Returning to India

I was born in Bombay (now called Mumbai), India and I moved to the United Sates with my family when I was ten years old. I have returned to India several times since we moved to the U.S. and each time, I return to a new India. It’s been amazing to see how rapidly the country has changed, from rapid urbanization, build-up of technology and business, to how people dress, speak and even eat. The last time I was in India was March of 2009; I was shopping for my wedding with my mom. It was a fun experience, picking out beautiful saris and jewelry. In just a few days I have the opportunity to discover a new part of India, but this time around I hope to give something back.

I’m excited to use my Hindi language skills again. I learned Hindi when I was young and in school in India and I’ve been able to keep in touch with it mostly through watching Bollywood movies and listening to music. I’m a little nervous about speaking Hindi again, but I’m so proud to have held on to the language even after all of these years. The non-Hindi speakers on the trip have been taking lessons and it will be great to see them speak some Hindi on our trip.

This trip is also especially important to me as I get to share it with my husband who is born and raised in the U.S. I’m looking forward to discovering a new part of India with him and especially interested to see his reactions to the country. I think that’s what makes this trip fascinating; it’s not only about me learning and growing, but also seeing how others adapt to new situations and learning from them.

I am part of the retail project team and I was just telling one of my teammates that I will be elated if we are able to just give one new recommendation to CORD that they feel they can implement. Of course, we hope to accomplish much more than that, but as we get further into this project I realize that there are many paths that CORD has already explored. Giving them a unique perspective is essential and although we might not be able to transform how they work immediately, I hope we can add value in some way, even if it is in small way.

Microfinance is ready to take flight!

Less than a week left until we take flight for India!!! The Microfinance team is excited and ready to meet our assigned self-help groups and to learn first-hand about their triumphs and struggles as a group. While at C.O.R.D. we want to put together an inspirational video complied of interviews with “A” rated self-help groups that we can leave behind at C.O.R.D. We hope this video will help other self-help groups find inspiration and motivation to become an “A” rated group like some of their peers. We have also put together a few surveys that we hope to leave at C.O.R.D. These surveys will allow C.O.R.D. to get a better understanding of the various types of income generating activities that their community is looking for as well as areas of improvements for current training programs in place at C.O.R.D. There is a lack of participation in the trainings that are offered and we believe by pooling together some feedback from the community, C.O.R.D. might be able to better identify the lack of enthusiasm and help increase training demand amongst their community.

I mentioned in my last post, “Microfinance at C.O.R.D.”, that we were scheduled to have a phone call with three group leaders to get a better understanding of what motivates their members and what has led to some of their successes. Bhairavi is fluent in Hindi and was able to have a wonderful phone conversation with the group leaders and then relayed the phone conversation back to Troy, Steven and I. The groups we spoke with were all formed in the year 2000 and had very different paths to success. One group leader heavily enforced the importance about being on time and consistent attendance at their group meetings and the group members really thrived off of her strict enforcement. One key success driver for her group members was renting rooms out in their homes to local college students. Another group leader reduced her group's lending rates so that the women would feel more comfortable borrowing and being able to pay back their loans. As the women’s confidence grew, the leader slowly increased their lending rates to the standard at C.O.R.D. of 2% a month. We were very grateful to hear these women share their stories and cannot wait to hear many more when we arrive.

I will be blogging from India so make sure to check back to hear about our in-country experiences!

Let the countdown begin...

There are currently only 11 more days until we board the plane, and start our adventure in India! Yesterday, we had our last class meeting, where all of the groups presented their research and recommendations to the entire class. This was a great opportunity for all of the groups to understand the intricacies of every project, and see the progress that everyone has made. It was also a great forum to give and receive feedback on the ideas that we have been developing. Every team has devised a plan of action for when they arrive to CORD, so that they can continue to research their project, and reinforce their recommendations or adjust them based on new findings.

As part of the retail team, we plan to spend a lot of time in the retail locations understanding the consumer's willing-to-pay, the competition in the area, and the recruitment process for women making handicrafts. Our main objective is to prove that production of handicrafts is a viable long term income generating activity, and to motivate more women to participate in these activities. Our recommendations focus on ensuring that CORD is targeting the correct women in the appropriate geographical areas, as well as improving in-store success to drive motivation to produce more handicrafts. Throughout our time in India, we will be able to get our final questions answered, and determine for ourselves if our recommendations are feasible.

The Asian MBA Association gave a presentation on 'how to survive India' with great practical travel tips, and suggestions for our time in India. One thing that they stressed is that India has a TON of amazing food! I am very excited to try parantha for breakfast (a kind of Indian bread made from wheat flour and cooked on a flat pan - various stuffing includes potato, onion cauliflower, cottage cheese, etc.), and jalebi for dessert (made from flour mix deep fried in oil and then dipped in sugar syrup - looks like funnel cake). Indians also love cricket, and is currently one of the hosts for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Hopefully while we are there, we get to see the true passion for the sport!!

Kangra Paintings

We have only very busy two weeks before we leave for India, and we are anxious and excited to begin the in-country part of our project!

Joni, Julia, Sumedh and I are consulting with artists who make Kangra paintings. Kangra paintings originated in Indian Punjab in the 17^th century. They depict stories from poetry, and often center around the love story of Radha and Krishna. The work is done with tiny brushes, and so the detail of each painting is very fine. The artists with which we are working are hearing and/or speaking impaired, and face discrimination and often a tough economic future. They see Kangra painting as an income generation activity, a social activity, and a passion.

Our project faces a supply side problem. Paintings are sold to a corporate client and through CORD. Currently, the corporate clients want more paintings than the artists can produce, but the price corporate pays is low. Travellers coming through CORD also buy the paintings, but again, these people are not willing to pay much for them. So even though plenty of demand exists, the artists cannot raise the prices, because a ceiling value exists for the paintings within the markets in which they are currently sold.

We are looking at ways to attract new artists, through recruitment methods and earning potential incentives. We want to create recruiting initiatives, both through advertisement and peer recruiting. These initiatives will take better shape as we are able to meet the artists. We suggest three avenues to increase earning potential: adjusted presentation, new products, and new channels. Simple adjustments to the presentation by adding mat board to the paintings and protecting them with plastic will give the impression of a higher value product. New products using prints of the paintings, such as postcards or greeting cards, could help raise the amount of money earned from each painting. New channels via fair trade, the internet, or new corporate partnerships could match current supply with consumers willing to pay higher prices than the artists currently charge.

With our recommendations, we hope to give the artists tools with which they themselves are able to shape and improve their futures. As we have researched and refined our recommendations, the cultural aspects have become increasingly important. As our focus turns to our presentation, they will likely become even more important. We are leaving in two weeks, and we are all beyond excited to meet the artists and members of CORD in person.

Live the Questions

As our departure date to India rapidly approaches, our group has spent countless hours gathering data about worms, wool shawls or lending practices in Sidhbari and its surrounding communities. At the same time, we have practiced Hindi, read articles on microfinance, and listened to highly esteemed professors lecture on the history of Indian politics and economics. However, despite all that we have studied over the past four weeks, there is much we still don't know.

The reality is that no matter how much we learn about India this semester, we still don't know as much about the country as the people we are going to visit. Thus, it is vital that we approach our work in Sidhbari with curiosity and humility. Being able to listen to entrepreneurs, Self-Help Group leaders, and the staff at CORD will not only enable us to solve challenging business problems, but also strengthen our ability to work in cross-cultural environments.

As with any consulting engagement, all of our teams have wrestled with a great deal of ambiguity. Yet that ambiguity is what will make this experience as transformative as we originally imagined. So instead of trying to know all of the answers before we depart, let's try to "live the questions now," as the poet Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote. By recognizing our limited exposure to this diverse culture, I believe that we will allow Incredible India to teach us new things, both about its people and about ourselves.

Microfinance at CORD

Steven, Troy, Bhairavi and I are working with CORD to discover ways to improve the Microfinance program currently in place at CORD. As it stands, self-help groups of approximately 10-15 women are formed and work together to save and lend money to one another. Savings can amount to as little as 20 rupees a month per individual (approximately $0.50 ) to a more standard average of 50 rupees a month (just over $1). Each self-help group decides how much money they went to save each month and every member of the group must present the agreed upon savings at their monthly meeting. At this monthly meeting it is also determined which women from the group will receive a loan from the savings that the women have just deposited. The women that take out loans are charged a monthly interest rate of 2% and ideally should start repayment on her loan the following month.

Every three months the self-help groups are evaluated by CORD on a variety of parameters from internal democracy to loan taking capacity and based on these parameters the group will receive a score out of 600 that is recorded on a grading sheet. On this grading sheet is a grade (A, B, C, D) based on how many points were earned out of 600.

Last week our team received grading sheets for 25 different self-help groups at CORD that Steven, Troy, Bhairavi and I will be working with when we travel to Sidhbari next month. These charts really gave our team a much better understanding of where our focus needs to be in trying to help these self-help groups grow and ultimately earn a higher grade. The areas that seem to need the most attention are borrowing money for income generation purposes as well as demand for training and the members’ participation at the training sessions. The training sessions are intended to teach women a skill that will help them use their loans for income generation, whether it is sewing clothes, painting a beautiful portrait or farming. This is our next big challenge, how to get the women motivated and excited to attend training sessions that will enhance their skill set as well as to earn a higher grade as a group and move from a “C “to a “B”, a “B” to an “A”, etc. This coming Monday we will be having a phone call where we hope to speak to 3 different group leaders that currently have an “A” grade. We hope to learn from them what it is that has made their group so successful and what motivates their members to score well.

I look forward to updating you on our phone call this coming week! And happy almost Valentine's Day :)

Vermi-what?

Yeah, that's right: the photo to the right is a pile of vermicompost, or compost made from worm castings (scientifically known as poop). And it's the project that I'm working on for GLOBASE India, along with my teammates Avjit, Patrick, Stephanie, and Evan.

No, we're not going to be making the stuff or teaching anyone in India how to--this is an MBA program, not an ag-tech extension office. But our host organization CORD has asked us to help them figure out how to get poor Indian farmers to produce vermicompost. Why? First of all, vermicompost is up to 70% more effective than chemical fertilizer, which must be produced by large, non-local commercial operators, is energy intensive to manufacture, and has negative effects over time on soil. Small-time farmers who work with CORD have already started making vermicompost to reduce their own dependence on chemical fertilizer--and a few produce a little extra to sell to other farmers or local large-scale commercial growers.

A little background: To make vermicompost, a farmer only needs a starter batch of the right kind of worms and a proper bin, to which food scraps, animal manure, and other organic matter like newspaper are added--most of which a small-time farmer has plenty of as a byproduct of daily operation. The worms eat (and poop) their way through the waste every 2-3 months, leaving behind a fine mixture of castings and decomposed organic matter full of micronutrients. The worms take care of repopulating themselves, and a fraction of them can be used to start a new vermicompost bin (where the worms will conveniently scale up their population to match the food available).

Can our team of five produce a plan to help CORD and the farmers of Himachal Pradesh build supply and demand for vermicompost? That's been our challenge over these weeks since Spring Term began. We have only a few more weeks of emails and late night/early morning calls with our CORD contacts to develop a game plan for the week we'll spend in the village of Sidhbari. So far, we've gathered a lot of basic data about the situation on the ground there--how much chemical fertilizer sells for, barriers to adoption by farmers, how farmers interact with local cooperatives and the government, and much more. We're trying to get a complete understanding of the facts before making any recommendations or spreadsheets; as MBAs, we're used to having all the data we need attached to the back of a case or available online. We've had to learn to show patience as we deal with barriers of time, language (thankfully, Avjit is fluent in Hindi), and cultural understanding (Indians use much more indirect forms of communication). It's great practice for operating in a global business environment.

The most important advice that our faculty advisers Jim and Pam have given us is to not interrupt the people we're interviewing and start interjecting our solutions prematurely. Trust me, after 1 1/2 years of MBA work, it's hard not to do that. But as any student of design thinking knows, a solution that makes sense on paper (or in PowerPoint and Excel) means nothing if it cannot or will not be adopted by the people whom it is meant to help. We have to be careful to solve the problems that CORD wants us to solve, not the ones that appear to us to be critical. Disrespecting the time and thought they have already put into the problem is a recipe for disaster, and arrogant besides.

We'd love to hear from any outside experts, prospective Kelley students, vermicompost enthusiasts, or the secretary of the Indian Department of Agriculture! Share your advice and comments. We know that we as students will benefit from GLOBASE--but we truly want to make sure our Indian partners benefit and that GLOBASE India is even better positioned to make a difference in 2012.

Learning all about Project Management and India

The class sessions have been really great so far at teaching us about India and what it will be like to work with our client, CORD, while we are in country. I'd now like to take the time to talk about each of the classes thus far a little more in depth.

Class 1

The first week was all about getting us used to working in our project teams and helping us to understand just how much work was ahead. The night started with a session led by Jeff McMullen, Kelley's Social Entrepreneurship professor, that introduced us to IDEO's method of "design thinking". This was an amazing way to start the 7 weeks because it helped us to see exactly how important it is to just LISTEN to what our clients are telling us. We must first understand the problem from their perspective and only then can we use that perspective to form potential recommendations. The first half of the session ended with a hands on bridge building competition. Let's just say I am VERY glad my team will not be responsible for building any architectural structures while in India!! :)

The second half of the night was devoted to project management. For this half of the evening we had the Consulting academy director, John Wisneski, come in and walk us through the necessary steps to effectively manage a project. It was during this session that the reality of the tasks at hand sank in for many of us. It was also during this session that I became even more excited and ready to get to work on helping the rural artisans of Northern India!

Class 2

The second class was simply amazing! After learning in the first week what it takes to effectively perform an international consulting engagement, it was time to begin learning more about our destination of choice, India. The evening started off with a discussion led by Sumit Ganguly, Director of the India Studies Program at IU. Sumit walked us through the political history of India and how that history has shaped the current landscape. We could all see his excitement and the love of country Professor Ganguly has and walked away from the discussion very energized and excited for the rest of the GLOBASE program.

The second half of the class session was a macroeconomic case discussion led by none other than Phil Powell, Professor and Chairman of the MBA program. Phil was able to take us through the country's macroeconomic history, tieing in much of what was discussed during the first half of the evening. The most important take away for me from this session was Phil's insistence that we look at why India made some of the economic decisions they had made in the past. I was reminded that no matter how something looks, we must realize that people, as rational human beings, will always do what they think is best and that it is in understanding why these decisions are made that true insights into the economy and culture are gained.

Class 3

The third class session was pretty interesting as well. It started off with a discussion of religion led by Professor David Haberman from the Religious Studies department at IU. Because we are going to a Hindu based organization, it is imperative that we understand what Hinduism is and how we can expect to encounter it during our stay in Northern India. Luckily for us, Professor Haberman's specialty is Hinduism in Norther India! This part of the session allowed us to not only better understand what Hinduism is, but also helped to build our expectations of some the experiences and practices we will have the opportunity to view and/or take part in once in India.

The evening ended with a discussion of microfinance led by GLOBASE India's facutly advisor, Jim Wahlen. The session started off with a discussion of the book "Banker to the Poor" by Muhammad Yunus. This allowed us to better understand how microfinance came to be and the problems it was initially meant to solve. This was followed up by a discussion of what microfinance looks like today in India in general and at CORD more specifically. Given that many of the villagers we will be working with participate in the peer lending program at CORD it is very important for us to have an understanding of how it works.

Next up in Class 4.... Indian Culture and Project Specific Learnings!

GLOBASE India - Information Overload

It is amazing how much information there has been to take in over the past 4 weeks! We have learned about project management and design thinking, Indian politics and the Indian macroeconomy, and Hinduism and microfinance in our last three class sessions. On top of that we are taking Hindi lessons once a week to enable us to speak basic phrases once we are on the ground at CORD. It has not been all work however. We did take some time to have a party at Jim's house a few weeks back. As you can see, it was great getting to know each other more and the food wasn't so bad either!

All in all, it has been an incredible experience thus far and I can't wait to experience the remaining weeks until we leave for India. There are some great things coming... Learning more about the culture, hearing from a photojournalist from National Geographic that has spent a lot of time photographing India, practice project presentations... It's a whirlwind for sure, but one I am very glad to be in!