150+ Multinational Corporations have Major Offices in Bangalore, India.

Is Yours One of Them?

Get ready to take your career to the next level with the international experience you need to get the best projects and promotions.

Get the ultimate success guide with current, real world information – The American Businesswoman’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Bangalore.

If you work with business process outsourcing (BPO), information technology, or IT outsourcing, a trip to Bangalore, India is a key item to recession-proof your resume.

Learn from women who have been there.

• Women who have faced the bewildering traffic and winding streets.
  
• Women who have negotiated with men who are clearly uncomfortable doing business with American women.
  
• Women who have been puzzled by the Indian numbering system that uses lakhs and crores rather than thousands and millions.
  
• Women who have learned the hard way what not to wear to that important presentation.

Everything that you’ve heard about travel in India – the noise, the colors, the bewildering cultural differences and the sensory overload, is absolutely true.

Even if you're a veteran road warrior, and even if you've been to Bangalore a number of times, this guide will show you how to avoid difficulties that other westerners and other women never see coming.

This one, slim book contains everything you need to make your trip a life-changing success.

You’ll Be Prepared, Polished and Confident.

• You'll take the steps you need to prepare for your trip well in advance, thanks to our one-page checklist.
• You will be perfectly packed - you won't be dragging pounds of luggage that you'll never use, but you'll have everything you need in one rolling bag and one briefcase for the average business trip.
• You'll know how to defuse awkward situations with men who may not be comfortable doing business with an American woman.
• You'll always know how to start a vibrant conversation - no awkward silences or obvious stumbles into sensitive territory!
• You won't be surprised by customs and social norms that often leave westerners baffled.
• You'll know what to wear to a meeting with a client, to give a presentation, to collaborate with a workgroup, or to a social gathering.
• You'll be comfortable making your presentation in lakhs and crores rather than millions and billions (we even show you some tricks  to put the commas in the right places in Excel!)
• You'll manage meetings with confidence. (Meetings are different in India than in the U.S.!)

 
Why Is This Guide for "American Businesswomen?"

Many of the American businesswomen I know are concerned about what this economy is going to do to their careers.

Some companies are in trouble, there are rumours of layoffs, and these smart businesswomen are making sure their skills make them indispensible to their current company and gives them lots of options at others.

Lots of American businesses are outsourcing work or working with suppliers and customers who outsource work to Bangalore. In order to be competitive, you have to have international and multicultural experience on your resume.

So, how do you get international experience? Even if an opportunity comes up, how do you find the information you need to prepare for a successful?

I have found in my experience that most of the information out there is either for tourists or for is written by and for businessmen. There are things that women need to know that men woudn't necessarily care about.

A few examples: A man could easily wear the same business suit in New York and Bangalore and look perfectly natural and appropriate. A businesswoman could wear a skirted business suit that is very conservative by New York's standards, but showing any leg at all, stockinged or not, would raise eyebrows in Bangalore. Also, a man can get up in the morning, put on running shorts and go jogging in the park by himself in Bangalore, while a woman would get a lot of unwanted attention if she did that. A woman would get more jogging and less dodging done the hotel gym. Also, a businessman can accept an invitation to go out for dinner or tea with his co-workers after work without thinking twice about it. A businesswoman probably shouldn't, unless there are other women in the party.

On the other hand, a woman has some advantages that men won't have. Women are very powerful in Indian society, and women have opportunities for informal networking that aren't open to men.

This book tells it as is without pulling punches or passing judgement.

Are You Worried About The Current Economy?

Would you like to have more options for your career? Imagine having the international experience and contacts that would make you a sought-after candidate for top jobs in this partial list of companies that have major offices in Bangalore:

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IT_companies_in_Bangalore"

Why Do I Want a Politically Incorrect Guide?

Of course you want to be polished and professional, and you don't want to offend your hosts and co-workers. So why do you want to read a guide that's "politically incorrect?"
 
One of the things that drove me crazy when doing the research for the book is that most business etiquette books are too sanitized to be helpful. American and UK authors and publishers seem to be squeamish about talking about issues of gender, age, class, race, religion and politics. It's impossible to write frankly about the issues you'll encounter when doing business in India without addressing those topics. When doing interviews for the book, I asked businesspeople from India and the U.S. to be as forthright as possible and tell it like it is. You'll find the candor refreshing and reassuring.
 
It's also important to suspend your assumptions if you're traveling to India. Many of the issues that Americans and Brits are uncomfortable discussing are freely and candidly talked about in Bangalore. I think that's one of the reasons that people have lived so peacefully with such great diversity for thousands of years in Bangalore.

Frank, Helpful, Specific Advice

For example:

• Feminism takes different forms in India.  Women are very successful and outspoken (they are CEOs of  major corporations and Directors of departments) but in different ways than feminist leaders in the U.S.Women have to do some things differently than men in order to be effective.
• Age discrimination is the reverse of what it is in the U.S. Older people have the advantage! I'll tell you how and why, and what to do about it (whichever end of the age spectrum you're on.)
• Religion creates interesting challenges for business.   The people you will be working with will likely take time off according to several different holiday calendars, and will need time during the day for various observances.   Some will have daily observances that require some flexibility.  And how would you host a lunch or provide refreshments at a meeting when you have people with various dietary restrictions (vegetarian, kosher, halal) and social restrictions! (Men of certain faiths are not permitted to shake hands with women!)   Indians have been managing these cultural differences for thousands of years, relatively harmoniously.  But an American doing business or managing a team needs to know the whole story, not just the sanitized etiquette-book version

Make the Best Use of Your Time and Money!

You can read all the books below, interview 12 friends who work in different professions and live or have traveled to India, and still not have all of the information in The American Businesswoman's Politically Incorrect Guide to Bangalore.

These are all great books, and I recommend them depending on the purpose and extent of your visit. But all together they won't include the extensive real-life experiences of real people who have travelled in Bangalore. They won't be entirely relevant and won't be worth your time and money!

You save $145.38, 66 pounds in your luggage (if you get the printed versions and take them with you) and over 25 hours of reading time!

Easily Digest All the Information You Need With Your Morning Coffee!

The American Businesswoman's Politically Incorrect Guide to Bangalore covers specifically what you need to know about the fast-changing Bangalore business climate in an up-to-date format. It is a fast, easy pleasure to read, it's full of photographs, and you don't have to drive to the bookstore or wait for a delivery!

Format

Downloadable Version $44.69 Printed Version $64.18

Brought to you by

Ravenwerks
The American Businessperson's Guide to Ethics, Etiquette and Effectiveness
in Today's Global and Multicultural Marketplace

Audio on this page -
Interview About the Book

When I was preparing for a trip to Bangalore, I found that most of the information out there was outdated, not specific to Bangalore (which is a very unusual place- advanced in some ways and traditional in others!) or written for men.

I included everything I wish I'd known before arriving and having meetings with people in Bangalore, and made it easy with a one-page reference that you can check off to be perfectly prepared.

It's the next best thing to having an experienced mentor in your carry-on!

Paula Williams,
Author

Press Coverage for the American Businesswoman's Politically Incorrect Guide to Bangalore

The Tooele Transcript Bulletin published an interview about The American Businesswoman's Politically Incorrect Guide to Bangalore. Color photo and everything! Very nicely done, and thanks to Doug Radunich for being such a great interviewer/conversationalist/listener. I really enjoyed the discussion!  

81 pages of helpful, specific information for American Businesswomen visiting Bangalore!

“Being well traveled I can envision the challenges that India poses for a business traveler, who are on short hectic visits and do not have the time to absorb the intricacies of Indian culture and Indian ways. I came across Paula William’s e-book “The American Businesswoman’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Bangalore” and was instantly drawn to the enormous relevance of the e-book to every American business woman traveling to Bangalore, the software capital of India. The book lucidly explains every detail a business woman needs to know about working life, society and culture in Bangalore.  The e-book also talks about tourist attractions in and around Bangalore. I would consider this e-book the ultimate reading material before a business trip to Bangalore.”

Nivedita Sarnaik
Business Analyst

I think it is a great read and as informative as it gets.

Viraj Kalra
Vice President Animation and Media at Planman Technologies

I found it to be very practical and engaging. I particularly liked the one-page references and easily accessible resources.

This is the kind of helpful, unabashedly frank information that everyone needs when doing business abroad.

Shauna Bona
Consultant, McKinnon-Mulherin

Working as a business consultant in Bangalore, I get introduced to female colleagues from America on a regular basis. During their business trip to Bangalore, I have seen them face lot of problems and completely lost at times in terms of culture, health, language, commuting around the city etc. I always had a longing desire within me to help them out and make them feel more comfortable during the stay at our city. This desire was well satisfied while I got an opportunity to assist Paula Williams in completing her ebook - ‘The American Businesswoman’s Politically Incorrect Guide to Bangalore’.

The ebook is elaborate in itself and covers all sections of life that a foreigner will find useful during their stay at Bangalore. Having personally read this ebook, I recommend it to all my business counterparts in America. On reading it thoroughly, one will automatically book mark different sections of the ebook to be referred at a later stage – it is the question of comfort in a foreign land.”

Rajani Paniker
            Remote Executive Assistant

An American businessman can wear the same suit in New York and in Bangalore. A women in many business suits that would be perfectly conservative and acceptable in New York will look like a foreigner here. You don't have to wear a sari (in fact I don't recommend that you wear the "whole nine yards" without years of practice!) but there are some ways to fit in that show that you mean business but have a respect for local culture.

Religion and culture play a role in business and decision-making in India. Understanding some basics of religion and culture can spare you from some embarassing faux-pas.

Ready to change your life? Order or download your book today!

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