Work Place culture shock
At the client site most developers had ten plus years of focused experience in one technology (c++ programming language) and domain (Energy sector) and I had just five years in a variety of technologies and business domains. Also the manager at the client site was a senior developer who was involved in the project since its inception.
To the client’s developers I was like a manager managing my team which was based in India. It was difficult for them to accept me in that role because of my lack of depth in both technology and business domain. I knew that if I had to continue my work smoothly and earn a name for my company I had to make myself acceptable to the team.

So My solution
1) Observed the work culture of client (noticed that most people place personal issues above meeting deadlines, do not work late nights and weekends. Also noticed they were very weak in knowledge management and testing quality processes)

2) In our work culture we even work at times 24*7. I leveraged on extra time available to studiy thier technoloogy and domain, and helped them establish metrics for testing and quality and earned an acceptance with the team as a capable team member. Also leveraged on the time zone differences to meet deadlines. Gradually inspite of my lack of expertise I gained an acceptance


What I wanted to know is does this qualify as a case of culture shock?
Will this create a negative impression of me as a workaholic (which i am at time though)


A casual experience

Also If this is not good enough Is it possible to use a casual event like I went touring In tokyo. I was shocked to see people drink beer in a Buddha temple. Drinking in a temple?? This was so against my culture (buddha being an Indian god as well) It took a while to get adjusted to the mannerisms out there and eventually got over it.

Honestly, I wouldn't use either for the INSEAD essay.

INSEAD's main focus is on international experiences. For this reason, I'd think that they'd like to hear about your experiences in a new culture - a new country among people different to those you live around and how you were able to adjust and adapt (this could be work-related obviously). What did you learn from them? How are they so different.

I'm pretty sure they don't want to hear about business cultures unless they are different due to the ethnic and traditional cultures of its people.

I would talk about your experience in Tokyo, but try to make it a little deeper than the difference in people's drinking habits.

Agree with Hosam here.

For us Indian techies, facing situation one is a no-brainer. Majority of techies from India would face a similar situation.
I personally think that you should use this essay to highlight how you beacme a well-rounded individual not only how you became a well-rounded employee.
Think about some other personal experiences in Tokyo or for that matter in India itself (remember India is a huge country) and talk about it.

Thanks every body
Yes both examples are not so appropriate

I agree

This is what I told in my reply to another of your post.