Recognition and Obama's visit to India

When Rideau decided to establish a business presence in India, it was really based on the fundamental belief that “Recognition” was about real leadership, and people and businesses in India would value this thought process in the region. Over the last several months, we at Rideau, have been evangelizing this concept of Recognition and how we can all work together to make this world a better place to live in.
President Obama’s recent visit to India, to me, is simply about Recognizing India’s newly developed importance in the world stage – both from an economic and a global security perspective. A few of my colleagues from the USA asked me - what was Obama really trying to accomplish with the visit and if there were any concrete outcomes for the US from the visit? Clearly, what my colleagues were asking me were for the specific results of Obama’s visit to India.
One of the key areas within Recognition, we have been advising clients on, is to start focusing on Recognizing the behaviors and activities, that would eventually lead to results. The hope is that a larger segment of the employee population could be recognized for exhibiting the identified behaviors, making them more engaged with their work, eventually leading to a larger segment of the population delivering business results.
My response to my colleagues in the USA, about the results of Obama’s visit was along the same lines. The President seems to believe that India would be a good partner for the US in the 21st century. Historically over the last 63 years (since India gained independence) the partnership between India and the Western world has primarily been a one way street – The western world giving and India taking. This seems to be changing with India’s growing economy, and the belief now seems to be around a mutually beneficial partnership where both partners give and take in a collaborative manner. The visit really underlines the need to begin a strong relationship between various sections of the two countries. Coming to specific results, around 20 deals were announced, which according to Obama would lead to the creation of 50,000 jobs in the US. Would these deals not have happened without the Obama visit? - the answer is “No”. Most of the deals would have anyway happened. But what the visit has done is to showcase these deals in a manner where a larger section of the economy on both sides, will now explore increased partnerships. This should in all probability lead of additional investment and job creation on both sides. Essentially the visit has simple recognized these deals and provided an incentive for other such deals to follow through.
The other thing the Obamas accomplished during the trip was to come across as normal people with the same kind of worries and vulnerabilities as people in India – Jobs for American people, Security for the common man and the fight against terror. Their body language and the way they carried themselves – whether it be dancing to Indian music or speaking at the parliament – Barack Obama came across as being a common man focused on doing good for the world. The image of the USA being a superpower that bullies the world was definitely wiped out during this trip – this could never have been accomplished without a personal visit by the President. What result will this behavior lead to? For one, when people in the US talk about India’s outsourcing industry taking away American jobs, the response in India will be one of empathy, rather than a knee jerk reaction. The industry will probably start communicating better on why outsourcing is infact good for the USA as it will help US companies focus on productivity and innovation leaving the routine activities to someone else. The second, people in India (a huge and growing consumer base) will start looking more favorably towards American products and services. So the end result could be one, where US companies innovate and create products that find a large and profitable market in India, while at the same time, the outsourcing industry in India supports the operational aspects of US businesses, providing wealth to a large Indian population to go out and buy those products. This self propelling cycle is the one that will eventually help both the US and India grow together.