Study Abroad

Today, we left XIME at around 6:30 for the Infosys Institute in Mysore. On the way we stopped at the big banyan tree and got to feed and play with wild monkeys! This was awesome!

Following our monkey stop, we had breakfast at Professor Ramakrishna’s sister’s house. Breakfast was delicious and included more coconut water, sambha, upma… I wish breakfast were like this back home. It was awesome to see Juanita and Scott running around chasing the school children in the neighborhood before their class started!

The Institute was amazing. It was better than any college campus I have ever seen. It included stores, a movie theatre, a resort-style swimming pool and rec center, an Olympic-sized track, and amazing restaurants. I was a bit dejected to learn that Infosys only hires MBAs from the top three US business schools. The rest are mostly engineers from India and other countries. Still the training here is superb… six months of training at Infosys is equivalent to a four year bachelors in computer science. It’s intense. I found myself thinking that maybe one day if I work really hard and save a lot, I’ll be able to send my kids to a school Infosys hires from and they’ll have the opportunity to apply if they want to. This thought alone is a testament to what I feel is to come from India in the future. As Dr. Vijay put it, for years India has experienced a brain drain because its best and brightest couldn’t find any opportunities or satisfaction within the country. In the future, this will happen in the United States, and people will be flocking to India like crazy.

Today we listened to a lecture provided to us by Professor Aswath Shastry on security issues in technology in India. The topic was of interest to many of the students. The lecture was followed by a discussion of I.T and I.P rights from a consultant by the name of Mr. Rangan Mohan.

We visited what I think is comparable to Disney Land, the Bangalore Infosys Corporate Office. April is blogging about this portion of the day but I must touch on the fact that this campus is literally the most beautiful thing I have seen. It was amazing how a workplace could hold so many benefits for its employees while upholding a fantastic name for itself. Infosys is known by the corporate world as one of the most moral companies and the highest of managerial skills.

Due to the change of scheduling for the week we quickly went back to XIME and ate lunch then left immediately to Wipro Corporate Offices. This was a lot of fun. I literally had the best coffee in the world here. I tried to bargain 300 rupees for Pete’s coffee. He eventually gave in, but gave April and I tea instead. We still believe that since the deal was not fully met and the drink was different from the original bargain we should not pay the rupees, Pete however disagrees.  Portions of the agreement have been edited for content.

Later in the evening we had a panel discussion with the students from XIME. Personally, I felt this to be the most beneficial portion of the entire trip. We were able to compare ideals and views of the two cultures. The discussion was to be about how the two countries could benefit each other and what we would expect the next ten years to turn into. Our group decided to do an S.W.O.T analysis (Yes, even though we were not told do…we are kind of nerdy like that). I will give just a few points seeing as how this is a long blog already.

-Strength- The countries are both democratic and are so similar it makes sense. It will benefit both in the long run. If we allow India to manufacture for less the United States can come in with their specialty of sales. Weakness- The infrastructure of India, the loss of particular jobs, terrorism and more. Opportunities- We felt the greatest opportunity was the expansion of both economies. Threats- some of the threats included other countries, India’s location and both countries terrorism. This is only a few examples of each. Our group all went up together when presenting. I announced that if we are supposed to be talking about the countries working together it should start here so we all presenting. Scott and I were in the same group. Every group did very well.

Well after a looong day of 3 lectures and several hours spent at a company called Accenture we were all very happy to get a small break and go by autorickshaw to a mall near by called Forum. The autorickshaw rides are so much fun and scary at the same time because the drivers are going so fast and weaving in and out of all the traffic! When we got to the Forum mall we went to the Pizza Hut because we were all craving some American food! A lot of us had the cheesy bites pizza, I am not sure whether they have this in the US or not right now but it was good! Then a couple of us went down to a place near the pizza hut called the Cookie Man, where we got ice cream with warm cookies crumbled on top mmmm. Then we split up and walked around to do some shopping for a while, and while we were waiting outside we saw a GIANT grasshopper that jumped about 20 feet! After that our trusty driver Mark showed up and we had a very adventerous drive home with him, and now we are all hanging out and typing away on the computers!!!!!!

Prior to our company visit to Accenture August 18th, we attended three lectures at XIME.   The first session focused on managment education in India and featured the president of XIME, Professor J. Phillip.

The business schools in India are some of the largest in the world and graduate more than 160,000 students annually.    Since there are so many schools, there is a lot of competition and demand for high performers.  Most of these schools are located in south India where there is a high literacy rate among women and population growth is less.  What I found most interesting was when Professor Phillip lectured about David McClelland‘s theory that people have three basic drives; achievement, affiliation and power.  A business professionall will likely be less successful if he or she has an improper balance of any of these aspects.

The second lecture focused on cross cultural aspects of doing business in India.  Some interesting subjects that were covered included India’s many red tape heavy government procedures, how many Indians view the castes today, and the how India’s government and businesses got to where they are today.

The final lecture was given by Dr. M. P. Ravindra, an employee of Infosys on sabbatical at XIME for the next year; it covered Information Technology (IT) in India.  His lecture focused on the evolution of IT in India and it’s current challenges to achieving greater success.

Later that afternoon we visited the company Accenture, which is an innovative back-end software provider, emerging technology leader and provider of other customer services such as software development life cycle consulting.  We were able to test out their latest technology related to consumer services.  They also overviewed how they provide some of their accounting services such as accounts payable processing.  I was impressed with their many layers of security assurance and controls for handling their customer’s information.

Monday morning marked the start of our lecture series at XIME. We all had a great holiday weekend, and The University of Redlands students have now arrived. We began our day with a welcome and introduction session where we had formal introductions and discussions on our expectations for our time at XIME.

Professor Ravindranathan began with a discussion of the Indian economic scene. India’s growth is exponential and second only to China. While they were impacted by the recent financial crisis, not to the extent that the US was. It is projected that if their growth stays between 5 and 10 percent over the next 40 years, they will be 3rd largest in terms of GDP. Their concerns as a nation are obvious – the literacy rate is about 66 percent and of those, many are barely literate. They also have 260 million people who are below the poverty line. Sixty percent of the population is tied to agriculture, yet it makes up less than 20 percent of the GDP. They also have a very difficult regulatory environment. They have hopes for their nation to eliminate poverty by 2015, commercialize agriculture, and create more jobs by attracting more industry.

After a very nice welcome lunch with the faculty, we visited with a tooling company called TaeguTec. Their parent company is based in South Korea, and they came to Bangalore in 2010. They house an impressive facility with the latest technology and innovations. We were given a very thorough tour and had a nice discussion period after on doing business in India. The biggest takeaway from this company visit was that it may not always be easy to do business in India, but it is always possible. There may be some bumps in the road, but you can work through them.

Following our company visit, Professor Iyengar joined us for a lecture on Indian society and culture. Many of the same characteristics stood out in this discussion as did in our morning lecture. He described India as a salad bowl – a culture of people coexisting, but maintaining individuality. We learned that 83 percent of the population is of the Hindu faith, but that it encompasses a diverse range of beliefs. We learned that India is one-third the land area of the US, but 4 times the population. They are the largest democracy in the world and an unlikely one at that. It was expected that India would  disintegrate as a democracy. There are 18 major languages, including Hindi spoken by about 40 percent of the population mostly in the north. English, however, is the linking language and used in business and communications. The professor compared India to an elephant, slow and steady, while China is like a dragon, fast and furious. We  discussed the remnants of the caste system and the patriarchal nature of society. While the traditional values have somewhat changed, Indian society is still very hierarchical in nature. We concluded by discussing women’s role in society and how it has changed. Overall, our lectures were very engaging and interesting.

We ended  our day by attending a cultural show put on by XIME students in our honor. They had singing, dancing, and videos representing Indian culture. It was really very nice, and we stayed to meet some of the students afterwards. It was a great day.

Today was a lot of fun. We went to a flower show and it was absolutely amazing. There were full sculptures made out of floral designs. The group had a lot of fun because everyone kepts asking to take our pictures with them (our 15 minutes of fame).

Today was our first day in Bangalore and we had a great breakfast made specially for us!! I especially liked the tiny bananas that they have here! Then we sat in two classes and listened to the Indian student perspectives on business. We got to meet the XIME faculty and listen to them talk about themselves and introduce ourselves to them, and then we had an awesome lunch! The cook here is great!!!

After lunch we went to visit a company called Maini and listened to them give a lecture about what they do and then we got a tour and saw all the golf carts they build and got a little drive in a solar powered one!! We were all very excited to see a really cool red and yellow lizard and a pomegranite, mango and papaya tree!!! When we got pack to the campus we talked with the students here for a while and watched a painting contest they were having with little children, and me and Juanita were invited to color with them so I drew an awesome flower and she made a peace sign hahah.. they all enjoyed watching us color and a man took several pictures of us. Now we are all hanging out in the computer area of dorm and everyone is going to dinner in a little bit yaay!! Tomorrow is Indian Independance day and there should be some interesting festivities to see!!!

We left our hotel at 5:15 a.m. for a sunrise tour of the Taj Mahal.  After buying our tickets we zipped past the mosquitos and hawkers on an extended golf cart to the security entrance.  Unfortunately, Kelly’s Flat Stanley was confiscated at entry, they interpreted his flat paper existance as a toy.

The Taj Mahal is a Mughal mausoleum built by the heartbroken Shah Jahan after his favorite wife  Mumtaz passed away giving birth to his 14th child.

Taj facts:

• It took 22 years to complete and more than 22,000 craftsman, each focusing on a specific decorative art.
• Specialists were brought in as far away as Europe to produce the intricately carved marble screens inside.
• The marble inlaid designs are semiprecious stones, each painstakingly formed using a stone wheel.
• The four slender minarets at each corner of the Taj are designed to lean slightly away from the mausaleum so that if there is an earthquake they fall away.
• On the west side is a mosque and to the east is an identical building that was used as a guest palace.
• Shah Jahan began minor construction of an identical, but black marble Taj for himself across the river from the white marble Taj, but the Shah was imprisoned by his son and unable to complete it.  The Shah was eventually interred next to his wife in 1666.

After we toured the Taj, we drove to the domestic airport to board a plane to Bangalore, where we will stay at XIME University.

On the way to Agra, we stopped at Fatepur Sikri, a ghost city  with palaces and a mosque that were abandoned over 400 years ago after the people living there suffered from water shortages.  The mosque is actually still used for worship.  At its prime, this city was larger than London and was constructed by Akbar the Great, regarded as the greatest of the Mughals.

All of the structures we saw were intricately detailed and made out of red sandstone.  At one time the designs included precious stones and gold, but this was plundered long ago.  Some of my favorite highlights of this site were…

• The white marble courtyard had a life size parchisi court with a place in the middle for the king to sit; he would use his concubines as pawns.
• The Diwan-i-Am (Hall of Public Audience) is where Akbar dispensed justice when citizens would present their cases to him.
• Akbar was known for his respect of other religions.  He counted Christians and Hindus among his many wives and several of the pillars at this site have images of different religions on them.
• Close by, there is a monument called Hiran Minar, made to honor elephants killed in battle, stone tusks point out of the tall pillar.

Later this day we toured Agra Fort, on the bank of the Yamuna river, which was also begun by Akbar in 1565.  His subsequent generations added to this structure, some using intricately detailed white marble and colorful inlaid, painstakingly carved stones.  It was originally made as a military fort, but later upgraded to a palace.  It also served as a prison for Shah Jahan when his youngest son seized the throne after Shah Jahan made his older brother king.

When it was upgraded to a palace it was decorated with gold and precious stones, but these were plundered over the years by the Marathas, Jats, Nadir Shah and finally the British.  Some of my favorite spots included…

• The Shish Mahal (Mirror Palace) has every wall inlaid with mirrors of varying sizes.  It is said that a single lamp would illuminate all of the mirrors when properly placed.
• Musamman Burj and Khas Mahal is a white-marble octagonal tower where Shah Jahan was imprisoned during the last eight years of his life.  He could only look at the shrine to his deceased wife (Taj Mahal) using a mirror from this place as his site was failing at the time.
• The king’s bathtub (Hauz-i-Jehangir) is in front of the palace, it stands about 10 feet tall with little steps on the side to climb up; it was carved from one piece of stone.

So far India has been so increadible; elephants around every corner, snake charmers, intricate decorations (even trucks on the highway) – it’s saturated with colorful art and culture.

Hello everybody!

Today was indescribable, but I will try to pay it the justice it is due. After breakfast at one of the nicest hotels any of us have every stayed in, we drove to the ancient capital of Amber. This area is just outside Jaipur. It was here that we saw the Amber Fort. The fort was constructed in the 17^th century. Before the city palace was constructed in Jaipur, Amber was the seat of power. The fort was beautiful. There were levels of ramps leading up to the main area. It sits on a large area of land and the sun looks like it was made to cover the fort.

To reach the top of the fortress we rode an elephant up the ramps! The elephant ride was about twenty minutes long. You always think an elephant is big, but when you are riding on top of when you realize it is huge! The elephant behind us kept spraying water out of its trunk.

After being let off of the elephant we were able to see the top of the fortress which consisted of courtyards and halls. Each room was unique and beautiful. The walls had paintings and semi precious stones lay in the walls. My favorite room was the Sheesh Mahal, meaning hall of mirrors. A single lamplight is reflected in many mirrors and will light up the entire room. This also allowed the room to keep heat in during the chilly nights. This hall of mirrors was so beautiful and each mirror was imported to India to complete the room.

The day grew hotter as we visited the city of Jaipur. We visited the City Palace and the palace of winds. The day was very busy and filled with laughter, good conversation, growing bonds and most importantly an unforgettable experience.