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