Day 11 - That's a wrap!

This is it! Our last day together, one meeting with Basix and we were done! The gang left for Sudhir's palace (oh it's not a typo... I meant to say palace and not place! Just look at these photos! It's like dining with the Sultan of Hyderabad!) where we were treated to Biryani from Paradise (one of the oldest and pioneering places for authentic hyderabadi biryani) along with some beers!

And we had some time to recover our strength for the evening. Usually, at the end of the IIME, the faculty throws a dinner for the students and we toast to a wonderful trip!




The culmination of two weeks' rigorous efforts of travelling in the streets of India (a demanding activity in itself!), preparations for external meetings, internal strategy meetings and so on (and by so on, I mean the.. let's say "extra curricular" stuff outside of official working hours?) deserves royal treatment (we are in the city of Nizams!) So we ended up having the last supper (poor choice of words, I know!) at the other palace (remember, Sudhir's palace is still number 1!)... the Taj Falaknuma!





Built over a century ago, this palace oozes class and royalty! It was the most wonderful experience of walking through something that you feel is straight out of a bollywood movie! Elaborate and exquisite halls, intricate paintings and patronage of the arts, glitz and glamour this place had it all!

As you can see from the photos around, this palace exuded European architecture more than traditional Indian palaces

The view of the city from the Taj Falaknuma!







So that's it from us! It's been fun writing this blog on our travels! (although in all honesty I fell way behind on our trip in Hyderabad so I'm actually writing this from my tiny little dorm room in Victoria!).

I keep telling everyone that this IIME experience has been life changing (yep.. those exact words!) from meeting people who left massive paying jobs in big banks to work for small microfinancing companies like Arun on Day 1, to Anoop who's running Naandi foundation which he calls a "social-for-profit" was just the most enlightening experience that I've had! We all think that India's behind the times, because all we see is movies like slumdog millionaire that show us what we already think we know about a country so that it's believable and an easier sell... I've been guilty of thinking in the same way and I'll be the first one to admit it! But you really need to visit the country and see how people are doing in established businesses, start-ups and social enterprises (essentially the entire gamut of businesses) to get a sense of how advanced the country really is (if not, certainly some of the cities and we're definitely headed in the right direction!)

One of the biggest takeaways for me during this trip was the meetings with these NGO's, social for profits etc. These foundations/companies/individuals are actually trying to make a difference, with a focus on the economic bottom line, by attempting to create business models that tap in to the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. It makes you put into perspective how really ahead of his time CK Prahlad was when he must have come out wih his book!

Every generation defines itself by the effort they put in that leads to a certain event, that B-HAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). You had those that were at the heart of the industrial revolution, those whose sole focus was to put a man on the moon.... the way I saw our generation in India, it seems that our goal is to get help to those that need it, alleviate poverty and ensure that people have a fighting chance! Whether its the e-choupals that end up lifting the floor price for farmers that were being fleeced in the rural markets, or the Grameen Koota's that provide financing when banks turn away or the Naandi's and Basix's of the world, we have to realize that it pays to strive towards having a moral focus at the core of our values. Let's hope that our generation can go out there and address what countless others before us have failed to even acknowledge - The fortune indeed may be at the bottom of the pyramid!
 





Ikram Shaik

Maria Chen

Samarth Mod

Arpita Biswas

Gurleen Randhawa

Sal Toosi

Savinay Chaturvedi

Sudhir Thakur

Tingting Wan

Rachit Khare

Lucy Deng

Essan Parto

Lauren Peterson

Ravina Dhillon 

Wade Danis

Wade,

You and Sudhir have been the most amazing profs on this trip and helped us when we needed it, guided us and I hope we weren't too much of a nuisance!

BIG THANK YOU FROM US ALL!

Day 10 - That's a Big Stasche!

Today was a long day! 3 meetings and the Golkanda Fort to visit as well! The day started out with a meeting at ITC on the success story of the e-choupal system. It was amazing to see how big corporates have actually gone into the rural areas and tried to make lives better for inhabitants who were previously being fleeced because of their inability to access the markets in the big cities. Explaining the e-choupal system succinctly would not be doing it justice by a long shot, so I encourage anyone who's reading this to look up e-choupal on google or attend Sudhir Nair's class when he teaches the HBS case in the BCom program at UVic.





We arrived a little early at ITC's office but we found ways of entertaining ourselves not the least of which involved a bunch of us taking photographs with this very sporting gentlement who was... sporting... (My vocabulary is letting me down at this point).... one of the most interesting moustaches we've seen (It takes more than a Movember to get there let me tell you!)



Our next meetings were at IIIT (Indian Institute for Information Technology) where they've set up an incubation center for budding entrepreneurs who've got a technology based solution and are starting up their own services and at Progress Software.

The evening's plan was to see Golkanda Fort which has a lot of history attached to it. The sound system was an engineering feat in those times, as the architecture of the fort supported the travelling of sound clearly for distances up to 500 feet! (As the tour guide kept reminding us, "there were no telephones that time sir".. I didn't want to disappoint him by telling him we already knew that... I thought it may drive a wrench into his awesomely rehearsed routine!)





There was also a sound and light show which further spoke about the history of the various rulers of this fort which a couple of us found interesting (however, most of us couldn't handle the mosquitoes... can you blame them?... I'm talking about the mosquitoes here).








Coolest picture ever! Those lights, in the center of the picture if you zoom in, are eyes! This is a batcave! (No sign of Batman though)

It was also really interesting to note that there were no walls in between the buildings that would act as partitions between rooms. It was all based on the parda (NOT PRADA... PARDA... it's hindi for curtain... spell check needs to get that) system and these curtains would act as partitions and also kept it cool allowing the breeze to blow in (India's a hot place remember!)

Days 8 & 9 - Ramping Up!

We're at that stage of the project now where it's always good to check in with your Client to provide a quick update on how things are progressing so far and make sure that you've got the goals and scope of your project nailed down. Monday's meetings with Naandi Foundation (A social for profit) and WINIT were both inspiring and enlightening (I just can't praise enough the quality of people we've met! Great Job Leah, Wade and Sudhir!). We followed that up with a conference call with our Client in the cigar room of the Trident Hotel and gained some valuable information which further put things into perspective for the next days to come.





That's not Essan busting a move and rapping (I wouldn't blame you if you thought so...); he's explaining the conversation we had with our Client and contextualising it with what we've done so far and what needs to be done next.

Now that we've had that catch up call, and had our strategies in mind, the next few sessions were based essentially on validating our assumptions which is where the Infosys meeting came in! I dare to say this may have been the best meeting we've had so far! (and that's saying something because the rest of these meetings have been top top class!). This was followed by a meeting at the IDRBT (Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology). It was amazing to see how they're trying to address the problems of encryption in mobile banking through SMS as well as finding a way to make NFC (Near Field Communication) work with a cost effective solution!

And of course, the gang had some time to get out into the town and share with you some of their awesome capabilities in photography as well as good old fashion posing for photographs! I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Day 7 - Touchdown in Biryani Town! (Copyright Gurleen Randhawa!)

We're pumped! We're excited! And at 9:44 p.m. while I write this blog, I'm ready to hit the hay! (Been up since 5 in the morning with 4 hours of sleep at night... come on.. cut me some slack ha?). But it was a fun trip so far and the excitement was evident as we move on to our next destination - Hyderabad! Here's one of the best group selfies I've seen for a while! But THE BEST is yet to come! After getting a message from the travel company providing the contact detail of the driver coming to pick up "Mr. Peter B. Gustavson" (that's what the message said! Obviously the person that sent the sms had goofed up a little), we were greeted..........

.......BY THIS!

Welcome Lucy Deng +18 


EPIC!!!










It was nice to see some familiar faces in and around us once again! (Since I'm not gonna last much longer, Gurleen's status snapshot will have to do!)









Looks like some of us are already in the spirit of Hyderabad!

Day 6 - Are you a Passional?

No matter how much I try, I can't praise this place enough! Our Native Village has turned out to be one of the most fascinating experiences I've ever had. And it's all down to one man. That gentleman in green, who is C B Ramkumar the owner of this outstanding establishment. He says he coined the term "Passional" which refers to "passionate people who have no professional qualifications or relevant experience but have become experts in a sector".







CB (as he says his friends from university like to call him... since I'm in university and I'm also a friend now, I think he wouldn't mind if I exercise that liberty!) left behind a life experience of over two decades in the corporate world to start something he had no idea about. He credits certain life events in his case that have led to him to this journey and "the experiment" he calls Our Native Village. We wish him all the luck and success in making this ambitious project become a model for sustainable hotels!



So.... what was the gang up to today?? Well, we started off by having a long meeting consolidating the findings of our research and had a real productive session today in between CB's presentation. It's important to have these team meetings at regular intervals because sometimes it may become very easy to lose focus and track of what you've come here to achieve. Today, the team did a brilliant job of getting together to pitch in their ideas in a common forum and now we believe we've set the tone for the rest of next week!






Now that we got the work stuff out of the way, it was time for us to turn our attention to the simple things in life (just follow Tingting on your right!). Below, you can see Maria and Arpita trying their hand at flying a kite with Samarth and Savinay looking on. Wade was making the most of it as well (go UVic profs!) taking in the steam (notice the gas powered pressure cooker as the inlet for the steam! My grandmother would be scandalized to see a cooking utensil being used this way!)

That's Manju in the picture helping Samarth with the kite. Manju is one of the employees at Our Native Village and has been a gem helping us out and catering to all our needs!












This was a kid using a stick to get the tire rolling. Again, it's just amazing that something so simple can be enjoyed so thoroughly!

Pottery Experts

An Expert in General!

The girls really enjoyed themselves on this trip!

While Samarth worked his way hard and reaped the results (Look at the concentration in the picture on your left! If only the same were true of all of us when it came to grades!)

One of the highlights of this trip! These were tribals from the nearby area who performed with traditional drums and acrobats. At the end of it there was all of us at the Village and some of the other guests dancing to their beats and taking it in turns to beat the drums (case in point with Tingting below!) A truly awesome spectacle!