Team One:

Dipping Our Toes in the Water… of India

6:30 am
We awoke to the sounds of New York – traffic, yelling, dogs barking, and Bollywood MTV music videos. Alright, not New York in the geographic sense, approximately halfway around the world in New Delhi, India. Being so far from home causes one to construct a relationship between the things we can and can’t relate to.

Our hotel serves as one of the few accommodations available in India. It offers Spartan rooms and a welcome place to rest our weary heads. The essentials differ from American standards, some in unusual ways. We manage without little bottles of shampoo, a big TV, furniture in excess of a couple beds, and a shower that doesn’t flood the bathroom. The showers here have no base just a drain and a floor that doesn’t slope quite enough. For most, the services the hotel offers constitute an upgrade from student life. Seriously. They wash our towels! They’ll do our laundry for a nominal fee! We also eat a hearty breakfast of eggs (hard-boiled or in omelet form), spicy vegetable cutlets, French fries, cornflakes (accompanied by warm milk), toast, and orange drink, coffee, or tea. Oh, the staff didn’t disappoint either selecting some wonderful morning entertainment: more Bollywood MTV.

After breakfast we quickly transited to our air-conditioned bus. A note: the temperature in New Delhi isn’t unbearable but any air-conditioning aides in adapting from our spoiled San Luis Obispo temperature. Traveling the frantic streets, everyone did their best to observe the driving habits and vehicles in preparation to our visit with India’s top auto manufacturer. However, we found ourselves distracted by Brahma cows pulling carts, an army of monkeys overtaking the local park, and a frightening number of near accidents inches from our cumbersome bus.

What information gather we can summarize in two comparisons to our domestic automobile environment: 1) Nearly every brand we know (along with a few we don’t recognize) produces vehicles for Indian roads and 2) Small, nimble cars offer significant advantages over our common SUVs and minivans. We recognized many Toyotas, Chevys, mini-minivans from the newcomer Tata, and a disproportionate number of Maruti-Suzukis. Seeing more Marutis boded well for us: We would soon step across their doorstep.

Mr. Gopalakrishnana, Senior Manager of Public Relations for Maruti-Sukuki greeted our team outside the company’s largest manufacturing plant. He politely led us inside to a conference room stocked with a fantastic spread of cookies, Pepsi, tea, and coffee. It was a surprise; we had not presumed ourselves lucky enough for such gracious hosts. Mr. Gopal (he asked that we use a more comfortable name to pronounce, another courtesy to us foreigners) presented a brief, well documented, and insightful PowerPoint overview of Maruti-Suzuki. It was a mere appetizer though to a luscious main course: a full guided tour of their manufacturing process from rolled steel to rolling car. Dr. Olsen would have been in LEAN heaven. Maruti utilizes Kaizen bursts, visual management, andon systems, kanban stations, FIFO, and load leveling to build vehicles at a pace that surpasses their competitors. After visiting the facility we can safely say every LEAN student is now a LEAN believer. We marveled at the seamless waltz of machinery, man, and material. Only the dry heat drew us from our focus and reminded: this not the legendary Toyota from Japan but the startling unbridled Marti-Suzuki from India.

Needless to say as stunned as we all were we had innumerable questions. Mr. Gopal and a panel of four Maruti chiefs obliged our intrigue. We feel we must return their generosity with a degree of silence; they provided a great deal of insight into the company’s past and future success. Yet, we can say this culminating discussion cemented our feelings about Maruti-Suzuki as a competitive auto manufacturer flush with drive, genius, and a formidable knowledge of LEAN production. It also boasts a gracious management team hungry for the ideas our freshly educated minds can conceive.

And THEN… we got back on the bus. We stopped at a mall to enjoy some Indian food for 170 rupees=$3.50 for lunch before continuing to Rockland Hospital. No one knew the journey would turn out to be an adventure. Our driver missed a turn and brought our enormous bus to a dead end. Without a turnaround. The thoughts of starvation and desolation filled our minds while the bus driver attempted a forty-point turn. God forbid MBA students would have to walk! Just when we thought the world would end… we got glimpses of gypsies emerging from the trucks that lined the streets. One, two, three, four, five… or more. Could it be salvation? Was a turn around possible to create?? To our great relief, it was and we watched these gypsies push a vehicle full of cement mix out of our way. Raquel Rusing raised her hands up and cheered for the fearless soldiers and one gypsy responded with excitement by “raising the roof.” Oh India.

Rockland Hospital, a private hospital, was an impressive structure and example of the rise in Medical Tourism. Their doctors were specialists and the hospital tapped into niche markets by providing exclusive programs and packages, such as stress management. Their financial and ethical practices gained the company a partnership with the IFC and allowed them to be ranked among the top 5 hospitals of India.

With two company visits down, we headed back to the hotel and had an opportunity to experience more traffic – but it was more exciting since the bus decided to drive down a one-way street because it was faster. Even a policeman couldn’t stop us. We bribed him. Yep. We illegally drove a 40-foot bus into on-coming traffic for the promise of 50 rupees. We have yet to pay our debt. Ohhh yeah.

It had been an exciting day by this point and a celebration was in order. And oh what a celebration it was. We were escorted to a five-star restaurant with an outside patio draped in red canopies, white couches and zebra pillows, bubble gum flavored hookah, Kingfisher brewskies and exotic belly dancers clanking the coins around their hips. I think the majority of the guys enjoyed the cushy pillows the most… riiiiiight. I don’t think Jimmy moved an inch as he waved away or beckoned a server to bring him the wide variety of Indian delicacies – tikka masala, grilled fish, paneer sticks, etc. (To be honest, I cannot be trusted with the names of any of our snacks. I suggest Wikipedia for further information). By the way, Jimmy’s new nickname is now Raja Jim. We ate and drank until late in the evening before heading back to prepare for Day 4.

We fell asleep with full-bellies and mystical dreams of India. Welcome to the other side of the world, Cal Poly.