Someone pass the knife

I am now on my way home – I am currently sitting outside the bakery “Paul” in Dubai airport. It’s been a long trip and I am very happy at the prospect of seeing my little brother and Sandie in Biarritz, sleeping in my own bed tonight, and getting to play with Maxime before his bedtime (which will hopefully be extended by 30 minutes tonight if his mother agrees). I suspect the four key things I would take from the trip are as follows:

The Indians really do have a keen sense of customer service. The Europeans in our party were aghast when someone explained early in the trip that they believed that the food you give to your children or the clothes on your back come directly from customer. Never would we make such a direct connection. Over the course of the 3 weeks this reactivity to customer requests is obvious, even if at times it is poorly executed.

The Indians are also extremely tolerant – well they put up with me for almost 3 weeks! More seriously when I asked them, as the current Wipro workforce, how they felt about this sea change and increased hiring into their (very successful) company of non Indians in local markets. Their immediate reaction was one of, “it’s what we need if we want to be successful in those markets, and hopefully we’ll be able to mix the best of both worlds and cultures”. My previous experience, where I was part of the incumbent workforce facing a massive explosion in the number of new colleagues, was quite different and we talked openly of being careful not to “dilute the secret sauce” too much.

Another key take away for me was the generosity of Indians in terms of both material things and also in terms of the time they afford you. In material terms India is obviously a developing economy by comparison with Europe – I won’t win a Nobel Prize in economics for identifying that. However on Saturday my friend insisted on buying a present for my wife in his local town – there was no need to spend such sums on a person he had never met, but he wanted her to be happy and to have a positive impression of his local town and our friendship. In terms of the time people afford you, I have essentially finished 10 days of head to head meetings. Whilst that is exhausting for me personally, you also have to note the fact that that is a lot of people giving up time that is dedicated just to me. Whilst many of the meetings didn’t start on time, even fewer finished on time. The vast majority needed a follow up session because they wanted to share additional information, and in the whole three weeks only one meeting was postponed to next week when I am back in Europe, none were cancelled. I realised that time is the most precious thing anyone can give you...I would do very well to remember that as the person who likes to try and do everything, and often at break neck speed.

The final memory which will endure is the picture of a cow eating rubbish in Bangalore city centre. Initially horrified I took a picture and sent it to Sandie. I was fully expecting a similar reaction from my cow loving wife who has been trained in the ways of all things porcine, equine and bovine. Her response was that the cow actually looked in rude health. Whilst I am not sure I’m going to go and guzzle down a pint of Bangalore’s finest white stuff, that plus India’s 8.5% annual GDP growth should make me realise that there really are many ways to skin a cat....someone pass the knife.