Rob's family

It's surprising to me that in only a couple hours, I've been able to learn so much about people that I've been interacting over the phone for the last three months. The view I had been able to build was so incomplete. A meal here, a short conversation there - suddenly these relationships go from being superficial and one-dimensional to much richer. People that I've been speaking with have families and lives outside of work (not really an earth shattering revelation, but I surprised at how much it matters). It is also surprising (to me) that my capacity and willingness to try new things has limits. At home, I am always pushing for, "Let's go out and eat Chinese, or Korean or Indian." I thought I was game for anything new any time (or all the time). I've found that after only a week, I'm actually hungering for something more familiar more what I'm used to. Aside - I'm actually thinking back to my lunch. I had a dish (Indian obviousl

Tuesday and Wednesday, Yesterday we had our first round of conversations with Allstate in Bangalore. Good conversations. I also met and spoke with a number of other senior Infosys folks who have build relationships with the Infy team. India has a huge pool of available labor. Tasks that would likely be executed by one or two in the US may be done here with 3 or 6. People frequently use very simple implements (e.g. hand crafted brooms for raking up leaves) to help them with their tasks rather than a specialized tool (leaf blower) that would be used in the US. The trip from Bangalore to Mysore was interesting. We have two new SUVs with drivers taking us from place to place. Leaving Bangalore we got on what passes for a highway here. At one point, it ended (literally) and we merged into a rutted dirt track. For two kilometers we bounced back and forth and then the highway started up again. Apparently, there is politics and not-enough-bribery involved. Notes on traffic here. Much

Due to an unexpected (to me) Indian holiday, my first day in India was quite quiet. After 20 some hours in the air and on the ground from Chicago, we landed in Bangalore. We collected our bags and found our taxi. Over the last several weeks I’ve heard (lots), “You won’t be prepared for India. It’s so different than anything you’ve ever experienced.” So, I imagined landing in Hong Kong in ’83 and made it much worse in my head. I probably over did it. Yes, people drive their tiny cars in a crazy manor here (pretty exciting stuff), yes there is plenty of poverty. Yes, there is a weird dichotomy of abject poverty next to 21st modern buildings. However, it is just another country. People are people. The Infosys Bangalore campus has hundreds of bikes for the borrowing. During regular work days, I’m sure they’re difficult to come by. On a holiday, it was easy. We grabbed two bikes and saw the campus. We hired a car and driver for the day to take us all over Bangalore. Top highlight was an ama

I'm heading to India this evening for a week. I'll be in Bangalore for two days, then Mysore for 4 days. I've been working with Indian consulting firms for several years, but now I'm part of the team. I'm looking forward to meeting my team in India. One of the things I've realized now working for an Indian firm that I didn't really realize previously is that the team in India is much more important than the team in the US. This is particularly true when you have a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of resources offshore:onshore. This is the ratio that we're typically doing at my client. At CNA we did a much higher ratio in the US - closer to 50:50. My intent is to publish my thoughts daily while I'm there. We'll see how good I am at writing. For a good start, my flight is now scheduled to depart two hours late. "Good News" says Taps (his name is quite long; everyone calls him Taps), "We'll have a shorter layover in Mumbai." 25 hours to ge