Business and Management Practices in South Asia—A Prelude

Abstract

Globalization has surged across different geographies and regions, and South Asia is not isolated. The impact of such a global phenomenon has transformed the South Asian economies and it has driven these countries to embrace new practices that are transforming the lives of people. One of the impacts of globalization is the import of management and business practices that are brought in by foreign multinational companies (convergence). These business practices of multinationals have posed challenges and competition to local companies with the result that many local companies have closed shop or have been taken over. However, some local companies have been able to withstand the competitive pressure by reconfiguring their management and business practices to deal with the competition (divergence). There is a need to recognize and learn from these successful business practices of local companies. We strongly argue that in today’s day and age, where multinationals are ubiquitous around the world that their management and business practices are considered as the de facto recipe for success, there is a need to have an alternative view that challenges the ubiquitousness of multinational management practices. The case studies in this book thus focus on the business and management practices of local organizations in South Asia and provide that alternative viewpoint of how to achieve success in South Asia.