners for over a thousand years and came to believe that solving public problems was the responsibility of a foreign ruler, not ours? Even our decision-makers look to somebody else to take decisions.

In the West, individuals understand that they have to be responsible to their community. They care for their society and make sacrifices for it. They solve societal problems proactively. This is where we need to learn from the West. Successful societies are those that harmoniously combine loyalty to family and loyalty to community.

Acknowledging the accomplishments of others.
In my extensive travels, I have not come across another society as contemptuous as we are of countries that have done better. This attitude, incidentally, is nothing new. Even al-Biruni, the noted 11th century logician and traveller, who spent about 20 years in India, referred to this trait of Indians.

If we want to progress, we must listen to and learn from people who have performed better than us.

Accountability.
Another attribute we must learn from the West is accountability. There, you are held responsible for what you do irrespective of your position. In India, the more ‘important’ you are, the less answerable you become. For instance, a senior politician once declared that he ‘forgot’ to file his tax returns for 10 consecutive years—and got away with it. And although there are over a hundred loss-making public sector units belonging to the central government, I have not seen action taken against top managers for bad performance in any of these organizations.

Dignity of labour.
Whereas this is an integral part of the West’s value system, in India we revere only supposedly intellectual work. For instance, I have seen many engineers, fresh from college, who only want to do cutting-edge work, and not work that is of relevance to business and the nation. For anything to be run successfully, everyone—from the CEO to the person who serves tea—must discharge his or her duties in a responsible manner We, therefore, need a mindset that reveres everyone who puts in honest work, no matter what work it is.

Professionalism.
In the West, people do not let personal relations interfere with their professional dealings. They do not hesitate to chastise a colleague for incompetence, even if he is a friend. In India, we tend to view even work interactions from a personal perspective. We are also the most thin-skinned society in the world – we see insults where none are meant.

We extend this lack of professionalism to our sense of punctuality. We do not respect the other person’s time. Indian Standard Time always runs late, and deadlines are typically not met.

Intellectual independence.
From the time their children are very young, Western parents teach them to think for themselves. So, these children grow up to be strong, confident adults. But in India we suffer from feudal thinking. I have seen bright people who prefer to be told what to do by their bosses. We need to overcome this attitude if we are to succeed globally.

Honouring contracts.
The Western value system teaches respect for contractual obligations. In India, we consider it crucial to fulfill personal vows—as with family or friends. However, we do not extend this to the public domain. For instance, I gave personal recommendations to five students who got scholarships to study abroad. Not one of them came back to India even though contractually they obliged to spend five years here getting their degrees. We have to change this attitude.

We are all aware of our rich citizens. But we often fail to acknowledge the duty that accompanies every right. We should keep in mind what former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower said: “A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” So lets work towards a society where “we would do unto others as we have them do unto us” and make country great.

Narayana N. R. Murthy is Chairman of the Board at the Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies Limited.