Although India is welcoming to foreigners, Mr Verbrugge says there are also cultural hurdles which can initially be deceptive. ‘On a first visit India seems easier than China or Japan because people speak English. Only after you start operating there do you see all the complexities. There are sensitivities between states, between religions, between strata of society.’ Such differences also make the country fascination. ‘India is a hundred different worlds living next to each other in the same country,’ Mr Verbrugge says.
These practical and cultural complexities were largely behind BARCO’s decision to set up its own sales office in the subcontinent. ‘Much more is needed than just having an agent with a fax and a phone. You have to understand the marketplace, how Indian business works.’
But the opportunities presented by India outweigh any disadvantages. ‘If you can afford to miss a fifth of the world’s population, you can afford not to be there,’ says Mr Verbrugge. ‘I think any company serious about having a worldwide market share can’t be absent from India.