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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 3:28:38 am

When Culture Costs Growth

Global business today is not limited by geography, capital, or capability. It is limited by interpretation. A founder recently shared an experience that quietly captures a much larger issue. While working with a business leader from the Netherlands, he realised how quickly intent can be misunderstood. Dutch professionals are known for their directness. Indian professionals, by contrast, value respect, nuance, and indirect communication. Neither approach is wrong. Yet when these worlds collide...

When Culture Costs Growth

Global business today is not limited by geography, capital, or capability. It is limited by interpretation. A founder recently shared an experience that quietly captures a much larger issue. While working with a business leader from the Netherlands, he realised how quickly intent can be misunderstood. Dutch professionals are known for their directness. Indian professionals, by contrast, value respect, nuance, and indirect communication. Neither approach is wrong. Yet when these worlds collide without context, friction follows. Conversations become strained, decisions slow down, and credibility begins to blur — not because of competence, but because of perception. What makes this problem particularly dangerous is that it rarely announces itself. No one says, “I don’t trust you anymore.” Instead, calls become shorter. Emails turn formal. Opportunities stall without explanation. Founders often attribute this to market conditions or timing, unaware that the real issue lies elsewhere — in how they are being read, interpreted, and experienced. This is not an international problem alone. Within India itself, business cultures shift dramatically from region to region. What signals confidence in one room may come across as arrogance in another. What feels respectful in one setting may appear indecisive in another. For founders operating across cities, states, and cultures, these subtleties compound. Over time, the gap between intent and impact widens. Here is the uncomfortable truth most leaders are never told: growth today is as dependent on perception as it is on performance. And perception, left unmanaged, becomes a liability. This is where personal branding moves out of the realm of visibility and into the realm of strategic necessity. Personal branding is not about posting more, speaking louder, or becoming a public personality. At its core, it is about consciously shaping how your values, decisions, and leadership style are understood — especially by people who do not share your cultural reference points. Founders often assume their work speaks for itself. In earlier decades, it did. Today, work speaks, but interpretation decides. Without a clearly articulated personal brand, others are left to fill in the gaps themselves. And they do so using their own cultural lens, biases, and assumptions. This is how capable leaders are misunderstood, how strong businesses face invisible resistance, and how trust erodes without a single visible conflict. A well-defined personal brand acts as a stabiliser in these moments. It provides context before confusion sets in. It allows people to understand not just what you do, but how you think, what you value, and how you make decisions. When this clarity exists, directness is not mistaken for rudeness, and politeness is not confused with lack of conviction. Conversations become cleaner. Alignment happens faster. Credibility holds firm even across borders. The most significant shift occurs internally. Leaders with a clear personal brand stop second-guessing how they should show up. They communicate with confidence without overcompensating. They hold authority without appearing distant. Most importantly, they attract relationships that are aligned rather than transactional. This is not accidental; it is the result of intentional positioning. The cost of ignoring this is subtle but cumulative. Deals that could have moved faster do not. Partnerships that seemed promising lose momentum. Teams hesitate instead of committing fully. None of this shows up on balance sheets immediately, which is why it is often dismissed. But over time, it defines the ceiling of growth. Founders are particularly vulnerable here because they are too close to themselves. They know their intent, their ethics, their effort. Others only know what is visible. Personal branding bridges this gap — not by exaggerating, but by translating. If you are a business leader navigating diverse teams, international clients, or culturally varied markets, and you sense that growth is slowing for reasons you cannot fully explain, this is worth examining. Not as a marketing exercise, but as a leadership one. Sometimes, the most important work is not expanding into new markets, but ensuring you are being clearly understood in the ones you already occupy. If this perspective resonates, I invite you to connect with me for a conversation. Not to sell, but to explore whether perception — not performance — might be the quiet variable influencing your next phase of growth. Clarity often begins with a single, honest conversation. You can book a consultation here: https://sprect.com/pro/divyaaadvaani (The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

BMC auctioning three land parcels to raise funds, says Aaditya

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

Aaditya

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Thursday alleged Mumbai’s civic body had decided to auction three land parcels to raise funds and make up for the “loot” of the metropolis by the Eknath Shinde government.


The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which is being run by an administrator now, has decided to auction the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Mandi (Market), the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Malabar Hill Receiving Station and the Worli Asphalt Plant, Thackeray pointed out.


“The sale of Mumbai is being done by the Eknath Shinde regime to benefit its favourite builders and contractors,” he alleged.


A criminal investigation will be conducted into the matter after the Maha Vikas Aghadi government comes to power, Thackeray added.


“So on one end, they looted the BMC and Mumbai and gave the money to their favourite contractors. Now, by auctioning these iconic and important land parcels, the BMC will be left without both funds and plots,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former state minister claimed.


When Shiv Sena started controlling the BMC in 1997, its finances were in deficit but by 2022 his party turned around the fiscal health of the civic body, Thackeray said.


Alleging that the Shinde government wants to drive Kolis and fisherfolk out of Mumbai, he said, “We will oppose this. It has to remain and be made into a fish market, and (should be) in the ownership of the BMC.”

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Aaditya puppet for urban naxals: Shelar

Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar has called Uddhav Thackeray’s son and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray as a puppet for urban naxals after former’s comments on the Dharavi Redevelopment project and has also challenged him for a debate.

Ashish Shelar said that the project is a necessity and a priority project, adding that Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and Congressleader Varsha Gaikwad are peddling lies.

Aaditya Thackeray seems to have become the spokesperson of urban Naxals. Without studying the subject (Dharavi) in detail, Aaditya Thackeray is speaking like an ignorant. I have seen that these people have been trying to set a narrative regarding Dharavi and the re-development work,” Ashish Shelar said.

He challenged Aaditya Thackeray and Varsha Gaikwad in a debate on the Dharavi Redevelopment Project.

“Uddhav ji and the people of his party – Aaditya Thackeray and Varsha Gaikwad have started this false narrative regarding Dharavi. I openly challenge Aaditya for a debate. I want to ask him that 70 per cent of the homes in the Dharavi Redevelopment Project will go to Marathi people, Muslims and Dalits. It is their rightful home, so why are they putting roadblocks by creating a false narrative?”

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