Post-trip Realizations

India, I miss you: Post-Trip Realizations about India

Having returned from my Indian adventure landed back on U.S. soil, I reconnected with family and friends, who had an intense curiosity about the people, the sights, the religion, the food, etc.  I tried my best to answer the questions, with the help of pictures, but I realized how hard it was to fully impart my experience on another.  I felt like I just couldn't do India justice! 

Michael, my 15-year-old brother, asked, "So, what do you miss the most?" This was by far the most difficult question.  I missed the camaraderie among the group; we had a shared sense of excitement that had brought us closer together over the course of our tour of India.  I missed food; food in America suddenly seemed tasteless.  I missed the colors, the sounds, the smells...basically being intrigued by something new or confused by something that just didn't quite make sense.

In the flurry of activity after returning from India, it was hard to really reflect on what India had taught me.  So here I am, a month after landing in back in Chicago, looking at my pre-trip writings, and seeing how my perceptions have changed.  Below you will a format similar to my "Pre-trip Perceptions" post from October 2009, except the content has changed to reflect my new perspective (in red).

India and its people: Before going on this trip, I thought that all Indians were warm-hearted, polite, and concise in feedback and expectations.  I found this to be exceedingly true, and had met more than a few Indians to prove that. I noticed some other qualities that most Indian people shared, however:

- Intelligence: Most people think that we outsource entry-level jobs, or jobs that do not require a lot of skill.  These people could not be more wrong.  Yes outsource lots of data entry jobs to realize cost savings, but we also outsource a lot of high performing jobs that we, quite frankly, don't have the skill sets to do.

-Accepting:  Most Indian people believe that things are the way they are because of happenings in a previous life.  They don't bemoan the present or boast about a triumph...they simply view it as the hand of cards that life dealt them.

Cultural and social environment: Most of my pre-trip perceptions involving this category came directly from the Story of India documentary.  Post-trip, however, I have some modifications to make.

· Politically, I know that India is the largest participating democracy in the world. My assumption, then, is that population is well versed in current affairs, and issues of national importance. I was partially on target here.  The majority of population IS well-versed in current affairs and issues of national importance, and India IS a democracy.  But India's democratic mind comes with a socialist heart and lots of read tape surrounding the capitalist structure.

· Religiously, I know that India is a melting pot of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islamic faiths, and that this is a source of tension, especially in India’s NorthWest. My perception, then, is that it is a faux pas to bring up religion in conversation, and that there are frequent acts of terrorism by religious extremists.  Again...partially correct here.  India is a melting pot of religions, but it is not a faux pas to bring up religion in conversation.  Most of the people we talked to just generally were happy speak about their beliefs, which carried no expectations of conversions or undertones of prejudgement,

· Socially, I know that there is a sense of community. In watching the video documentary from my aunt’s friend, I noticed that the wedding they attended was enormous. It seemed like half the city was there!  True! I have never experienced a hospitality like that I witnessed in India.  As guests, we were automatically accepted into a larger existing community.   Monica's parents and friends that hosted us were gracious, and accommodating to our (probably halfway ridiculous) questions about the country, culture, and customs.

Business World: Most of my pre-trip conceptions of the more general business world stemmed from research I did for an International Business Management class.  My experiences, showed me a more focused part of the Indian business world--IT Business Process Outsourcing.  Below are three excerpts from previous blog posts that highlight the things I learned a about this industry.

-The growth of IT in India: In a country that does so much technology development work for US clients, the IT wave is lagging a lot in INdia.  Indian clients and US clients have different maturities, and therefore different levels of demand.  The Indian IT landscape mirrors that of the US 30-40 years ago (for example, e-commerce is not yet prevalent in India), and most of the work being done for Indian clients is geared more toward defining a roadmap, or a strategy. Also, in India, employing human resources to do tasks is still much cheaper than paying for an entire IT system to do the same work.


-The challenge of overcoming the mindset that outsourcing is "bad" and will result in the loss of thousands of US jobs.  Those that have this mentality believe that outsourcing will ultimately put a whole class of wage-earners in the service sector in direct competition with their highly skilled overseas counterparts.  This viewpoint ignores the benefits to be realized by BPO.  One of the most important benefits was highlighted in an article of the Wall Street Journal, written by Douglas A. Irwin:

"As many businesses themselves purchase services, their lower costs will result in savings that can be passed onto consumers. If a capable radiologist in India can read x-ray pictures at a quarter of the cost of doing so domestically, important health-care services can be delivered at a lower cost to everyone, putting a brake on exploding medical costs."

-Not only is there is a trend toward smaller deal sizes (now typically around $25-50 million), but also there is an increased demand for global delivery. A few years ago, only about 20% of HCL’s employees worked onsite with the client. Today, this has increased to 30%, and is projected to rise further. 

These post trip realizations, while they show a more complete understanding of India, are still just the observations of a visitor.  Ten days in India passed quickly, and I'm sure that there is much I have yet to learn.  Even though I am visitor, I also think of myself as a friend that has a shared secret with this intriguing country.

Farewell India

Janpath


Our last stop in Pune was Zensar, where we had a short afternoon visit before heading on to Janpath. Monica had planted the shopping seed...Janpath was the place to buy some serious souvenirs.  Our group had the entire day to wander the markets and the government-sponsored shopping center.  Most of us had become comfortable with our bargaining skills; for me, haggling over 10 rupees became a sort of game.

By this time, however, fatigue had set in on the group.  Tastebuds were burnt on spice, digestive systems was on strike,  and long days spent traveling were beginning to take their toll.  We were ready to face the 15 hour flight home.

Pune.2

Spider Logic

At this point, our group had visited HCL, Deloitte, and Infosys, which were larger companies in the BPO sector.  Our first visit today was to Spider Logic, a firm that services the BPO sector...but goes about it in a slightly different manner.

Wipfli, a business consulting/accounting firm based out of Milwaukee, acquired Spider Logic to act as a software services arm.  Spider Logic's target market is smaller enterprises that need custom software packages tailored to their plans for growth.  The company prides itself on being more nimble as a result of its smaller size (it only had 25 employees at its Pune location).  It is engineering-centric and pays attention to the details of software design.  Below is a sample from our Q/A session:

How does Spider Logic develop enough industry-specific knowledge to service clients looking for tailored IT systems?  Right now, the company has lots of expertise in the insurance industry.  When approached by a client in another industry, and needs to gain more industry-specific expertise, Spider Logic does one of three things: (1) relies on parent company Wipfli to supply in-the-know consultants, (2) it employs it, or (3) IT DECLINES THE PROJECT!  Wow...this last one surprised me. According to our speaker, however, it afforded Spider Logic the ability to guarantee quality.

What are some aspirations that Spider Logic has for its future? Spider Logic aspires for an organic growth, expanding into new countries purely through reference from existing clients. It also hopes to remain extremely selective in their hiring, bringing on more senior employees that are referred to as "surgeons".  These "surgeons" are good at identifying the source of an IT glitch and "operating" in a way that fixes the problem.

I'm glad that we visited Spider Logic.  It's easy to associate of the IBMs and the Infosys with the overall IT BPO industry, but this visit reminded us that smaller players--such as Spider Logic--that serve a very specific market within this industry.

Pune.1

After our visit at Deloitte in Mumbai, we packed into our beloved bus and headed to Pune. We had arrived early in the evening, so the group ate dinner, showered, and headed out to celebrate Theresa's birthday. Due to the time difference, we were able to justify a 48 hour celebration--a birthday in India time and a birthday in US time :)

Infosys Visit

Infosys had a rocky start. The wives of the founders pawned their jewelry in order to raise capital for the business. Later, in 1981, Infosys took on its first US client amidst a predominately socialist government. It took three weeks to order foreign currency for this project, and there was lots of red tape through complicated licensing processes. The company persevered, however, and now sees a new set of challenges.

First of these is the motivation behind investment. In India, investment occurs through word of mouth; in the US, it occurs through transparency and information. There have been huge efforts to increase the level of openness within the company.

Secondly, in India, people are more likely to deliberate longer, hesitate, or "beat around the bush" when communicating a problem with U.S. counterparts. This is at conflict with the U.S. preference for fast and open communication of a problem.

Thirdly, U.S. business men and women need to become more sensitive to body language and verbal signals from their Indian colleagues. Many times an Indian will nod and appear in agreement, when in reality they still have lingering questions over an issue. U.S. colleagues should be sensitive to things like this and make sure "everyone is on the same page" before assuming that all is understood.

Four global forces are at play in to make the business world more streamlined (flatter if you will) than it was in 1981.

• Emerging economies: Brasil, Russia, India, and China are the biggies.
• Demographic shifts: The younger generation is a consumer generation and drives demand.
• Technology Ubiquity: People have the capacity to be multiple places at the same time through things like Telepresence and cell phones.
• Increased Regulations: Drives uniformity and playing by the rules.

So how do you win in this flat(flatter) world? According to Infosys, you shift your operational priorities.

• Cost as a barrier to growth > Cost structure as your fuel.
• Loyalty through good service > Loyalty through faster innovation.
• Spending $ on innovation > Making $ on information.
• Winning in the straightway > Winning in the turns.

The presenter also highlighted an interesting trend in Business Process Outsourcing. For the past few years, BPO revenue from US clients has actually been on the decline (not what I had imagined!) A couple of years ago, 78% of the revenue came from U.S. clients; today, that has shrunk to only 65%. In light of this decrease, areas such as Europe and developing markets are becoming more prominent sources of revenue for the company.

Not only is Infosys focusing on these developing markets, but also it is focusing its energies on four major areas of innovation.

1. Healthcare in the U.S. and elsewhere to incorporate lifestyle changes and legislative changes.
2. The phase out of laptops...handheld devices having the computing power and memory capacity that is equivalent of a laptop.
3. Going green.
4. Social networking development.

Mumbai.3

Deloitte Visit

The next day we had a corporate visit at Deloitte, which was a nice complement to our Mumbai sightseeing. We were given three presentations, and the chance to ask lots of questions regarding factors of Business Process Outsourcing in India.

IT Outsourcing Growth & Trends

The first presenter talked about outsourcing growth. When the BPO trend began, there was a centralized hub of activity in Bangalore. This is not to say that the Indian education and talent was the best in Bangalore; rather, companies did not realize the opportunities to be had in other cities. Eventually two things prompted the expansion of BPO into other cities: (1) the government started taking infrastructure initiatives, such as expressways in Pune, and (2) Bangalore reached a saturation point. Generation Y and the popularity of social networking and online communities has been a growth driver, as well as targeted HR initiatives to advocate cultural diversity.

What about the growth of IT in India? In a country that does so much technology development work for United States clients, it was surprising for me to find out that the IT wave is lagging a lot in India. Indian clients and US clients have different maturities, and therefore different types and levels of demand. The Indian IT landscape mirrors that of the US 30-40 years ago (for example, e-commerce is not yet prevalent in India), most of the work being done for Indian clients is geared more toward defining a roadmap, or a strategy. Also, in India, employing human resources to do tasks is still much cheaper than paying for an entire IT system to do the same work.

The growth off-shoring in Europe is very slow. This is in part due to heightened linguistic and cultural difference, but the majority of European clients still believe that things are best done "in-house".

Wired for Winning--the IT Off-shoring Model

The off-shoring model can be broken up into three categories: home-shoring, off-shoring, and near-shoring.

• Home-shoring: Keeping operations/systems on your own turf. This gives an allusion of security, but does not give projects or companies cost competitiveness.
• Off-shoring: By sending things overseas, you not only gain more cost competitiveness, but also you will have access to a larger talent pool, improve the scalability of a project, are more able to standardize processes, and can develop global delivery/service centers around the world.
• Near-shoring: For the U.S., this would mean sending work to places like Canada and Latin America. This model stresses geographical proximity and smaller time differences.

Although the above list shows that off-shoring can yield some important benefits, it is not without its challenges. Some of the most prevalent issues faced by off-shoring projects are: maintaining the strong economic relationships with potential partner countries, developing a cultural sensitivity, finding places with language similarities. A particular challenge of an off-shored project, however, is gaining credibility, which can only be done through the standardization of processes and the implementation of a strong monitoring/governance mechanism.

When it comes to off-shoring, especially in the technology domain, not everything is off-shored. Systems implementation and maintenance work are the most likely to be off-shored. On the other hand, pure business transformation (for example, a complete re-branding, or re-positioning of a business in order to attract customers from a different market) is most often taken over by a home team. As a result of most business transformation efforts being undertaken by a home team, there has been a trend to bring the Indian resources on-shore. This allows for more the growth of trust through monitoring and transparency, and still renders cost benefits to the client.

Mumbai.2

In between stops on our whirlwind tour of Mumbai, our tour guide gave us little facts about Mumbai. I have them here:

• More than 50% of Mumbai residents live in slums because real estate has one of the 10 highest costs of living globally.
• Real estate costs upward of 30,000 USD per square meter in Mumbai.
• One and a half million people live in the Mumbai's slums, which spreads across 135 square acres of land. The slums are homem to 15,000 micro-industries, and those that live there aren't exactly destitute by Indian standards.
• Why are apartment buildings so dilapidated in Mumbai? Because of renter protection laws, which state that a landlord cannot kick out a tenant, even if he/she only pays a nominal portion of a rent payment. Seeing as many tenants cannot (or do not) make a full rent payment, and are protected by the law, the landlord compensates by not putting money into the building's upkeep or general safety.
• Mumbai generates 300 tons of garbage each day.
• Although this is not the case in Mumbai, there are some states with a law that makes it illegal to neglect your parents.
• Mumbai is the financial capital of India and supplies 25% of the government's tax revenue.

Mumbai.1

Unfortunately Gaurav didn't follow us to Mumbai, and instead we had a new tour guide who made it his mission to show us everything he could in Mumbai in one day. This post is dedicated to some of the sightseeing highlights in Mumbai.

Dhobi Ghat

The first stop of the day was Dhobi Ghat, which is an outdoor washing ground in Mumbai. Dhobi Ghat is government sponsored and set up aside huge water pipelines. Hundreds of little bathtubs were along the pipeline, and clothes of every color were hanging everywhere. It almost looked like a festival was in town from all of the colors.

Doing laundry at Dhobi Ghat

Mani Bhavan

Next, we visited a museum named Mani Bhavan. In the early 1900s, Ghandi stayed in Mani Bhavan whenever he came to Mumbai. He played a substantial role in India's push for freedom, and many of his organized movements were led from this location.

Ghandi's room, where he lived and worked.

Jain Temple

Before going on this trip, I had thought Hinduism didn't have many sects, as Christianity does. I saw that I was wrong upon our visit to the Jain temple. Jain is a smaller sect of Hinduism, in part due to members being discouraged from marrying a non-Jain. As Monica explained, the Jain faith is a bit more strict. Whereas it is commonly known that most Hindus do not kill cows, the Jains do not believe in killing any living thing...even the microorganisms in the air. I noticed many followers wearing a small handkerchief around their mouths to prevent them from breathing in these microorganisms (and therefore killing them).

I also noticed that this temple had a slightly different offering system. Many worshippers brought the traditional flowers or bits of food to place at the base of various shrines, but a few people purchased small amounts of white and colored rice at the entrance of the temple. They used this rice to make designs either on the floor or on a small platform.

Using colored rice to make a tree design on the Jain temple floor.

The swastika, as shown below, was one of the most common symbols made with the rice. As I understood it, it is a symbol of one of the saints in the Jain tradition and is also an auspicious symbol or teaching tool that reminds us of a quality to lead us to enlightenment.

The swastikia: a holy symbol in Jainism and one of the most common symbols made on the rice boards.

Hanging Gardens of Mumbai

After visiting the Jain temple, we headed to the hanging gardens, which had an amazing view of the city.

Some school children that passed by us screaming "Welcome to India".

Right next to the Hanging Gardens, but shielded from view, were the Parsi Towers of Silence. We saw vultures circling overhead, and our guide explained that since Parsis hold fire, earth, and water as sacred, they do not cremate or bury their dead.

Elephanta Island

In order to get to our next stop, we took a ferry from the Gateway of India, which was built to celebrate the visit of King George V to Bombay. I'd imagine back then that it was the first thing that foreign visitors saw from their boat, as they were approaching the city.

Gateway of India

The ferry ride was about an hour to get to Elephanta Island, where there are temples carved into the island's caves. The name "Elephanta" comes from the large stone sculpture of an elephant found near the entrance by the Portugese explorers back in the day. It was a hot day, so the 120 huge stone steps to get to the island caves made for a nice workout :)

Carvings inside the cave.

I just thought this was an awesome picture.