Today I walked part of the Hyderabad 10K with my coworkers, mostly just to promote our company. It started with a group warmup and a live band, followed by the start of the race. There were serious runners vying for serious prize money, but most people saw it as something fun to do on a Sunday. Like many participants, we had no intention of completing the race. I think we maybe completed 2K and in that distance I saw participants buying and eating ice cream and stopping for chai. During and afterwards, the band played patriotic songs and the crowd danced and drank water and tried to get noticed by the camera for the big screen. As a white girl with a clearly Indian company, I stood out a little. I was interviewed by 2 local news stations (I don’t have a TV so I don’t know if I actually got air time). Hopefully it’s all good press for GreenMango. It was sure fun for those of us who turned out.
Other parts of the race were pretty much the same as what I’ve seen in the US. There is a lot of corporate sponsorship and corporate groups running together. This particular event was the first major public event in Hyderabad since the recent events in Mumbai, so there were moments of silence and words of support for everyone there. I was impressed that the event had a large turnout despite the Mumbai attacks.
Last week I attended the Microfinance India Summit in Delhi. It was nice to focus on microfinance for a few days, since my day-to-day work doesn’t really involve it, but more than anything it was great to catch up with the original leader of Team Awesome (the Microfinance Alliance), Mary Jo. She is working at the Grameen Foundation in D.C. and we met up at the conference. I attended their panel on social performance measurement, which was interesting. I also attended sessions on Technology and Value Chains in Livelihoods. Overall, I came away with the sense that 1) the profit-motive vs. social motive debate continues, 2) there is a need for significant regulatory reform in this realm in India, and 3) there is a lot of interesting work going on.
Outside of the conference, I didn’t get a chance for much touring. I booked a bed & breakfast online with no down-payment, so I showed up in Delhi ready for it to be awful or not reserved for me. It turns out Vandana’s B&B is just lovely. I stayed in one of the 3 guest rooms in her home in the park-filled Safdarjung Enclave. She even got worried and called one night when I hadn’t been home all day and it was rather late- very sweet. On the downside, everything you read about Delhi scams seems to be true. For instance, I never succeeded in getting to the Dilli Haat shopping area because the rikshaw drivers all wanted to take me to some place they know of, which is actually an overpriced tourist trap where they get a commission for bringing you. But that’s really the only lame thing I endured.
I’ve spent a few weeks at GreenMango, an in Indian startup, and the first thing I noticed is that there are a lot of universals when it comes to starting a business. We manage with few resources, we are outgrowing our office space, we wear many hats (like our new hats shown here!). But there are some things that are unique to India:
It’s hard to get good senior managers: Unlike in much of the US, it is NOT particularly glamorous to work at a startup. In addition, families are very tight-knit and it is likely your family doesn’t look too kindly on risky ventures either.
Cultural norms affect operations: Our sales associates often recruit vendors into our database from their homes, particularly women who are tailors or beauticians. It is not very acceptable for men to enter women’s homes when they are home alone, so our sales associates work in pairs with one woman and one man (depending on the area the women may not feel comfortable going out alone).
The office is rather hierarchical: There’s really nothing wrong with this in theory, especially if you enjoy being called “madam” all the time, but it can inhibit an open work environment. It can take some work to get employees to feel empowered to contribute their ideas.
Lunchtime is awesome: Maybe Indians are just better at sharing, or maybe it is because the typical Indian meal has several dishes, but all of my co-workers share their lunch with me and everyone else. This is particularly good for me because the cook at my hotel is not from this area, so I don’t get local food for lunch. And many of the ladies I work with are great cooks. Plus it’s a good time to practice my Telugu.
Today I walked part of the Hyderabad 10K with my coworkers, mostly just to promote our company. It started with a group warmup and a live band, followed by the start of the race. There were serious runners vying for serious prize money, but most people saw it as something fun to do on a Sunday. Like many participants, we had no intention of completing the race. I think we maybe completed 2K and in that distance I saw participants buying and eating ice cream and stopping for chai. During and afterwards, the band played patriotic songs and the crowd danced and drank water and tried to get noticed by the camera for the big screen. As a white girl with a clearly Indian company, I stood out a little. I w
as interviewed by 2 local news stations (I don’t have a TV so I don’t know if I actually got air time). Hopefully it’s all good press for GreenMango. It was sure fun for those of us who turned out.
