Apeejay professor delivers online lecture at Gitam School of Business

Professor Anuj Kumar, Assistant Professor, Apeejay School of Management (ASM), Dwarka, was invited for an online learning session at Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (Gitam) School of Business, Visakhapatnam, affiliated with Gitam deemed to be University.

Professor Kumar delivered a lecture on ‘guanxi’ connections and networking while doing business in China. A term used in Chinese culture, ‘guanxi’ refers to an individual’s social network of mutually beneficial personal and business relationships. Guanxi relationships are known to be established by spending time getting to know each other through tea sessions, dinner banquets, and other personal meetings before business relationships are developed.

Addressing the attendees, Professor Kumar discussed the challenges new businesses faced while entering the Chinese market where the overall administration is known to favour the local culture.

He further elaborated on the application of Hofstede’s cultural model with respect to China. A Dutch social psychologist, Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions theory shows the effects of a society’s culture on the values of its members, and how they impact behaviour. He included six key dimensions of national culture-country comparison scales namely power distance index, individualism vs collectivism, masculinity vs femininity, uncertainty avoidance index, long term orientation vs short term normative orientation, and indulgence vs restraint.

“More than a session, it was the commitment of Professor Kumar which reflected in the session. We will invite him for more enlightening sessions in the future,” said Dr Srilalitha Sagi, HOD, International Business, Gitam School of Business.

Added Harsh Vardhan, a student at Gitam School of Business, “It was a short session, but even then, Professor Kumar cleared the concept of international business with value-added cases.”

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“I thank Gitam School of Business for inviting me to this session. It was lovely interacting with the students, and I look forward to more of such collaborations.”

–Anuj Kumar, Assistant Professor, ASM