You did everything right. The right city, the right company, the right designation on the business card. The meeting went well. The follow up was prompt. And then it went quiet.
What nobody mentioned is that the industrial group you were speaking to is headquartered in Ahmedabad, and the promoter family that controls capital expenditure decisions above a certain threshold was never in the room. The Mumbai office manages operations. It does not release purchase orders for new foreign suppliers without sign-off from people you have not met.
This is not unique to one company or one city. It is a structural reality of how many Indian industrial and manufacturing groups are actually run — ownership and procurement authority are frequently in different locations, and the org chart you can find on LinkedIn does not reflect either.
Knowing where the decision actually sits before you invest six months in the wrong room changes everything.
