CONTENTS Acknowledgements Preface Chapter One How the best communicate: How to communicate across the table, across an entire corporation, or across a culture. 1 Chapter Two Why worry about Americans?: Pushing buttons on a digital device is not the same as pushing buttons in real life. 7 Chapter Three From Problem and Solution to Issue and Expectation : leaking the leap 13 Chapter Four Three good things and three bad things you should understand about American business culture: Cultural differences? Guess again. But know the basics. 21 Chapter Five Three types of Americans-and how to push their buttons : How do I know this works? I've used it for years. 45 Chapter Six Words of wisdom from young Indian managers and professionals: Let me tell you something about Americans 67 Chapter Seven Subroto Bagchi, Ajay Kela, Dr. Sridhar Mitta, Bikramjit Maitra, Gordon Brooks, and Dilip Phadke explain why the soft skills mean everything today: Words of wisdom from six senior executives. 79 Chapter Eight How to do everything write: Four subtle secrets of communicating 109 Chapter Nine Presenting yourself: A few tips to keep you going until the great anti-PowerPoint revolution sweeps across the world and sets you free to be yourself again so you can enjoy talking about your work. 131 Chapter Ten A couple of words about that plan of yours: How do you make God laugh? Make a plan! 143 Chapter Eleven How do you use all this stuff to get a job? Hint: Start with the netroots and keep going : IIT graduates are a sought-after group, but there are some things we non-IITians can do to improve our chances. 151 Epilogue161 Index 163