Onsite Seminar XII

Roche

Despite of having a lot of work Roche was very delighted to support our project and took their time for our visit. Roche, a giant within the pharmaceutical industry feels committed to Universities.

During our visit they gave us a brief introduction about the company having 80’000 employees globally. They also told us proudly about their success within the Chinese market. They are having the same expectations for India’s market due to the fast growing economy which makes India an attractive market for them.

Our company visit was a very interesting and interactive session about doing business not only within the Indian pharmaceutical industry, but in general between the management staff and us. Furthermore, Innovation has also been a topic. Roche follows the innovative sounding claims “doing now what the patients need” and “make your mark improves lives” within their researching program and marketing strategy.

In the afternoon as we were sitting inside our air conditioned bus on the way to Schindler, an incident happened: Suddenly our bus had technical problems and was undrivable. The first solution was that everybody has to get off the bus int the 40°C  heat, so that Rickshas can be arranged. The next order was that everybody has to get back into the broken bus.  A new bus was organized for which we only had to wait incredible 7 minutes. This is the proof that India - within all the traffic chaos -can be very well organized. This has also been our first real experience with the Indian “Jugaad” =)

Schindler

As we arrived at Schindler the management has started their introduction in a humorous way which created an easy-going atmosphere from the beginning. This was the basis of an interactive, funny but also high learning effected meeting.

Further on, the CEO of Schindler India gave us a brief overview of India’s culture and their way of doing business related to Schindler.

Finally the Focus India delegation got stunned by Schindler’s recent projects such as the installation of their products for some Indian celebrities or airports across the whole country. Fascinating was especially the height of the buildings and the amazing stories these buildings have to tell. On top of that, Schindler told us the reason why they actually plan a new lift with the amazing, but still comfortable, speed of 8m/s. Although Schindler could guarantee a higher speed up to 21m/s, they think that people would not feel good going up, and the company highly believes that comfort IS what Schindler lifts should stand for.

Onsite Seminar XI

Welcome to our second day in Mumbai! Today we found empty streets, no traffic jam and definitely less noise from blowing horns – the reason behind all this: today it’s Election Day in Mumbai. Since most offices have closed, we were forced to rearrange our seminar program and instead planed an unforgettable trip to Dharavi, the largest slum of Asia.

We were fascinated to learn that this and many other slums worldwide are not what we have associated with a “slum” so far. Dharavi is rather a small industry in Mumbai with a wide range of commercial activities such as recycling, pottery-making, bakery, soap factory or even leather tanning. An astonishing annual turnover of business is estimated to be more than 650 million dollars a year! We as visitors were able to feel the sense of community and spirit existing in this slum which is home to more than 1 million people – a mind-blowing number. This was probably one of the highlights of the week and a real eye-opening experience for everyone!

In the afternoon the delegates had the chance to explore Mumbai on their own. So many went to sights such as the hanging gardens, the gateway, to the famous leopold cafe or just enjoyed the sunny and hot weather at the hotel pool which was refreshing after three days of full program.

Later the whole delegation met for having dinner at a nice traditional Indian restaurant. After this day everyone fully regained strength and ready for tomorrow’s promising companies’ visits.

Onsite Seminar X

Today we had an early start again. We visited PRS Permacel (Formerly a division of Johnson & Johnson, India) outside of Mumbai. Traffic in India is dense and the roads are bumpy due to frequent speed breaker bumps. We arrived at PRS on time and got a really nice welcome drink: Fresh coconut and cake.

PRS were showing us their three main areas: Coating, Printing and R&D / Quality. It was a well-organized tour and the employees obviously had a great knowledge in the field. Their four strategic business units are: Industrial, Railway, Automotive and Kavach – brand protection. I personally liked to see the screen-printing of decals for two wheelers. It is a very precise work done with machines that seem to be rich of years.

In the evening Mr Premchand, who is the Executive Chairman of PRS Permacel offered an Apéro riche at our hotel and we had the opportunity to ask questions and give our opinion (positive ones as well as negative ones). This day was once more a very nice and dense experience. Thank you all so much!

Onsite Seminar IX

For our second and last business day in Pune we left the Hotel Hyatt at 7.30. We drived to the village Kondhapuri where the two companies Sulzer and Burckhardt Compression are located. 

First we visited Sulzer. They showed us an interesting presentation about their company. After that we had the chance to get an insight of the production plant. So it was possible to see how the internals of the tanks are produced. The visit was followed by an Indian Lunch at the canteen from Sulzer. 

For the next company visit at Burckhardt Compression we had to move just 200 meters. Everybody was happy about it because we have spent already a lot of time in the bus. Burckhardt Compression gave us an introduction about the company. There we also got an insight of the production from the compressors. The huge dimensions were very impressive. At 4 o’clock we had to drive back to Pune.

In the evening we travelled to Mumbai by train. The whole delegation was worrying about the overfilled Indian Trains during the whole day. But the reservation has worked and we didn’t had to sit in the economic class. After a 3 hour ride we arrived in Mumbai.

Onsite Seminar VIII

Dear Blog followers! Yesterday we flew to Pune and everyone was exited about our new Hotel, the Hyatt, and i think nobody was disappointed. After having enjoyed the free Easter Weekend, we started off the second business week fully motivated. 

At 7.30 a.m, Reto Müller welcomed the entire delegation at the reception and we drove on a bumpy road to our first company visit. Faber, the subsidiary of Franke, gave us a very warm and traditional welcome called Kumkum. Due to this, every member of the delegation was walking around with a red point on their foreheads. After a short introduction about Faber, we visited the plants. The offered Indian lunch buffet was great but still, not everyone of us trusted the Indian food! I can't imagine why ;)

The afternoon we spent with Schindler, an escalator and elevator producer. The big surprise after the arrival -  the escalator wasn't working, so we had to take the stairs. At the beginning, we had a short presentation about Schindler followed by a plant visit. For that reason, we had to wear safety shoes with steel toe caps which underlined our business dresses perfectly.

Onsite Seminar VII

It’s Thursday morning: Election Day in Bangalore, tired faces are displacing heavy-looking luggage pieces in the hotel lobby and waiting for the bus to be picked up for a visit to Swissnex. In order to keep spirits high, one of our valuable PR Team members with a natural born showman talent, Sandro Bernasconi, has delighted our delegation with an astonishing performance of “Con te partirò” by Andrea Bocelli: goose bumps guaranteed! So we arrived at Swissnex well awake and with a bright smile on our lips.

The trip to Swissnex was relatively short, as Election Day is experienced as some kind of regional holiday, where no alcohol is sold and the traffic decreases to Swiss levels because all the businesses are closed. This fact is the best way to prove the good relationships Focus India and Swissnex are sharing, as they opened up just to meet us and have a very interesting presentation about their function as entry point for adventurous Swiss entrepreneurs. We also had the chance to meet one of the successful business man, who has developed a social media network for communication amongst peer groups, which is a bit more formal as Whatsapp and Facebook might be.

From there we went for lunch to a very fancy, vegetarian restaurant, which managed to decorate their walls with spices of all kind and colors. Being the only customers in the place, all the servants would spoil us with an endless refill of unknown, but delicious Indian tastes. Some very courageous men even tried a bite of the spicy “green chili”, fortunately with no major side effects.

Afterwards we got on our way towards the airport for the next presentation.  For some unexplainable reason, we could feel the magic of Focus India creating a very positive mood within our travelling delegation.

The presentation at the Bengaluru Airport started with a kind “Grüezi”, and was held by Swiss managing director Daniel Bircher. In short, he showed us the fast and incredible development of the Indian air business. The Bengaluru Airport is seen as a role model for all other growing Indian airports. Along to its growth, there goes the Nuance Group, taking care of all the concessions for commercial use within the airport. Their growth has been amazing as well. Their commitment to social responsibility, giving work to over 20’000 people in the rural area is impressive too.

After the presentations, we would round up our visit with a coffee together with the management team inside the airport facilities. It was another incredible Focus India, and we’re going for more!

Onsite Seminar VI

Date: April Wednesday 16, 2014

Location: Bangalore India

Temperature: increasing hot

After spending our first night in Bangalore we went on our  way to Accenture, our main sponsor. 

During the ride to Accenture we noticed that there are many differences to Delhi. The air seems to be better and there is less traffic. We were able to drive much faster than in Delhi. Probably because the election days in Bangalore have begun… or we were just lucky.

Arrived at Accenture the security checks were is done by two highly motivated Agents. After the whole security stuff the presentation of Accenture started, presented by many employees who currently take care of a big Swiss insurance company based in Winthertur. After that we had the opportunity to visit the innovation lab of Accenture where they create many useful tools and programs for the company. The highlight was the lunch with the Accenture people. The food was really good and the talking with them was not so formal anymore.

In the afternoon we visited Microsoft Ventures and had a presentation followed by a chat with young start-up entrepreneurs in the IT-sector supported by Microsoft. This was really interesting and a lot of questions have been asked and real life answers were giving. This was really what our program stands for. It was a great visit. On this occasion: Thanks to all the enterpreneurs.

Back at the Hotel a feedback round was done by Pieter and the project team. So far this day was not finished, tonight we are going out seeing the streets of Bangalore. Bye

Todays Blogger

Nicolas Balimann

Onsite Seminar V

April 15 was our last day in Delhi. 

Therefore we checked out in the morning and left the hotel at 8.50 a.m. for the first company visit. First we visited the company Maruti Suzuki, where we were friendly welcomed. The company is the Indian leader in car manufacturing. After a presentation and a discussion we started the plant tour. We saw the whole manufacturing of a car from the beginning to the end. It was interesting to see how fast and automated the manufacturing process is. At the end of the visit we had lunch with real Indian food in the canteen with the other employees. 

After the lunch we headed off to the second company visit of the day. We visited the company Zimmer which is an industry leader in producing implants. Because of the fact that we had to catch the flight to Bangalore, the visit lasted only 2 hours. Nevertheless, we had a really interesting discussion about the healthcare industry, with a focus on India. As usual at the end of the company visit we took a group picture and went directly to Delhi Airport. Our plane left for Bangalore at 6.50 p.m., perfectly on time.

Onsite Seminar IV

Namaste blog followers! After having enjoyed a cultural intensive weekend, we started off the business week with full energy and motivation. Although we needed to leave some of your fellow delegates behind us due to bellyache, we the remaining 12 delegation members headed off to a 2.5 hours bus journey to our first company visit of today, which was Kohinoor Food – the biggest basmati rice producer of India. We not only had the chance to see the production site and got to know the numerous steps in the production process of basmati rice, but we also could taste the real flavor of the Kohinoor rice. It has been amazing to learn more about the early branding in the 80s of Kohinoor Food as well as the fact that around 1’000 tons of rice leave the plant each day!

After a delicious lunch we continued our journey to the next meeting at Blaser Swisslube India, which again did last for quite a while. However, we bridged the travelling time by chatting with each other or even catching up some sleep. Also, some have been enjoying an interactive session on how to tie a tie, instructed by one of our delegate, which was very much appreciated by some male delegates who were not experts yet in this regard;)

We planned and also arrived at 5pm sharp at the office of Blaser Swisslube (pretty good time management if you take usual Indian traffic conditions into account!) and the whole delegation has been keen on interacting with Blaser employees during the presentation session, which was followed by a very tasteful Indian dinner.

I am convinced that today was a truly enriching business day for the Focus India participants and it made us even more excited for the coming visits.

Todays Blogger

Nadine Studer
Project Team

Onsite Seminar III

It’s Sunday, and the day started early again for the Focus India Delegation. So we entered the “Focus India Tour-Bus” at 6am. Having reached our destination, we took part of a Indian religious ceremony on top of a little mountain. There are no words to describe this ceremony. So you all should probably go to India and see it for yourself ;) Here an impression:

After this great experience, we travelled to another part of Delhi in order to see the third biggest mosque in Asia. But we didn’t walk to the mosque! Nooooooo! We travelled by the famous Indian “bicycle taxi”, the Riksha. It was an amazing experience to see the “real India” from such a short distance. Although the Riksha tour was amazing we were happy that we actually survived the ride… and especially the Indian traffic  =D

Focus India Forecast for tonight:

•           Indian Musical Visit
•           Indian Food

Tomorrow: Company Visits

Keep following us on facebook and this blog to get a piece of the cake!

Todays Blogger

Sandro Bernasconi 

Public Relation Manager

Onsite Seminar II

Despite yesterday was a long and exhausting day we got up really early today. Everyone was ready at 6 am for the sunrise tour to the Taj Mahal. Even though everybody had seen pictures of the famous mausoleum before it still seemed a little like in a fairytale when we looked at it in the sunrise. The Taj Mahal is an impressive building build out of white marble. It is located in Agra, Utter Pradesh  and was build by Mughal emperor Shar Jahan. Before it became his mausoleum it was originally a monument for his wife Mumatz i-Mahal who died while she was giving birth to their 14^th child. The early hour gave us the chance to explore the beauty of Taj Mahal before it was getting crowded and also the enormous heat arrived. After the visit it was time to take the impressions in during a rich breakfast. Reinvigorated, we then started the visit of Agra Fort. This fort is like a walled city and has been home to several generations of Mughals. It is therefore of enormous historical importance for the Indians. The building was also home to Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife. It is sad that he died in one of the towers with a white marble balcony facing the Taj Mahal. After his death he was transported to Taj Mahal by boat and was buried there.  Forth Agra combines Hindu and Islamic architecture and in the way the walls are painted shows traditional arts of both cultures.

Todays Blogger

Kathrin Gründner

Onsite Seminar I

The doors of the lift opened and two travellers rushed out the doors as soon as the gap was wide enough. As the two saw the meeting-point from afar, they were wondering why nearly nobody was there yet. Was the PR team already too late? Fortunately, they realised that they were actually 30min earlier than expected, well… things like that happen when you are looking forward to a great journey, don’t they?

As soon as the whole delegation was assembled at the meeting point and a few last information were given, the whole Focus India 2014 delegation went off to the check-in, then to the airplane and then on a journey which will hopefully be as amazing as everybody expects it to be.

After about 6 hours the “Indians on time” landed in Doha, the capital of Qatar. If there was a time on this first day when people could have died by being bored, then it was this 2-hour-stay at Doha. The airport may look as Las Vegas… well not really. Anyway, after another 3 hours flight, the final destination Delhi International Airport was reached.

After the baggage claim the delegation had to run straight off to the “Focus India Tour Bus” that was keen to bring them to their first visit. After a 45min drive the delegation arrived at the Swiss Embassy in Delhi where they were already expected and invited to set foot on Swiss ground again. After we had the great opportunity to hear a lot about the Swiss-Indian relation, the delegation headed off for a late lunch and the final journey of the day to Agra, the city where the famous Taj Mahal can be found.

…..TO BE CONTINUED

Todays Blogger

Sandro Bernasconi 

Public Relation M