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...

min read

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.)

India bears the brunt: Nifty crashes 1,100, Sensex nosedives 3,900 points after US trade shock

Correspondent
Apr 7, 2025
2 min read

India woke up to a financial jolt this morning as its equity markets suffered their steepest fall in nearly a year, shaken by the ripple effects of US President Donald Trump’s aggressive new tariff regime. The Sensex plunged over 3,900 points at opening bell, while the Nifty tumbled more than 1,100 points, dragging Indian stocks to a 10-month low.

This sharp decline follows a global equity rout triggered by Trump's protectionist measures, which have sent panic waves across Asia and raised the spectre of a global recession. Investors dumped shares in a massive sell-off, with Indian benchmarks reacting sharply in early trade. The Sensex dropped to 71,425.01 — down 3,939.68 points — while Nifty slipped to 21,743.65, marking a 3.5% slide from the last session.

Adding to the pressure, the Indian rupee depreciated 30 paise to open at 85.74 against the US dollar.

India Among the Hardest Hit

Trump’s latest tariff hike — framed as a push to restore fairness to global trade — has imposed country-specific duties that go as high as 50%. India has been slapped with a 26% tariff, while a 10% baseline duty applies to all nations. This has set alarm bells ringing among Indian exporters and traders already struggling with global demand volatility.

President Trump, unfazed by the financial carnage, likened the move to a bitter but necessary cure. “Sometimes you need the medicine to fix something,” he told reporters earlier today.

Analysts Urge Economic Safeguards

Market experts believe that India's current market turmoil isn't rooted in domestic issues but is rather a consequence of being tightly woven into global investment flows.

“India will face the heat, not due to domestic reasons, but as an interlinked chain in the global portfolio flows,” said Ajay Bagga, a noted market expert. “India will need a fiscal, monetary, and reform package to protect the domestic economy from this global economic winter that is threatening to settle in.”

Sunil Gurjar, SEBI-registered research analyst, warned that the Nifty50 index has breached its first support level and is approaching the next. "A further breakdown could worsen the trend and accelerate the fall," he cautioned.

Asian Markets Bleed

The tremors from Trump's announcement were first felt in Asia, with key markets suffering steep losses. China's stock markets fell over 4% amid retaliatory tariffs of 34% against the US. Hong Kong's Hang Seng nosedived more than 10%, while Japan’s Nikkei index fell 6.5% after plunging 8% earlier in the day. Taiwan saw a near-10% collapse, and Singapore dropped over 8%.

Wall Street Braces for Impact

US markets, though yet to open, appear set for a rough start. Futures contracts on the New York Stock Exchange are sharply down, suggesting heavy losses once trading resumes.

Market sentiment globally has turned bearish, with fears of a looming recession taking hold. Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management described the scene as “free-fall mode,” noting, “Trump’s team isn’t blinking. The tariffs are being treated as a victory lap, not a bargaining chip.”