Team Five:

Our team arose early in the morning and left New Delhi for Mumbai. We took a picture with our bus driver and Sanjeev, his helper. It was sad to leave them, but everyone was pretty grateful to leave the hustle and bustle of New Delhi in search of a new place to conquer. Jimmy was sick and had issues with food poisoning the night before we left and had some further stomach issues during the flight. We will spare you the details, but let’s just say it was a quick flight and Jimmy threw up. Some aspects of the New Delhi airport to remember were: we were allowed to bring water bottles, we had buses drive us out to the planes, our carryon bag needed a special tag, and we needed text messaging capabilities to gain access to the Internet. Upon landing we gathered our bags at the carousel and were greeted as we walked out the door with a small monsoon. Welcome to Mumbai.

We loaded the bus and made our way to the hotel—an extremely nice five-star hotel which would be considered nice by western standards. Jimmy S. and David C. stayed back at the hotel while we made our fist visit to a global multimedia and telecom company. James M. missed the bus, but using his good communication skills and the direction of a few very helpful motorists he was able to direct the taxi driver to the right location and make it to the meeting on time. The bus arrived late, but our hosts were gracious.

A top manager from HR gave us an overview of its parent business and its multiple lines of business throughout the world. More specifically, she spoke to us about HR hiring, training and retention practices. She reinforced the importance of initially getting the right people on the bus to ensure a successful company and smooth operations. We then received a strong SWOT analysis, including short-term and long-term goals, most of which were pretty aggressive. We received key insight into how important their soft skills are. Finally, she spoke extensively about the large amounts of work involved with training employees to communicate with the customers whom are on the other side of the line and half-way around the world.

The second speaker, a senior manager over call-center operations, spoke about the importance of leadership, listening to employees, gaining their trust, and setting realistic goals and expectations. He talked about coordinating the operations of thousands of people, everything from making sure they come to work on time and keeping them well rounded physically, mentally and emotionally. In addition, the manager spoke a lot about the metrics involved with measuring call center employees (customer service, success rate, etc) and how they are used to consistently improve their ability to help the customer that is calling.

After the company visit, we headed to a large mall which had an interactive dinning experience that reflected many of the cultural aspects and activities through out India. This restaurant had pottery making, palm readers, musicians, dancers, and henna tattooist. The food was very diverse along with the intricate decorations. Beyond the delight and fun we experience with all the food, activities and dancing we took away a lot of insight into the ever changing cultural diversity of India. During the day we were joined by two local Indian University students—Kamal and Rits. They were a lot of fun. It was great to get opinions and information from students our own age regarding the global economy and learn of their different worldviews.