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
