Cross cultural management and inclusive growth: Lessons from Japanese experience

In the globalization era when countries are coming together and world economies are integrating, technology and cultural issues are coming under sharper focus. While India Inc. aims competitive advantage with emphasis on inclusivity and sustainability, Japan Inc. targets competitive advantage with emphasis on resource optimization and conservation. In India's case need for development of everyone in society on sustained basis, puts cross cultural management issues on priority, as without everyone's support goal of sustainable and inclusive growth cannot be achieved. In Japan's case its management style is based on collective leadership, unparalled teamwork and high degree of ethical standards in corporate governance. An organization that has low credibility due to poor standards of business ethics may find it difficult to survive in competitive world. In Japan, Matsushita experiment of spiritual management initiated in thirties to achieve higher performance standards in Matsushita Electric Industries (MEI) is a reference point and trend setter as to how spiritual leadership can make a difference in achieving high performance standards. In this paper, it is attempted to review relevance of cross cultural management, business ethics and inclusive growth which are very relevant in Indian context by deriving insights from Matsushita experiment and corporate governance philosophies based on Japanese values and ethics.