Day 1 - Global Resideny

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Global Residency in India

Monday morning was the first day of our residency. The

morning began fairly early with breakfast at the hotel. There was an assortment
of different foods – Western, Indian and everything in between. While I wasn’t
sick, my stomach was beginning to gurgle, so I stuck to a more conservative
breakfast. Although my favorite thing was the papaya. I also had some
watermelon juice and BACON!!!! Seriously! They had BACON! This was probably the
most pleasant surprise one could find in India for breakfast – BACON!!!! Yum!

We all piled into the bus and were off to the first company -

Mytrah.
Mytrah is a wind energy company that has an office in Bangalore, India. They work
off of independence power producer wind farms. Many of the obstacles that
Mytrah faces deals with regulation as the fossil fuel companies have many more
financial resources and can hire many lobbyists. In 2003 India passed an
initiative called the Rules of Electricity Act which was trying to promote the
electricity sector and wind farms, like Mytrah took advantage of this law.

In India, the energy industry is essentially regulated by the

government. There is the central government that has regulations that everyone
must abide by and then there are state governments which pass their own
legislation as well.

Another issue that Mytrah faces deals with forecasting. In

order to help better predict and manage wind energy forecasts, Mytrah have
looked to the US, UK and Spain to understand how their models of forecasting
work. Although very difficult to obtain, Mytrah is also looking for legal
solutions to forecasting and scheduling. Wind servers that are used to help
predict usually only obtain the direction, speed and some satellite data
regarding wind energy ups and down.

Furthermore, another obstacle is the tropical climate.

Temperatures are very high and wind is not predictable. This instability in
climate temperature is what makes looking to the West for understanding
difficult. Spain and the UK have very
steady climates. While the US has a variety of climates within the country’s
political borders, the climates are fairly stable within the various
geographical regions.

A possible remedy to the instability of wind energy is to

potentially tap into batteries. However, batteries make not be the best
solution as they can be expensive and have a variety of limitations. The Act
from 2003 is very important as the judicial system is very good in India, so
when the laws are not amiable, the judicial route with appeals is a lucrative
option. However, this can be very costly – both in terms of time and money.

Some key take a ways from the meeting with Mytrah was that

the land laws are difficult to lead with in India and not very transparent.
Regulatory knowledge in all areas is imperative to success as well as a great
understanding of the political system with in the country. The best way to
break into the Indian market is through partnerships. Contracts, especially the
way the US deals with contracts, are not a very flexible way to conduct
business. It is important to be flexible and utilize regional strategies as
India is a very diverse nation. Frugal innovation is also important in India.
Finally, one must be patient in India, whether it’s driving down the street or
conducting business – things don’t just happen overnight.

After our meeting, while we were walking out we happened upon

the inauguration of additional office space for Mytrah. There was a Hindi priest,
a statue of a god, and, of course, jasmine. There were some prayers that were
said for the prosperity of the company and this location. It was very
interesting to see all the men, and some women, who came to join the
inauguration. After it was over, they passed around some sweets. Boy! Were
those ever sugary – sweeter than sweet and much sweeter than I expected. We
then left the building and made our way back to the hotel where we had lunch as
a group.

After lunch was a lecture by a man who used to work for John

Deere in Pune. I thought his lecture was more insightful and genuine, as he
really wasn’t talking about a particular business, but provided more of a
framework for understanding India – the culture and the way to do business
there. To provide a bit of a historical perspective – India was becoming a
colony of the British Empire when the United States was becoming independent.
Prior to that, India was part of the Mughal Empires – the Hindus were a very
assimilative people, as often their rulers were Muslim and the subjects were
Hindus. In some way the British rule was positive for India – Britain brought
railroads, infrastructure, a common language, education, etc. to India.
However, though it was negative in that the British exploited the resources
from India and it created a huge psychological effect on Indians that they were
inferior even in their own country.

Six dimensions are very important to Indian society. They

are: Caste, Class, Language, Religion, Region and Gender. Each of these dimensions
plays a crucial role in the people of India. To understand the people, it is
important to know that people are creative and passionate and this transposes
to the work place as well. It is this passion that drives Indians to work hard;
as well as the PHD effect – Poor, Hungry & Determined. Growth in India is
difficult and when conducting business, that is something to grasp. Much
emphasis is placed on CRM (Customer Relationship Management) – the
understanding that human beings are emotional creatures and being able to
leverage that emotional understanding also becoming important for conducting
business in India. There is a higher purpose to business than just making
money. Some other advice was to leverage India, figure out the growth need and
leverage: the market, manufacturing, talent, sourcing and optimize cost – make
sure to group markets on types of markets NOT on region (which is a tendency in
Western business practice).

To conclude, the speaker showed a video about the Aravind Eye Hospital. The clinic was begun

in 1977 with the mission of eliminating avoidable blindness from the world. The
idea was to train doctors to perform basic ocular screenings in a standardized
fashion, thus copying the McDonald’s model of fast and cheap service. At
Aravind, if a person cannot pay, they are not pressured to; however, if they
can pay, they are asked to pay twice to cover someone else’s surgery. The
clinic has grown to be so successful, that many doctors from world renowned
universities (Oxford, Harvard, etc.) send students there to study the practice.
A truly inspiring story of how one person really can make a difference.

After the speaker, we were finally given some time to go

shopping!!! Wa-Hoo!!! We left the hotel as one big group. And made our way past
some nice retail shops and the emporium and some market-type stores (where
bargaining was ok). Eventually, our Program manager began to trust some guy who
wanted to bring us to an open market as the sun was beginning to set. My gut
was telling me something was wrong with this, and some of the others must have
felt the same thing, because a bunch of us decided to turn around – we didn’t
want to get lost on our first day in Bangalore.

On our way back, we stopped at the emporium. The emporium is

a government-run marketplace. The prices are set, so no bargaining. The quality
tends to be a little higher, so the prices are higher than those you would find
on the streets. I found some things I really liked, but wasn’t willing to
purchase everything in one night. I made a mental note of what I wanted, so I
knew to save my money – if I did in fact determine it was necessary. For
dinner, we all decided to go to McDonald’s and get a value meal. Most of the meals
are vegetarian, but opted for the Chicken McNuggets – again, I didn’t want to
tempt fate with getting sick eating unfamiliar food. After dinner, the group
split up – about half of us went back to the hotel and the other half kept
shopping. Believe it or not, I went back. It was dark and I was getting to feel
very uncomfortable. One of the guys needed to stop at the ATM, so we waited. As
we waiting a beggar with a baby came up to us and kept grabbing at us. I was
pretty persistent about her leaving me alone and she seemed to get the message.
However, none of the guys were as persistent and it made for a very awkward
encounter. IN situations like that, I tend to live by the mantra of be firm,
confidence and say NO, also try to not make eye contact and it usually works
best.

After a crazy filled day, it

was back to the hotel for catching some Zzz’s and starting the process
all over again.

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