Day 9: Mr. Scindia and Celebration Lunch

Day 9 was the final day for the group. We had a quick meeting with Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Minister of State for IT and Communications and also a GSB grad. Then we had a celebration lunch. At this point, the trip was over and many went out to do some last minute (or first minute) Christmas shopping or head to the airport.

As you can see from reading the blog, this trip was an incredible opportunity for all involved. Each day was packed with very high quality meetings and cultural stops. I for one was extremely grateful to get such a rich perspective of India's political and business environment in 10 short days. All the credit must go to our trip leaders: Dana Mauriello, Evan Reas, Abheek Anand, Sudarshan Srinivasan and Ishan Gupta. They promised us a BSTE (best study trip ever) and surely delivered.

Thanks for viewing the blog, and please feel free to leave your comments here for the group. See you all back on campus soon!

Best,
Eric

Day 8: Winrock, Walmart, Airtell, President Kalam

Day 8 was another packed day - we met with the head of Winrock (large NGO in the country), the CEO of Walmart in India, the CEO of Airtell (largest mobile operator) and India's last President, Dr. Kalam. We wrapped up the day with another alumni dinner. Another very informative day for the group where we were able to learn about non-profit work, retailing, telecommunications and politics directly from top leaders in the field.

Here's the group getting ready for Dr. Kalam.

Day 7: The Taj Mahel, home visits

Words and pictures can't do justice to the Taj Mahel, so I'm not going to try. All I'm going to do is recommend that you fly to Delhi and take a 5hr ride to Agra yourself. It is truly incredible.

Here's the group... may have to get a photoshop expert on this one to get rid of the fog. Trust me, it's back there.

So, while most of us were asleep for the 5 hour journey to the Taj, most of us were awake for the way home. I took the opportunity to teach some people about eucre, a traditional card game from Indiana. That's IndiaNA not India. Here's Kelly celebrating a solid trip to "the barn."

We quickly went out again after returning to our hotel. Our trip leaders graciously opened up their homes to the group for dinner. I was lucky enough to spend the evening with Abheek and his family and had my favorite meal of the trip. Others went to Suda's family's house or Ishan's sister house. It was a unique and great way to experience the culture of Delhi.

Day 6: Humayun's tomb, Network 18, IBM Daksh

Day 6 began with a trip to Humayun's tomb. Humayun was the second Mughal Emperor to rule India and died in the 16th century. One of the more impressive last resting places that I've seen throughout the world...

Here's some detail from inside the tomb. A local pointed it out for 100 rupees - well worth it!!

We then moved on to a visit with Rajdeep Sardesai, the managing editor of CNN-IBM. He's also a very well known news anchor in the country - our trip leaders seemed to be a little star struck by the meeting! Mr Sardesai spoke to the group for about an hour, answering questions ranging from the media's role in fighting corruption to business practices in media in the country. Here we are sporting our channel 18 hats, getting ready to take a final picture. You can see Mr. Sardesai in the center with our signature bottle of wine gift.

From channel 18, we drove to IBM - Daksh to meet with the company's founder and CEO, Pavan Vaish. Mr. Vaish had a great perspective for the group on managing a company from founding to maturity within the India market. After a lengthy Q&A, we toured a call center on the premises.

After the meeting we arrived home late to the hotel. Personally, I called it a night but many fearless trip mates ventured out for some local bhangra club dancing. I imagine that the night probably looked something like the picture below...

Day 5: Infosys and flight to Delhi

Day 5 was dedicated to a trip to Infosys, the IT outsourcing giant. Everyone in the group was struck by the company's impressive campus and facilities. We had a good meeting with one of the company's founders and discussed global outsourcing trends as well as factors leading to Infosys's success.








I also should at least give a mention to the traffic that we've been facing in each city. It is incredibly bad throughout the country. In the picture below, an elephant is contributing to the back-up. This traffic is one of the most visible signs of the lack of infrastructure in place to meet surging economic growth. For our little study group, it's meant lots of time in the bus and lots of time to get to know each other!!

From the Infosys meeting, we headed to the airport to fly to Delhi and arrived at our hotel late at night.

Day 4 (part 2): alumni dinner

The dinner was a lot of fun and a good opportunity to catch up with alumni in Bangalore. Here's a pic!

Day 4 (part 1): GMR and Sequoia Capital

Day 4 brought the group to GMR, a visionary infrastructure group that is working to construct the roads, airports and power facilities that the country greatly needs. The company also makes great effort to give back to the community in any way that they can. We spent over 2 hours with senior management, including the group's billionaire founder and CEO, Mr. G.M. Rao. Here you can see Ishan speaking with Mr. Rao and securing his 5th job offer of the trip. It was another quality meeting for the group where we delved into business culture and ethics as well as what it takes to run a family business efficiently.

Next, we travelled to Sequoia Capital, the world's foremost Venture capital firm. A couple of partners at Sequoia joined 2 of their portfolio company entrepreneurs for a great panel discussion. We discussed many issues around VC in India, entrepreneurialism in India and the Indian market. We then broke into smaller groups for more personal discussion.

Tonight, we're having a VC/alumni dinner, so it should be another packed day.

Day 3: Tata / People Group / Flight to Bangalore

Although day 2 was a late night, no one could escape the schedule enforcement of this man, Mr. Evan Reas. Even is one of the 5 hardworking 2nd year trip leaders that are making this trip run like clockwork. Thanks Evan! I didn't mean what I said when the alarm went off at 6am!!

Our first stop today was at one of India's oldest and largest conglomerates, the Tata Group. We were originally scheduled to meet with Tata's chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata. However, due to the recent attacks against his flagship Raj hotel, he was forced to cancel. Instead, we met with the group's Senior Director of development and had an excellent conversation on their strategy for their various operating companies (think steel, auto and IT consulting). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this event.

We were then off to People Group to meet with Chairman Anupam Mittal. Mr. Mittal is an entrepreneur who has started popular marriage and real estate websites. This meeting was a very interesting contrast to the day's first meeting with Tata representing traditional business and a rich history and People Group representing entrepreneurialism and the new economy. Mr. Mittal was generous with his time and helped us to understand opportunities for internet businesses in the country.
We then treked off to the airport to fly to Bangalore and arrived late at our hotel. Here Suda and I are after finally arriving.

Day 2: Blackstone, Reliance, IL&FS, Karaoke

My sincerest apologies to all of the fans of the blog for the delay in my posts. As you will read, it's been a very busy few days!!

Day 2 started off at the HAji ali mosque pictured below. It was a beautiful morning and the mosque is clearly a sight to see. Seeing as how it had been at least 45 minutes since we last ate, we then grabbed fruit creme at a famous stand just outside.

We then traveled to meet a distinguished GSB alum, Akhil Gupta who is Senior Managing Director and Chairman of Blackstone capital. Blackstone is one of the largest private equity firms in the world and is very successful in India. Mr. Gupta shared with us his years of experience at the highest levels of business in the US and India as well as great advice on navigating through the GSB. It seems like everyone loves touchy feely (a famous class at gsb) - What goes on in this class!! It was a great session for the group.

After the meeting, Abheek and I came upon a dabawallah. For those that haven't yet taken GSBGEN 203 Global Context of Management, these men pick up packed lunches form the

suburbs of Mumbai and deliver to workers in the city center at lunchtime for a few rupees a day. They do this through a complex series of exchanges with other dabawallahs and rarely make mistakes. Here I am with one of these individuals below. I don't think that he was as excited to see me as I was to see him...

After a delicious pizza lunch, we traveled to the corporate headquarters of Reliance Industries to

meet the Chairman and CEO, Mr. Mukesh Ambani. Mr. Ambani is also a gsb alum and is approximately the 4th richest man in the world. Here you can see Sonia, Professor Rajan and Ray preparing for the meeting. You can see that Ray is formulating one of his patented poignant questions for Mr. Ambani (it would later nearly bring him to tears). We had about an hour of the Chairman's time during which he discusses his life, his business philosophy and his advice for the group. I think that I can safely say that it was a once-in-a-lifetime meeting for everyone involved.

Now that's a busy day!! But it didn't stop. We then visited IL&FS which is an active infrastructure group in India which proved to be a very interesting meeting. Then off to an alumni dinner downtown and finally some karaoke. Below you see Quentin making new friends over an 80's ballad and the group giving a rousing performance of "We are the World." Which is true, we are actually from 10 countries with a diverse set of backgrounds - even Canada!! (thanks for coming Kelly!!)

Day 2 was truly a remarkable day that I will not soon forget.

Day 1: Reliance's Jamnager Refinery

Day 1 took the group to Reliance's Jamnager refinery, the largest oil refinery in the world. The refinery is an hour flight away from Mumbai but no problem for this group. Reliance sent their jets for the team and you can see Stan entering one of the planes. He's clearly done this before.

While at the refinery, we received an overview from senior management of their operations and had time for a lengthy Q&A. We then received a tour of the plant. The highlight was possibly the trip to the top of one of the refinery's stacks. Here's one of our fearless leaders keeping tabs of the group and Pete thinking about a career in the oil business...

The trip ended in the "green zone" of the plant with a great spread of fresh fruits grown on the premises. This time gave us the opportunity to take a quick group photo.











We then headed back to Mumbai by plane and "cruised" through traffic to return back to the hotel. Dinner was in the hotel and we were joined by Mr. Shankar Narayanan from the Carlyle Group. It was a great 1st day and everyone was surprised by the huge Reliance operation as well as the hospitality that we received during the visit.

We made it!

Friends and family of the India study trip,

Everyone on the trip is now safely in Mumbai and looking forward to 10 days in this incredible country!! I'll be updating this blog daily with all of the action so check in to see you friends and family and to share your comments.

Eric