Had to pay 6780 rupees for my extra luggage. Well, I would have had to pay about 2/3 of that for shipping the tabletop, so it's not so bad.
My flight was delayed, but I was with Joyce and Niels, who were on the same flights all the way to Minneapolis, so I wasn't worried. Amanda had joined us in the waiting area; her flight to Mumbai was supposed to be 50 minutes before ours, but she ended up leaving after us. Several feet away, Mahdad and Christina were playing chess; they’re on Lufthansa.
I grabbed a few power naps (as Niels called them) at the airport. As soon as I got buckled in on the plane, I was out. I didn't even notice that we had taken off. I woke up just long enough to take a snack which they served before turning off the cabin lights. And, besides a bathroom break (the sweet airline agent gave me a window seat at a two-seater row), that was it. I was asleep until about 6:30am Paris time. Then, I just watched an Indian drama with English subtitles.
The Paris terminal was actually a beautiful building. It had very high ceilings with a lattice of supporting arches, kinda like the roof of a sports arena dome. But this isn’t a real dome because it’s an elongated somewhat pointed ceiling that narrowed farther down. The shape kinda reminded me of a football – the American kind.
I had enough time to use the bathroom and buy a pastry at a café near our gate. The woman selling the pastries hardly said a word to me. When I said “Merci!” and smiled, I sensed something like a confused guilt. It’s as though she was obligated to be rude to me (well, I’ve heard of the rudeness of the French), but after I smiled, she had second thoughts about that obligation.
The flight from Paris to Amsterdam wasn’t that pleasant. Thankfully, it was a short one. The flight attendant was rude and would only speak in French, but she obviously understood what “orange juice” means. After all, the label on the can was in English.
But some of the passengers were actually nice. The man who sat next to me (I had a window seat) was already there and he smiled when I told him he didn’t have to get up yet until I put my bag up in the compartment. And after I did, he thought it was funny when I said, “Okay, I’m ready.” And another man two rows down offered to take down my bag for me.
Amsterdam is obsessive about security. There was a long line at the gate the first time I went through that airport too. This time, there were agents interviewing passengers and I don't remember that the first time. They were very nice though. The agent asked me a lot of questions: how many bags I had, who packed it and when, how I got from my hotel to the airport in India, what I had in my bags. But the longest question was what electronic equipment I had with me. Ha-ha! Little did he know I had long list of them. But he let me go through my list until I couldn't remember anymore and I finally just said, "... and other small things." He seemed amused. As he started putting my tickets back in the holder, I remembered, "And my cameras, of course." "Of course!" he agreed, as though every traveller naturally brings more than one camera along.
As soon as we landed on Amsterdam, Niels went ahead of us because he was meeting his wife and eight-month-old son who were staying in Amsterdam while he was in India. When we boarded, we saw Chris who was waving at us from one of the aisle seats. Then when I found my row, I noticed someone talking to his wife in the row ahead of me and I said, “Hey, Niels!” The guy looked up and it wasn’t Niels. I apologized. I explained that Niels was traveling with us and we lost him. I don’t think the guy believed me, because he said it would have been someone with a shaved head. Later, I saw Niels in the opposite side of the plane, carrying his baby. Later, Joyce commented that she also saw that same Niels look-alike.
I was in the window seat of a two-seater row, and I chatted up the man next to me almost as soon as I sat down. His name is Oliver and he works for 3M in Dusseldorf, Germany. I thought it was a strange coincidence that on my Minneapolis-to-Amsterdam flight, I briefly chatted with a man going to Dusseldorf, and now on my Amsterdam-to-Minneapolis flight, I meet a man coming from Dusseldorf. Oliver from Dusseldorf 3M works in the marketing department and he said that the last time he went to the US was a couple of years ago, but he traveled around Europe for business about once a month. We kept chatting on and off during the eight-hour-forty-minute flight. The rest of the time, I was blogging or sleeping, and he was reading some thriller fiction.
I think we took a northern route because I saw a lot of snow halfway through the flight. Oliver thought we were over Greenland when we saw land with snow.
When we landed, I wished him a nice stay and he wished me luck on my MBA. I didn’t see him again, so he must have breezed through immigration and customs. And I met Niels and his family at baggage claim but I didn’t see Joyce or Chris again.
Temperatures in Minneapolis were in the 30s, and I thought I’d be cold when I got here, since Bangalore had temps in the 80s. So I wore a CoolMax shirt leaving Bangalore and changed into a medium-weight sweater in Paris. I also had my jackets and gloves in my suitcase pocket for easy access, but I really didn’t need them; I was just fine in my sweater. Then again, I was outside only briefly.
I was home by 6pm Central Time. Ahh. Home, sweet home.
Saturday, January 14, 2006
Friday, January 13, 2006
Bangalore: Day 5 - John Crane and JumpStartUp
John Crane
John Crane. more pics
This is the only manufacturing site we visited on this trip, and they were very welcoming in spite of the fact that they didn’t get much notice about our visit.
They first divided us into three groups to tour the corporate building then we joined up again for a tour of the factory. The company is UK-based and they had just moved to this facility three or four months prior. In fact, they still don’t have all the equipment set up yet. They are dismantling the equipment from the UK and shipping them here, and they have one or two people from the UK office who are here for a few months to help them get the equipment set up. This site would produce couplings and mechanical seals.
After beverages and coffee, we sat in a large hallway for presentations. The first presenter talked about the company, the second about something they called LIFE, which stands for Little Improvements From Everyone – the Japanese concept of kaizen. The world is really getting flat.
They talked about return on management, which I hadn’t heard of before. They said that return on management equals the collective organizational energy released divided by management time and attention. They aim to maximize the numerator and minimize the denominator, because their goal is for management to spend more time thinking about strategy than solving operational problems.
They feel that their 90% retention is due to the fact that they hire young engineers and give them training, a career path, and growth opportunities. Unfortunately, there aren’t many women in the mechanical engineering field, so there are very few women in the company.
They subcontract some of their work but they purchase the raw materials themselves. This gives them control over the quality of materials and they get economies of scale. Their labor costs are even lower than what we’ve heard so far. Machinists are paid $3K/year. MBAs get $8K to $9K/year, depending on the school.
Their disaster recovery plan includes using their sites in China and the Czech Republic as backups. Each area is required to have a business plan that includes their production targets.
The still-empty factory floor. more pics
In the end, they gave each of us a parting gift – a bound journal/calendar book. I thought that was a wonderful gesture.
JumpStartUp
We got a short talk from an Indian VC at the fifth floor Executive Lounge of our hotel. They’re a five-year old VC based in Silicon Valley with only one fund – $50M. They invest in young early-stage technology companies, which they set up as US companies for a quicker exit, at least at a legal standpoint.
They have global capital sources, and their portfolio firms have global operations. He called their firms “micro-multinationals.” He said the trick is finding companies of the right size.
We all know about the labor arbitrage of off-shoring, but I wondered how startups could afford the costs of learning how to do business in a new country, so I asked him if India is the only country outside the US that their portfolio companies operate in. He said that his other two partners are from Taiwan, so they have that part of the world covered too.
A view of the nearby golf course from the fifth floor of the Royal Orchid. more pics
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
Manufacturing seals may seem to be far removed from my industry and my business, but I’m still learning something new.
In Sapient, project plans; in John Crane, business plans - all cascading plans: different execution, same concept. Each member of the team becomes responsible for results, because they created the plans themselves. I like that concept.
From what I hear, few VCs invest in early-stage companies because there’s too much risk, particularly of dilution, in being a first- or second-round investor. But maybe JumpStartUp’s strategy of off-shoring their portfolio firms’ operations means those startups wouldn’t need additional funding, which in turn means less likelihood of dilution. Might be worth watching if their strategy pans out.
I think that companies are downplaying labor arbitrage as a strategic move, at least partly, not only because their costs are getting higher due to low supply of talent, but also because they don't want their services to be a commodity.
Sarees too late
Well, in a second poll, nobody else wanted to wear the sarees anymore. But I was able to convince Wendy to wear one with me. And, good sport that she is, she agreed. So, off we went – the threesome of us with Mahdad. As we walked to Airport Road, we found an empty auto rickshaw coming our way. We flagged it down and got a great deal. The driver said he’d charge us 100 rupees for four hours, simply because we were guests at the hotel. Why hadn’t we heard of this deal before?
We told him that we wanted to go to Commercial Street to buy some sarees and a suitcase. He said he would take us to a place that sells silk sarees. It was a store called Resham Udyog. We figured it was owned by one of his relatives, but we went in anyway. It turned out to be a good store. They showed us beautiful silk sarees at good prices. Since I didn’t have to buy so many anymore, I could afford to buy a better quality for myself. I picked a red see-through one for 1980 rupees to wear tonight (Wendy’s choice), and another purple-and-gold one for 1250 because I liked the threadwork. Wendy got an electric blue-and-yellow one, and Mahdad got a much more expensive green one for Cheryl.
They had ready-made underskirts and stretchable tops that looked like they would fit a small child. They promised the stretchable top would fit me. Well, it did, but it showed more than I was willing to air out. So, they showed us some kameez tops instead, but we couldn’t find a pattern or color that would match the sarees we picked out. Finally, they offered to have a tailor sew the tops for us for 150 rupees. We said we wanted to wear them to a dinner tonight, so we needed them by 6pm; they said 6:30. We didn't have a choice. So, we ordered tops for me and Wendy to wear tonight, and the other two tops for me and Cheryl to be delivered by 9pm. Then the woman showed us how to wear a saree by wrapping a red-and-black one around Wendy. Wendy looked like a goddess! The woman promised to pin the pleats for us when they delivered them.
Then off we went. The rickshaw driver then took us to an older mall (which looked like it doesn’t get much business). Wendy and I helped Mahdad pick out a kurta (we agreed that the maroon one looked better than the black or cream-colored ones). And while Mahdad shopped for a suitcase, Wendy and I looked at some jewelry in a souvenir shop. I bought four pendants at about 400 rupees each. On our way out, they gave each of us inch-high wooden sculptures of Ganesha, the elephant goddess, for luck. As Mahdad bowed to them with folded hands, I said, “Namaste.” And, off we ran; we were running late.
Well, the sarees didn’t arrive at 6:30. Wendy had gone ahead to the restaurant to make sure that everything was set. I promised to bring her saree with me. But by 7pm, the sarees still have not arrived. I put on regular clothes and the shawl I bought while riding the elephant. Mahdad said that, in case the sarees arrived by the time I got to the lobby, I could just change at the Leela Palace (where the final dinner was), so I brought the underskirt with me and wore the sequined slippers I bought over the weekend. We waited a little but the sarees still had not arrived. We saw the driver of the same rickshaw waiting for us, and he suggested that we call the shop. So we went back into the hotel and a guest services manager called the number for us. They said it was on its way. By 7:30pm, still no sarees, so off we went to Leela Palace. Mahdad felt bad that he was the only one dressed up, but he was the star of the dinner because of it.
We caught the tail end of the appetizers and enjoyed the start of the main entrees. They were slow serving us anyway, so we enjoyed some of the live music in the meantime. Unfortunately, we had to leave early to pack so, at 9:30pm, Mahdad started his rounds hugging everybody. Since Rohit had said something about hugging and the Indian culture during a classroom exercise last month, I decided to be safe this time and wave instead. Joyce went with us to confirm our ride to the airport.
When we got back, the sarees had arrived. The front desk clerk said that they arrived only a half hour prior. Wendy’s underskirt was missing, but the pleats of our sarees were pinned as promised. My tops both fit – very tightly, I might add, but that’s the way the Indian women wear them. Wendy later tried on her saree to show Christina, but she didn’t put on the top. She still looked like a goddess.
John Crane. more pics
This is the only manufacturing site we visited on this trip, and they were very welcoming in spite of the fact that they didn’t get much notice about our visit.
They first divided us into three groups to tour the corporate building then we joined up again for a tour of the factory. The company is UK-based and they had just moved to this facility three or four months prior. In fact, they still don’t have all the equipment set up yet. They are dismantling the equipment from the UK and shipping them here, and they have one or two people from the UK office who are here for a few months to help them get the equipment set up. This site would produce couplings and mechanical seals.
After beverages and coffee, we sat in a large hallway for presentations. The first presenter talked about the company, the second about something they called LIFE, which stands for Little Improvements From Everyone – the Japanese concept of kaizen. The world is really getting flat.
They talked about return on management, which I hadn’t heard of before. They said that return on management equals the collective organizational energy released divided by management time and attention. They aim to maximize the numerator and minimize the denominator, because their goal is for management to spend more time thinking about strategy than solving operational problems.
They feel that their 90% retention is due to the fact that they hire young engineers and give them training, a career path, and growth opportunities. Unfortunately, there aren’t many women in the mechanical engineering field, so there are very few women in the company.
They subcontract some of their work but they purchase the raw materials themselves. This gives them control over the quality of materials and they get economies of scale. Their labor costs are even lower than what we’ve heard so far. Machinists are paid $3K/year. MBAs get $8K to $9K/year, depending on the school.
Their disaster recovery plan includes using their sites in China and the Czech Republic as backups. Each area is required to have a business plan that includes their production targets.
The still-empty factory floor. more pics
In the end, they gave each of us a parting gift – a bound journal/calendar book. I thought that was a wonderful gesture.
JumpStartUp
We got a short talk from an Indian VC at the fifth floor Executive Lounge of our hotel. They’re a five-year old VC based in Silicon Valley with only one fund – $50M. They invest in young early-stage technology companies, which they set up as US companies for a quicker exit, at least at a legal standpoint.
They have global capital sources, and their portfolio firms have global operations. He called their firms “micro-multinationals.” He said the trick is finding companies of the right size.
We all know about the labor arbitrage of off-shoring, but I wondered how startups could afford the costs of learning how to do business in a new country, so I asked him if India is the only country outside the US that their portfolio companies operate in. He said that his other two partners are from Taiwan, so they have that part of the world covered too.
A view of the nearby golf course from the fifth floor of the Royal Orchid. more pics
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
Manufacturing seals may seem to be far removed from my industry and my business, but I’m still learning something new.
In Sapient, project plans; in John Crane, business plans - all cascading plans: different execution, same concept. Each member of the team becomes responsible for results, because they created the plans themselves. I like that concept.
From what I hear, few VCs invest in early-stage companies because there’s too much risk, particularly of dilution, in being a first- or second-round investor. But maybe JumpStartUp’s strategy of off-shoring their portfolio firms’ operations means those startups wouldn’t need additional funding, which in turn means less likelihood of dilution. Might be worth watching if their strategy pans out.
I think that companies are downplaying labor arbitrage as a strategic move, at least partly, not only because their costs are getting higher due to low supply of talent, but also because they don't want their services to be a commodity.
Sarees too late
Well, in a second poll, nobody else wanted to wear the sarees anymore. But I was able to convince Wendy to wear one with me. And, good sport that she is, she agreed. So, off we went – the threesome of us with Mahdad. As we walked to Airport Road, we found an empty auto rickshaw coming our way. We flagged it down and got a great deal. The driver said he’d charge us 100 rupees for four hours, simply because we were guests at the hotel. Why hadn’t we heard of this deal before?
We told him that we wanted to go to Commercial Street to buy some sarees and a suitcase. He said he would take us to a place that sells silk sarees. It was a store called Resham Udyog. We figured it was owned by one of his relatives, but we went in anyway. It turned out to be a good store. They showed us beautiful silk sarees at good prices. Since I didn’t have to buy so many anymore, I could afford to buy a better quality for myself. I picked a red see-through one for 1980 rupees to wear tonight (Wendy’s choice), and another purple-and-gold one for 1250 because I liked the threadwork. Wendy got an electric blue-and-yellow one, and Mahdad got a much more expensive green one for Cheryl.
They had ready-made underskirts and stretchable tops that looked like they would fit a small child. They promised the stretchable top would fit me. Well, it did, but it showed more than I was willing to air out. So, they showed us some kameez tops instead, but we couldn’t find a pattern or color that would match the sarees we picked out. Finally, they offered to have a tailor sew the tops for us for 150 rupees. We said we wanted to wear them to a dinner tonight, so we needed them by 6pm; they said 6:30. We didn't have a choice. So, we ordered tops for me and Wendy to wear tonight, and the other two tops for me and Cheryl to be delivered by 9pm. Then the woman showed us how to wear a saree by wrapping a red-and-black one around Wendy. Wendy looked like a goddess! The woman promised to pin the pleats for us when they delivered them.
Then off we went. The rickshaw driver then took us to an older mall (which looked like it doesn’t get much business). Wendy and I helped Mahdad pick out a kurta (we agreed that the maroon one looked better than the black or cream-colored ones). And while Mahdad shopped for a suitcase, Wendy and I looked at some jewelry in a souvenir shop. I bought four pendants at about 400 rupees each. On our way out, they gave each of us inch-high wooden sculptures of Ganesha, the elephant goddess, for luck. As Mahdad bowed to them with folded hands, I said, “Namaste.” And, off we ran; we were running late.
Well, the sarees didn’t arrive at 6:30. Wendy had gone ahead to the restaurant to make sure that everything was set. I promised to bring her saree with me. But by 7pm, the sarees still have not arrived. I put on regular clothes and the shawl I bought while riding the elephant. Mahdad said that, in case the sarees arrived by the time I got to the lobby, I could just change at the Leela Palace (where the final dinner was), so I brought the underskirt with me and wore the sequined slippers I bought over the weekend. We waited a little but the sarees still had not arrived. We saw the driver of the same rickshaw waiting for us, and he suggested that we call the shop. So we went back into the hotel and a guest services manager called the number for us. They said it was on its way. By 7:30pm, still no sarees, so off we went to Leela Palace. Mahdad felt bad that he was the only one dressed up, but he was the star of the dinner because of it.
We caught the tail end of the appetizers and enjoyed the start of the main entrees. They were slow serving us anyway, so we enjoyed some of the live music in the meantime. Unfortunately, we had to leave early to pack so, at 9:30pm, Mahdad started his rounds hugging everybody. Since Rohit had said something about hugging and the Indian culture during a classroom exercise last month, I decided to be safe this time and wave instead. Joyce went with us to confirm our ride to the airport.
When we got back, the sarees had arrived. The front desk clerk said that they arrived only a half hour prior. Wendy’s underskirt was missing, but the pleats of our sarees were pinned as promised. My tops both fit – very tightly, I might add, but that’s the way the Indian women wear them. Wendy later tried on her saree to show Christina, but she didn’t put on the top. She still looked like a goddess.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Bangalore: Day 4 - Reuters and Wipro
Reuters
We just walked to Reuters today but the first place we went to was the wrong place. The right place was next to the Leela Palace. It was also walking distance, but a bit farther.
One of Reuters' locations in Bangalore. more pics
Mani said that Reuters was reluctant to let us visit them, but they agreed to one hour. We actually ended up staying there for a couple of hours. Two women were our hosts – one is Indian and the other British. We pretty much stayed in one conference room and we were served hot beverages and cookies in a hallway, served by a white-gloved waiter. We got a view of some cubicles through glass windows in the hallway and they said that the rest of the building looked the same. Someone in our group commented that the secrecy is probably due to the bad press they’re getting right now.
The surprising thing about Reuters was that they get only 10% of their revenues from the news business; 90% comes from financial services. The news business grew out of the need for financial market information for their clients, and a lot of the work in India is extracting information from 3,000 sources and reporting them in one place. In fact, all English language financial data now comes from Bangalore. They have a small data development team in Bangalore to develop applications for their own use. Some of the data is extracted, formatted, and added to the database automatically; some are entered manually through a front-end application.
The training of the researchers takes a long time. They get one week of induction training and up to six months of functional training. Even so, it takes up to a year for one researcher to be productive. Researchers get detailed training on the company databases and systems and on the sources of information. After the formal training, mentors are made available to researchers as well.
Wipro
We went first to the Wipro corporate office for a couple of presentations, then to their development center for a tour.
The presentation we got was kinda dry in terms of information. They mentioned the number of centers, the number of employees, the industries their clients are in, the list of clients, what makes them successful (Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma), and their success rate (90% of their projects are on time and under budget). They talked about distributed development and they mentioned the Philippines among other countries.
They are very careful about their clients’ intellectual property. Our host said, “We do not compete with our clients at all.” They don’t work with competitors of their clients and workers have a “cooling period” between projects in the same industry. And for each new project, they create a virtual “clean room” with “fresh engineers.”
They don’t claim to have any special intellectual property of their own – “What we're doing is not rocket science.”
What’s surprising is that they openly talk about their competitors. They acknowledged that the Philippines might be a better candidate for front office outsourcing for US companies because of the cultural affinity between the US and the Philippines. They also praised Sapient multiple times – “Sapient understands offshoring the best. They play the game [like Wipro].” However, they think that the legal KPO is the “domain of smaller players.”
The second presentation was about their knowledge management system – how they “connect people to content” and “connect people to people.” It sounded very similar to an article I had read about a consulting firm, which I can’t remember off the top of my head (McKinsey maybe?). They use Microsoft Sharepoint Portal Server with some customization to create their internal website which they call “Knowledge Net.” Then they pull in the different aspects of knowledge management: culture, tools and technology, content, community, business processes, and information systems. They segment their employees between the technology team and the business team and give them different access depending on their needs. The site provides technical documents, expert help, collaboration tools, reusable components, war rooms, networks (which sounds like special interest groups), best practices, case studies, reports, templates, and tools. Every “artifact” expires after 12 months, and the owner is notified to update it. If it is not updated, it is archived and old archives are later purged from the system.
In the development center, an employee morale event was going on. Hundreds were gathered around a courtyard, either on the ground or leaning over terraces of the buildings surrounding the courtyard. In the center, employees were putting on a show (either dancing or singing or something else) for a contest. There were TV monitors around where you can watch what was going on in the stage.
We were split into two groups and alternated guides. My group’s first stop was a lab for electronic equipment. Wipro can design the circuit boards, the drivers, or the applications for set-top boxes and other digital equipment, depending on their client contracts. Our second stop was a conference room that shared glass walls with a control center that monitors web servers worldwide. Clients depend on them to provide the high level of server uptime (more than 99%) that they require. If the server is down, they are able to bring it back up remotely, including rebooting the machine if necessary.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
The Reuters presentation was slow. It seemed like our hosts were seeing the slides for the first time as well. They looked tired and overworked, and our Indian host later confirmed that she does work long hours, but out of choice. It didn’t sound like everybody else did. I think she’s close to getting burnt out, and her ambition is probably what keeps her going for now.
They say that labor arbitrage is not the focus for the move to India; otherwise, they would have gone to Vietnam or the Philippines or elsewhere. However, they didn’t say why they chose India. I suspect it’s probably one of two things: 1) the cultural affinity between the UK and India, or 2) Reuters is developing a killer financial application and India offers the best technical talent at a low price.
There seems to be some secrecy about the relationship between Wipro and Microsoft. Of the IT sourcing companies we visited, Wipro was the only one that did not mention Microsoft as a client in their slides, although they mentioned a lot of other companies. During the tour, I saw an area labeled “Microsoft .NET” so I asked one of the hosts which groups at Microsoft they worked with. He said that it’s a training area, that’s all. When I said I used to work for Microsoft, he figured that I knew they did some work for Microsoft and he finally admitted it, but he insisted that they also do training. He would not disclose which groups they were working with, so I’m thinking that it might be a new group working on a new product.
Hmm, lots of intrigue and mystery in today’s visits.
Wipro seems to be top-heavy. Our first host was the Chief Strategy Officer, and he mentioned their Chief Quality Officer. Shouldn’t strategy and quality be part of the job of everybody in the company? I just wonder how many chiefs they have. But with 45,000 employees, I guess they don’t have to worry about having too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Pun intended. :-)
In the second Wipro site, there was a pond on the grounds with unusually colored ducks – they were spotted black and white, like the cows. Holstein ducks! :-)
As we were walking during the Wipro development center tour, I had a chance to chat with one of our hosts, Hari. Hari works in corporate in the marketing department; he is new to the company after having moved from an ad agency. I asked him about the chalk powder design on the floor of a hallway that we passed. It was a circular design with an eye in the middle. Hari didn’t know what a mandala is, but this seems to have been created like one, except this one does not have the symmetry or the complexity of a traditional mandala. He told me about the significance of the star symbol and that it represented perfection. He also mentioned about the importance of the numbers 1, 6, and 8 and how everything in the universe is in those proportions. Now, I’m curious; I’ll have to read up on that. Maybe 42 is not the answer to life, the universe, and everything
after all. Maybe it's 1, 6, and 8. ;-)
Another failed attempt
Speaking of the universe, I don't think it likes me spending too much.
Mahdad and I got off the bus with Mani to shop at FabIndia, an upscale chain of stores. Mani liked going there because the prices are fixed, and Mahdad remembered seeing some nice sarees in a FabIndia in Delhi. But the sarees in this FabIndia turned out to be expensive. Their cotton sarees (with ugly designs, if you ask me) started at 600 rupees, and their silk sarees (still boring designs) started at 1900 rupees. The saleswoman was kind enough to recommend Forum Mall to find sarees made of silk blends, instead of pure silk, similar to the ones I got in Delhi. However, Mahdad and I decided on Garuda Mall, since we already know what’s there and it’s closer to our hotel.
Garuda Mall turned out to be just as expensive and the salespeople all suggested Commercial Street for the underskirts and blouses. Since it was already late, we figured we’d go to Commercial Street the next day.
We hadn't had dinner, so we hit a cookie shop at the ground level. After Mahdad argued with the sellers that their cookies are not chewy just because it gets softer if they put it in the microwave, I bought a couple anyway to settle down my stomach’s grumblings. And then we found a stand that sold honey-roasted nuts. Mahdad got a small pack and offered me some. They were so good that we went back so I could buy my own pack of honey-roasted cashews.
We just walked to Reuters today but the first place we went to was the wrong place. The right place was next to the Leela Palace. It was also walking distance, but a bit farther.
One of Reuters' locations in Bangalore. more pics
Mani said that Reuters was reluctant to let us visit them, but they agreed to one hour. We actually ended up staying there for a couple of hours. Two women were our hosts – one is Indian and the other British. We pretty much stayed in one conference room and we were served hot beverages and cookies in a hallway, served by a white-gloved waiter. We got a view of some cubicles through glass windows in the hallway and they said that the rest of the building looked the same. Someone in our group commented that the secrecy is probably due to the bad press they’re getting right now.
The surprising thing about Reuters was that they get only 10% of their revenues from the news business; 90% comes from financial services. The news business grew out of the need for financial market information for their clients, and a lot of the work in India is extracting information from 3,000 sources and reporting them in one place. In fact, all English language financial data now comes from Bangalore. They have a small data development team in Bangalore to develop applications for their own use. Some of the data is extracted, formatted, and added to the database automatically; some are entered manually through a front-end application.
The training of the researchers takes a long time. They get one week of induction training and up to six months of functional training. Even so, it takes up to a year for one researcher to be productive. Researchers get detailed training on the company databases and systems and on the sources of information. After the formal training, mentors are made available to researchers as well.
Wipro
We went first to the Wipro corporate office for a couple of presentations, then to their development center for a tour.
The presentation we got was kinda dry in terms of information. They mentioned the number of centers, the number of employees, the industries their clients are in, the list of clients, what makes them successful (Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma), and their success rate (90% of their projects are on time and under budget). They talked about distributed development and they mentioned the Philippines among other countries.
They are very careful about their clients’ intellectual property. Our host said, “We do not compete with our clients at all.” They don’t work with competitors of their clients and workers have a “cooling period” between projects in the same industry. And for each new project, they create a virtual “clean room” with “fresh engineers.”
They don’t claim to have any special intellectual property of their own – “What we're doing is not rocket science.”
What’s surprising is that they openly talk about their competitors. They acknowledged that the Philippines might be a better candidate for front office outsourcing for US companies because of the cultural affinity between the US and the Philippines. They also praised Sapient multiple times – “Sapient understands offshoring the best. They play the game [like Wipro].” However, they think that the legal KPO is the “domain of smaller players.”
The second presentation was about their knowledge management system – how they “connect people to content” and “connect people to people.” It sounded very similar to an article I had read about a consulting firm, which I can’t remember off the top of my head (McKinsey maybe?). They use Microsoft Sharepoint Portal Server with some customization to create their internal website which they call “Knowledge Net.” Then they pull in the different aspects of knowledge management: culture, tools and technology, content, community, business processes, and information systems. They segment their employees between the technology team and the business team and give them different access depending on their needs. The site provides technical documents, expert help, collaboration tools, reusable components, war rooms, networks (which sounds like special interest groups), best practices, case studies, reports, templates, and tools. Every “artifact” expires after 12 months, and the owner is notified to update it. If it is not updated, it is archived and old archives are later purged from the system.
In the development center, an employee morale event was going on. Hundreds were gathered around a courtyard, either on the ground or leaning over terraces of the buildings surrounding the courtyard. In the center, employees were putting on a show (either dancing or singing or something else) for a contest. There were TV monitors around where you can watch what was going on in the stage.
We were split into two groups and alternated guides. My group’s first stop was a lab for electronic equipment. Wipro can design the circuit boards, the drivers, or the applications for set-top boxes and other digital equipment, depending on their client contracts. Our second stop was a conference room that shared glass walls with a control center that monitors web servers worldwide. Clients depend on them to provide the high level of server uptime (more than 99%) that they require. If the server is down, they are able to bring it back up remotely, including rebooting the machine if necessary.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
The Reuters presentation was slow. It seemed like our hosts were seeing the slides for the first time as well. They looked tired and overworked, and our Indian host later confirmed that she does work long hours, but out of choice. It didn’t sound like everybody else did. I think she’s close to getting burnt out, and her ambition is probably what keeps her going for now.
They say that labor arbitrage is not the focus for the move to India; otherwise, they would have gone to Vietnam or the Philippines or elsewhere. However, they didn’t say why they chose India. I suspect it’s probably one of two things: 1) the cultural affinity between the UK and India, or 2) Reuters is developing a killer financial application and India offers the best technical talent at a low price.
There seems to be some secrecy about the relationship between Wipro and Microsoft. Of the IT sourcing companies we visited, Wipro was the only one that did not mention Microsoft as a client in their slides, although they mentioned a lot of other companies. During the tour, I saw an area labeled “Microsoft .NET” so I asked one of the hosts which groups at Microsoft they worked with. He said that it’s a training area, that’s all. When I said I used to work for Microsoft, he figured that I knew they did some work for Microsoft and he finally admitted it, but he insisted that they also do training. He would not disclose which groups they were working with, so I’m thinking that it might be a new group working on a new product.
Hmm, lots of intrigue and mystery in today’s visits.
Wipro seems to be top-heavy. Our first host was the Chief Strategy Officer, and he mentioned their Chief Quality Officer. Shouldn’t strategy and quality be part of the job of everybody in the company? I just wonder how many chiefs they have. But with 45,000 employees, I guess they don’t have to worry about having too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Pun intended. :-)
In the second Wipro site, there was a pond on the grounds with unusually colored ducks – they were spotted black and white, like the cows. Holstein ducks! :-)
As we were walking during the Wipro development center tour, I had a chance to chat with one of our hosts, Hari. Hari works in corporate in the marketing department; he is new to the company after having moved from an ad agency. I asked him about the chalk powder design on the floor of a hallway that we passed. It was a circular design with an eye in the middle. Hari didn’t know what a mandala is, but this seems to have been created like one, except this one does not have the symmetry or the complexity of a traditional mandala. He told me about the significance of the star symbol and that it represented perfection. He also mentioned about the importance of the numbers 1, 6, and 8 and how everything in the universe is in those proportions. Now, I’m curious; I’ll have to read up on that. Maybe 42 is not the answer to life, the universe, and everything
after all. Maybe it's 1, 6, and 8. ;-)Another failed attempt
Speaking of the universe, I don't think it likes me spending too much.
Mahdad and I got off the bus with Mani to shop at FabIndia, an upscale chain of stores. Mani liked going there because the prices are fixed, and Mahdad remembered seeing some nice sarees in a FabIndia in Delhi. But the sarees in this FabIndia turned out to be expensive. Their cotton sarees (with ugly designs, if you ask me) started at 600 rupees, and their silk sarees (still boring designs) started at 1900 rupees. The saleswoman was kind enough to recommend Forum Mall to find sarees made of silk blends, instead of pure silk, similar to the ones I got in Delhi. However, Mahdad and I decided on Garuda Mall, since we already know what’s there and it’s closer to our hotel.
Garuda Mall turned out to be just as expensive and the salespeople all suggested Commercial Street for the underskirts and blouses. Since it was already late, we figured we’d go to Commercial Street the next day.
We hadn't had dinner, so we hit a cookie shop at the ground level. After Mahdad argued with the sellers that their cookies are not chewy just because it gets softer if they put it in the microwave, I bought a couple anyway to settle down my stomach’s grumblings. And then we found a stand that sold honey-roasted nuts. Mahdad got a small pack and offered me some. They were so good that we went back so I could buy my own pack of honey-roasted cashews.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Bangalore: Day 3 - Wipro Health and Sapient
I had breakfast today, my first since we got here. And, boy!, it's so much better than our Delhi hotel. More dishes, omelets made to your specifications, Indian as well as Western selections, a wider variety of fresh cut fruits, and both canned and fresh juices. I was even surprised to see steamed white bread, which Filipinos call "puto". It was good!
Breakfast buffet at the Royal Orchid. more pics
Wipro HealthScience
Wipro HealthScience does radiology services by getting everything done, except sign off on the test results and advice the patient. They call it “collaborative radiology.” They get the digital data from the client (i.e.: X-ray, MRI, etc.), their applications turn the 2-D data into 3-D, their junior staff perform the preliminary analysis and report, their senior analysts review the analysis and make corrections, and then they send the report back to the client. The senior analysts are four certified radiologists, who give the company credibility.
They reduce the number of days between the exam and the start of treatment by offering “night hawk services” so that the analysis is done overnight and is ready for the client the next morning. Of course, this is due to the time zone difference. But the service is actually offered 24/7.
This was very similar to a project I had done with a group in an Entrepreneurship class. In that class, we looked into doing teleradiology for mammography. GE already has the equipment that can do digital mammography. However, because of the higher resolution required for mammography, it’s still difficult to do the analysis remotely. The compression technology required to transfer that data without significantly losing important detail is still not commercially viable.
When I asked about mammography, our host said that they do not do mammography at this time and, yes, it was because it requires a higher resolution. They stay away from litigious areas and projects where they cannot deliver a good quality. Besides, there are not enough digital mammography exams done in the US yet.
The company (or at least this division) is very humble about their own shortcomings. In his slide about magazines that had written up about them, he said that those were “places where we were beaten up.”
Sapient
Sapient is the most impressive company we’ve seen so far in this trip. It’s not the beauty of their facilities or the refreshments they served us. In fact, they didn’t serve us refreshments! It was the way they made us feel because of their attention to detail. While other companies talk about how they deliver quality, Sapient demonstrated how they deliver quality. Their mission: "To do whatever it takes to deliver the right business solution, on time and under budget." They do whatever the client needs.
However, they are picky about their clients. They choose clients who “push the envelope” in their respective industries. And their goal is to help get the clients where they want to go, while breaking new ground. They also only accept projects that are measurable so that they can tell if they have done a good job.
Their mantra is that repeatable innovations require breakthrough thinking, disciplined execution, and high-performing teams. The “breakthrough thinking” is not just a motto; it sounds like they actually set aside time for thinking things through before acting. The goal for the thinking is to find ways to do things better, even though they’ve done it effectively in the past.
They are so confident in their ability that they would forgo the agreed-on fee if they didn’t deliver what they said they would on time and under budget. And so far, 83% of their projects are on time and under budget, compared to 29% average for the industry.
After the presentation, we split up into three groups and we were given a talk about three of the different projects they have and how they manage their team communications, planning, and work implementation. Each person is responsible for his/her own individual project plan.
It seems like a high-pressure job, but the people we spoke with didn’t seem overworked at all. In fact, they were very energetic and enthusiastic. The fact that they choose their work is probably one of the contributing factors. They feel more in control of their work.
My group talked about an energy company but what we learned is how they manage their work with that company, how fast they respond to change requests, how they manage their communications internally and with the customer, and how they manage resource allocation (capacity management, knowledge dispersion, or task prioritization). When we joined the rest of the class, someone in each group went up front to report on what they learned. There were overlaps but there were also interesting tidbits that each group learned.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
TLAs:
BPO: business process outsourcing
KPO: knowledge process outsourcing
CPO: clinical process outsourcing
Sapient’s policy with people management is “alignment, not agreement.” They believe that if they align the goals of the employee with the goals of the project, everything else falls in place. They have great trust in each individual to do what’s right. They expect people to think – “We don’t hire coders; we hire consultants.” That’s empowerment. And that’s a powerful tool. I’ve seen it in Microsoft to some degree, but managers tend to need more control and so they micromanage. This is the exact opposite of micromanaging and, from what I saw, it was very effective.
The hiring-consultants piece manifested in the way they executed the presentation. They were very polished and focused on us. They were the only company that treated us individually – first, they asked each of us what we expected, and in the end, the asked each of us again for feedback. Although we got name tags at other places as well, this is the only place where our hosts addressed each of us by name. The presentation was concise and their energy was palpable throughout. If this is how they treat their customers, it’s no wonder they’re very successful.
Sufi and sarees
The Leela Palace. more pics
Most people in our class went to Ginseng Restaurant in the C level of the hotel. They later went to a bar in Leela Palace. However, Wendy, Mahdad, and I had some shopping to do. Wendy needed bags or wrapping paper to wrap the host gifts because the boxes got crumpled during our flight. Mahdad needed a suitcase, a saree for his wife Cheryl, and a kurta for himself. I needed to buy inexpensive sarees for the women to wear for our farewell dinner. I had polled the women to see who would want to wear a saree, and I got different reactions, although all were willing to borrow one and wear it if everybody else would.
I chatted with Sunitha, a guest services manager at the hotel. She said that the locals would be honored that foreigners appreciate their culture by wearing sarees. But it has to be worn the right way. Unlike the tour guide in Delhi, Sunitha thinks that wearing jeans underneath is not a good idea because the saree “wouldn’t fall right.” And, besides, it would be difficult to go to the bathroom with pants underneath. She recommended getting an underskirt or wearing any skirt with an elastic waist. She wouldn’t be at work on Friday but she said there would be female housekeepers who would be able to help us put on the sarees. She recommended Deepam’s Silk Sarees on MG (Mahatma Ghandhi) Road.
Well, we decided to get a quick bite on the way to the shopping center. Mahdad had found out about a Persian restaurant within walking distance, so off we went. I was sorry I didn’t put on my sneakers; it was a long walk. “Sufi” is both a restaurant and a museum. The restaurant was actually just the courtyard and the upstairs terrace. We were led upstairs and we passed some old Persian rugs hanging on the wall, as well as other art.
There were lots of mosquitoes outdoors, so a waiter brought out a mosquito coil and set it on the floor. But the mosquitoes persisted so we put the mosquito coil up on the table and asked for another one. The waiters smiled; they probably thought it was funny that we were so afraid of mosquitoes that we would rather tolerate the smoke from the mosquito coil than suffer a bite. Well, we had good reason; I didn’t get my shots or malaria pills.
We all ordered kababs. Mahdad got lamb, while Wendy and I got chicken. The chicken was bland. The lamb, on the other hand, was excellent.
The menu also talked about how to drink hot tea. You put the sugar cube in your mouth just behind your teeth and you sip the tea through it. So, Mahdad and I ordered the hot tea. But the sugar cube wasn’t the right kind. Mahdad said that the right kind will not melt easily; it’s like hard candy. But what the waiters gave us were regular sugar cubes so the tea became too sweet. So, Mahdad invited us to his home so we can experience Persian tea with the right kind of sugar cubes.
When we were almost done, we met a young good-looking Persian couple but they didn’t speak English well, so they spoke mostly with Mahdad. They were so friendly that they even offered us a taste of the dish they ordered. We found out that they’re students and they just moved to India six months ago. They were married very young. The wife just turned 21 and they were married a year and a half ago. The husband is about 22, I think. They were so happy to meet another Persian that they invited Mahdad to their home, but he told them that, unfortunately, we were leaving in a couple of days. He really would have loved to go, otherwise.
On our way out, we noticed a couple in another table with a hookah. I asked a waiter if it was indeed a hookah and he started telling me what flavors they had. And the flavors he mentioned sounded like flavors of tea, including mint. Who’da thought? Smoking in fruit flavors!
We took an auto rickshaw to some malls, but they were already closing, so we didn’t get any shopping done anyway. When we got back to the hotel, Wendy talked to the front desk personnel and they were able to wrap the gifts for her.
Adventure of the day
Well, it’s not exactly an adventure for me. Mani treated us to a coconut bar, a street vendor who sold young coconut. With all the warnings we’ve heard about not eating the local fruit, it took a while for some people to feel comfortable about trying it. I, having grown up with it, was among the first to accept a coconut with a straw through the hole at the top. My coconut was very young so I was able to scrape the flesh with my straw but because the straw was too narrow, I couldn’t suck the flesh through it. So, with gestures, I asked the vendor to cut it open. He figured out what I wanted to do, and he even chopped a small piece from the husk to use as a scoop. Then he scrapped the flesh and gave me the makeshift scoop with the coconut flesh. It was very good! Afterwards, Mani asked how it was. I said it reminded me of home.
Breakfast buffet at the Royal Orchid. more pics
Wipro HealthScience
Wipro HealthScience does radiology services by getting everything done, except sign off on the test results and advice the patient. They call it “collaborative radiology.” They get the digital data from the client (i.e.: X-ray, MRI, etc.), their applications turn the 2-D data into 3-D, their junior staff perform the preliminary analysis and report, their senior analysts review the analysis and make corrections, and then they send the report back to the client. The senior analysts are four certified radiologists, who give the company credibility.
They reduce the number of days between the exam and the start of treatment by offering “night hawk services” so that the analysis is done overnight and is ready for the client the next morning. Of course, this is due to the time zone difference. But the service is actually offered 24/7.
This was very similar to a project I had done with a group in an Entrepreneurship class. In that class, we looked into doing teleradiology for mammography. GE already has the equipment that can do digital mammography. However, because of the higher resolution required for mammography, it’s still difficult to do the analysis remotely. The compression technology required to transfer that data without significantly losing important detail is still not commercially viable.
When I asked about mammography, our host said that they do not do mammography at this time and, yes, it was because it requires a higher resolution. They stay away from litigious areas and projects where they cannot deliver a good quality. Besides, there are not enough digital mammography exams done in the US yet.
The company (or at least this division) is very humble about their own shortcomings. In his slide about magazines that had written up about them, he said that those were “places where we were beaten up.”
Sapient
Sapient is the most impressive company we’ve seen so far in this trip. It’s not the beauty of their facilities or the refreshments they served us. In fact, they didn’t serve us refreshments! It was the way they made us feel because of their attention to detail. While other companies talk about how they deliver quality, Sapient demonstrated how they deliver quality. Their mission: "To do whatever it takes to deliver the right business solution, on time and under budget." They do whatever the client needs.
However, they are picky about their clients. They choose clients who “push the envelope” in their respective industries. And their goal is to help get the clients where they want to go, while breaking new ground. They also only accept projects that are measurable so that they can tell if they have done a good job.
Their mantra is that repeatable innovations require breakthrough thinking, disciplined execution, and high-performing teams. The “breakthrough thinking” is not just a motto; it sounds like they actually set aside time for thinking things through before acting. The goal for the thinking is to find ways to do things better, even though they’ve done it effectively in the past.
They are so confident in their ability that they would forgo the agreed-on fee if they didn’t deliver what they said they would on time and under budget. And so far, 83% of their projects are on time and under budget, compared to 29% average for the industry.
After the presentation, we split up into three groups and we were given a talk about three of the different projects they have and how they manage their team communications, planning, and work implementation. Each person is responsible for his/her own individual project plan.
It seems like a high-pressure job, but the people we spoke with didn’t seem overworked at all. In fact, they were very energetic and enthusiastic. The fact that they choose their work is probably one of the contributing factors. They feel more in control of their work.
My group talked about an energy company but what we learned is how they manage their work with that company, how fast they respond to change requests, how they manage their communications internally and with the customer, and how they manage resource allocation (capacity management, knowledge dispersion, or task prioritization). When we joined the rest of the class, someone in each group went up front to report on what they learned. There were overlaps but there were also interesting tidbits that each group learned.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
TLAs:
BPO: business process outsourcing
KPO: knowledge process outsourcing
CPO: clinical process outsourcing
Sapient’s policy with people management is “alignment, not agreement.” They believe that if they align the goals of the employee with the goals of the project, everything else falls in place. They have great trust in each individual to do what’s right. They expect people to think – “We don’t hire coders; we hire consultants.” That’s empowerment. And that’s a powerful tool. I’ve seen it in Microsoft to some degree, but managers tend to need more control and so they micromanage. This is the exact opposite of micromanaging and, from what I saw, it was very effective.
The hiring-consultants piece manifested in the way they executed the presentation. They were very polished and focused on us. They were the only company that treated us individually – first, they asked each of us what we expected, and in the end, the asked each of us again for feedback. Although we got name tags at other places as well, this is the only place where our hosts addressed each of us by name. The presentation was concise and their energy was palpable throughout. If this is how they treat their customers, it’s no wonder they’re very successful.
Sufi and sarees
The Leela Palace. more pics
Most people in our class went to Ginseng Restaurant in the C level of the hotel. They later went to a bar in Leela Palace. However, Wendy, Mahdad, and I had some shopping to do. Wendy needed bags or wrapping paper to wrap the host gifts because the boxes got crumpled during our flight. Mahdad needed a suitcase, a saree for his wife Cheryl, and a kurta for himself. I needed to buy inexpensive sarees for the women to wear for our farewell dinner. I had polled the women to see who would want to wear a saree, and I got different reactions, although all were willing to borrow one and wear it if everybody else would.
I chatted with Sunitha, a guest services manager at the hotel. She said that the locals would be honored that foreigners appreciate their culture by wearing sarees. But it has to be worn the right way. Unlike the tour guide in Delhi, Sunitha thinks that wearing jeans underneath is not a good idea because the saree “wouldn’t fall right.” And, besides, it would be difficult to go to the bathroom with pants underneath. She recommended getting an underskirt or wearing any skirt with an elastic waist. She wouldn’t be at work on Friday but she said there would be female housekeepers who would be able to help us put on the sarees. She recommended Deepam’s Silk Sarees on MG (Mahatma Ghandhi) Road.
Well, we decided to get a quick bite on the way to the shopping center. Mahdad had found out about a Persian restaurant within walking distance, so off we went. I was sorry I didn’t put on my sneakers; it was a long walk. “Sufi” is both a restaurant and a museum. The restaurant was actually just the courtyard and the upstairs terrace. We were led upstairs and we passed some old Persian rugs hanging on the wall, as well as other art.
There were lots of mosquitoes outdoors, so a waiter brought out a mosquito coil and set it on the floor. But the mosquitoes persisted so we put the mosquito coil up on the table and asked for another one. The waiters smiled; they probably thought it was funny that we were so afraid of mosquitoes that we would rather tolerate the smoke from the mosquito coil than suffer a bite. Well, we had good reason; I didn’t get my shots or malaria pills.
We all ordered kababs. Mahdad got lamb, while Wendy and I got chicken. The chicken was bland. The lamb, on the other hand, was excellent.
The menu also talked about how to drink hot tea. You put the sugar cube in your mouth just behind your teeth and you sip the tea through it. So, Mahdad and I ordered the hot tea. But the sugar cube wasn’t the right kind. Mahdad said that the right kind will not melt easily; it’s like hard candy. But what the waiters gave us were regular sugar cubes so the tea became too sweet. So, Mahdad invited us to his home so we can experience Persian tea with the right kind of sugar cubes.
When we were almost done, we met a young good-looking Persian couple but they didn’t speak English well, so they spoke mostly with Mahdad. They were so friendly that they even offered us a taste of the dish they ordered. We found out that they’re students and they just moved to India six months ago. They were married very young. The wife just turned 21 and they were married a year and a half ago. The husband is about 22, I think. They were so happy to meet another Persian that they invited Mahdad to their home, but he told them that, unfortunately, we were leaving in a couple of days. He really would have loved to go, otherwise.
On our way out, we noticed a couple in another table with a hookah. I asked a waiter if it was indeed a hookah and he started telling me what flavors they had. And the flavors he mentioned sounded like flavors of tea, including mint. Who’da thought? Smoking in fruit flavors!
We took an auto rickshaw to some malls, but they were already closing, so we didn’t get any shopping done anyway. When we got back to the hotel, Wendy talked to the front desk personnel and they were able to wrap the gifts for her.
Adventure of the day
Well, it’s not exactly an adventure for me. Mani treated us to a coconut bar, a street vendor who sold young coconut. With all the warnings we’ve heard about not eating the local fruit, it took a while for some people to feel comfortable about trying it. I, having grown up with it, was among the first to accept a coconut with a straw through the hole at the top. My coconut was very young so I was able to scrape the flesh with my straw but because the straw was too narrow, I couldn’t suck the flesh through it. So, with gestures, I asked the vendor to cut it open. He figured out what I wanted to do, and he even chopped a small piece from the husk to use as a scoop. Then he scrapped the flesh and gave me the makeshift scoop with the coconut flesh. It was very good! Afterwards, Mani asked how it was. I said it reminded me of home.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Bangalore: Day 2 - Mindtree and FinEye
Mindtree Consulting
Mindtree Consulting is into a lot of things, including IT services and R&D services. They said that, encompassing those services, they also provide testing services and they use testing as their “way in the door” of a client. Upon hearing that, Dave looked around the room for me; we were just talking about my business plan the other night on the bus.
Their philosophy is to “Choose the right customers and work closely with them." They go to very specific industry segments and dig deep, instead of being “all over the place.”
The speaker talked about the four stages of offshore journey:
1. Bystanders, who either do nothing or are still in the initial investigations (50-60% of Fortune 1000).
2. Experimenters, who are usually in 10-20 person projects (25-30%).
3. Committers, who are usually in 30-50 person projects (5-10%).
4. Full exploiters, who are usually in large scale apps (less than 5%).
FinEye
I already heard about FinEye in the Carlson Ventures Enterprise. Gary, who is our VC-in-residence, had used the company as one of the case studies that the CVE class analyzed; FinEye is one of the portfolio firms financed by his fund. Later in the semester, he invited the CEO Paritosh and his brother-in-law Praful to speak to us along with a couple of other entrepreneurs. After that panel discussion, I chatted with Paritosh for a while about how he created the company and how it’s structured.
FinEye, being a startup, was in a small office. We crammed into one small conference room and a good number of us lined the walls. Paritosh had done the first half of the presentation and had handed it over to his associate, when he backed up and noticed I was sitting on the floor. Then he recognized me. I was surprised he even remembered me.
Since I already have a detailed background of the company, I was able to ask Paritosh about other things, like how he’s able to manage remotely (which was the subject of my paper for another class). He said it takes a lot of trust in your people. He added that, since he didn’t know anybody in Bangalore, he was very fortunate to have found the people and management team that he has.
People in the company have flextime and they work long hours. So, even though the majority of the employees are MBAs and CPAs, the company has the feel of a software startup. As Mani said, "[Paritosh] knows how to run a tight ship."
I asked if I could see a demo of their website application, which I wanted to see since the first time I met him. So they gathered us back into the conference room and gave us a demo. It’s a nicely designed site, but I don’t know much about the financial market and the requirements of the potential customers, so I'm not a good judge of the usability of the pages. They don’t have a marketing or sales team yet, so they probably haven’t done much marketing research yet.
I later talked to Robbie (who’s in the financial field) and he thinks it’s a good idea. It’s interesting to take a look at a company from two different perspectives – one as an example of a startup and another as an example of offshored operations.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
Holy cow! A Dutch expat in India. :-) more pics
We couldn’t help but compare Bangalore with Delhi. As Robbie and Todd said, “Everything is better in Bangalore.” The sarees are more beautiful. Even the cleaning woman in the street wore a beautiful shimmery green sari under her work jacket. Most women wore strings of white jasmine-like flowers on their hair. The same flowers decorated busses, instead of the gold and red ones in Delhi. And they had Holstein cows! Delhi had brown cows. Bangalore had granite; Delhi had sandstone. Even the signs on the backs of the trucks were slightly different. In Delhi, trucks were painted with “Horn please,” although I saw one that said “Horen Plesse.” In Bangalore, they said “Sound Horn.”
Years ago, one of my coworkers at Microsoft decided to move back to India. He was homesick. He said that the food was better in India and that India was so much more alive, so much more colorful. I didn’t quite understand why he would give up a good paying job and all his unvested options. Now, I do.
I’ve heard of US companies that try to bring spirit into the workplace, but I didn’t expect it in an Indian company, like Mindtree. Maybe it’s another way for them to move the focus away from costs and other monetary measurements.
Microsoft seems to be a client of almost every company we’ve visited. Granted that different groups decide on which vendor they use, it’s still surprising that a lot of these companies have worked with Microsoft. I wonder if they’ve done only one small project and still say that Microsoft is a client.
All these companies are beginning to sound alike.
What would happen to US companies that outsource everything? India could be the next world economic power. We see Indian companies moving "up the food chain." What would prevent companies from just setting up in India from the start? Maybe the naysayers, those in the US who oppose offshoring, make some sense.
Would these sourcing companies’ margins go lower when MS increases their hiring in Bangalore? Aren’t these companies worried that there would be greater attrition as Microsoft lures away their best people? And with more MNCs setting up shop in Bangalore, there would be more competition among sourcing companies since they won’t have to spend resources to get customers from abroad; the MNCs are coming to them.
Artisans building a temple complex. more pics
As we drove around, I noticed that the women are segregated from the men on the busses. Yesterday, I asked our tour guide why, but he got interrupted and he never answered my question. Rohit answered it today with two words, “active hands.” He said it happens so often, and once his wife had turned around and slapped a man who groped her. But that reaction is uncommon because most women would just be quiet out of shame. Rape victims and abuse victims tend to do the same. It's violation, only to a different degree.
Mindtree Consulting is into a lot of things, including IT services and R&D services. They said that, encompassing those services, they also provide testing services and they use testing as their “way in the door” of a client. Upon hearing that, Dave looked around the room for me; we were just talking about my business plan the other night on the bus.
Their philosophy is to “Choose the right customers and work closely with them." They go to very specific industry segments and dig deep, instead of being “all over the place.”
The speaker talked about the four stages of offshore journey:
1. Bystanders, who either do nothing or are still in the initial investigations (50-60% of Fortune 1000).
2. Experimenters, who are usually in 10-20 person projects (25-30%).
3. Committers, who are usually in 30-50 person projects (5-10%).
4. Full exploiters, who are usually in large scale apps (less than 5%).
FinEye
I already heard about FinEye in the Carlson Ventures Enterprise. Gary, who is our VC-in-residence, had used the company as one of the case studies that the CVE class analyzed; FinEye is one of the portfolio firms financed by his fund. Later in the semester, he invited the CEO Paritosh and his brother-in-law Praful to speak to us along with a couple of other entrepreneurs. After that panel discussion, I chatted with Paritosh for a while about how he created the company and how it’s structured.
FinEye, being a startup, was in a small office. We crammed into one small conference room and a good number of us lined the walls. Paritosh had done the first half of the presentation and had handed it over to his associate, when he backed up and noticed I was sitting on the floor. Then he recognized me. I was surprised he even remembered me.
Since I already have a detailed background of the company, I was able to ask Paritosh about other things, like how he’s able to manage remotely (which was the subject of my paper for another class). He said it takes a lot of trust in your people. He added that, since he didn’t know anybody in Bangalore, he was very fortunate to have found the people and management team that he has.
People in the company have flextime and they work long hours. So, even though the majority of the employees are MBAs and CPAs, the company has the feel of a software startup. As Mani said, "[Paritosh] knows how to run a tight ship."
I asked if I could see a demo of their website application, which I wanted to see since the first time I met him. So they gathered us back into the conference room and gave us a demo. It’s a nicely designed site, but I don’t know much about the financial market and the requirements of the potential customers, so I'm not a good judge of the usability of the pages. They don’t have a marketing or sales team yet, so they probably haven’t done much marketing research yet.
I later talked to Robbie (who’s in the financial field) and he thinks it’s a good idea. It’s interesting to take a look at a company from two different perspectives – one as an example of a startup and another as an example of offshored operations.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
Holy cow! A Dutch expat in India. :-) more pics
We couldn’t help but compare Bangalore with Delhi. As Robbie and Todd said, “Everything is better in Bangalore.” The sarees are more beautiful. Even the cleaning woman in the street wore a beautiful shimmery green sari under her work jacket. Most women wore strings of white jasmine-like flowers on their hair. The same flowers decorated busses, instead of the gold and red ones in Delhi. And they had Holstein cows! Delhi had brown cows. Bangalore had granite; Delhi had sandstone. Even the signs on the backs of the trucks were slightly different. In Delhi, trucks were painted with “Horn please,” although I saw one that said “Horen Plesse.” In Bangalore, they said “Sound Horn.”
Years ago, one of my coworkers at Microsoft decided to move back to India. He was homesick. He said that the food was better in India and that India was so much more alive, so much more colorful. I didn’t quite understand why he would give up a good paying job and all his unvested options. Now, I do.
I’ve heard of US companies that try to bring spirit into the workplace, but I didn’t expect it in an Indian company, like Mindtree. Maybe it’s another way for them to move the focus away from costs and other monetary measurements.
Microsoft seems to be a client of almost every company we’ve visited. Granted that different groups decide on which vendor they use, it’s still surprising that a lot of these companies have worked with Microsoft. I wonder if they’ve done only one small project and still say that Microsoft is a client.
All these companies are beginning to sound alike.
What would happen to US companies that outsource everything? India could be the next world economic power. We see Indian companies moving "up the food chain." What would prevent companies from just setting up in India from the start? Maybe the naysayers, those in the US who oppose offshoring, make some sense.
Would these sourcing companies’ margins go lower when MS increases their hiring in Bangalore? Aren’t these companies worried that there would be greater attrition as Microsoft lures away their best people? And with more MNCs setting up shop in Bangalore, there would be more competition among sourcing companies since they won’t have to spend resources to get customers from abroad; the MNCs are coming to them.
Artisans building a temple complex. more pics
As we drove around, I noticed that the women are segregated from the men on the busses. Yesterday, I asked our tour guide why, but he got interrupted and he never answered my question. Rohit answered it today with two words, “active hands.” He said it happens so often, and once his wife had turned around and slapped a man who groped her. But that reaction is uncommon because most women would just be quiet out of shame. Rape victims and abuse victims tend to do the same. It's violation, only to a different degree.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Bangalore: Day 1
By now, I have three bags. The funny thing is that I got to San Francisco with one suitcase, went to India with two, and am heading home with three. Hmm, could I be shopping too much? Nah.
Wendy had found out how much the cost is for the extra baggage. Probir had agreed to check in one of my bags as his own, since he only had one to check in. But Wendy was able to negotiate with the airlines to let us check in as a group so that those of us have excess or overweight baggage can use the extra allowance of those who had fewer or underweight baggage.
Bangalore is huge. No skyscrapers, but houses stretched out as far as the eye can see. We later learned from our guide that Bangalore is the fifth largest city in the world. I can believe that.
The floral clock at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden. more pics
Because our flight was delayed a couple of hours, we didn't have much time left for our sightseeing. Besides, it seems there really isn't much to see in Bangalore. We went to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, which our guide knew very well because his degree is in botany. He knew about the species of every tree and he gave us incredible information about species of trees we saw in the garden. Unfortunately, his audience was too tired and too disinterested.
We also went to the Bull Temple, which was really just a small structure that housed a large black granite sculpture of a bull. After going around the bull, a priest smudged a red paste on our foreheads, if we donated.
In the Bull Temple. more pics
Our guide said something that explained so many things - India is only one-third the size of US, but has three times the population.
We finally got to our hotel and it is so much nicer than our Delhi hotel. However, there is a certain scent in the air, and it's not pleasant.
I decided to order room service for dinner. I got Thai chicken curry which is nice, and mango ice cream. Well,... I grew up with mangoes, mangoes are my favorite fruit, and my mom grew up in the province known for its mangoes. I know what mango tastes like, and this ain’t mango. It was more like a floral taste. But it was good, nonetheless, so I finished it up anyway.
I also asked the front desk for a power adapter. It didn’t arrive until almost three hours later – my first real experience of India’s sense of time.
The doorman of the Royal Orchid. more pics
Something strange happened in the evening. A man with a British accent called asking for Christina. He gave her full name but he called her “Christine”. When I said she was still out, he said to have her call her husband. I went to bed at 10pm, and he woke me up and asked for Christina again at 11:30pm, somewhat impatiently. When Christina arrived around midnight, I gave her the message, and she frantically called her husband, but it turned out that he didn’t call at all.
Wendy had found out how much the cost is for the extra baggage. Probir had agreed to check in one of my bags as his own, since he only had one to check in. But Wendy was able to negotiate with the airlines to let us check in as a group so that those of us have excess or overweight baggage can use the extra allowance of those who had fewer or underweight baggage.
Bangalore is huge. No skyscrapers, but houses stretched out as far as the eye can see. We later learned from our guide that Bangalore is the fifth largest city in the world. I can believe that.
The floral clock at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden. more pics
Because our flight was delayed a couple of hours, we didn't have much time left for our sightseeing. Besides, it seems there really isn't much to see in Bangalore. We went to the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, which our guide knew very well because his degree is in botany. He knew about the species of every tree and he gave us incredible information about species of trees we saw in the garden. Unfortunately, his audience was too tired and too disinterested.
We also went to the Bull Temple, which was really just a small structure that housed a large black granite sculpture of a bull. After going around the bull, a priest smudged a red paste on our foreheads, if we donated.
In the Bull Temple. more pics
Our guide said something that explained so many things - India is only one-third the size of US, but has three times the population.
We finally got to our hotel and it is so much nicer than our Delhi hotel. However, there is a certain scent in the air, and it's not pleasant.
I decided to order room service for dinner. I got Thai chicken curry which is nice, and mango ice cream. Well,... I grew up with mangoes, mangoes are my favorite fruit, and my mom grew up in the province known for its mangoes. I know what mango tastes like, and this ain’t mango. It was more like a floral taste. But it was good, nonetheless, so I finished it up anyway.
I also asked the front desk for a power adapter. It didn’t arrive until almost three hours later – my first real experience of India’s sense of time.
The doorman of the Royal Orchid. more pics
Something strange happened in the evening. A man with a British accent called asking for Christina. He gave her full name but he called her “Christine”. When I said she was still out, he said to have her call her husband. I went to bed at 10pm, and he woke me up and asked for Christina again at 11:30pm, somewhat impatiently. When Christina arrived around midnight, I gave her the message, and she frantically called her husband, but it turned out that he didn’t call at all.
Sunday, January 08, 2006
Jaipur
We got up very early. Only the first 300 people at the site would be allowed to ride the elephants. And what an experience it was! I shared a female baby elephant named Saki (or something like that) with Sara. Merchants on the way up the hill called out to us to buy shirts. I called back that I needed a pashmina*** shawl. I left my jacket in the bus and it was a bit nippy. One merchant ran inside his shop and ran up the hill to catch up with us. So there I was haggling on top of an elephant. He finally agreed to 600 rupees. But when he tossed up the shawl, it was neither pashmina nor silk. He wanted to sell me more, but I told him it was too expensive. At least, I had something to cover my arms. I wore it all day.
A brightly painted elephant. more pics
At the top of the hill, as we waited for the rest of the group to arrive on their elephants, a young teenage boy walked around playing a native instrument. It was a stringed instrument that was played like a violin with a bow made of horsehair. He played while I recorded him. Then he showed me how to play it. Then he tried to sell me the instrument.
We went up some stone steps and looked around at the palace and our guide talked about palace life, the king’s harem, and the eunuchs who guarded the women while the king was away.
On our way down, the young man found me again and kept trying to sell me the instrument. I told him I'd give him 40 rupees if he played all the way to the bus. He did a terrible job playing this time, but I gave him the money anyway.
Up the stairs to the palace. more pics
We went to a museum that displayed the huge carpets that lined the palace walls and some miniature paintings. There were also paper cuttings with intricate designs that look like the laser-cut greeting cards that were popular years ago. These ones were made with sharpened fingernails.
Afterwards we went to another cottage industry place where they sold those miniature paintings on silk. One of the merchants gave us a demonstration but he only did a sketch. I thought the paintings were too expensive, so I looked around. I found some interesting earrings and the old man quoted me 350 rupees for the card I pointed to. The card had three pairs in them and I thought it was a good deal. But, as I was about to pay, the merchant said that it's 350 rupees per pair. Our tour guide passed by and said that we would find other places with more reasonable prices.
On my way out, I stopped by the stall of incense that Mahdad was looking at earlier. I didn't like the scents of the incense, but I noticed some small bottles of essences. The man was showing me exotic scents like patchouli and musk, but I insisted on floral scents. He showed me rose, but it was a very faint scent. I asked for jasmine, and he picked out a tiny bottle among his collection. It was one of the best jasmine scents my nose has ever whiffed! It was so much like the real thing that it reminded me of my childhood. He showed me other similar essences and, after haggling, I got four tiny bottles for 400 rupees. Two of those bottles were jasmine.
*** Pashmina is the wool made from goat’s fur that comes only from the goat’s throat. It’s the softest and warmest part of the goat’s fur.
A brightly painted elephant. more pics
At the top of the hill, as we waited for the rest of the group to arrive on their elephants, a young teenage boy walked around playing a native instrument. It was a stringed instrument that was played like a violin with a bow made of horsehair. He played while I recorded him. Then he showed me how to play it. Then he tried to sell me the instrument.
We went up some stone steps and looked around at the palace and our guide talked about palace life, the king’s harem, and the eunuchs who guarded the women while the king was away.
On our way down, the young man found me again and kept trying to sell me the instrument. I told him I'd give him 40 rupees if he played all the way to the bus. He did a terrible job playing this time, but I gave him the money anyway.
Up the stairs to the palace. more pics
We went to a museum that displayed the huge carpets that lined the palace walls and some miniature paintings. There were also paper cuttings with intricate designs that look like the laser-cut greeting cards that were popular years ago. These ones were made with sharpened fingernails.
Afterwards we went to another cottage industry place where they sold those miniature paintings on silk. One of the merchants gave us a demonstration but he only did a sketch. I thought the paintings were too expensive, so I looked around. I found some interesting earrings and the old man quoted me 350 rupees for the card I pointed to. The card had three pairs in them and I thought it was a good deal. But, as I was about to pay, the merchant said that it's 350 rupees per pair. Our tour guide passed by and said that we would find other places with more reasonable prices.
On my way out, I stopped by the stall of incense that Mahdad was looking at earlier. I didn't like the scents of the incense, but I noticed some small bottles of essences. The man was showing me exotic scents like patchouli and musk, but I insisted on floral scents. He showed me rose, but it was a very faint scent. I asked for jasmine, and he picked out a tiny bottle among his collection. It was one of the best jasmine scents my nose has ever whiffed! It was so much like the real thing that it reminded me of my childhood. He showed me other similar essences and, after haggling, I got four tiny bottles for 400 rupees. Two of those bottles were jasmine.
*** Pashmina is the wool made from goat’s fur that comes only from the goat’s throat. It’s the softest and warmest part of the goat’s fur.
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Agra
Our first glimpse of the Taj through one of the gates. more pics
The Taj Mahal was very impressive. We were lucky to get a local tour guide named Bilal, a handsome man who used to be a professional photographer and lived in Agra almost all his life. He took us to the best vista points, so we could take postcard pictures of the Taj. He even took pictures of us with our cameras. He also told us so many stories and so many tidbits about the places we saw. We even learned about his personal life – he met his wife on his wedding day and he thought she was very beautiful, they still give each other the first bite of every meal, and his second son (who happened to drive by in his motorbike) is getting married soon.
The old name of the monument was Mumtaj Mahal, which means crown of the palace. It is the name given to the king’s third and most beautiful wife. They were married for 17 years and she bore him 14 children. When she was pregnant with the 14th child, there was some bad omen which meant death. (I didn’t quite hear what the omen was since I was in the back of the bus.) Mumtaj Mahal asked her husband to build a beautiful mausoleum as a monument to their great love. [Sigh.] How romantic is that?
A script from the Koran. more pics
The front entrance was framed by a script (I don’t know what it said, but it’s probably a quote from the Koran). But it was made bigger and wider at the top so it was readable from the ground. The four towers that guarded the monument were also tapered outwards so that the outer edge was straight and the inner edge was about five degrees slanted. The towers were designed that way so that, if an earthquake toppled the towers, they would fall away from the monument.
The grave itself is underground, but to prevent visitors from stepping over the grave, a replica was built above it at ground level. The details of the inlays were amazing. Plants, flowers, and Arabic script decorated almost every inch inside and outside. Nothing was painted. Everything was inlaid with semi-precious stones, which were so exquisitely done that the surface is so smooth even at the edges where the stones meet the marble. Inside the monument, Mahdad had the guide call out his name, and the echo resounded for about ten or fifteen seconds.
Everything about the Taj is symmetrical. On one side was a mosque. And to balance it, the king built a matching structure on the other side, which he called the guest house but it was never really used for anything. The king also started building a black Taj Mahal on the other side of the river for his own resting place, with a tunnel connecting the two mausoleums. But the king died before the black Taj Mahal was completed.
Inside the mosque. more pics
It was a good thing that we got up very early because by the time we left, there was a very long line of people at the entrance, waiting to be let in.
After the Taj, we went to another cottage industry store where they demonstrated the inlay work that was done on the mausoleum. Our guide said that the stories about the workers’ hands being chopped off after the Taj was completed was not true. Instead, the workers were paid handsomely so that they could retire in prosperity. And they never worked again so that no other monument like the Taj could be made. Instead, they taught their children the art of inlay, and it’s been passed down from generation to generation. The glue they use is a closely guarded secret, and the skill is not taught to the girls for fear that the trade secret would be spilled to other families that the girls marry into.
Grinding the semi-precious stone inlays. more pics
After lunch, we went to Fatepur Sikri. We went into the Sikri Palace and got a tour of the place. It was a maze of buildings. But, by that time, I wasn't listening much to the guide anymore because I was too busy taking pictures.
A detail of the intricate stonework in the Sikri Palace. more pics
In the evening, we drove to Jaipur. Our hotel was another Hilton and just as nice as the one last night, maybe even more so.
Happy birthday, Mom!
Friday, January 06, 2006
Delhi: Day 5 - BPO
We only went to one company today and it was primarily a business process outsourcer (BPO). (We’re not allowed to mention their name.) They are a global company with 28 centers in the US, 14 in Canada, 4 in the UK, 7 in Delhi, and 7 in the Philippines. They offer services in HR, customer care, finance and accounting, and information management billing. Their motto is “Outthinking, Outdoing.” One of their clients is Microsoft. (Is there any company in India that doesn’t count Microsoft as one of their clients?)
Not only do they provide accent training for their call center employees, they also train them on cultural aspects. One of the speakers gave an example of a customer on the phone who said that the payment was late because the mail was late, and the mail was late because he lived in the boonies. So, for two days, several of the employees gathered around a conference table, looking at maps and books to figure out where the town of Boonies was located. :-)
They use a rollover system, where, if all the representatives in India are busy, the call is automatically rolled over to the Philippines. If all representatives in the Philippines are busy, the call is automatically rolled over to the US.
Even their phones are configured to have US phone numbers so that the client has easy access to them.
They’re also trying to sell more services to their clients by getting them to outsource more processes to them. One slide showed all the different departments in a typical company. And then, in the next click, the ones that could be outsourced are grayed out. What remains in-house are: marketing strategy, financial planning, and strategy and architecture of information systems. It doesn’t take much to start a new company since pretty much everything can be outsourced.
A snake charmer with both a cobra and a boa. more pics
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
I’m thinking of Porter’s Five Forces. If outsourcing lowers the cost of entry for new businesses in a specific industry, what would the effects be? Could it topple the existing monopoly or oligopoly, if any? Would it make competition fiercer, since each new entrant would find it more difficult to differentiate itself from the other new entrants? Will it make every product and every service a commodity so that the prices go down? And then what?
Adventure of the day
It was about a five-hour drive from Delhi to Agra in the afternoon. Our driver exhibited his great skill at avoiding busses, cars, bikes, rickshaws, pedestrians, cows, camels, and various small animals, even in the most crowded of streets. Thankfully there was a partition between the cockpit and the cabin of the bus; otherwise, he would have heard the gasps and exclamations from his passengers at every near-miss, which was very frequent. If there was an atheist in the group, there isn’t anymore. We were praying for our lives. When we finally arrived at our destination, we all gave a big sigh of relief.
Our hotel was a Hilton and so much better than our hotel in Delhi. This one is most definitely a five-star hotel.
Not only do they provide accent training for their call center employees, they also train them on cultural aspects. One of the speakers gave an example of a customer on the phone who said that the payment was late because the mail was late, and the mail was late because he lived in the boonies. So, for two days, several of the employees gathered around a conference table, looking at maps and books to figure out where the town of Boonies was located. :-)
They use a rollover system, where, if all the representatives in India are busy, the call is automatically rolled over to the Philippines. If all representatives in the Philippines are busy, the call is automatically rolled over to the US.
Even their phones are configured to have US phone numbers so that the client has easy access to them.
They’re also trying to sell more services to their clients by getting them to outsource more processes to them. One slide showed all the different departments in a typical company. And then, in the next click, the ones that could be outsourced are grayed out. What remains in-house are: marketing strategy, financial planning, and strategy and architecture of information systems. It doesn’t take much to start a new company since pretty much everything can be outsourced.
A snake charmer with both a cobra and a boa. more pics
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
I’m thinking of Porter’s Five Forces. If outsourcing lowers the cost of entry for new businesses in a specific industry, what would the effects be? Could it topple the existing monopoly or oligopoly, if any? Would it make competition fiercer, since each new entrant would find it more difficult to differentiate itself from the other new entrants? Will it make every product and every service a commodity so that the prices go down? And then what?
Adventure of the day
It was about a five-hour drive from Delhi to Agra in the afternoon. Our driver exhibited his great skill at avoiding busses, cars, bikes, rickshaws, pedestrians, cows, camels, and various small animals, even in the most crowded of streets. Thankfully there was a partition between the cockpit and the cabin of the bus; otherwise, he would have heard the gasps and exclamations from his passengers at every near-miss, which was very frequent. If there was an atheist in the group, there isn’t anymore. We were praying for our lives. When we finally arrived at our destination, we all gave a big sigh of relief.
Our hotel was a Hilton and so much better than our hotel in Delhi. This one is most definitely a five-star hotel.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Delhi: Day 4 - Government ministries
We spoke with “bureaucrats” today. I’m using Mani’s term for the non-elected officials who remain in power even as the elected ministers come and go. These bureaucrats are selected among the best schools and are the best minds of India.
We went to the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Rural Development. In both places, we were entertained in long conference rooms with individual microphones for each seat, which was a good thing because it was difficult to hear anybody on the other end of the table.
They talked about the growth in India. The Ministry of Telecommunications is laying down the infrastructure to make it easy for MNCs and local sourcing companies to set up shop here. Their national policy is “technology neutral;” that is, CDMA and GSM are both available in the country. As a result of their policies, India’s wireless industry is the fastest growing in the world at 140% per year. Their challenge is the low “teledensity levels” in India; only 11% of the country has wireless penetration. Their goal for the near future is 22%. They’re focusing only on wireless, because land lines are much more expensive – 22K to 30K rupees investment required for land lines, compared to 4K to 5K rupees for wireless.
The Ministry of Rural Development aims to create “self sufficiency in agriculture.” They hope to do this by solving the irrigation problem. However, there are other problems, like population control, illiteracy, and corruption.
They are using policies to improve the rural areas. Affirmative action is mandatory in public institutions and is now becoming more prevalent in private institutions as well.
As in China, Indian parents prefer baby boys to baby girls. Because the parents depend on their sons to provide for them in their old age, they keep having children until they have a boy. So India reduces population growth by offering free tuition from grade school all the way to post-graduate studies to families with only one child, if that child is a girl.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
I can imagine that it is difficult to quantify the effects of individual government policies or regulations as they help or hinder the outsourcing / offshoring growth. They can only measure whether the industry is growing and by how much, but they can’t really attribute it to any one policy or regulation. Or maybe I just don’t know enough about economics to figure it out.
Trips like this, where we get to talk with a wide range of speakers, give me a wide overview of the world. I am not only thinking of IT, but also of agriculture and industries at the fringe of the outsourcing and offshoring movement.
As an entrepreneur, I would have to pay attention to government and politics as well. The government is always a partner, either directly (as in China) or indirectly. And since I'll be an MNC, the government in each country I’m in is also a partner in my business. Yes, I know that the government is a stakeholder, but that does not sufficiently acknowledge the power that the government has in a business. The government is really more an active partner than a passive stakeholder.
Haggling as a sport
At the end of the day, we got dropped off at a cottage industry emporium. Todd’s wife Anne told us the process: You pick what you like, take it to the counter, and they give you a slip which includes the total price. Then when you’re done shopping, you take the slips downstairs, pay for your purchases, and claim your merchandise. I bought twelve woven pillowcases with ornate designs. Mahdad told me about the Indian textiles that change color as they move under the light, so that’s what I looked for. And they are very beautiful. I don’t think they’re made to be paired because it took me a long while to find matching ones. And they are so ornate that having two in one room would probably be too much.
Vases on sale at the cottage industry emporium. more pics
I was able to get more dollars changed at the ground floor of the emporium, although it made me a bit nervous carrying that thick wad around. Christina and I got hungry in the middle of our shopping, so we went across the street to – guess where! – good old McDonald’s! Well, the menu is different, of course. I got a Paneer Salsa Wrap which was vegetarian. The patty was made of cheese, but it had the consistency of tofu, so I thought it was tofu. Well, I paid for that mistake in the evening.
We got back to the emporium and checked out the remaining three floors that we hadn’t seen yet. I only got some key chains, in addition to my pillowcases.
I had seen a sign saying “pashmina shawls” kitty-corner from the emporium so we crossed the street (we’re becoming experts at crossing) and browsed the shops there. I found some purses made of the same color-shifting material. Christina got a beautiful blue bedspread with four matching pillowcases. And I got a marble chess set. I was having fun haggling; it’s a sport now.
When we were loaded up with packages, we decided to head back to the hotel before meeting with the rest of the class for dinner at Olive. A rickshaw shadowed us when he saw us loaded with bags. Mani had told us it should cost us about 200 rupees to get back to the hotel from the emporium. I didn’t hear it but Christina did. The driver asked for 70 rupees. I said that we spent 40 rupees to get there. (I lied, of course, since we were dropped off by the bus.) Then three teenage boys selling handkerchiefs came by. They spoke English so they intervened between us and the driver. The driver insisted that it’s 70 rupees because it’s nighttime, so we finally agreed. It turned out that the driver didn’t even know where Adchini is, so we stopped several times so he could ask someone. In the end, we decided to give him 100 rupees.
After dropping off our goodies, we took a rickshaw to meet up with our classmates at Olive, which is supposedly the best five-star restaurant in town. And no wonder! It was a really nice place. We sat in a courtyard with tree lights and candles and large pans of charcoal to keep us warm. I ordered the Parma Wrapped Chicken and it was good, but I couldn’t finish it because we had just eaten at McD’s a couple of hours prior. But we had a great time and great conversation. Cost of my dinner: under US$20.
Adventure of the day
Today was the first time I used a traditional Indian bathroom. Imagine a regular toilet but bury it in the ground so that the seat is level with the floor. Then replace the seat with a corrugated ceramic platform on which to step on. To be honest, this is much better than the outhouse of the home of my late great aunts, where I spent my childhood summers. That outhouse simply had a hole on the ground. At least these Indian toilets have plumbing. I’ve also noticed that the bathroom stalls are walled in. The walls go from floor to ceiling and so do the doors most of the time, so it's more private compared to the bathroom stalls in the US.
We went to the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Rural Development. In both places, we were entertained in long conference rooms with individual microphones for each seat, which was a good thing because it was difficult to hear anybody on the other end of the table.
They talked about the growth in India. The Ministry of Telecommunications is laying down the infrastructure to make it easy for MNCs and local sourcing companies to set up shop here. Their national policy is “technology neutral;” that is, CDMA and GSM are both available in the country. As a result of their policies, India’s wireless industry is the fastest growing in the world at 140% per year. Their challenge is the low “teledensity levels” in India; only 11% of the country has wireless penetration. Their goal for the near future is 22%. They’re focusing only on wireless, because land lines are much more expensive – 22K to 30K rupees investment required for land lines, compared to 4K to 5K rupees for wireless.
The Ministry of Rural Development aims to create “self sufficiency in agriculture.” They hope to do this by solving the irrigation problem. However, there are other problems, like population control, illiteracy, and corruption.
They are using policies to improve the rural areas. Affirmative action is mandatory in public institutions and is now becoming more prevalent in private institutions as well.
As in China, Indian parents prefer baby boys to baby girls. Because the parents depend on their sons to provide for them in their old age, they keep having children until they have a boy. So India reduces population growth by offering free tuition from grade school all the way to post-graduate studies to families with only one child, if that child is a girl.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
I can imagine that it is difficult to quantify the effects of individual government policies or regulations as they help or hinder the outsourcing / offshoring growth. They can only measure whether the industry is growing and by how much, but they can’t really attribute it to any one policy or regulation. Or maybe I just don’t know enough about economics to figure it out.
Trips like this, where we get to talk with a wide range of speakers, give me a wide overview of the world. I am not only thinking of IT, but also of agriculture and industries at the fringe of the outsourcing and offshoring movement.
As an entrepreneur, I would have to pay attention to government and politics as well. The government is always a partner, either directly (as in China) or indirectly. And since I'll be an MNC, the government in each country I’m in is also a partner in my business. Yes, I know that the government is a stakeholder, but that does not sufficiently acknowledge the power that the government has in a business. The government is really more an active partner than a passive stakeholder.
Haggling as a sport
At the end of the day, we got dropped off at a cottage industry emporium. Todd’s wife Anne told us the process: You pick what you like, take it to the counter, and they give you a slip which includes the total price. Then when you’re done shopping, you take the slips downstairs, pay for your purchases, and claim your merchandise. I bought twelve woven pillowcases with ornate designs. Mahdad told me about the Indian textiles that change color as they move under the light, so that’s what I looked for. And they are very beautiful. I don’t think they’re made to be paired because it took me a long while to find matching ones. And they are so ornate that having two in one room would probably be too much.
Vases on sale at the cottage industry emporium. more pics
I was able to get more dollars changed at the ground floor of the emporium, although it made me a bit nervous carrying that thick wad around. Christina and I got hungry in the middle of our shopping, so we went across the street to – guess where! – good old McDonald’s! Well, the menu is different, of course. I got a Paneer Salsa Wrap which was vegetarian. The patty was made of cheese, but it had the consistency of tofu, so I thought it was tofu. Well, I paid for that mistake in the evening.
We got back to the emporium and checked out the remaining three floors that we hadn’t seen yet. I only got some key chains, in addition to my pillowcases.
I had seen a sign saying “pashmina shawls” kitty-corner from the emporium so we crossed the street (we’re becoming experts at crossing) and browsed the shops there. I found some purses made of the same color-shifting material. Christina got a beautiful blue bedspread with four matching pillowcases. And I got a marble chess set. I was having fun haggling; it’s a sport now.
When we were loaded up with packages, we decided to head back to the hotel before meeting with the rest of the class for dinner at Olive. A rickshaw shadowed us when he saw us loaded with bags. Mani had told us it should cost us about 200 rupees to get back to the hotel from the emporium. I didn’t hear it but Christina did. The driver asked for 70 rupees. I said that we spent 40 rupees to get there. (I lied, of course, since we were dropped off by the bus.) Then three teenage boys selling handkerchiefs came by. They spoke English so they intervened between us and the driver. The driver insisted that it’s 70 rupees because it’s nighttime, so we finally agreed. It turned out that the driver didn’t even know where Adchini is, so we stopped several times so he could ask someone. In the end, we decided to give him 100 rupees.
After dropping off our goodies, we took a rickshaw to meet up with our classmates at Olive, which is supposedly the best five-star restaurant in town. And no wonder! It was a really nice place. We sat in a courtyard with tree lights and candles and large pans of charcoal to keep us warm. I ordered the Parma Wrapped Chicken and it was good, but I couldn’t finish it because we had just eaten at McD’s a couple of hours prior. But we had a great time and great conversation. Cost of my dinner: under US$20.
Adventure of the day
Today was the first time I used a traditional Indian bathroom. Imagine a regular toilet but bury it in the ground so that the seat is level with the floor. Then replace the seat with a corrugated ceramic platform on which to step on. To be honest, this is much better than the outhouse of the home of my late great aunts, where I spent my childhood summers. That outhouse simply had a hole on the ground. At least these Indian toilets have plumbing. I’ve also noticed that the bathroom stalls are walled in. The walls go from floor to ceiling and so do the doors most of the time, so it's more private compared to the bathroom stalls in the US.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Delhi: Day 3 - Intellevate and GenPact
As I got on the bus this morning, Mani specifically tells me not to stray today. Hrmph! ;-)
This morning was bright and sunny, but we hit rush hour traffic. As we got out of the city, we saw some more beautiful temples, including the Lotus Baha'i Temple. I wish we had more time to see those other monuments. And there’s something about the rural areas, which reminded me of my childhood summers in my mom's hometown.
Intellevate India
Our first stop was a subsidiary of an American company that offers back-office services to patent and copyright lawyers. They prepare filings for new patents and provide maintenance support (i.e.: renewals, etc.) for existing patents. Because their parent company is a US company, their “US interface” gives them credibility in the eyes of their US clients.
The first speaker was a retired military commander. He spoke slowly and pensively as though his mind is far away, searching a faint memory – an elder telling a story to the next generation. But he was passionate about political issues like the government's work on social disparities, helping people who are "left behind" by the economic growth of India.
They pick their employees well and train them further. For example, they train engineers with postgraduate degrees, even PhDs, with experience and train them on patent law. They maintain confidentiality and prevent conflicts of interests by maintaining separate teams for separate projects.
For patent infringement research, they simply identify companies and products that potentially infringe on a patent, and submit the information they find to their clients. Because they do not have the technical capability, they leave it up to the client to do further research to confirm if it was an actual infringement.
It was a tedious session. Because I had spoken with a patent attorney at a trade conference during my visit to Seattle last summer, I already knew the answers to a lot of the questions asked. Sometimes, they didn't answer the questions. And when they did, the answers were painfully long. It sounded more like a defensive sales pitch.
A snake charmer. more pics
GenPact
GenPact was a part of GE Services until a couple of years ago. They are still in the same industries that GE is in, and they’ve focused on best practices that they’ve learned while they were still part of GE. For example, if a specific tool or process is developed by an employee assigned to one particular client, that tool or process is not shared with other clients. But if GenPact develop tools and processes themselves, they share it with all client teams.
Their focus is on repeatable and predictable performance, on identifying and eliminating waste in processes, in benchmarking, in driving to process entitlement, and in reengineering.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
GenPact's HR practices are surprisingly very much like Microsoft's; i.e.: paying at the mid-range of salaries in the area, offering security services to ensure their employees' safety. I assumed it was the GE USA influence and our host Jagjit agreed. They've kept their GE culture and it is working well that their attrition rate is much lower than the industry standard. In fact, other Indian companies are copying their practices. They have also expanded their pool of candidates by hiring other workers besides the typical young techie; for example, they’ve hired retired bank employees as senior underwriters. The practice provides stability and a new way of training the junior employees.
Indian firms focus on training and adding value that way, instead of on the labor cost arbitrage. Jagjit from GenPact says, they are moving from “transactional services” to “knowledge services.” That added value allows them to charge more. When I visited my friend Mukesh at Microsoft last summer, he commented that India is getting expensive. Now, I see how. Rahul from Intellevate India said, “Cost arbitrage is just the entry.”
The Philippines is mentioned a lot in the presentations. The Indian companies acknowledge that the Philippines is an upcoming country, particularly in voice services. Mani had mentioned that the reason is that the Philippines has had American influence in the past fifty years.
Adventure of the day
A large group of us decided to go out for dinner. Mohit hailed several auto rickshaws and loaded us in, three at a time, and gave directions to the driver. We went to PVR Saket, which is the first shopping center that Ebbie, Ayana, Christina, and I went to the first day. I rode with Mike and Amy. When we met up with the other groups at the shopping center, Rohit said that we should buddy up with the same people we rode with and be sure to ride back with them. To get back, we had to tell the driver to take us to the Hero Honda showroom (which was at the corner from the hotel) since most drivers go by landmarks, instead of addresses.
Most of us decided to go to Ruby Tuesday, which is an American restaurant chain. After dinner, Amy, Mike, Ebbie, Ayana and I passed by the ATM downstairs. We got a couple of auto rickshaws to take us back and Ebbie told both drivers to take us to Hero Honda.
Well, it turned out to be not that simple. Mike remembered how we got there from the hotel and we were going in the opposite direction. But the driver didn’t speak English so we couldn’t talk to him. Pretty soon, the streetlights got fewer and fewer, and the driver was taking us to a dark secluded area. We kept saying, “Hero Honda! Hero Honda!” And the driver kept agreeing with us, “Hero Honda.” We were getting really nervous and were already thinking how to defend ourselves, just in case. Then he finally stopped in what seemed like the bad part of town. “Hero Honda,” he said and pointed to a sign above a locked gate. Sure enough, the sign said “Hero Honda.”
Thankfully, Ebbie and Ayana’s rickshaw was right behind us and Ebbie argued with the drivers. I don’t know what he told them but he seemed to have straightened them out because the drivers turned us around and we eventually found our way back to the streetlights and to the correct Hero Honda near our hotel.
We should have said Hero Honda in Adchini, which is the area where the hotel is.
This morning was bright and sunny, but we hit rush hour traffic. As we got out of the city, we saw some more beautiful temples, including the Lotus Baha'i Temple. I wish we had more time to see those other monuments. And there’s something about the rural areas, which reminded me of my childhood summers in my mom's hometown.
Intellevate India
Our first stop was a subsidiary of an American company that offers back-office services to patent and copyright lawyers. They prepare filings for new patents and provide maintenance support (i.e.: renewals, etc.) for existing patents. Because their parent company is a US company, their “US interface” gives them credibility in the eyes of their US clients.
The first speaker was a retired military commander. He spoke slowly and pensively as though his mind is far away, searching a faint memory – an elder telling a story to the next generation. But he was passionate about political issues like the government's work on social disparities, helping people who are "left behind" by the economic growth of India.
They pick their employees well and train them further. For example, they train engineers with postgraduate degrees, even PhDs, with experience and train them on patent law. They maintain confidentiality and prevent conflicts of interests by maintaining separate teams for separate projects.
For patent infringement research, they simply identify companies and products that potentially infringe on a patent, and submit the information they find to their clients. Because they do not have the technical capability, they leave it up to the client to do further research to confirm if it was an actual infringement.
It was a tedious session. Because I had spoken with a patent attorney at a trade conference during my visit to Seattle last summer, I already knew the answers to a lot of the questions asked. Sometimes, they didn't answer the questions. And when they did, the answers were painfully long. It sounded more like a defensive sales pitch.
A snake charmer. more pics
GenPact
GenPact was a part of GE Services until a couple of years ago. They are still in the same industries that GE is in, and they’ve focused on best practices that they’ve learned while they were still part of GE. For example, if a specific tool or process is developed by an employee assigned to one particular client, that tool or process is not shared with other clients. But if GenPact develop tools and processes themselves, they share it with all client teams.
Their focus is on repeatable and predictable performance, on identifying and eliminating waste in processes, in benchmarking, in driving to process entitlement, and in reengineering.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
GenPact's HR practices are surprisingly very much like Microsoft's; i.e.: paying at the mid-range of salaries in the area, offering security services to ensure their employees' safety. I assumed it was the GE USA influence and our host Jagjit agreed. They've kept their GE culture and it is working well that their attrition rate is much lower than the industry standard. In fact, other Indian companies are copying their practices. They have also expanded their pool of candidates by hiring other workers besides the typical young techie; for example, they’ve hired retired bank employees as senior underwriters. The practice provides stability and a new way of training the junior employees.
Indian firms focus on training and adding value that way, instead of on the labor cost arbitrage. Jagjit from GenPact says, they are moving from “transactional services” to “knowledge services.” That added value allows them to charge more. When I visited my friend Mukesh at Microsoft last summer, he commented that India is getting expensive. Now, I see how. Rahul from Intellevate India said, “Cost arbitrage is just the entry.”
The Philippines is mentioned a lot in the presentations. The Indian companies acknowledge that the Philippines is an upcoming country, particularly in voice services. Mani had mentioned that the reason is that the Philippines has had American influence in the past fifty years.
Adventure of the day
A large group of us decided to go out for dinner. Mohit hailed several auto rickshaws and loaded us in, three at a time, and gave directions to the driver. We went to PVR Saket, which is the first shopping center that Ebbie, Ayana, Christina, and I went to the first day. I rode with Mike and Amy. When we met up with the other groups at the shopping center, Rohit said that we should buddy up with the same people we rode with and be sure to ride back with them. To get back, we had to tell the driver to take us to the Hero Honda showroom (which was at the corner from the hotel) since most drivers go by landmarks, instead of addresses.
Most of us decided to go to Ruby Tuesday, which is an American restaurant chain. After dinner, Amy, Mike, Ebbie, Ayana and I passed by the ATM downstairs. We got a couple of auto rickshaws to take us back and Ebbie told both drivers to take us to Hero Honda.
Well, it turned out to be not that simple. Mike remembered how we got there from the hotel and we were going in the opposite direction. But the driver didn’t speak English so we couldn’t talk to him. Pretty soon, the streetlights got fewer and fewer, and the driver was taking us to a dark secluded area. We kept saying, “Hero Honda! Hero Honda!” And the driver kept agreeing with us, “Hero Honda.” We were getting really nervous and were already thinking how to defend ourselves, just in case. Then he finally stopped in what seemed like the bad part of town. “Hero Honda,” he said and pointed to a sign above a locked gate. Sure enough, the sign said “Hero Honda.”
Thankfully, Ebbie and Ayana’s rickshaw was right behind us and Ebbie argued with the drivers. I don’t know what he told them but he seemed to have straightened them out because the drivers turned us around and we eventually found our way back to the streetlights and to the correct Hero Honda near our hotel.
We should have said Hero Honda in Adchini, which is the area where the hotel is.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Delhi: Day 2 - NIIT
It was a misty morning and the sun is a perfect circle through the clouds. It was a busy day - four stops, all NIIT.
First we went to the software services and business process outsource arm of the company and listened to a presentation from two speakers, who talked about the company and the outsourcing industry in India, specifically about the airline reservation service Sabre. They talked about the effect of specific project management practices on their efficiency; for example, a high reuse of their code can increase their efficiency by 300%, high management and staff experience by 110%, effective tools by 35%. They deal with the constant change in product design by freezing requirements each week, by working with the customer everyday, and by making tweaks to the product everyday to remain aligned with their customer’s needs. However, the budget also determines the number of “use cases” that they can focus on.
Our second stop was the Knowledge Solution Business arm of NIIT. Our host was a personal friend of our professor Mani and he’s a very funny speaker, but his was a quiet sense of humor. He talked about their three business divisions, which correlate to the target customers: 1) K to 12, 2) retail, and 3) corporate. He talked about the internal products, such as the product called CLiKS, that they released to the public in response to customer demand. He said, "We not only made a mistake here (pointing to CLiKS 1.0), we compounded it (referring to CLiKS 2.0)."
Their differentiating factor is something they call “critical mistakes analysis.” They analyze where the mistakes happen and target the training based on what they find, so that they focus on areas where people make the most mistakes, they train only the people who need training, and they cover only on the specific training that those people need.
After the presentation, they served us a wonderful Indian lunch buffet. And then I fell on my face after tripping on a dip under the carpet. When they brought us on a tour, they pulled in someone who worked in the team that works with Microsoft. I asked him a few questions as the group moved on. We were following the group then he went into his office for him to give me his business card. Then he decided to call someone in his team who had worked with Microsoft the longest. She came and we got introduced. We didn’t spend more than five minutes. Then he walked me out to catch up with the group but they were nowhere to be found. We walked out the gate but the bus wasn’t there (it turns out that the bus was parked a couple of blocks away on another road). So we headed back inside and he tried to call different people to find where the group was. We thought they might still be on a tour in the building. Then, on our way out, we met Wendy (our International Programs coordinator) and the tour guide who were looking for me. Mani was upset.
The third stop was in the NIIT training center itself. We sat in a very small room (too small for 30 people) and sat in very cramped school chairs. It seems we got the same presentation that is given to potential students. The presenter was apparently an engineer who was in between projects and was therefore teaching until his next project starts. He was too detailed in his presentation and very impatient. Meanwhile, another man served hot beverages and cookies as noisily as possible with clinking cups and saucers and a beeping cell phone, irritating the lecturer even more. I thought it was hilarious how people in India could be as passive-aggressive as the Minnesotans visiting them. :-D
Our final stop is at the Center of Research of Cognitive Systems (CRCS) with a professor, who had a PhD in Physics and leaned more towards research. He talked about the need for teachers and schools in the rural areas and the financial infeasibility of providing those teachers and schools. So, he and his group look for ways to educate the population by self-learning through low-cost solutions.
As an experiment, they went to a rural area where literacy is low. The project was called “Hole in the Wall.” They set up a computer behind a wall with a touch-screen and left it there. After several months, they talked to the children who learned how to use the computer on their own. The children had learned how to get around on the web and they described the process using a different paradigm and using their own names for things. They called the cursor an arrow. They learned that if they move the arrow over an underlined word, the arrow turns into a hand. And when the arrow is a hand and they pushed a button, they said that the hand turns into “Shiva’s drum.” It was the hourglass.
He also told the story of an old man who learned to use the computer to play games. Somehow, he figured out the order of the programs in the Start menu and which one to select to start the game. But the man was illiterate, so what the professor did was mix up the menus. The next time they spoke, the man scolded him for breaking the computer. But the professor found that the man was still able to find his favorite game. It turned out that the man remembered what the letters on the name of the application looked like and was able to describe the letters in terms of curves and straight lines. So, he was essentially "reading" in a very basic sense.
Since accent training is a necessity for the call centers, the professor came up with a self-learning solution. What he did was to program a speech-to-text application with a British accent. When the students spoke into the computer with an Indian accent, the computer naturally couldn’t understand them. So he told them that they had to learn to speak so that the computer would understand it. Eventually, they learned to speak with a British accent; however, they spoke the words exactly as it was recorded, with the same intonation.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
Only 30% of the employees in NTL are women. Based on that information, it seems that they have the same problem attracting women into the industry as they do in the US. I don’t know if the reasons are the same. All the Indian women I met in the US are highly technical. Granted my sample is non-representative, since all the Indian women I met in the Bay Area and in Seattle were working in the software industry.
I also noticed that the cubicles are very clean. In my first professional job, we were told to keep our desks cleared and empty; it was an intimidation tactic. It’s intended to make any guest think that the office resident had already gotten his/her work done. In NTL, the reason is different. To preserve the integrity of their clients’ data, they have an entirely paperless office. This prevents any passerby from being able to grab a piece of paper with some critical information off of a cubicle. They also use 128-bit encryption, which surprised me because I thought that 128-bit encryption cannot be exported due to the US government security. Or maybe I’m getting confused with my numbers.
Geek culture in US is cult-like. Being nerdy is a badge of honor. The ultimate geek is one who dresses in t-shirts and jeans, drinks too much coffee or soda, lives on junk food, and locks himself or herself up in the office to work. In India, the IT workers are very polished and presentable – they wear business suits or business casual, they are more social, and they know how to attend to guests. I think this difference reflects the fact that, in the US, the software industry is focused on producing software, while, in India, the software industry is primarily comprised of software services with focus in the "services" part.
Three letter acronym (TLA) of the day:
MTI: “mother tongue influence.” It’s used in discussions about accent training, particularly for call center representatives.
An auto rickshaw. more pics
Traffic is incredibly chaotic – busses, auto rickshaws, bicycles, cars, mini minivans, trucks of all sizes. Often, there’s only a foot between vehicles; sometimes only a couple of inches. Red lights are just a suggestion. Vehicles cross an intersection if nobody is coming in the other direction, regardless of the light. Everybody honks. Our tour guide says that it’s how everybody knows where everybody is. And it’s a good thing because most of the rickshaws don’t have rear-view mirrors or side mirrors. And people don’t stay in their own lanes! In a two-lane street, there would be up to five vehicles side by side. They sneak in wherever they can. But somehow, there seems to be a method to the madness. The traffic flows smoothly. We haven’t seen any accident. And everybody eventually gets to where they need to go.
Adventure of the day
We were running late at one point because the bus driver didn’t slow down enough for us to find the building. So we passed it and had to loop back. Then the driver wouldn’t drop us on the right side of the street, so we got off the bus. Mani said we had to walk back a long ways to get to the underground crosswalk. Rohit said that even if we went as a large group, the cars will still not stop for us. Niels just said, “Let’s go.” And before the rest of the group could think, there we were, crossing the street with Niels leading the way. Well, Niels is 6’2” tall, heavyset Dutchman. He stands out. When he held up his arms to stop the cars, the cars stopped. Brian later said, they didn’t have a choice – hitting Niels would make a big dent on their little cars. Needless to say, we all got across the street safely.
First we went to the software services and business process outsource arm of the company and listened to a presentation from two speakers, who talked about the company and the outsourcing industry in India, specifically about the airline reservation service Sabre. They talked about the effect of specific project management practices on their efficiency; for example, a high reuse of their code can increase their efficiency by 300%, high management and staff experience by 110%, effective tools by 35%. They deal with the constant change in product design by freezing requirements each week, by working with the customer everyday, and by making tweaks to the product everyday to remain aligned with their customer’s needs. However, the budget also determines the number of “use cases” that they can focus on.
Our second stop was the Knowledge Solution Business arm of NIIT. Our host was a personal friend of our professor Mani and he’s a very funny speaker, but his was a quiet sense of humor. He talked about their three business divisions, which correlate to the target customers: 1) K to 12, 2) retail, and 3) corporate. He talked about the internal products, such as the product called CLiKS, that they released to the public in response to customer demand. He said, "We not only made a mistake here (pointing to CLiKS 1.0), we compounded it (referring to CLiKS 2.0)."
Their differentiating factor is something they call “critical mistakes analysis.” They analyze where the mistakes happen and target the training based on what they find, so that they focus on areas where people make the most mistakes, they train only the people who need training, and they cover only on the specific training that those people need.
After the presentation, they served us a wonderful Indian lunch buffet. And then I fell on my face after tripping on a dip under the carpet. When they brought us on a tour, they pulled in someone who worked in the team that works with Microsoft. I asked him a few questions as the group moved on. We were following the group then he went into his office for him to give me his business card. Then he decided to call someone in his team who had worked with Microsoft the longest. She came and we got introduced. We didn’t spend more than five minutes. Then he walked me out to catch up with the group but they were nowhere to be found. We walked out the gate but the bus wasn’t there (it turns out that the bus was parked a couple of blocks away on another road). So we headed back inside and he tried to call different people to find where the group was. We thought they might still be on a tour in the building. Then, on our way out, we met Wendy (our International Programs coordinator) and the tour guide who were looking for me. Mani was upset.
The third stop was in the NIIT training center itself. We sat in a very small room (too small for 30 people) and sat in very cramped school chairs. It seems we got the same presentation that is given to potential students. The presenter was apparently an engineer who was in between projects and was therefore teaching until his next project starts. He was too detailed in his presentation and very impatient. Meanwhile, another man served hot beverages and cookies as noisily as possible with clinking cups and saucers and a beeping cell phone, irritating the lecturer even more. I thought it was hilarious how people in India could be as passive-aggressive as the Minnesotans visiting them. :-D
Our final stop is at the Center of Research of Cognitive Systems (CRCS) with a professor, who had a PhD in Physics and leaned more towards research. He talked about the need for teachers and schools in the rural areas and the financial infeasibility of providing those teachers and schools. So, he and his group look for ways to educate the population by self-learning through low-cost solutions.
As an experiment, they went to a rural area where literacy is low. The project was called “Hole in the Wall.” They set up a computer behind a wall with a touch-screen and left it there. After several months, they talked to the children who learned how to use the computer on their own. The children had learned how to get around on the web and they described the process using a different paradigm and using their own names for things. They called the cursor an arrow. They learned that if they move the arrow over an underlined word, the arrow turns into a hand. And when the arrow is a hand and they pushed a button, they said that the hand turns into “Shiva’s drum.” It was the hourglass.
He also told the story of an old man who learned to use the computer to play games. Somehow, he figured out the order of the programs in the Start menu and which one to select to start the game. But the man was illiterate, so what the professor did was mix up the menus. The next time they spoke, the man scolded him for breaking the computer. But the professor found that the man was still able to find his favorite game. It turned out that the man remembered what the letters on the name of the application looked like and was able to describe the letters in terms of curves and straight lines. So, he was essentially "reading" in a very basic sense.
Since accent training is a necessity for the call centers, the professor came up with a self-learning solution. What he did was to program a speech-to-text application with a British accent. When the students spoke into the computer with an Indian accent, the computer naturally couldn’t understand them. So he told them that they had to learn to speak so that the computer would understand it. Eventually, they learned to speak with a British accent; however, they spoke the words exactly as it was recorded, with the same intonation.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
Only 30% of the employees in NTL are women. Based on that information, it seems that they have the same problem attracting women into the industry as they do in the US. I don’t know if the reasons are the same. All the Indian women I met in the US are highly technical. Granted my sample is non-representative, since all the Indian women I met in the Bay Area and in Seattle were working in the software industry.
I also noticed that the cubicles are very clean. In my first professional job, we were told to keep our desks cleared and empty; it was an intimidation tactic. It’s intended to make any guest think that the office resident had already gotten his/her work done. In NTL, the reason is different. To preserve the integrity of their clients’ data, they have an entirely paperless office. This prevents any passerby from being able to grab a piece of paper with some critical information off of a cubicle. They also use 128-bit encryption, which surprised me because I thought that 128-bit encryption cannot be exported due to the US government security. Or maybe I’m getting confused with my numbers.
Geek culture in US is cult-like. Being nerdy is a badge of honor. The ultimate geek is one who dresses in t-shirts and jeans, drinks too much coffee or soda, lives on junk food, and locks himself or herself up in the office to work. In India, the IT workers are very polished and presentable – they wear business suits or business casual, they are more social, and they know how to attend to guests. I think this difference reflects the fact that, in the US, the software industry is focused on producing software, while, in India, the software industry is primarily comprised of software services with focus in the "services" part.
Three letter acronym (TLA) of the day:
MTI: “mother tongue influence.” It’s used in discussions about accent training, particularly for call center representatives.
An auto rickshaw. more pics
Traffic is incredibly chaotic – busses, auto rickshaws, bicycles, cars, mini minivans, trucks of all sizes. Often, there’s only a foot between vehicles; sometimes only a couple of inches. Red lights are just a suggestion. Vehicles cross an intersection if nobody is coming in the other direction, regardless of the light. Everybody honks. Our tour guide says that it’s how everybody knows where everybody is. And it’s a good thing because most of the rickshaws don’t have rear-view mirrors or side mirrors. And people don’t stay in their own lanes! In a two-lane street, there would be up to five vehicles side by side. They sneak in wherever they can. But somehow, there seems to be a method to the madness. The traffic flows smoothly. We haven’t seen any accident. And everybody eventually gets to where they need to go.
Adventure of the day
We were running late at one point because the bus driver didn’t slow down enough for us to find the building. So we passed it and had to loop back. Then the driver wouldn’t drop us on the right side of the street, so we got off the bus. Mani said we had to walk back a long ways to get to the underground crosswalk. Rohit said that even if we went as a large group, the cars will still not stop for us. Niels just said, “Let’s go.” And before the rest of the group could think, there we were, crossing the street with Niels leading the way. Well, Niels is 6’2” tall, heavyset Dutchman. He stands out. When he held up his arms to stop the cars, the cars stopped. Brian later said, they didn’t have a choice – hitting Niels would make a big dent on their little cars. Needless to say, we all got across the street safely.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Delhi: Day 1
Morning shopping
We got up early today – Christina at 4am and I at 5am. Couldn’t sleep anymore. Christina headed down to breakfast early and I followed soon after. Ebbie and his girlfriend Ayana asked if we wanted to go shopping, and since our tour wouldn’t start until 2pm, we went with them. We took one auto rickshaw with Ayana sitting on Ebbie’s lap, Christina sitting in the middle, and I by the door.
Entrepreneurial kids with a shoe-shine business. more pics
The first shopping area didn’t have much in it, so after taking some pictures, we went towards some auto rickshaws and asked them to take us to a market. Not understanding English from Ebbie and Ayana, the drivers came to me speaking in Hindi. I must be mistaken as a native. Eventually, we found a driver who spoke English and suggested “Dilihad” or something that sounds like that. So, off we went, in two rickshaws this time. We ended up in an open market that looks like Divisoria in Manila, except this is much smaller.
We looked around at shoes and at the textiles. The first textile vendor wouldn’t talk price but kept bringing out different colors. When I asked him to go lower on price, he would offer me the mixed silk kind instead of the pure silk that I wanted. The vendor next door came down to 450 rupees for pure silk since Christina and I wanted to buy four between the two of us. I decided I wanted three, so after more haggling, he came down to 400 rupees for the fifth saree. (I later found out that it wasn't pure silk, but 450 rupees was a good price for a silk blend.) It was just so much fun to haggle with the second vendor, because he was such a good sport.
Open-air tailoring. more pics
We headed back to the hotel at 12:30pm for lunch. Christina and I got to the dining room and saw the brothers Mohit and Rohit. Mohit came to our table to chat and we told him about our adventure in the morning. He helped us choose what to order as well and he recommended the Chanda Malai Tikka, which he said “melts in your mouth.” We also ordered the Butter Chicken, which turns out to be what’s called Chicken Masala in the US. And we asked for garlic naan, no rice. Well, when Mohit said that the Chandi Malai Tikka chicken melts in your mouth, I thought he was exaggerating. I mean, I’ve had melt-in-your-mouth chocolate, but chicken?!? When it arrived, it was so moist, it really almost melts in your mouth. It was a very good lunch.
Sight-seeing
In the afternoon, the same white van picked us up, and we had a tour guide in traditional saree. I forget her name but it means sacrificial offering.
There was a lot to see, but we got off at only a few places.
On the bus, our tour guide explained the dot on her forehead, which is called “bindi.” Historically, it was meant to ward off the evil eye, but, nowadays, it’s mostly worn for décor. She said that the women wore a round bindi and men wore an elongated one. If the wearer worships one god incarnation (I forget which is which. Krishna? Vishnu?), there would be three dots in a vertical line. If the wearer worships another god incarnation, the three dots would be in a horizontal line.
Later, I mentioned that we had shopped for sarees in the morning and she explained how it was worn. You wrap it around your waist once, do some pleats that you tuck into a belt or jeans, which you could also wear underneath, and the rest of the material goes over your shoulder. The other type of native costume is called a salwar (pronounced "sal-var'", meaning trousers) kameez (tunic or chemise). The men wear something similar to the salwar kameez but in a different cut.
Qutub Minar. more pics
Our first stop was at Qutub Minar, a minaret with ruins surrounding it. As I was taking pictures, Dave walked by and asked if I was looking for a good view. I said yes, and then I later saw him on top of a short wall. I joined him to see if he had a good view from that position, then I noticed green parrots against a ledge on the arches in front of us. Unfortunately, my zoom doesn’t work well, but Dave got pictures of them.
Our next stop was the wholesale marketplace, where we got off the bus and onto old fashioned bicycle rickshaws – the man-powered ones. Then we went through the marketplace in a narrow lane full of shoppers, sellers, and suppliers. We wove our way in between cars, mini minivans, motorcycles, and rickshaws carrying merchandise. It was an incredible experience. I realized how vulnerable I was, as cars and large busses came only inches from me, honking at our caravan as we merged into the traffic.
Riding through the marketplace in rickshaws. more pics
The rickshaws dropped us off at the foot of a mosque. We hurriedly climbed up the stairs and took our shoes off before entering. (I paid 150 rupees for the privilege of taking pictures inside the mosque.) The entire complex is the mosque. In the middle was a large square populated by pigeons. The square was surrounded by long open buildings with arches to look out from. In one of the buildings, we found worshippers kneeling and bowing to the ground on red rugs.
One side of the mosque. more pics
Magic carpet
Our final tour stop was a showroom of hand-knotted rugs. It was supported by the government to subsidize the cottage industry. We got the entire spiel from a charming but sleek salesman. First, he demonstrated how the carpets are made in a small loom. Then his young assistants served us a wonderful spiced tea. Meanwhile, the salesman and his crew continued to demonstrate the quality and uniqueness of the rugs – how the colors change (they spun the rug and lifted it from one end), how it can’t be scratched (they scratched it with a comb-like tool), how fire-resistant it was (they lit a lighter on the rug). At the end of the presentation, the salesman finally revealed the prices in US dollars. The lowest price, he said, was US$400. I was very disappointed. After the presentation, we were allowed to look at the rugs and the salesman insisted that there was no obligation.
Silk hand-knotted rugs. more pics
I was looking closely at the pattern of one of the runners when one of the assistants approached me and asked what I was interested in. Then he said there were more patterns like those downstairs. I followed him down. Brian was already down there with another assistant.
The assistant and one of his friends brought out a couple more patterns but the first one still looked better than the others. The tag said $2800 or something like that. He said that we get a discount and got the price down to about $2200. I said I wanted to look at something smaller but with a similar pattern. The salesman overheard us and said he’d lower the price on the runner. I said I can’t afford it unless he got it down to $1500. He punched some numbers on the calculator and showed me $1625. He said he can’t go lower than that. I should have asked for $1200 instead. As soon as I gave a hint of my assent, he (too quickly, I thought) ordered the assistant to roll it up and tag it for me. I realized I left my credit card at the hotel, so I put half on my debit card and the assistant came back in the evening to charge the rest on my credit card. They would ship it for free by courier.
Underground dinner
The bus dropped us off at the start of a small alley and we were led to a building at a bend in that alley. There was a narrow passageway, and then we went through a door that opened to a set of narrow stairs with low ceilings. At the bottom was a restaurant that was decorated with native paintings on the walls, on the stairs on the steps. There was native furniture on each side, including a bed. A section of the floor was lower than the rest and there were painted stumps that served as steps.
We sat around a long table and were served one dish at a time individually. But the dishes came so slow that it was like having dim sum. At the end of the dinner, we got gifts from the wife of our travel agent Anup, who came to join us. Arvind was guessing what the gifts were before we opened them and he got almost all correctly, except mine and Amanda's, but he knew our gifts were the same. We got woven purses. Back at the bus, Christina showed me her gifts and said, “I have two balls.” Well, they were the embroidered kind.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
Everywhere we went we were watched and stared at. The people of India were not shy, and they don’t look away when you stare back; they could easily win in a staring contest. We also saw children begging. A few girls hung around our rickshaw as we waited for the others to get on their rickshaws. One laid her hand on my knee familiarly, as though she were my child or my niece. It was so hard to ignore them.
I think I read some article somewhere about the diversity of the people of India and I see it firsthand. They look alike on the surface, but it’s easy to see the individuality in each one. And I realize how Mother Teresa could love them all.
I learned a few Hindi phrases today. “Ha” means yes; “ha ji” is a polite way of saying it. “Na hi” means no. “Shookria” means thank you.
We got up early today – Christina at 4am and I at 5am. Couldn’t sleep anymore. Christina headed down to breakfast early and I followed soon after. Ebbie and his girlfriend Ayana asked if we wanted to go shopping, and since our tour wouldn’t start until 2pm, we went with them. We took one auto rickshaw with Ayana sitting on Ebbie’s lap, Christina sitting in the middle, and I by the door.
Entrepreneurial kids with a shoe-shine business. more pics
The first shopping area didn’t have much in it, so after taking some pictures, we went towards some auto rickshaws and asked them to take us to a market. Not understanding English from Ebbie and Ayana, the drivers came to me speaking in Hindi. I must be mistaken as a native. Eventually, we found a driver who spoke English and suggested “Dilihad” or something that sounds like that. So, off we went, in two rickshaws this time. We ended up in an open market that looks like Divisoria in Manila, except this is much smaller.
We looked around at shoes and at the textiles. The first textile vendor wouldn’t talk price but kept bringing out different colors. When I asked him to go lower on price, he would offer me the mixed silk kind instead of the pure silk that I wanted. The vendor next door came down to 450 rupees for pure silk since Christina and I wanted to buy four between the two of us. I decided I wanted three, so after more haggling, he came down to 400 rupees for the fifth saree. (I later found out that it wasn't pure silk, but 450 rupees was a good price for a silk blend.) It was just so much fun to haggle with the second vendor, because he was such a good sport.
Open-air tailoring. more pics
We headed back to the hotel at 12:30pm for lunch. Christina and I got to the dining room and saw the brothers Mohit and Rohit. Mohit came to our table to chat and we told him about our adventure in the morning. He helped us choose what to order as well and he recommended the Chanda Malai Tikka, which he said “melts in your mouth.” We also ordered the Butter Chicken, which turns out to be what’s called Chicken Masala in the US. And we asked for garlic naan, no rice. Well, when Mohit said that the Chandi Malai Tikka chicken melts in your mouth, I thought he was exaggerating. I mean, I’ve had melt-in-your-mouth chocolate, but chicken?!? When it arrived, it was so moist, it really almost melts in your mouth. It was a very good lunch.
Sight-seeing
In the afternoon, the same white van picked us up, and we had a tour guide in traditional saree. I forget her name but it means sacrificial offering.
There was a lot to see, but we got off at only a few places.
On the bus, our tour guide explained the dot on her forehead, which is called “bindi.” Historically, it was meant to ward off the evil eye, but, nowadays, it’s mostly worn for décor. She said that the women wore a round bindi and men wore an elongated one. If the wearer worships one god incarnation (I forget which is which. Krishna? Vishnu?), there would be three dots in a vertical line. If the wearer worships another god incarnation, the three dots would be in a horizontal line.
Later, I mentioned that we had shopped for sarees in the morning and she explained how it was worn. You wrap it around your waist once, do some pleats that you tuck into a belt or jeans, which you could also wear underneath, and the rest of the material goes over your shoulder. The other type of native costume is called a salwar (pronounced "sal-var'", meaning trousers) kameez (tunic or chemise). The men wear something similar to the salwar kameez but in a different cut.
Qutub Minar. more pics
Our first stop was at Qutub Minar, a minaret with ruins surrounding it. As I was taking pictures, Dave walked by and asked if I was looking for a good view. I said yes, and then I later saw him on top of a short wall. I joined him to see if he had a good view from that position, then I noticed green parrots against a ledge on the arches in front of us. Unfortunately, my zoom doesn’t work well, but Dave got pictures of them.
Our next stop was the wholesale marketplace, where we got off the bus and onto old fashioned bicycle rickshaws – the man-powered ones. Then we went through the marketplace in a narrow lane full of shoppers, sellers, and suppliers. We wove our way in between cars, mini minivans, motorcycles, and rickshaws carrying merchandise. It was an incredible experience. I realized how vulnerable I was, as cars and large busses came only inches from me, honking at our caravan as we merged into the traffic.
Riding through the marketplace in rickshaws. more pics
The rickshaws dropped us off at the foot of a mosque. We hurriedly climbed up the stairs and took our shoes off before entering. (I paid 150 rupees for the privilege of taking pictures inside the mosque.) The entire complex is the mosque. In the middle was a large square populated by pigeons. The square was surrounded by long open buildings with arches to look out from. In one of the buildings, we found worshippers kneeling and bowing to the ground on red rugs.
One side of the mosque. more pics
Magic carpet
Our final tour stop was a showroom of hand-knotted rugs. It was supported by the government to subsidize the cottage industry. We got the entire spiel from a charming but sleek salesman. First, he demonstrated how the carpets are made in a small loom. Then his young assistants served us a wonderful spiced tea. Meanwhile, the salesman and his crew continued to demonstrate the quality and uniqueness of the rugs – how the colors change (they spun the rug and lifted it from one end), how it can’t be scratched (they scratched it with a comb-like tool), how fire-resistant it was (they lit a lighter on the rug). At the end of the presentation, the salesman finally revealed the prices in US dollars. The lowest price, he said, was US$400. I was very disappointed. After the presentation, we were allowed to look at the rugs and the salesman insisted that there was no obligation.
Silk hand-knotted rugs. more pics
I was looking closely at the pattern of one of the runners when one of the assistants approached me and asked what I was interested in. Then he said there were more patterns like those downstairs. I followed him down. Brian was already down there with another assistant.
The assistant and one of his friends brought out a couple more patterns but the first one still looked better than the others. The tag said $2800 or something like that. He said that we get a discount and got the price down to about $2200. I said I wanted to look at something smaller but with a similar pattern. The salesman overheard us and said he’d lower the price on the runner. I said I can’t afford it unless he got it down to $1500. He punched some numbers on the calculator and showed me $1625. He said he can’t go lower than that. I should have asked for $1200 instead. As soon as I gave a hint of my assent, he (too quickly, I thought) ordered the assistant to roll it up and tag it for me. I realized I left my credit card at the hotel, so I put half on my debit card and the assistant came back in the evening to charge the rest on my credit card. They would ship it for free by courier.
Underground dinner
The bus dropped us off at the start of a small alley and we were led to a building at a bend in that alley. There was a narrow passageway, and then we went through a door that opened to a set of narrow stairs with low ceilings. At the bottom was a restaurant that was decorated with native paintings on the walls, on the stairs on the steps. There was native furniture on each side, including a bed. A section of the floor was lower than the rest and there were painted stumps that served as steps.
We sat around a long table and were served one dish at a time individually. But the dishes came so slow that it was like having dim sum. At the end of the dinner, we got gifts from the wife of our travel agent Anup, who came to join us. Arvind was guessing what the gifts were before we opened them and he got almost all correctly, except mine and Amanda's, but he knew our gifts were the same. We got woven purses. Back at the bus, Christina showed me her gifts and said, “I have two balls.” Well, they were the embroidered kind.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
Everywhere we went we were watched and stared at. The people of India were not shy, and they don’t look away when you stare back; they could easily win in a staring contest. We also saw children begging. A few girls hung around our rickshaw as we waited for the others to get on their rickshaws. One laid her hand on my knee familiarly, as though she were my child or my niece. It was so hard to ignore them.
I think I read some article somewhere about the diversity of the people of India and I see it firsthand. They look alike on the surface, but it’s easy to see the individuality in each one. And I realize how Mother Teresa could love them all.
I learned a few Hindi phrases today. “Ha” means yes; “ha ji” is a polite way of saying it. “Na hi” means no. “Shookria” means thank you.
Sunday, January 01, 2006
SFO to MSP to Amsterdam to Delhi
Bad start
I was tempted to think that I was not supposed to go on this trip. My youngest sister was supposed to take me to the airport at 5:30 yesterday. By 6:15, she was still AWOL and neither she nor her hubby answered their phones. So I called my dad.
The Bay Area was on a storm watch – strong winds, pouring rain, and flooded roads. My dad let me drive, but in spite of my rain-driving training from nine years in Seattle, I still wished for my car’s 4-wheel drive.
SFO to MSP
My bad luck turned into good luck when the flight turned out to be not full, so I got all three seats to myself.
I wasn’t too worried about the plane taking off through the storm. This was nothing, compared to my flight from MSP*** to SFO. And when it was time to take off, you could see a patch of blue sky almost right above us – we were probably at the center of the storm.
Once we got higher than the storm clouds, it was an incredible view. Cumulus clouds below us and around us. A layer of flat and wispy clouds above us. It was like we were in the middle of a cotton candy machine. Some clouds even looked like nebulae.
I alternated between reading “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman, which is the required text for the seminar, and napping. Since I only had two hours of sleep before my flight, I admittedly got more napping done than reading.
At MSP, I had one hour between flights, so I quickly grabbed lunch (it was about 2:30 pm Central) and wolfed it down at my gate. An Asian girl sat two seats from me and shyly smiled when she saw me with my lunch. She had her lunch too. By the time I finished and got up to discard my trash, it was my turn to board.
MSP to AMS
This leg was seven and a half hours long, so I settled in with my book and my Bose. I had two seats all to myself (it was a two-seater row). If I faced the aisle and stretched out my legs, my heels would get to the outer armrest. With two airline pillows behind me and my neck pillow, it was a good enough imitation of sitting in bed.
Soon after we took off and got to cruising speed, they started serving beverages. And about an hour after that, they started serving dinner. Yup, dinner. And I just had lunch! I ate about half of it anyway (who knows when they would feed us again) and again toggled between reading and napping after they turned off the cabin lights.
At one point, I had just put a mint in my mouth when I sneezed and the mint went down the wrong tube when I inhaled before the sneeze. Boy, that hurt! And it hurt for a long time because the mint was still lodged in my esophagus and, when Altoids says they’re curiously strong, they really mean curiously and painfully strong.
New Year’s came and went without fanfare. I don’t even know exactly when it came. It was midnight somewhere in the world pretty much throughout the flight. And since we were heading east at hundreds of miles per hour, the ten second countdown to midnight would have been over in a couple of seconds, if that. That would be the opposite of what time would be like in that zone around a black hole's event horizon, wouldn't it?
A little over an hour before we got to Amsterdam, I started seeing some lights on land. We might have been somewhere over the UK. In the US, lights tend to be in grids and straight lines and seem flat. These lights are more varied in intensity, creating an illusion of multiple depths. And they’re not in straight lines; they’re in wavy lines that sometimes split off, kinda in an organic way. Unlike the lights in the Bay Area which seem like a huge gold beaded purse, these lights look more like golden lichen or moss.
Somehow, people seemed to know that we’re close to our destination because they started stirring and waking up. As reading lights got turned on, the plane resembled a dormitory ward. And the crew seemed to take the cue – they turned on the cabin lights and started serving breakfast.
Schiphol International Airport
Well, this is the first time I've ever been to a European city. In fact, this is the first time I've ever flown over Europe at all. Thankfully, the airport looks like any other airport in the US and there were ground crew helping passengers find their connecting flights.
After checking in to get my boarding pass (they didn’t give me one in SFO for this leg), I found a currency changing booth and got some rupees. But it was so expensive so I only got $100 worth. I figured I’d get better rates in India. I later had to go back to get dollars changed into euros.
I found my gate, but I had more than four hours, so I decided to roam the airport and just see what’s there. I found a few of my classmates who had just arrived. They went to the second floor to see what’s there, I continued with my roaming. The airport had a massage center (but it was closed) and a free museum of Dutch art. The museum was a small room above a shop that sold museum souvenirs, so it didn’t take me long to look at the exhibit.
A lot of the paintings were floral still lifes. And one of the displays talked about ceramic tower vases, about three or four feet high, decorated in the blue-on-white Dutch style, and with multiple places to put short-stemmed flowers. The placard said that you had to take out each level from the center pole in order to clean them, so tower vases, like “this superb pair,” tended to break. There was only one.
I found a place with PCs on desks and some people were sitting in front of them. It turns out that I had to pay at a Communications Center which turned out to be closed. I went back later about an hour and a half before boarding and got all-day Wi-Fi access for 10 euros. However, there was no connection near my gate. I sat halfway between the Communications Center and my gate, but the signal was so weak and the network was so slow, I didn’t get much done besides briefly checking email.
When it was almost boarding time, I headed back to my gate and most of my classmates were already there, as well as a few hundred other passengers. It was a full flight. I was assigned an aisle seat but the older gentleman preferred the aisle seat so we traded. I was glad. Sara, one of my classmates, sat between us. I thought I would be able to continue reading, but I was so sleepy, I just napped when I wasn’t watching a movie (on my own individual screen!) or playing BlackJack.
Delhi
It was still dark when we arrived in Delhi. The throng in the plane spilled out to the immigrations area and then to the baggage claim. For some reason, our group’s luggages were among the last out of the plane, so it took us a very long time.
Contrary to what we’ve been told, not everybody speaks English. I was searching for carts and when I approached someone with a nametag, he spoke to me in Hindi. And when I spoke to him in English, I had to supplement my speech with hand gestures. One, who seemed to be the leader of a gang of baggage handlers, motioned for me to meet them at a certain spot and he assigned one of his men to help me with my luggage. When I finally got my luggage, it was a different baggage handler who came to help me and this one spoke English. He asked if I had a cart; I said I didn’t. He got me one and I figured I could take over from there, since I was waiting for my classmates. I offered ten rupees for getting me the cart and loading it for me. They refused it. I was surprised.
When most of us got our luggage, we started heading out to find the driver, while a few stayed behind to wait for the rest of the bags. We found the two tour guides with a Carlson placard and waited for the others. I asked the tour guides where I could find a SIM card for my phone. One of them walked with me to a nearby AirTel booth. I needed a photocopy of my passport and a picture just to buy a SIM card, but the kid in the booth said he could take my picture and photocopy my passport for me. Thankfully, he thought of trying the SIM in my phone first before selling it to me and it didn’t work, so the tour guide said we’ll look for one tomorrow instead. The rest of the group had arrived.
We headed to a big white commuter van and each got a lei of red and gold flowers as we boarded. Hmm, U of MN colors.
Delhi, from what I could see under the street lights, reminds me of parts of Manila – the small shops, the garbage on the street, the deteriorating cement buildings, the flora. So, it didn’t feel foreign at all. My summer trip to the Philippines had kinda prepared me for it. Even the early morning traffic reminded me of that trip from the airport in Manila too, except there are no jeepneys here.
It took me a while to realize we were driving on the left side of the street. I just thought we were on a one-way street until I saw other streets with center islands. That’s when it felt foreign, especially when we were turning from one street to another and the van goes on the wrong side of the street.
Qutub Residency
The hotel has a ground floor, then a first floor where the dining room is, then a second floor where the lobby is. It’s a nice little hotel with some elegant touches, like marble inlays on stairs, floors and furniture, but it’s getting old.
A group of porters carried our luggage up as our tour guides checked us in. It turned out that Christina, my roommate, had arrived early and she was already in the room. Upon noticing the garland around my neck, she commented, “Oh, you got lei’d too.” It took me a couple of seconds to get it. :-) A little unpacking, a shower, and bed by 4:00 am.
A long day, starting at 5:00 am on Dec 31 in San Francisco and ending at 4:00 am on Jan 2 in Delhi. Two whole days compressed in 34.5 hours.
Happy new year.
*** In MSP, we had to stop and de-ice the place before take-off. De-icing was like getting a car wash outdoors from a truck with a crane and a large hose, except they don't rinse the plane.
I was tempted to think that I was not supposed to go on this trip. My youngest sister was supposed to take me to the airport at 5:30 yesterday. By 6:15, she was still AWOL and neither she nor her hubby answered their phones. So I called my dad.
The Bay Area was on a storm watch – strong winds, pouring rain, and flooded roads. My dad let me drive, but in spite of my rain-driving training from nine years in Seattle, I still wished for my car’s 4-wheel drive.
SFO to MSP
My bad luck turned into good luck when the flight turned out to be not full, so I got all three seats to myself.
I wasn’t too worried about the plane taking off through the storm. This was nothing, compared to my flight from MSP*** to SFO. And when it was time to take off, you could see a patch of blue sky almost right above us – we were probably at the center of the storm.
Once we got higher than the storm clouds, it was an incredible view. Cumulus clouds below us and around us. A layer of flat and wispy clouds above us. It was like we were in the middle of a cotton candy machine. Some clouds even looked like nebulae.
I alternated between reading “The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman
, which is the required text for the seminar, and napping. Since I only had two hours of sleep before my flight, I admittedly got more napping done than reading.At MSP, I had one hour between flights, so I quickly grabbed lunch (it was about 2:30 pm Central) and wolfed it down at my gate. An Asian girl sat two seats from me and shyly smiled when she saw me with my lunch. She had her lunch too. By the time I finished and got up to discard my trash, it was my turn to board.
MSP to AMS
This leg was seven and a half hours long, so I settled in with my book and my Bose. I had two seats all to myself (it was a two-seater row). If I faced the aisle and stretched out my legs, my heels would get to the outer armrest. With two airline pillows behind me and my neck pillow, it was a good enough imitation of sitting in bed.
Soon after we took off and got to cruising speed, they started serving beverages. And about an hour after that, they started serving dinner. Yup, dinner. And I just had lunch! I ate about half of it anyway (who knows when they would feed us again) and again toggled between reading and napping after they turned off the cabin lights.
At one point, I had just put a mint in my mouth when I sneezed and the mint went down the wrong tube when I inhaled before the sneeze. Boy, that hurt! And it hurt for a long time because the mint was still lodged in my esophagus and, when Altoids says they’re curiously strong, they really mean curiously and painfully strong.
New Year’s came and went without fanfare. I don’t even know exactly when it came. It was midnight somewhere in the world pretty much throughout the flight. And since we were heading east at hundreds of miles per hour, the ten second countdown to midnight would have been over in a couple of seconds, if that. That would be the opposite of what time would be like in that zone around a black hole's event horizon, wouldn't it?
A little over an hour before we got to Amsterdam, I started seeing some lights on land. We might have been somewhere over the UK. In the US, lights tend to be in grids and straight lines and seem flat. These lights are more varied in intensity, creating an illusion of multiple depths. And they’re not in straight lines; they’re in wavy lines that sometimes split off, kinda in an organic way. Unlike the lights in the Bay Area which seem like a huge gold beaded purse, these lights look more like golden lichen or moss.
Somehow, people seemed to know that we’re close to our destination because they started stirring and waking up. As reading lights got turned on, the plane resembled a dormitory ward. And the crew seemed to take the cue – they turned on the cabin lights and started serving breakfast.
Schiphol International Airport
Well, this is the first time I've ever been to a European city. In fact, this is the first time I've ever flown over Europe at all. Thankfully, the airport looks like any other airport in the US and there were ground crew helping passengers find their connecting flights.
After checking in to get my boarding pass (they didn’t give me one in SFO for this leg), I found a currency changing booth and got some rupees. But it was so expensive so I only got $100 worth. I figured I’d get better rates in India. I later had to go back to get dollars changed into euros.
I found my gate, but I had more than four hours, so I decided to roam the airport and just see what’s there. I found a few of my classmates who had just arrived. They went to the second floor to see what’s there, I continued with my roaming. The airport had a massage center (but it was closed) and a free museum of Dutch art. The museum was a small room above a shop that sold museum souvenirs, so it didn’t take me long to look at the exhibit.
A lot of the paintings were floral still lifes. And one of the displays talked about ceramic tower vases, about three or four feet high, decorated in the blue-on-white Dutch style, and with multiple places to put short-stemmed flowers. The placard said that you had to take out each level from the center pole in order to clean them, so tower vases, like “this superb pair,” tended to break. There was only one.
I found a place with PCs on desks and some people were sitting in front of them. It turns out that I had to pay at a Communications Center which turned out to be closed. I went back later about an hour and a half before boarding and got all-day Wi-Fi access for 10 euros. However, there was no connection near my gate. I sat halfway between the Communications Center and my gate, but the signal was so weak and the network was so slow, I didn’t get much done besides briefly checking email.
When it was almost boarding time, I headed back to my gate and most of my classmates were already there, as well as a few hundred other passengers. It was a full flight. I was assigned an aisle seat but the older gentleman preferred the aisle seat so we traded. I was glad. Sara, one of my classmates, sat between us. I thought I would be able to continue reading, but I was so sleepy, I just napped when I wasn’t watching a movie (on my own individual screen!) or playing BlackJack.
Delhi
It was still dark when we arrived in Delhi. The throng in the plane spilled out to the immigrations area and then to the baggage claim. For some reason, our group’s luggages were among the last out of the plane, so it took us a very long time.
Contrary to what we’ve been told, not everybody speaks English. I was searching for carts and when I approached someone with a nametag, he spoke to me in Hindi. And when I spoke to him in English, I had to supplement my speech with hand gestures. One, who seemed to be the leader of a gang of baggage handlers, motioned for me to meet them at a certain spot and he assigned one of his men to help me with my luggage. When I finally got my luggage, it was a different baggage handler who came to help me and this one spoke English. He asked if I had a cart; I said I didn’t. He got me one and I figured I could take over from there, since I was waiting for my classmates. I offered ten rupees for getting me the cart and loading it for me. They refused it. I was surprised.
When most of us got our luggage, we started heading out to find the driver, while a few stayed behind to wait for the rest of the bags. We found the two tour guides with a Carlson placard and waited for the others. I asked the tour guides where I could find a SIM card for my phone. One of them walked with me to a nearby AirTel booth. I needed a photocopy of my passport and a picture just to buy a SIM card, but the kid in the booth said he could take my picture and photocopy my passport for me. Thankfully, he thought of trying the SIM in my phone first before selling it to me and it didn’t work, so the tour guide said we’ll look for one tomorrow instead. The rest of the group had arrived.
We headed to a big white commuter van and each got a lei of red and gold flowers as we boarded. Hmm, U of MN colors.
Delhi, from what I could see under the street lights, reminds me of parts of Manila – the small shops, the garbage on the street, the deteriorating cement buildings, the flora. So, it didn’t feel foreign at all. My summer trip to the Philippines had kinda prepared me for it. Even the early morning traffic reminded me of that trip from the airport in Manila too, except there are no jeepneys here.
It took me a while to realize we were driving on the left side of the street. I just thought we were on a one-way street until I saw other streets with center islands. That’s when it felt foreign, especially when we were turning from one street to another and the van goes on the wrong side of the street.
Qutub Residency
The hotel has a ground floor, then a first floor where the dining room is, then a second floor where the lobby is. It’s a nice little hotel with some elegant touches, like marble inlays on stairs, floors and furniture, but it’s getting old.
A group of porters carried our luggage up as our tour guides checked us in. It turned out that Christina, my roommate, had arrived early and she was already in the room. Upon noticing the garland around my neck, she commented, “Oh, you got lei’d too.” It took me a couple of seconds to get it. :-) A little unpacking, a shower, and bed by 4:00 am.
A long day, starting at 5:00 am on Dec 31 in San Francisco and ending at 4:00 am on Jan 2 in Delhi. Two whole days compressed in 34.5 hours.
Happy new year.
*** In MSP, we had to stop and de-ice the place before take-off. De-icing was like getting a car wash outdoors from a truck with a crane and a large hose, except they don't rinse the plane.