Month: August 2011

Today we were able to visit Biocon after we had  three lectures earlier in the morning. Biocon is a Biotechnology company with two facilities in Bangalore, one which is the Headquarters and another which is a Bio facility. The company also has another in Hydrabad which focuses on chemicals. After we were given a brief presentation of what type of pharmaceuticals the company produces including insuline, Statins, Immune suppresants, etc. we were given a tour of their Bio facility in Bangalore! The Bio facility was really cool except it kind of smelled a bit funny on the outside and everyone was commenting haha! The tour guide was very informative and he told us he had recieved his Masters in Science from a University in Hydrabad, India, a city north of Bangalore, in Biotechnology, so needless to say this guy was pretty smart. The area we saw produced and filled insuline and antibodies to combat neck/throat cancer, which is pretty cool! I believe he also said the labs below and above the labs we saw did more highly classified research and we were not aloud to see these labs. After our tour guide was done showing us how the process was done we were escorted out of the high security facility back to our van and driven back to XIME!

Today we had two lectures, one over Business Process Outsourcing and the other over Intellectual Property Rights.  The first lecture over BPO was given to us by Mr. Ashwin Hoskota, a Senior VP for Hinduja Global Solutions. So far this was the best lecture we’ve had. Despite a power outage that delayed his power point presentation he did a really good job of keeping all of us engaged. The main thing I really took away from this lecture was that India is an outsourcing area for a ton of things. It is a common assumption in America that all IT support and call centers are in India. This is not true. While India does have an excellent IT industry they no longer take the majority of the world’s call center calls. Instead the Philippines is now where most of the calls go to.  However, India is the main player in different back office functions being outsourced. Whether it is payroll functions, legal work, finance, or information technology, India has many firms competing to provide these services. One really fascinating thing we learned was that the company that does the animation for Pixar is located in India.

Our second lecture was delivered by Dr. Pinaki Ghosh, a Chief Intellectual Property Officer at Infosys. This lecture was not as enjoyable as the first one because he did not involve us as much as the first lecturer. We did learn a bit about all the different issues companies face with Intellectual Property Rights though. What was fascinating to learn was that many companies, including IBM and Qualcomm, make billions of dollars each year simply by licensing out products that they hold patents on. We also learned that trying to protect the intellectual property is an extremely complex task and can cost lots of money. While this subject was rather fascinating it was a little overwhelming and I think all the students enjoyed the first lecture a little bit more.

After our lectures and lunch we had the opportunity to visit one of Timken’s offices in India. I’m sure all of you reading this are aware of Timken but for those of you who are not they are a major player in the ball bearing industry. The office we visited in India was extremely nice. It was a 7.5 acre campus that had beautiful gardens and looked more like a resort than a corporation. We learned about how Timken has some extremely state-of-the-art equipment that does technology testing for their components that are produced around the world. This Timken campus also had one of their IT centers (the other being in Canton) and it was really need to see the room full of servers and all the computer screens that they use to remotely solve Timken IT issues from around the globe.

August 1, 2011

Our visit to Tata BP Solar today consisted of a tour through the manufacture line and a discussion about the company. Approximately 200 people are employed at Tata for the assembly line alone. It was interesting to watch as the solar cells (which begin as gray squares which are about 6 x 6″) were placed on conveyor belts glazed with chemicals, and flashed with lights. The assembly lines perfect one side of the cell at a time, and then the cells are sent through more machines to complete the process on the other side. During the last stages of the assembly lines, the cell is tested with a light that resembles sunlight to test how much energy the cell produces. On average, most cells here produce about 3.6 watts. Most cells are sold locally and homes in India which use the cells most commonly use them to heat their water or for lighting.  This plant is operated 24 hours a day and produces about 24,000 cells per day. The cells are said to last about 25 years before they need repairs or replaced. The smallest finished panel is made of 4 cells, and the largest can be as large as you have room for. The size is mostly determined by energy needs, money, and space.

Tata BP Solar

Plot # 43, 44 Hosur Road

Bangalore, 561-229

Phone: 4102577/ 4194230

I finally arrived in India after a series of delays and long flights. Although I was an entire day late to India,I had the luxury of getting to spend a day in Germany. I didn’t get to explore the city, but I did have some authentic German food, much of which I couldn’t read the title of, but it was good! They serve a lot of meat- frankfurters and meatballs, and breads. 

Today was my first official taste of getting to see Bangalore in the daylight. We met Prof. Philip, president of XIME, in the courtyard for some tea, and he gave us some background information on his education in India, as well as some statistics about Indian business schools. He then introduced us to Mr. Selvam George, chairperson of 5E Sepraise, who was our first speaker of the day. We headed up to the lecture room and George explained to us the nature of his company. Surpraise is a splice of the words service and praise. 5E Serpraise is a comprehensive human resources training initiative for organizations. The fives E’s are as follows- Educate corporate employees through training programs and employees through certificate programs, Enrich executives through gainful placements, Enjoy the subconscious learning and outsource for the fun activities of the organizations, Empathize-enable social service organization through professional management, and Energize- enabling people towards superordinate and self actualisation goals.

George also compared and contrasted Indian management methods to those of Japan and the United States. He also touched on the differences between traditional Indian management styles and contemporary styles. He said that today, most companies have adopted Western values plus mixed management methods from the leading nations, rather than Eastern values and Western (top) methods.

August 1, 2011.

Today Professor J. Philip, who is the president of XIME gave us a lecture about the educational system in India. He informed us that an MBA is a universal degree, but it is called a Post Graduate Degree in Management in India. The most fascinating things he told us were as follows: India, the USA, and China work intimately with each other (especially economically and managerial-wise), and they will be the top three entrepreneurs by the year 2035. Currently, India has approximately 25,951 colleges and 518 universities (in 1947 they had 574 colleges and 28 universities), but by the year 2035 they expect to have over 15000 combined colleges and universities. In 2011, India had 1.4 million students enrolled in these educational systems, 6.55 million of which were women. Engineering and management are the top two degrees earned. The government has currently set up an affirmative action program for those belonging to the lowest socioeconomic statuses, reserving 22.5% of government jobs and spots in colleges and universities. Last but not least, India has more graduates in mathematics and science than the rest of the world, making its growth rate skyrocket and making their citizens very competitive in the market.