The NetherlandsvsIndia
オランダとインドNLIN
Seen from the Netherlands: each line below describes India relative to the Netherlands.
Culture Map: eight scales
Erin Meyer's eight scales, sorted by how far apart the Netherlands and India sit, largest gap first.
Filled dot: the Netherlands, where you are looking fromHollow ring: India
Where you will notice the difference6 scales
Evaluating
India gives negative feedback more indirectly than the Netherlands (4 steps)
The Netherlands −3, India +1, on a line from −3 (Direct negative feedback) to +3 (Indirect negative feedback).
Trusting
India builds trust through personal relationships more than the Netherlands (4 steps)
The Netherlands −2, India +2, on a line from −3 (Task-based) to +3 (Relationship-based).
Scheduling
India treats plans as more flexible than the Netherlands (4 steps)
The Netherlands −2, India +2, on a line from −3 (Linear time) to +3 (Flexible time).
Communicating
India leaves more to be read between the lines than the Netherlands (3 steps)
The Netherlands −2, India +1, on a line from −3 (Low-context) to +3 (High-context).
Deciding
India leaves decisions to the person in charge more than the Netherlands (3 steps)
The Netherlands −2, India +1, on a line from −3 (Consensual) to +3 (Top-down).
Disagreeing
India avoids open disagreement more than the Netherlands (3 steps)
The Netherlands −2, India +1, on a line from −3 (Confrontational) to +3 (Avoids confrontation).
Not placed2 scales
These scales are left unmarked: either Meyer leaves a country off the scale or no source places it, and drawing it anyway would be guessing.
- Persuading, LeadingNo source places India on these scales
Hofstede: six dimensions
Scores from 0 to 100, sorted by the gap between the Netherlands and India. They describe national averages, not either country's character.
Individualism
India scores 76 points lower than the Netherlands (24 against 100)
The Netherlands 100, India 24, on a line from 0 (Collectivist) to 100 (Individualist).
Motivation towards achievement and success
India scores 42 points higher than the Netherlands (56 against 14)
The Netherlands 14, India 56, on a line from 0 (Consensus-oriented) to 100 (Decisive).
Indulgence
India scores 42 points lower than the Netherlands (26 against 68)
The Netherlands 68, India 26, on a line from 0 (Restrained) to 100 (Indulgent).
Power distance
India scores 39 points higher than the Netherlands (77 against 38)
The Netherlands 38, India 77, on a line from 0 (Low power distance) to 100 (High power distance).
Long-term orientation
India scores 16 points lower than the Netherlands (51 against 67)
The Netherlands 67, India 51, on a line from 0 (Short-term) to 100 (Long-term).
Uncertainty avoidance
India scores 13 points lower than the Netherlands (40 against 53)
The Netherlands 53, India 40, on a line from 0 (Tolerant of ambiguity) to 100 (Avoids ambiguity).
What the sources say, theme by theme
Entries for the Netherlands and India, side by side on wide screens. Each keeps its own confidence label and citations.
Design & quality
Netherlands2 claims
Guido van Rossum created Python at CWI in Amsterdam. He names his frustration with ABC's lack of extensibility and the system administration needs of the Amoeba distributed OS group as motives. He started over the 1989 Christmas holidays and released 0.9.0 on 1991-02-20.
Well attested2 sources2009Datednl-design-1
According to Thomke (HBR, 2020), Booking.com runs more than 1,000 experiments at once and over 25,000 a year. Its internal rule is that anyone can test anything without management's permission.
Attested1 source2020nl-design-2
India4 claims
TCS announced in 2011 that it had been assessed at CMMI Level 5 enterprise-wide for both CMMI-DEV and CMMI-SVC, and says it was the first company in the world to reach enterprise-wide Level 5 for SVC.
Well attested1 source2011Datedin-design-1
Hiring-industry articles contrast services firms ("specs are king, process-heavy, ticket-driven") with product companies ("design docs, code review, CI/CD"). Neither is backed by research.
Thin2 sourcesin-design-2
The idea that jugaad (improvised fixes under constraints) is a virtue in software development draws criticism from Indian engineers themselves, on Hacker News and elsewhere. Others defend it as frugal engineering, such as designing apps that work on 2G connections.
Thin3 sourcesin-design-3
Zerodha is India's largest stockbroker, yet its tech team of 33–35 people self-hosts the entire stack. CTO Kailash Nadh says it is a misconception that team size must grow in proportion to the number of users.
Attested2 sources2024in-design-4
Failure & risk
Netherlands2 claims
ING moved to a Spotify-style structure of squads and tribes in 2015. In a McKinsey interview (2017), it described each tribe writing down its results and biggest learnings every quarter and celebrating both successes and failures.
Attested1 source2017nl-failure-1
According to Thomke (HBR, 2020), only about 10% of Booking.com's experiments produce positive results; the other 90% or so do not support the hypothesis. The company runs its experiments on that assumption.
Attested1 source2020nl-failure-2
India3 claims
According to Meyer's 2017 HBR article, in top-down decision-making cultures, India among them, decisions are made quickly but can change as new input or arguments arise. A decision is treated as a placeholder that can be adjusted later, not a firm commitment.
Attested1 source2017in-failure-1
On Meyer's Scheduling scale, India is on the flexible-time side, described as running several things in parallel, accepting interruptions and prioritizing adaptation.
Attested1 sourcein-failure-2
The claim that offshore teams do not escalate bad news rests on anecdotes on Hacker News. Other HN commenters counter that US-side managers often have not built a structure that invites pushback.
Thin2 sources2024in-failure-3
Feedback & code review
Netherlands2 claims
Erin Meyer cites the Netherlands as an example of giving negative feedback directly on her Evaluating scale, and of open disagreement on her Disagreeing scale. Her book says "the Dutch manager learns always to be honest and to give the message straight."
Attested1 sourcenl-feedback-1
Some expat guides link Dutch directness to polder-model consensus building, explaining that speaking your mind freely is a precondition for reaching agreement.
Thin1 sourcenl-feedback-2
India2 claims
An article summarizing Meyer's eight scales places India toward the high-context end and on the side that avoids confrontation.
Attested1 sourcein-feedback-1
Rastogi et al. (ESEM 2018), analyzing about 70,000 GitHub pull requests, found that in 16 of 17 countries, pull requests were more likely to be accepted when the submitter and reviewer were from the same country. India was the exception: acceptance fell by 7.4% when the maintainer was also from India.
Attested1 source2019in-feedback-2
Hierarchy & decisions
Netherlands3 claims
Meyer cites the Netherlands, along with Denmark and Sweden, as an example of an egalitarian culture on her Leading scale. A study guide to The Culture Map places it on the consensual side of the Deciding scale, alongside Sweden and Japan.
Attested2 sourcesnl-hierarchy-1
A study in Contemporary Management Research (2018) analyzed data from 808 managers using structural equation modeling. It found that polder values, reaching pragmatic agreement through consultation and debate, strongly shape the leadership styles Dutch managers prefer.
Well attested1 source2018nl-hierarchy-2
Woldendorp and Keman (2007) reviewed Dutch corporatism from 1965 to 2000 and argue that the polder model has been overrated. Bargaining between the social partners was tough, and the rate of central agreements was low.
Attested1 source2007Datednl-hierarchy-3
India3 claims
Meyer's 2017 HBR article places India in the top-down, hierarchical quadrant, together with Brazil, China, France, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
Attested1 source2017in-hierarchy-1
India scores 77 on Hofstede's power distance (PDI), its highest of the six dimensions. The Culture Factor describes this as an appreciation of hierarchy and top-down structure.
Attested1 source2026in-hierarchy-2
A hiring-industry article contrasts services firms, which run on approval chains and hierarchy, with product startups, where engineers can talk to founders directly and decisions are fast.
Thin1 sourcein-hierarchy-3
Communication & docs
Netherlands2 claims
On her Communicating scale, Meyer lists the Netherlands with the United States, Canada and Australia as examples of low-context (explicit) cultures.
Attested1 sourcenl-communication-1
The practical guide NL Compass says that Dutch workplaces take meeting agendas seriously and that fixing schedules in advance is the norm.
Thin1 source2026nl-communication-2
India2 claims
In the EF EPI 2024, India ranked 69th of 116 countries and regions. English is widely used as a working language, but India's rank on this test is mid-table.
Attested1 source2024in-communication-1
Explainers of Meyer's Trusting scale place India on the relationship-based side, where trust built through personal relationships is needed before work begins.
Thin1 sourcein-communication-2
Work & careers
Netherlands2 claims
Eurostat reports that actual weekly hours in the main job were 32.1 in 2024, the shortest in the EU (EU average 36.0). The main reason is the high share of part-time work; men in full-time work averaged 38.4 hours (2025).
Well attested2 sources2026nl-work-1
CBS reports that 52% of employed people worked from home at least sometimes in 2023. In the 2022 EU comparison, 12.7% worked from home most of the time, lower than in Finland (23.1%) or Ireland (25.3%).
Well attested1 source2024nl-work-2
India5 claims
NASSCOM estimated India's tech industry revenue for FY2025 at about $282.6 billion, with 5.8 million employees (a net addition of 126,000). A 2026 revision raised these to $297 billion and 5.82 million.
Attested2 sources2026in-work-1
According to NASSCOM and Zinnov, India had more than 1,700 global capability centers (GCCs) of foreign companies employing more than 1.9 million people as of FY2024. GCCs are also spreading to tier-2 cities.
Attested2 sources2024in-work-2
Attrition at the large IT services firms swings with the business cycle. In Q2 FY23 it was 27.1% at Infosys, 23% at Wipro and 21.5% at TCS; by Q4 FY24 it had fallen to 12.5% at TCS and 12.6% at Infosys.
Attested2 sources2024in-work-3
According to USCIS, 72.3% of H-1B petitions approved in FY2023 were for people born in India; 11.7% were for people born in China.
Well attested2 sources2025in-work-4
In 2023, Infosys founder Narayana Murthy said young Indians should work 70 hours a week. The remark drew strong backlash on social media but support from some business leaders, and public opinion split.
Attested2 sources2023in-work-5
Open source & community
Netherlands2 claims
On 2018-07-12, Guido van Rossum stepped down as Python's BDFL in a python-committers post titled "Transfer of power." He named no successor and left it to the core developers to decide how the project would be governed.
Well attested1 source2018nl-oss-1
ING brought the Spotify model to a large bank, organizing about 350 squads into 13 tribes (McKinsey, 2017).
Attested1 source2017nl-oss-2
India4 claims
According to GitHub Octoverse 2025, India has 21.9 million developers, second only to the US (up from 4.5 million in 2020). More than 5 million joined in 2025 alone.
Well attested1 source2025in-oss-1
- GitHub Octoverse 2025 (2025)
The same Octoverse 2025 report says India has already overtaken the US to have the world's largest base of public and open source contributors, and projects 57.5 million developers in India by 2030.
Well attested1 source2025in-oss-2
- GitHub Octoverse 2025 (2025)
Zerodha launched FLOSS/fund in October 2024 to give $1 million a year to open source projects worldwide. In 2025 it paid out a total of $1 million to projects including Blender, FFmpeg and OpenSSL.
Attested2 sources2025in-oss-3
Zerodha CTO Kailash Nadh says India uses FOSS heavily but its contributions are negligible, and has proposed a government-backed sovereign FOSS fund.
Attested1 sourcein-oss-4