Preparatory Seminar - Day 1

Today was the first day of our Preparatory Seminar. The day started with a presentation from Corinne Räz who worked as a Manager for Integra India. She was accompanied by Livia Kistler. They gave us an amazing first impression on what to expect when working in India. They emphasized personal flexibility since it happens that nobody shows up for meetings sometimes. Furthermore they told us about “Jugaad” which means that when a problem arises, Indian employees are very quick in coming up with a fix. But there is also an overwhelming bureaucracy you have to deal with when doing business in India.

After getting a first insight in the Indian culture, Hannes Weibel from UBS introduced the Indian Banking System. It is a system dominated by regulations which makes it impossible to specialize in one particular banking division. They still expect banks to offer general services.

The next speaker was Neelam Nagar, from Neelam’s Sprachschule. She first took us through Indian’s history. Then she explained us the Do’s and Dont’s in India and surprised us by explaining the remaining significance of the cast system. It still happens that someone washes their hands after meeting with someone from a lower cast.

Last but not least Pascal Jansen from the logistics company Kuene + Nagel gave us an Insight into his company. He explained us the challenges you face regarding Innovation in a market, where 60% of the population has about 2 Dollars to spend a Day.

At the end of the Day, we got the chance to chat and to get to know each other over a delicious Indian Apéro.


Todays Blogger

Nina Maric
Delegation Member of Focus India 2014