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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.)

People praise Army for protecting

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah interacts with displaced border residents at a shelter camp.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah interacts with displaced border residents at a shelter camp.

Garkhal (J&K): Men and machines of the armed forces worked meticulously to ensure the interception of Kamikaze drones and missiles fired by Pakistani troops targeting Jammu, drawing widespread appreciation from people.


India on Thursday night swiftly thwarted Pakistan's fresh attempts to strike military sites with drones and missiles, including in Jammu and Pathankot, after foiling similar bids at 15 locations across the country's northern and western regions, amid a military conflict between the two neighbours.


Looking after the operational area of Jammu under the command of the 9 Corps, the 26 Infantry Division, nicknamed the "Tiger Division", had put in place a robust air-defence system, virtually carving out an Israel-type Iron Dome to protect Jammu from a Hamas-style attack by Pakistan.


An official who was privy to the developments said it was a meticulous combination of men and machines in defence that thwarted such a massive Pakistani attack.


In the dead of night, Pakistan unleashed its most audacious assault on Jammu since the 1971 war, deploying a swarm of more than a hundred Kamikaze drones and missiles in a sinister attempt to devastate the city. But what followed was a show of unmatched precision, courage and resilience.


"We are indebted to our armed forces who have saved Jammu from a major attack by Pakistan. We appreciate them for their missionary work. We never thought these bombs could be neutralised in the air," Garkhal resident Sikender Singh said.


Singh, whose family, along with more than 500 villagers, has shifted to safer camps set up by the government in Mishriwala on the Jammu outskirts, said had the bombs not been intercepted, they could have caused massive deaths and destruction.


Finest system

The Army, backed by one of the world's finest air-defence systems, intercepted the aerial barrage with astonishing accuracy -- virtually every hostile object was destroyed mid-air. Not a single vital installation was touched. Not a single civilian life was lost.


"Eight missiles from Pakistan were directed at Satwari, Samba, R S Pura and Arnia. All were intercepted and blocked by air-defence units. Visuals over Jammu reminded exactly of a Hamas-style attack on Israel, like multiple cheap rockets," an Army official said.


He said the Pakistan Army is operating and behaving like Hamas. "Drones were sighted at multiple places along the western front -- confirmed to be hostile. They are being effectively engaged by our air-defence systems. Pakistani drone attacks have been reported at various locations along the western borders and are being effectively countered by the Indian armed forces," he added.


The multi-tier air-defence system, with a twin technological security architecture of Russian and Israeli surface-to-air missile setups and the indigenous Akash, was a game changer against such attacks.


Former Jammu and Kashmir director general of police S P Vaid appreciated the armed forces and their technological security systems for effectively dealing with the Pakistani attacks.


He said 50 to 60 air attacks by Pakistan over Jammu and other places were neutralised on Thursday night by the impregnable air-defence system of the country.


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