The Hindu Business Line : Fine adjustments

If you happen to meet Ranjini Manian in the near future and she greets you in Finnish, don't be surprised! Nokia is currently one of her big clients. But it's not merely from a business perspective that Ranjini, the head honcho of Global Adjustments, has been learning five Finnish words twice a week from the wife of the Head, Nokia Operations in Chennai. She loves languages; and besides English, Ranjini speaks Tamil, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati, is a Masters in French, and has taught Japanese and Spanish too.

But besides dabbling in languages and travelling (she has visited 26 countries), Ranjini is keenly involved in observing different cultures and deciphering how people are similar yet different. In turn, she also works towards finding out ways in which those differences can be adjusted.

Not surprisingly her decade-old company is christened Global Adjustments (GA). "When Joanne Huskey (with whom I began GA) and I tossed around ideas for a name for our company, the word adjustment fit the bill," explains Ranjini. "For instance, when an expat comes to India, he or she adapts his or her behaviour externally by learning a new language, communication skill sets, food and lifestyle patterns... And this adjustment, mind you, is without ever compromising on the core values and beliefs."

She pioneered the concept of relocations service at a time when people were still unclear about what the word actually meant. Today GA is more than just a relocations service company. It is a cross-cultural training company, that helps expats soak in and savour the myriad flavours of India. "It's not instantly that all my clients take to the city," says Ranjini. "But once they do, they never want to leave. In fact, one of my clients, who left India on a teary note, said, `India touches your heart, your soul'."

Cultural ambassadors

Being "cultural ambassadors" in a sense is what drives GA to constantly offer expats, and now Indians too, the true taste of India. Three divisions — real estate, cross-cultural training and The Design Store — form its core. "The journey for my entire team has been one of utter fascination," she says. "At each stage, we had to traverse a new path, constantly adding a new service or value."

Take the in-house magazine, At a Glance (AAG), for example, that began with the intent to unravel the many layers of cultural India to expats, and had a circulation of only 100 copies. Today, as many as 30,000 copies are printed and even that, Ranjini concedes, is not enough. In fact, the magazine has started its Delhi and Bangalore editions too. "The centre page, which is the calendar of events, is still the most popular page in AAG," she adds. "Many expats who came to Madras (as it was then called) found it boring initially. So we said, `There are many things to do here, if you want to do something every day, we'll tell you where to go'."

Incidentally, it's not just the expats who are on the circulation list of AAG. "The Indian readership has increased considerably as well," says Ranjini.

Needless to say, her pet subject is cross-cultural training and she has her hands full with creating the Global Adjustments Academy that will open soon. Targeted at the global Indian, this academy will school and nurture a cultural understanding even while readying the empowered Indian to cohesively communicate and interact with his or her global associates. "We also plan to conduct a series of global Indian workshops that will be thrown open to anyone with a keen desire to learn and absorb," she explains.

Slowly but steadily, GA has grown into a national brand with offices in Delhi and Bangalore, and regional consultants in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Coimbatore. A professionally run organisation with 38 employees, it continues doing what it knows to do best... bridge cultures and enhance relationships. No wonder then that its tagline reads `Easing your passage to and from India'.

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