Today was my last day at GreenMango and this is my last night in Hyderabad. It’s been an amazing experience and the staff of GreenMango has been absolutely awesome. I took a lot of pictures with people of the past few days, which will help me to remember them, but to be honest I could never forget this experience. Sharing food at lunchtime; taking timelapse videos that catch coworkers skipping English class; learning that Praveena is actually quite a tomboy, Neha quite the rebel, and Uma quite the joker; practicing my poor Telugu; making plans for the trick chair with Khadeer; seeing all the ladies top the sales performance; reaching 15,000 forms; coffee 5 times a day from Lakshmi; 2nd breakfast; Hyderabad 10K; deciding whether my toy auto driver is drunk or just on bad roads; everything. Everyone wants me to come back to go to the Hyderabad 10K next November. We’ll see…..
Yesterday I celebrated Eid (2nd Eid, really, but I’m not going to pretend like I understand the Muslim festival calendar) with my friend Neha and her family. It was not a very big affair, but I did have biryani and a lot of sweets. We also went to Golconda Fort, a famous tourist spot in our town of Hyderabad, because Neha lives right next to it. It was once the domain of some king or prince and now is a big, cool area to take a break from the city and surround yourself with space and green. Other than repeatedly being asked if people can take pictures with me, it was a nice afternoon outing. When we returned to Neha’s, her sisters did Mehendi (henna) on my hands as a part of the celebration. Neha has completed college and works at GreenMango with me. Her sisters (who look like twins but are not) are pursuing engineering and biology degrees. Despite the fact that their father passed on (making Neha the sole income-earner at 20 years old), their mother insists the girls keep going to school. Neha’s mom is my hero for the week.
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.
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.
I am currently reading a book called “It Happened in India” by Indian entrepreneur
Kishore Biyani. Kishore started a company that later included Pantaloon, a clothing retailer, and Big Bazaar, a market-style hypermarket. I’ve only been to one Big Bazaar (pictured here in Trivandrum), but they are everywhere.
Here are a couple of things I have learned from this book:
There is a viable consumer base in “third-tier” cities in India: The 1st tier are the big cities; Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata. The 2nd tier are up and comers like Nagpur, Surat, Vijaywada, and Indore. Kishore is referring here to small cities like Sangli, Panipat, and Ambala.
Indian retailers have to respond to LOCAL requirements: India is a large country and local tastes vary dramatically. For a chain to survive, each store has to have a unique product mix. This also results in an organizational structure where decisions are driven down to the lowest level.
Indian consumers have uniquely Indian ways of shopping: For example, Indian families shop together, so stores need to accommodate groups of people shopping, not individuals. Realizing that not all Indian families had made the transition to ready-to-wear garments, Pantaloons offered a pants kit that could be used to make pants at home.
Kishore is also keen to point out that he took a lot of inspiration from reading Sam Walton’s Made in America, but the Western retail model would not work in India. What he learned from Mr. Walton was how to re-invent retail to suit the current consumer.
