Episode 11: Patrick De Ridder

Working with India

“Calling me on a Sunday is a sign of…”

Your first answer might be rudeness, unprepared thinking, or an invasion of privacy.

But add 17 years onto your India journey and you end this sentence with “respect”.

Meet Patrick De Ridder, a student of Indian business and philosophy, and the next guest on Working with India. He came to India in 1997 and has stayed on, starting a business consulting company in 2006 for French, Belgian, and Dutch companies entering India.

Patrick was destined to be a “librarian writing books on philosophy” before India captured his imagination.

Some of my favorite moments from the podcast:

• Why Ahmedabad is a great place to try new products
• Learn what kind of person might not be ready for business in India
• Which one is more bureaucratic – the IAS, or private bankers?
• How NOT to position yourself when negotiating
• Achieving the ideal professional/personal balance, both at home and the office
• How to leverage consensus thinking in your team meetings
• Why sarcasm says more about you than what you are trying to say
• The absolute best defence for #TimeIsEternal
• Why you should get a doctor’s number today

And my personal favorite…

…the best introduction ever to Indian philosophy for people who have no desire to read think books.

As you can see, Patrick made a lot of great points in this short conversation and you don’t want to miss it!

Patrick uses a few Indian terms you may not be familiar with:

• Dhandha = work/business, especially in Gujarat
• IAS = Indian Administrative Services
• Sarkaar = “The government” or rulers

Why not check out all the other Indianisms we have on the site?

You can contact Patrick through his company website, his LinkedIn page, and his Twitter handle.

The post Episode 11: Patrick De Ridder appeared first on Learning India.

Related posts:

1. Episode 5: Robert Stephens
2. Episode 6: Jessica Kumar