Howzat!!!

A busy day yesterday and more of a relaxed one today. I set off for my morning run yesterday grinning like a Cheshire cat. I got a number of smiles en route but the highlight was most definitely stumbling across my first ever game of street cricket. Apparently something very famous in India, I was most surprised to see 15 odd men and adolescent boys playing the old game at 6.30 in the morning behind an rather pungent shanty town. Most bizarre. I stopped and watched for a few minutes before heading off. Maybe by the end of my trip I’ll have managed to get a game!

The presentations yesterday were another mixed bag. My overall gripe is that you either have content or style in any given presentation but rarely the two together. There were very few people that could glide across the cultural boundaries with the appropriate mix of humour and humility. That said the presentation on the core values of the company, or the “Spirit of Wipro” as it is called, was particularly thought provoking, delivered by an interesting little character that has clearly travelled the world. He brought up a number of ideas, not all of which I am sure I agree with e.g. values underpin culture (agree), values have to change as time passes (not so sure I agree), routine makes you predictable (agree) and that this is a bad thing (not so sure I agree). Machines and screens have taken over our lives (I understand his point but not sure if I buy in completely despite spending Saturday afternoon working on my laptop), and intangibles (such as emotions and feelings) move tangibles (such as mobile phone handsets or other material possessions)....violently agree. The last session of the Global Assimilation Programme (GAP), so called because it was not appropriate to call it “Corporate Sheep Dip Programme”, was the Wipro Meet Me meeting which is a quarterly meeting for the whole corporation. It was hosted in Bangaluru (so we were there “live”), and beamed back to the rest of the world. The whole of the executive team were up on stage fielding questions from the audience and the “question bank”. One thing that struck me was that today’s leadership, rather understandably, is anything but diverse. Whilst that is to be expected, I wonder what Wipro Meet Me will look like 5 years from now....

Last night included a little foray into Bangaluru itself for a few drinks before coming back to the hotel where we managed to sneak our way into the after party for the Bangaluru Fashion Week that is being hosted at our hotel. I have to say I am much less taken with the Indian Liz Hurleys of the world than the western version, but it was interesting to see nonetheless. The best news of the night that for once the person who dived into the swimming pool fully clothed wasn’t me – the paltry sum of 1000 rupees was just not enough.