SP Jain’s Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) students of the September 2021 intake have sailed halfway through the World Cultures course and have started to adapt to be culturally sensitive and prepare to lead tomorrow. SP Jain organised a virtual guest session on November 9, 2021, with Ashok Nayak to provide more industry insights to students on this subject. Mr Nayak is the Business Director for ENU, Integrated Digital, Engineering and Application Services at Wipro Limited (iDEAS).

He was invited to share his experiences and knowledge on cultures across countries by the World Cultures Professor, Piya Mukherjee, on behalf of the School. Mr Nayak has an overall experience of more than 20 years in digital, strategy, automation and outsourcing across business and technology to shape and drive transformational engagements. For the past 22 years, he has been based in Melbourne and has adapted to the Australian work culture.

Mr Nayak shared his experiences of working with companies like Wipro, Infosys and KPMG. He discussed the change he noticed in the working style when he moved from India to Australia. He mentioned how Indian employees could be sensitive to receiving feedback from an Australian manager due to their frank communication. He also highlighted that companies look for employees who present themselves as ‘How can I be useful?’ rather than overstating their accolades. He shared valuable tips on how students can contribute to their workplace in the future.

Mansi Rathod, a BBA student who attended the session, said, “The session offered us insightful real-life stories and practical, handy information. Sir was very approachable and keen on sharing his best lessons with us.” Dev Dutta, another BBA student, shared, “Ashok Sir gave us straight insights on how to interact with Australians while doing business with them.”

The key takeaway from the session was to recognise the objective style of working adopted by Australians in their business approach, and how different it was from the work culture prevalent in India, South Korea and the Philippines. The session complemented the students’ in-class learnings of world cultures as they got the opportunity to understand the business applications from an experienced professional in the industry.

- This article is written by Siva Priya Ganti (Student of BBA September 2021 intake)