Start up India
The large-scale Japanese FDI initially in south-east Asia, then into the US, followed in the early 1980s in Europe led to Japanese firms being dubbed as ‘thieves of intellectual property' - but times change, and now China has this unenviable label. What is remarkable presently is that little is discussed about the nationality of tech-start-up innovators in the US with the Indian manager being so prominent. Analysts say 43 percent of the Fortune 500 firms with the highest revenues were started by immigrants or their children; and in 2012, although comprising less than one percent of the population Indians founded eight percent of US start-ups; and of the 241 US unicorn firms, 14 are headed by Indian-origin founders. Further, Indians head-up firms in every country - note Qualcomm, ArcelorMittal or Jaguar Land-Rover.  It is not by chance - richer Indian families sent their bright young boys (usually not the girls) to be educated in English-language universities abroad as they did not consider there to be enough opportunity in the rare top-flight Indian education institutes. Those children blossomed, reaching their potentials; but so, did some of the families and children that remained in India (note Tata, Reliance, Mahindra & Mahindra, etc).

Laying the foundation
When I studied Japanese management practices in Europe and in Japan, I gathered some insights - one of which was about nemawashi. Wiki suggests this is ‘… quietly laying the foundation for some proposed change or project, by talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, and so forth. It is considered an important element in any major change, before any formal steps are taken, and successful nemawashi enables changes to be carried out with the consent of all sides.'  Thus, while the Japanese used this process as a norm, it was new to the US and Europe.  Talking about the issues was something the typical US firm did not do - they preferred to ‘… catch the ball and run with it' - no matter which way, action was key!  Sadly, there is too little time spent considering options today with markets and management being assailed by algorithmic decisions instead of engaging in deep discussions.

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