Cricket Day

Just spent a relaxing morning at home watching the Australia-India cricket test match. After an extremely disappointing start for India (all out for 330), I watched them dispatch Australia for 212. Then I walked over to the Leela Palace Hotel's Oxford book store with the kids. Bought a few more CDs, but no room for the books I wanted to buy. There's always Amazon.com!

Will head to the airport at about 12:30 AM for the long wait for our flights home.

Last Legs

We left for Mysore in the morning. I was not surprised that there were several hassles with the Ginger Hotel as they tried to reconcile the bills. Several people were stuck for a long time arguing with the hotel about their billing. The hotel staff themselves seem extremely nice and apologetic. However, their systems are a mess. I do not understand why all the accounting items cannot simply be posted in a single online record for each room. They have multiple written folios and have trouble transferring data from all the folios into the online system. A complete mess.

Our bus ride to Bangalore was relatively uneventful except for a disaster lunch location. We found out that no clear arrangements had been made for lunch and we automatically appealed to Mr. Dwarkanath for help. He spoke to the drivers who recommended Hotel Ramanashree (three star) or Hotel Taj West End (five star). I was leaning towards the three-star hotel when the guide insisted that it was too far and inconvenient and that we should eat at a local Hotel Kamath. I clearly told him that a key requirement for a lunch location was clean restrooms. He insisted that Hotel Kamath fit the bill. As you may imagine, I have rarely seen a worse restroom in my life. It was beyond bad – it was sickness inducing. Absolutely outrageous. Luckily the food was pretty good and we left there relatively unscathed. The group was not really in the mood to do more sightseeing and after a walk through the beautiful Lal Bagh gardens, we headed to the Ginger.

The bus stopped briefly in front of Manipal Hospital and almost threw me and my baggage off the bus before proceeding. I found my way to Lalla periappa’s house from there. I went for a nice dinner at Bombay Post for some beer and great chicken seekh kabab.

Bye Bye Mysore

Our last day in Mysore! In the morning, we had a lecture on e-governance that was interesting. However, like many of the other lectures, I wish the talk had focused more on unique implementations of e-governance in India rather than the ongoing talk about what e-governance is, the key imperatives for e-governance implementation, etc. All that stuff could have been on a single slide. Then, it would have been great to talk of a couple of case studies on how information and communication technologies have been used particularly effective to improve relationships between the government and its far-flung rural citizens. The case study we saw briefly on the first day – on the kiosks farmers used to check fair prices – would have fit in well here. I think that would have made for a much more interesting session – a focus on unique applications in India that resolve some of the unique problems India faces in being a true representative democracy such as illiteracy and poverty.

In the evening, we had a farewell dinner at the beautiful Hotel Metropole another of the great old turn-of-the-century buildings built by the Maharajah. As usual, the SDM-IMD hosts were fantastic. They humbled us with some great gifts (including the SDM-IMD jackets that Al and I were lusting over earlier in our trip). It was a great ending to a great trip. Very nice food, excellent company, and beautiful surroundings.

Indian Branding

The day began early – at about 12:45 AM to be exact. Harvey called and said he had been advised by his doctor to go to an ER as there were reddish streaks extending from the injury on his hands. We found out that there is a hospital just across the street from our hotel and we walked over there. The doctor didn’t seem to alarmed and since there was no burning or itching, suggested it was just an allergy. She gave him a shot of “Avil.” When I got back to the room at about 2 AM, I decided to us the Slingbox to watch a few minutes of the Colts-Chargers game. I watched for about 30 minutes before deciding to go to bed.

The presentation this morning was from Prof. Balakrishnan, who provided us with Indian perspectives on branding. The view of branding here, interestingly, seems quite different from the American view of the role of branding. According to Prof. Balakrishnan, the goal of branding is to increase perceived risk of alternatives. While marketing tries to “disorient the consumer,” branding has to “re-orient the consumer towards the target brand.” This view, of course, is far removed from the view of marketing and branding espoused in the US. The Professor did start his lecture with a disclaimer that this was all his personal view and that many of us may violently disagree with this perspective.

While I don’t violently disagree, I think the difference in perspectives comes from the current state of maturity in branding I India. The lecture seemed to focus on the importance of brands in differentiating the product from unbranded commodities. In the US, branding plays a critical role in differentiating one brand from another. How you view the role of branding would differ depending on whether you see the brand as competing against unbranded alternatives or other established brands. Even his lecture focused on examples that seemed to suggest the former. How do you get people to buy “Annapurna brand atta” as opposed to buying the wheat and sending it to a flour mill for grinding? I found it quite interesting.

Soon after class, we were thrust into a surprise “media session.” There were several representatives from the local media on hand and we answered their questions, some of which were quite good. This was a long and unexpected session and several of us had a chance to get up there and speak with the reporters.

Back to Mysore

Yesterday and today have been quite productive work-wise. Having a nice, fast broadband connection at my uncle's house has been godsend. I have been able to deal with a bunch of UMD work that has been piling up at an alarming rate in Duluth. Although I know I'm going to be snowed under (both metaphorically and literally) when I get back, it was nice to sit here with the remote desktop connection and make a dent (however small) into the email that has been building up there. I still am surprised at the Internet connectivity in Mysore. I guess that is one of the many things that will be upgraded soon as there is a greater demand for connectivity from people in the area.

Last night I woke up a few times with a very bad cough (my nose seems much clearer now). Finally, my mom came in very early in the morning and forced some more cough syrup down my throat. That helped as I ended up sleeping until 9 AM.

I took the famed "Volvo bus" back to Mysore. It was an excellent experience. The bus left at 3:35 and offered air conditioning and comfortable reclining seats. The seats reclined quite a bit, actually, which allowed me to take a nice nap. The ride was comfortable. After we left the bus station in Bangalore, the conductor brought each of us a moist towelette and then a bottle of water - better than Northwest Airlines! Not bad for a Rs. 190 trip. The trip also took less than three hours. I was actually back in my hotel room by 6:30 PM.

Manipal Hospital - An Insider's View

After my several days of misery (well detailed in the blog here), I decided it would be foolhardy for me to spend two full days sight seeing in a non-air-conditioned bus. I still have not fully recovered and sleeping at night continues to be a bit of a chore. Rather than just hang around at the hotel for two days, I decided to go to Bangalore. My parents (and kids) are visiting there and my mom insisted I go to a doctor to get some antibiotics. So, I took a cab and headed to Bangalore late last night (getting here around 1 AM this morning). After a flat tire on the way, it still wasn’t too bad to make the trip in a little less than three hours. I continued to cough through the night and struggle with breathing, but hopefully the doctor will give me some miracle drug this morning.

So, I went across the street with my uncle to the world-famous "Manipal Hospital" to see a doctor about my cold/cough/flu. This is supposed to be one of the more fancy and expensive hospitals in town. Here's exactly how it went down.

I went to the "Registration Desk" at about 11 AM and asked to see an ENT (ear, nose throat) doctor for my flu/sinus problem. I was asked to fill out a short form and turn it in to the desk. The lady quickly entered my basic details (name, age, sex, address, etc.) into the computer and asked me to verify the details on the large monitor facing me (she had a smaller monitor facing her desk). Since I was a completely new registrant (never been to the hospital before), I was asked to pay Rs. 150 as a one-time registration fee and Rs. 350 for the doctor consultation fee, which I did. I was told that the Rs. 350 doctor consultation fee covered me for all consultations with the doctor within the next seven days. I would not have to pay for a return visit within the next week. She then printed out a nice plastic hospital ID card for me and sent me to the ENT department upstairs. Total elapsed time: about 10 minutes.

When I handed my ID card to the ENT department desk upstairs, I was told that I was on the list and it would be about 45 minutes before my name was called. My uncle and I went for a stroll around the hospital and checked out the departments, the stores, and the various other hospital services offered. We were back in the ENT department in about 30 minutes. After about another 25 minutes (approx 12:00 noon), my name was called and I headed into a room with one large chair (like a dentist's chair) in the center and an important-looking doctor sitting in front. Around him were clustered several other doctors or nurses with clipboards. The nurse asked me to sit in the chair and face the doctor. He looked at me and asked what the problem was in a business-like fashion. I told him, in a few seconds. He asked if I had taken any medication and I said "Yes, Sinarest." He picked up a few instruments and looked down my throat, up my nostrils, and felt around my neck, all the while dictating medical terms which a couple of the surrounding doctors quickly jotted down. Then he glared at me and announced "you have a sinus infection and your taking Sinarest made it worse! I need to see an X-Ray to decide what antibiotics to prescribe. Go downstairs to get an X-Ray and come back." I was ushered out in all of about 1-2 minutes and a new patient was in the chair almost before I left the room. One of the many minions hovering around the doctor followed me out and filled out an X-Ray request sheet and asked me to go down to Floor -1. These doctors must see hundreds of patients a day and seem to be freed from almost all responsibilities except diagnosis and follow-up treatment. By this time, it was about 12:15 PM.

I headed down to X-Ray and handed in my sheet. She took it without a word and entered it into the computer. She then said that the X-Ray fee was Rs. 170 and that I should pay at one of the cash counters and come back. I walked to one of the many cash counters around the hospital, and just handed my plastic card. Since the X-Ray request was already in the computer, he just said "Rs. 170" which I paid. He stamped "PAID" on my form after taking my money. I returned with the evidence of payment and she just waved her hand towards the seating area. None of this took much time despite Saturday being a particularly busy day for the hospital. Within about 10 minutes a lady called my name and I followed her into the X-Ray room where I was asked to sit on a stool and face an X-Ray screen with my mouth wide open. By this time, it was about 12:55 PM. When I came back out to the seating area, I was told it would be about 30-40 minutes before my film was ready. It was about 1:30 before my film arrived and I headed back up to the doctor. Unfortunately, the ENT department was all closed by this time and the place was manned by a single "emergency doctor" who was being harried by all the people who wanted her attention all at once. When we explained that we had already seen the doctor, she asked me to sit down while she dealt with several other people with a huge variety of requests. Finally, she called the doctor on the phone and described my X-Ray (along with a few other patients) and took rapid notes with several "yes sirs" sprinkled in. After dealing with another horde of impatient customers, she called me up and told me that I had some sinus congestion and that I should go on an antibiotic (Augmentin) for 7 days, use a painkiller (Dolo) for 3 days, and use Otrivin nasal drops before a steam inhalation three times a day. She wrote out the prescription and I headed to the pharmacy. At the pharmacy, we were handed a token number which was called in about 15 minutes. I was asked to pay Rs. 620 for the drugs (of which Rs. 520 was for the Augmentin antibiotic) which I then picked up at a counter around the corner. We headed out of the hospital at about 2:30 PM. The doctor had asked me to schedule another appointment with the doctor in about a week. Maybe I'll see him again on the 17th if things are not much better by then.

Overall, for someone with no history or record with this private hospital, everything seemed to go smoothly with "pay-as-you-go" services that did not seem exorbitant. I now have a nice plastic hospital card and can even see the doctor again before I leave Bangalore without paying another office fee. From the hospital's standpoint, they got a Rs. 150 new registrant fee and a Rs. 350 office visit fee for all of about 5-8 minutes of the doctor's time. And believe me when I say this doctor probably sees many more patients a day than the typical US doctor. All in all, it was a great visit. I also got the details on their numerous "maintenance check" packages for my next trip here. For Rs. 5000 (about $125) I can have a comprehensive check-up including blood tests, stress tests, eye checks, dental checks, etc. that take up most of a day and include a concluding consultation with a doctor.

Lesson in Breathing, TaeguTec, and InfoSys

I don’t want to turn this into a health blog, but it has dominated my days recently. And, it has been a learning experience. It is amazing how much we take for granted. We think little about numerous daily activities unless the flow is disrupted. So, after feeling much better during the afternoon yesterday, I was forced to realize the importance of the simple act of breathing through my nose. As I lay down to sleep, I found that my nose was so completely clogged that I couldn’t breathe one bit out of my nose. This posed a bit of a problem because breathing only through the mouth is not that easy when trying to sleep. Plus every three breaths resulted in a hacking cough. I tried everything – sleeping in the chair, piling pillows at the head of the bed and trying a semi-prone sleep, trying to sleep on my side, etc. But nothing worked. This went on for a while and I finally must have fallen asleep at some point as the next thing I remember is the alarm going off and waking up, breathing through my left nostril! It was interesting to realize how important nose-breathing is to sleeping. Something so simple and basic can disrupt processes significantly when out of whack. The shower was scalding hot for a change and so I took a LONG extra hot shower to try and clear out my sinuses. It did make me feel a little better and ready to face the day with a slightly clear head. However, the more I think about my situation, I think it would be crazy to go on the all-day sight-seeing excursions planned for the weekend. Since the sigh-seeing visits are optional for everyone, that may be good for me to miss and use the time to visit a doctor here or in Bangalore.

The morning’s speaker was Mr. L. Krishnan, Managing Director of TaeguTec India. TaeguTec is a Korean company in the cutting tools industry. He provided some background of his industry and then spent an hour or so answering questions from the group. He was very impressive in terms of the breadth of his knowledge and expertise. TaeguTec is also 80% owned by Berkshire Hathaway and was, in fact, the first foreign company owned by Warren Buffett’s group.

The visit to InfoSys in the afternoon was breathtaking. Here was an entire mini-city built on a grand scale. The “Global Learning Center” looks like a massive Roman coliseum. The “Leadership Institute” has a façade resembling the Parthenon with massive columns rising over a broad marble staircase with flowing waterfalls on each side. The campus is surrounded by lush green lawns, water fountains, and massive, elaborate buildings. We were given a tour of the campus that included luxurious villas for faculty accommodations, a 4-screen multiplex theater, a shopping mall, a huge recreation center that included a bowling alley, huge halls for table tennis, badminton, snooker, and more. All in all it was breathtaking, but also a little bit unnerving. It is clear that they are not hurting for money. Some of the students seemed to sense a little arrogance from the speaker, but I think that may just be because the surroundings were all on such a large and garish scale.

The evening was extraordinary. We went to the institute in the evening for a “small and informal” talent show to be put on jointly by the SDM-IMD students and our students. It started late and turned out to be an elaborate cultural show with full costumes, spectacular dances and music. We were overwhelmed. We had little to no talent to share – as was clear when the best we could do was get me up on stage to do some “impromptu lecturing” to the group on some silly topics. Only in India will such a “talent” be appreciated. It was embarrassing but a fun and enjoyable evening.

Sickness and L&T

I can’t believe I am in a shape to type again. Last night and this morning, I was ready (at several points) to give in and call for a doctor. You have already read most of the gory details and they don’t even begin to really demonstrate how lousy I felt. I had one disposable thermometer that showed that I had a fever of 102.7 at one point. Even rolling over in bed was a breathtakingly painful experience with a stupendous headache from completely clogged sinuses. My fever broke at about 6 PM last night and I started feeling better, but then it hit me again at about 8 PM. Come morning, I was still in no shape to even walk around my room and I opted out of the morning lecture at SDM. I knew I had to get out of bed and force myself to rejoin the world and told Al to call me before the site visit to Larsen & Toubro. My morning continued with me drifting in and out of sleep, doing multiple inhalations and taking a long, hot shower at 5 AM. Since I had eaten nothing for over 24 hours, I forced myself to have some toast and cornflakes for breakfast at 9 AM.

Although I was feeling a little better, I was still a little woozy as I headed out for the L&T site visit at noon. They had laid out a sumptuous lunch for us on their campus. After that, we visited several buildings on their campus and were introduced to various L&T divisions. The “tour guide” was actually the head of EmSys, the embedded systems division of L&T. He was a fantastic speaker and very eloquent. He explained everything well and gave us a great insight into the incredible global supply chain management system that is our reality today. For example, L&T sources from Israel and manufactures on German equipment for construction projects in the United Arab Emirates using some IT managers in Mysore. They have product development teams consisting of managers from the client in the USA working with engineers in India. It was a very impressive visit – consistently fascinating. They even left each one of us with a gift. Tomorrow we go across the street to InfoSys.

In the evening, Al and I went shopping for some wine (yes, Indian wines are starting to make a mark in the industry) and a few other things. By the time we were done at about 7:30 PM, I was starting to fade and feel a little woozy again, so we headed back to the hotel and I started another round of inhalation. Still, the fact that I was able to be out almost all afternoon makes me feel better.

Social Consciousness in India

One of the very noticeable social changes is the general optimism everyone here seems to feel about India. Even people we meet on the street seem to be very optimistic about this country’s prospects. The media seems to keep reinforcing the message that India is a major player on the world market. I have a feeling that many of us find it difficult to understand this given the poverty, filth, and infrastructure problems that are so apparent to us Americans. My theory is that things have changed so dramatically in the last ten years or so that their standard of comparison is quite different from ours. However, there is one more change that seems to jump out at me that may not be obvious to those who haven’t lived here before. I see a much stronger sense of social consciousness that I ever saw when I lived here. It’s not just the speakers who integrate examples of social cause efforts into their business presentations. Even in the commercials – so many ads seem to infuse a social cause message into their communications. There’s a cell phone ad that shows two kids staring warily across a barbed wire border and then playing soccer together (VO: There is no barrier we cannot break down if we just communicate with each other). There are ads promoting welfare of the poor, ads focusing on inter-religious brotherhood, ads showing the positive effects of good Samaritans, and much more. And the companies using these ads include business-to-business firms, service firms, and even FMCG firms. Even the mass media seems to be focused on social outrages, with news stories on child trafficking, female molestation, unfair treatment of laborers, and more. It seems like there is a clear recognition facing people here that one of the biggest problems that need to be tackled here is of poverty and disparity of wealth distribution. And if that isn’t a cause for optimism in a country like this, I don’t know what is!

In the morning we headed to a sandalwood factory and a Mysore silk factory. Both of these are government-owned enterprises and again we were confronted with the vast "contrasts" that Pavan Varma keeps talking about in the book Being Indian. We have visited spotlessly clean world-class manufacturing facilities and then there were these. The buildings were crumbling the machinery were almost a century old and the entire place was covered with dirt, dust, and cobwebs. They were proud of the fact that the boiler was imported from Lancashire, England many decades ago. Luckily the plant was not operating because they had run out of raw material (sandalwood), otherwise I'm not sure I would have been comfortable in the boiler room. The Karnataka Silk Factory was more interesting and in full operation, but they're not going to win any manufacturing process awards. Still it was fascinating to see the slender threads of silk being woven into cloth. It was also good to pick up a couple of the local specialties as gifts – sandalwood soap and silk scarves.

On a personal note, I'll admit that last night was one of the more miserable nights I have spent here. My head feels like it has expanded to three times its size and has become filled with a thick, viscous fluid. My upper chest feels the same and even breathing is not that easy. I kept waking up with uncontrollable chills. And (those of you who cannot handle gory details, look away now) every time I woke up, I found the side of my face was sorta stuck to the pillow - I assume from various secretions from my eyes and nose. When I woke up this morning, I looked forward to a HOT shower, but discovered that the water ranges from slightly luke warm to warm with no really bursts of HOT water. Same problem as last night. By the time we were done with the silk factory, I could barely stand. I had run through six handkerchiefs that were now all soaking wet and my headache was intolerable. While the rest of the group headed to SDM-IMD and lunch, about seven of us headed back to the hotel. I decided to skip lunch and crawl into bed. By this time I'm sure I had a raging fever because despite turning down the a/c, I was shivering uncontrollably in bed. I had an undershirt, a t-shirt and a sweatshirt on and I was still cold. I drifted in and out of sleep for a couple of hours and then decided to wash my handkerchiefs in a Dettol (antiseptic) solution and hang them up to dry. I didn't think it would be right to send these hankies through the hotel laundry system. I also got a bowl from the hotel, filled it with boiling water and did about 10-15 minutes of inhalation. My head still feels like it is about to explode and the two Advil don't seem to have done much good. My dinner plan with Prof. Jagadeesh is obviously off and I hope tomorrow is a better day ...

Wild animals and deteriorating throat

We woke up early this morning and headed out on a jeep into the jungle again. We waited vainly for a view of the elusive tiger, but had no luck. In addition to the multitudes of spotted deer, we saw a pack of wild dogs, a wild boar, the herd of elephants again, as well as some interesting birds. By the time we were ready to leave, my cold had exploded to the point where my nose was constantly dripping and I had several soaked handkerchiefs. By this time, my nose was raw and red, joining my hurting throat. I came back to Mysore in the minivan while the students braved the bouncy, broken, and dusty bus. When I got back, I went to a pharmacy and purchased some Sinarest, Cetrizine, and Benedryl with the hope that this would give me enough options to cover me for the day or two it will take to recover from this misery.

I also went out for a great haircut. The salon offered a nice haircut (including head massage), a shave, a shampoo, and a beard/mustache trim for a whopping Rs. 140 (less than $4). Very nice.

Kabini River Lodge - Day 1

Today we headed to the Kabini River Lodge. The trip there was interesting. It was a ramshackle bus (again with no air conditioning) and the fumes and dust were (again) overwhelming. The roads were atrocious and we bounced around for almost two hours before we reached the Kabini River Lodge. Once we got here, time seemed to slow down some. This is a beautiful place with our rooms in British-style bungalows with lovely covered porches extending along the entire front of the building. We could sit in the breezeway and just listen to the sounds of the birds and the rustle of the leaves in the breeze. Very relaxing. Even here, the signs of the flattening world are everywhere. We just took a 2-hour ride on an old bus through rutted and unpaved roads and found ourselves in the middle of an idyllic jungle resort. Still, my cell phone signal was strong and I found a cell tower right next to a colonial bungalow on the grounds. On the drive over, we passed through many tiny villages with miniscule tin shacks that served as general stores and seemed to be no bigger than refrigerator cartons. Yet, many of them proudly displayed “AirTel” (a local mobile phone company). Here. In the midst of extremely rural and poverty-stricken India, I could still buy a SIM card for my cell phone.

We went for a “Jeep Safari” in the afternoon and saw wild elephants, thousands of spotted deer, a Malabar giant squirrel, some sambhar, peacocks, and much more. Quite a trek. My raw throat has grown into a drippy nose and hacking cough.

Chamundeshwari, Srirangapattnam, Brindavan, Mysore Palace

Today was sightseeing day. We had a busy time starting early in the morning. First, we headed to the Shri Chamundeshwari temple on the top of the Chamundi Hills that overlooks the SDM-IMD campus. It was a cool morning and the top of the hill afforded us some spectacular views of the city. After returning and grabbing some breakfast, we visited the spectacular Mysore Palace before heading to Srirangapattnam to see Tipu Sultan’s summer palace, his fort, and the bird sanctuary. Then, we went to the KRS damn and the adjoining Brindavan gardens. On our way back, we stopped back at the grounds of the Mysore Palace to see it lit up. It was like a fantasy land and a sight to see.

It was a long day, but quite fun-filled. The hard part was traveling long distances in non-air-conditioned vehicles. It is not the temperature that bothers me but the constant blowing of exhaust fumes, dust, and smoke on your face. At the end of the day, my slightly scratchy throat was raw and I could feel congestion filling my chest.

Critical Evaluation of Marketing Students and AT&S

This morning, I was ready by 8 AM. Ramesh and Rahul Venkateswaran came at about 8:10 and picked up Harvey, Gene, and me. We first went to the golf course and dropped off Harvey, Gene, and Rahul for their round of golf and I headed to the institute to meet with the reporter.

I really did not know what to expect and what she wanted from. Still, I had thought of a few things to talk about like how business education in India and US differ. Her first question threw me off completely. She said she had read my CV and was interested in an article I had published about the quality of undergraduate marketing students in the US. She wanted me to detail why I had done the study and what the findings and implications were. I was completely taken aback and tried to cover the key findings of the study. We then talked about the US academic system and the goal of increasing globalization and the importance of global exposure for students around the world. She said she would send me a link to the article in a few days, but given the range of our discussions, I have no idea what the focus of the article will be.

In the afternoon, we headed to AT&S, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&S (Austria) a printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing facility. Since they had Austrian executives visiting the plant (and using the conference room), they couldn’t do a presentation for the group but had someone give us a plant tour. It was absolutely fascinating to see exactly how PCBs are made. This plant makes PCBs of all sizes - from cell phones and small auto cruise control circuits to much larger computer boards. They showed us the process of creating multi-layered PCBs, etching, cutting, tinning and de-tinning and more. It was extremely interesting and fascinating to see this spotless manufacturing facility that exports almost all of its output to Austria for further distribution. Basically, they are simply a manufacturing location for the Austrian parent. I guess it makes economic sense for the company. Like every other one of our site visits it reinforces the fact that right now, your cell phone from a Finnish company could have been assembled in Mexico with a PCB from an Austrian company that was manufactured by their plant in India.

Get me a TVS Apache

I was up late last night working on putting together a presentation for SDM-IMD students. I was asked to talk with a combined class of students in "Strategic Selling to Large Accounts" and "Negotiations." Although the content I chose was influence and persuasion research (using the Poland presentation as my base), I realized that just giving a presentation is not easy. It still took a lot of preparation as I decided what to say, how to cover it, what examples to give, etc.

In the morning, we met with a set of reporters from leading newspapers in India - the Times of India, Hindustan Times, the Tribune, etc. The class got to ask them a lot of questions on the state of the press in India and a lot more. It seemed like an engaging and interactive experience. One of the reporters wanted to talk with me in a little more detail and we agreed to meet tomorrow morning at 9 AM. After the session with the press, we had an outstanding presentation with a faculty member who covered the development of HR practices in India. In fact, this is almost the ideal type of presentation that fit the needs of this group. It briefly covered the history of HR practices in India and focused on the differences between India and the rest of the world. It was interesting and enlightening. Unfortunately, I had to leave a little earlier because of my presentation. I delivered my presentation to a group of students from two SDM-IMD classes. I think it went okay. The room was very warm (shades of the POland presentation) and I lost a couple of people who were dozing, but there were excellent questions. I was particularly impressed with the thoughtful questions on the design and interpretations of the experiments I discussed. One girl offered some great alternative explanations for the results and I wished I had a lot more time to discuss additional research that would counter those alternative explanations.

After a quick lunch, we headed to TVS Motors. It was a relatively long drive out of town and we first sat through several presentations about the company. The first two presentations were great. The first provided an overview of TVS Motors and its position within the TVS Group of companies. The second one focused on the Mysore plant and its production lines and processes. These were both relevant and interesting. It went downhill from there. The last two were long and detailed presentations on implementations of TQM (Total Quality Management) and TPM (Total Product Management) at the plant. The presentation went into a great deal of detail and the shower of acronyms and statistics left most of us feeling flooded. Again, the extremely warm room didn't help and these presentations went on for almost two hours. As usual, things got interesting when we hit the factory floor. As usual, the site visit beautifully coincided with the presentation made by the faculty member in the morning.

There is probably no better living example of Friedman's triple convergence that emerge from the world "flatteners." Here were are in relatively rural India and we entered this manufacturing campus that was a world into itself. The tenets of Japanese manufacturing philosophies and Indian business environments lead to the production of an indigenously designed motorcycle that is produced in a world class facility and exported to numerous countries around the world. The growth and success of the company also leads to them developing and opening a manufacturing plan in Indonesia. It almost seems like an example straight out of the book. We could talk of the supply chaining, insourcing, offshoring, and outsourcing. Even the regular mobile phone calls to the executives in the room highlight the "steroids" that Friedman talks about.

The plant was spotlessly clean and filled with messages emphasizing quality and safety. I found a large "stall" on the shop floor that was labeled "Safety Gallery." It is basically a gallery with numerous safety practices as well the the horrible consequences of unsafe practices (gruesome pictures of injuries). Apparently, if people are observed making unsafe actions, they are asked to go through this gallery (in a central location on the floor) and then sign a log book that forces them to write down exactly what they have learned and sign it. To me, this highlights that in the new India, such concepts such as quality, service, and safety are not just given lip service like they would have been in the past, but is taken seriously.

The TVS Apache motorcycles were also extremely attractive and I wouldn't mind having one of those.

Bound by the Supply Chain

Today’s class was on supply chain management and logistics. Although the instructor was interesting, the problem again was that the presentation went for the full one-and-a-half hours leaving no time for questions. The presentation also spent an inordinate amount of time on what supply chain management is, what the challenges of supply chain management are, etc. All the time spent on explaining why getting products to the right place and time is important seemed strange. I am guessing that our audience is interested primarily in the Indian context. That is the part these students don’t know much about and want to learn. Even when he got to the part of his presentation on SCM in India, it basically seemed like a superficial sales pitch with inane comments like:
HP is planning to double its headcount in India
Over 50 MNCs including Motorola get their chips designed in India
Even Chinese firms have started R&D centers in India
Of the Fortune 500 companies, 220 outsource to India

There were also slide after slide of lists of quality awards won by Indian companies. But, what I would have liked to know is how India is different from the US in terms of supply chain management and logistics. How do international firms manage the unique infrastructure challenges in India? How do the supply chains and logistics systems in India adapt to the unique environmental conditions in the country? Has this led to some unique innovations that have spread to other countries?

In future, we should consider positioning our interest as “access to experts” rather than lectures from faculty. Ideally, they would provide some brief background on the topic and then answer questions from the group, serving as local experts on the topic of the day.

The afternoon visit was to a company called "Automotive Axles" that was really interesting. We started with a presentation by the CFO of the company, who covered some background on the company and its growth from a sick company to one of the largest suppliers of automotive axles in the country. Their efforts improving the quality of their axles and improving the working conditions of their employees was impressive. We toured the facility and were impressed by the cleanliness and structure of the place, given it is a heavy manufacturing plant. Gene and Harvey seemed to be like kids in toyland. They went off and scrutinized details that the rest of us walked by and engaged any willing employee in conversation.

As an insight into the supply chain challenges of companies that are not fully vertically integrated, the management talked about how the lack of reliability in the supply chain results in them carrying more inventory than is optimal. Humorously, the CFO said they operate with a "Just-In-Case" model rather than "Just-In-Time." He added that a better phrase here may be "Somehow-in-Time."

Staying Within the Law

Aaah, a good night’s sleep finally! I went to bed about 11:00 PM and woke up only a couple of times before finally getting out of bed at 7:00 AM. I count that as a solid and “normal” night’s sleep. I was able to do some reading in the morning and use the WiFi card that I was finally able to purchase (they’ve been promising me these WiFi access cards each morning and only just gave me a few yesterday) to go through some of the many emails that continue to pile up in Minnesota. Although still not as fast as I expected, it was significantly faster than the crawling Internet available at the Institute’s computer lab. Looks like I’ll have to spend more time trying to catch up on those emails. I found it fascinating that so much of the documentation in this country is still done in pen and paper. When I tried to buy the WiFi card, the guy at the reception pulled out a big green bound ledger and wrote down the details of the card and my room number in the series of columns. The ledger seems to have been pulled from the 1950s. This is in a new and modern hotel, but a lot of the accounts still seem to be done by hand.

I also got to speak with Sheila and Jay who had just arrived in Chennai. Both seemed happy and in great spirits. Sheila had to give me all the details of her business class travel on Jet Airways – sounds like she’s spoiled already.

This morning’s presentation on India’s legal system was from Mr. Shivakumar, a lawyer with a wealth of experience in a variety of areas. He was an absolutely outstanding speaker and kept the entire class enthralled. First, he kept the content of the presentation very basic. Given that most of the class knows nothing about the legal system, he didn’t get into much detail, but provided some very broad structure on the structure of the Indian legal system. Second, he kept the presentation interactive and provided brief, pertinent answers to the questions that were raised. Third, he was brutally honest about the strengths and weaknesses of the system and never appeared to be hedging or covering up. Finally, he seemed able to expand when needed to answer the questions that were raised without going off on a tangent. He answered a variety of questions that went well beyond just matters of law. The class was very impressed and delighted with his presentation.

Right after the class and the requisite coffee break, we headed to the Mysore District Courts to see justice in action. The background provided by Mr. Shivakumar helped in understanding where we were and where these District Courts stood in the overall Indian legal system.

We first walked into a courtroom and watched the proceedings that were conducted entirely in Kannada. While there is only so much time you can sit and watch a bunch of people talking in an unfamiliar language, it was interesting to see the infrastructure and process. The room was aging and somewhat decrepit (I should note that the Court buildings themselves were beautiful in terms of architecture on the outside). The court reporter smashed away rapidfire on an ancient typewriter. Rather than just recording everything verbatim, the court proceedings appeared to be summarized by the judge every few minutes who then dictated to this reporter. There is a long table in front of the judge’s stage where a bunch of advocates just seemed to be aimlessly sitting around. Advocates would wander in and out of this room sitting at the table for a while, scribbling on a few papers, and then leaving. It was all very exotic and interesting.

We later went into another courtroom which was not in session yet. One of the advocates came over and explained that the case to be heard was a recovery case where the debtor was claiming that he did not have to repay the full amount of his promissory notes (pro-notes). The advocate who spoke to us represented the creditor and even let us leaf through the legal documents. The documents and briefs are all in English even though all the court proceedings (in the lower courts) are conducted in Kannada. We watched the proceedings for longer than most of us would have liked. Still, there were one or two testy exchanges between the lawyers that held our interest.

I managed to squeeze in a couple of faux pas moments during our visit. When the judge walked in, he looked puzzled at this large group sitting here and asked what was going on. Someone explained that this was a group visiting from the SDM management institute. He asked where we were from and from my seat, I shouted out “We’re from the University of Minnesota in the USA.” A shocked looking advocate glared at me and signaled for me to stand up when talking to the judge, which I did immediately. In another court room which was not in session, I asked our guide if it would be okay to take photographs. When he said yes, I went ahead and seated myself in the dock and asked a student to take a picture. From the far end of the room, we heard some shouting and a guy was waving wildly telling us not to take any photographs. I quickly slunk out of the room and pretended I had nothing to do with the hullabaloo.

Al and I went exploring the market street (Devraj Urs Road) in the evening. We found a music store (of course) and then a book store. The most interesting thing I bought at the music store was a CD of the High School Musical 2 soundtrack in Hindi!

Al had a great time riding the auto rickshaw there and back. He had this huge grin on his face as he filmed the traffic zipping by, the sudden jerks as the auto tried to avoid the cows and dogs on the streets and the insane scooters and motorcycles weaving in and out of the traffic around us. While this seemed quite normal to me, he found it fascinating.

The students went out and had their own adventures, from shopping in the spice market to playing cricket with some street urchins.

Scriptures & Business Ethics

Today's lecture was on what the Indian scriptures say about ethical conduct. It was actually extremely interesting as an insight into Indian culture and how the scriptural teachings broadly guide behavior in India. So, as an introduction to Indian philosophy, it was fascinating and I learned a lot.

The professor also was an enthusiastic speaker. However, it seemed like a very "traditional" class in that he asked that questions be held until the end and then kept going with his lecture, leaving very little time for questions. At the end, when a student asked one question, his answer was so long and detailed that it left no time or inclination for additional questions. Still, an interesting and worthwhile introduction to Hindu philosophy.

I wonder if we can get a model of about 1-hour of lecture followed by about 30 minutes or more of questions.

Part of the problem may be that most of the students seemed to still be recovering from their new year's eve party. Apparently this was a HUGE outdoor bash with over a thousand people with tons of food, drink, and dancing. The students say that they were the "stars" of the show and that the "roving camera" kept focusing on their group and following them dancing. People who were too shy to ask them if they could photograph them, took pictures of them surreptitiously from a distance. Seems like everyone had a great time. You may want to check out some of the other student blogs for details on the party.

In the evening, the Mysore Police Band had set up for a private concert for our group at the SDM-IMD amphitheater. In the cool evening, sitting on the nouveau-Greek amphitheater steps, we listened to this loud band play a great selection of classical south Indian music. It was very interesting to listen to. The Band apparently plays at the Palace during Dussera and has a vast repertoire of Indian and Western music. They had decided on south Indian classical selections for our concert. Very nice.

Happy New Year everyone!