Meeting Sampriti Ganguli

Date: June 18th 2011

Location: Washington, DC

Interviewee: Sampriti Ganguli, Managing Director at the Corporate Executive Board

Typical Saturday morning in home country: getting together with other Indian families to go to brunch or to make a trip

It is 10:02am on a Saturday morning and Dupont Circle is bustling with activities- a large tourist group from Louisiana emerges from the Metro to block the escalators and excitedly shoot photos of each other while riding up. I wait my turn to go up to the street level, anxiously watching the clock ticking away. Eleven years on the East Coast have made me all those things ‘East Coasters’ are purported to be-restless, impatient and edgy.

I am five minutes late, so I hurry up to the Le Pain Quotidien, an earthy organic Belgian café where our meeting will take place. I see Sampriti chatting with a friend from graduate school and she greets me warmly. In a few minutes we are situated on a table- waiters scurry around us and the air is filled with pace. We receive menus and seconds later, our waiter announces he is "ready whenever you are".  As a frequent guest at this café, I quickly glance at the menu and decide on the fresh fruit cup and the watermelon cooler. Le Pain Quotidien does not feature a long list of menu options, but offers traditional breakfast foods such as French croissants, yoghurt with berries, and eggs.

 

Sampriti studies the menu more closely- it is her first time here- and she chooses a scone with a pot of coffee. Now, we are ready to delve into talking about culture, the business world and I am sure a few other topics that will naturally sprout from the conversation. Culture is a broad and knotted concept.

Childhood and Teenage Years

Sampriti was born in the US but after the age of six, her father, an executive at the Asian Development Bank, was moved to Manila, Philippines for work. She first attended a local Philippino school, but when she was 12, her parents enrolled in an international educational institution where she studied until 18. As she describes that experience, Sampriti explains that having that international component was a major factor that prompted her to study at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS) later in life. I start to think that having exposure to foreign cultures early on creates a desire for exploration of other cultures that persists for life, but I quickly kill that thought as I have a number of friends with traditional upbringings where exposure to other cultures happened through TV shows and movies, and who later went on to travel, learn and build careers abroad.

Being born in a traditional Indian family, Sampriti was raised by a stay-at-home mom and a dad who worked to provide for the family. When Sampriti was a little girl, she recalls her dad urging her to either be a business manager or a diplomat, and to pursue a career, break away from the social norms for women to stay at home.

Our food arrives and the waiter shuffles around some glasses of water to make room for new plates and coffee cups. For a moment, there is silence between us. It does not feel strange or uncomfortable and no one bothers to comment on the humid weather or the line of people waiting to be seated.  I go onto the next question. It’s a lot of fun talking about these things, reflecting back Sampriti says.

We chat about Sampriti’s mom for a bit. I ask whether she played a strong role in her upbringing. "Yes, definitely, but she followed the social norm to stay at home, and I think in doing so she lost some of her identity", she adds. "I emulated my dad", she concludes.

Professional Career

Sampriti entered her current organization with an impressive educational background: a dual graduate degree in business and international relations from two leading universities and experience in top financial firm. Her first position was a mid-level managerial role and she ascended the ladder speedily to her current senior executive role.

I ask about her style of communication, as a big part of this research would focus on the concept of ‘directness’. Some cultures have pronouncedly different communication methods: confronting colleagues and asserting your opinion is perceived as confidence and strength of thought in some countries, whereas in many organizations in the US it is to be avoided. "Well, now I am pretty direct", she begins, "but when I first started, I did a lot of observing of how other people were communicating and acting." While a lot has been said about company cultures and how the right fit is something you feel and not define, I agree that when joining a new organization, young professionals, particularly those with a different cultural upbringing, need to pay close attention to how their colleagues ask questions, define their answers and interact in the office.

I venture asking whether a young professional coming from a ‘direct’ culture should be ‘direct’ at work (‘direct’ here has the connotation of not being overtly effusive when answering a question, or, using less qualifiers when saying yes or no.)  "Directness is a luxury style of communication and a right that has to be earned." I speculate whether Sampriti would have given me the same answer had she chosen to enter diplomacy. In business, directness is earned whereas in diplomacy, directness gives way to effusiveness of expression and delicacy. But in business, time is money in diplomacy, time is another long afternoon of negotiations.

We talk about the use of punctuations in written communication. Having worked in a number of US corporations, I’ve seen it all- exclamation marks, exclamation marks followed by question marks, followed by more exclamation marks. Sampriti firmly says that expressive punctuation doesn’t have a role in business communication. "Not from colleagues on my level, not from those reporting to me."  I agree- I am a punctuation lite communicator in the office- and can’t help but recollect a conversation I had with a former manager, in which I was urged to show more enthusiasm in my written communication when assigned a task. A simple ‘yes’ no longer cuts it in some places and a "yes!!!" is a much better way to show your boss some first class firm citizenship.

The waiter hovers around us eyeing our half eaten dishes. We decide we won’t order anything else, and I inquire whether Sampriti has a hard stop at 11am. "No... My kids and husband are doing their sports things this weekend- we can chat!"

I ask whether Sampriti has ever thought that because of her cultural upbringing her career potential was limited. "Never. I actually felt the opposite: in business school I had more exposure and more opportunities than my peers." Sampriti pauses, thinking. In a professional services context, culture matters. When working for the Sales Executive Council, Sampriti confesses to reading the entire sports page of the local newspaper before holding a client meeting. "I absolutely did it, and it made a huge difference going into the Board room and saying, "God, I am sorry the Rangers lost yesterday!"

Business school comes up again as Sampriti remembers how foreign students were offered classes on golf and cigar appreciation. "You know, I was absolutely against that! What kind of signals are we sending- we bring in international students, and yet we try to teach them how to be more American."

I see the time- it is 11:10 and I need to leave soon. The past hour has been incredibly interesting and I hurry to ask a few more questions before I go. I ask Sampriti to put her American hat on, and ask why Americans are always in such a hurry to get things done. She laughs and pauses to reflect. "You know, when I was in Australia recently, I got a cup of coffee at a local shop. The barista watched me for a mew minutes and come up to me to say, "I know you are an American. I put so much effort and love to make that cup of coffee for you, and you just drank it quickly."We as a society don’t value being in the moment, but value what we are going to do next."

I quickly shoot my second question: "why do Americans always have to say what they are thinking?" "Society doesn’t spend a lot of time reflecting and most people want to keep conversation going. Deep down, we are afraid of being alone- aloneness is considered the worst form of being in the US."

Before I depart, I have to ask this one last question, "Why do Americans always think things are going to get better?" I can tell from Sampriti’s eyes that this is her favorite question. She smiles as she answers: "You know, this is an eternally optimistic society which believes that tomorrow will be a better day. History might have influenced that-the ability to spring back from hard times. I love that about being in the US."

I thank Sampriti for her time as I gather my laptop and notebook. It has been a wonderful conversation. I wish I could give Sampriti a hug, but we shake hands: it is business leadership I am researching after all. Culture is just one aspect.