INDIA STUDY TOUR 2016
NAMASTE This trip was an ini1a1ve of the Deming Center in conjunc1on with the Entrepreneurship and Compe11veness in La1n America (ECLA) Program. We would like to thank all the supporters of the Deming Center as well as Santander Universi1es and The Chazen Ins1tute for making this trip possible.
STUDY TOUR 2016: INDIA This past March, a group of Columbia Business School faculty and ECLA Program par1cipants visited India for a week-long study tour. FiOeen La1n American companies from a variety of industries were represented. The tour started with the par1cipants being hosted by Mr. Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, followed by various visits to companies from the Tata group as well as small and medium-sized companies in the areas of Mumbai and Pune. In addi1on to the business visits, an important element of the trip was the cultural component and recognizing the dierences between India, La1n America, and the U.S. One of the objec1ves of the tour was to enrich the understanding of the business landscape in India. The mee1ngs with industry leaders, family business owners, social entrepreneurs and the cultural visits, combined with the openness and curiosity of the group, made this study tour a success.
MEETING MR. TATA & TCS
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The week started with an in1mate mee1ng with Mr. Tata that was moderated by Professors Nelson Fraiman and Medini Singh. Ques1ons were asked by the ECLA program par1cipants on topics ranging from family business issues to leadership and mo1va1on. Mr. Tata’s passion for crea1ng businesses to solve real problems in Indian society was one of the most important lessons learned. The Tata group manages 80 companies around the world (300 if we consider their subsidiaries). Consistency and principles were some of the key words when Mr. Tata was asked about quality control and success. However, with honesty he said: “You can only try to keep true to your principles (…) achieving success is a con1nuous process.” When asked about the challenge of maintaining innova1on in big organiza1ons, his answer was clear: “Compe11on is the most important thing to make you innovate.” He also highlighted the importance of mo1va1ng people within an organiza1on, “If you can’t mo1vate your people, you are a troubled organiza1on.” Tata Consultancy Services received the group at their Mumbai campus. TCS has more than 300,000 employees worldwide. An interes1ng part of the conversa1on focused on their challenges in recrui1ng, training, and managing human resources, and also in the cultural challenges of having employees from different countries. Some1mes, they need to adapt their behavior according to the cultural differences.
DABBAWALAS Most office workers in Mumbai prefer to eat homecooked food in their workplace. The dabbawalas created a sophis1cated network that collects hot food from the office worker’s residences and delivers the lunchboxes, called dabbas, to the workplace. The network is comprised of 5,000 dabbawalas, who deliver 200,000 dabbas daily, and cover a 40-mile radius. The dabbawalas created a highly efficient logis1cs system, which is commonly studied in many business schools around the world. It is frequently claimed that dabbawalas are six sigma compliant. The par1cipants spent a morning with the dabbawalas. First, they learned about the organiza1on during a discussion with the company’s communica1on manager who answered ques1ons regarding the network, the coding system, the recrui1ng process, and the sales and opera1ons processes. Later, the par1cipants were divided into smaller groups and joined various dabbawalas on their different routes to deliver dabbas, this included a train ride in special wagons, and even visi1ng some offices for the final delivery. The 1me spent with the dabbawalas was fruiiul, and one of the main learnings was that behind the apparent chao1c ac1vity, there is a thoughiul and well-established order, which wouldn’t be possible without the extremely engaged and commijed workforce. 3
TATA MOTORS
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Founded in 1945, Tata Motors is the largest automobile manufacturer in India. The par1cipants visited their facility in Pune and were welcomed by B. V. Ramesh, Senior Manager of Administra1on. Mr. Ramesh gave a presenta1on in which he discussed the history of the organiza1on and answered several ques1ons from the group. During the presenta1on, Mr. Ramesh spoke about the story of Tata Motors, the alliance they had for many years with Daimler-Mercedes Benz, and how they split from this rela1onship to create their own branded cars to serve the growing Indian market. He also spoke about the recent acquisi1on of Jaguar Land Rover, which was mainly done for strategic reasons. He spent a lot of 1me talking about their recrui1ng and training eorts and how they work with the local engineering university in Pune to train and prepare students to work for Tata Motors. He discussed majers about the supply chain strategy, for example, they have suppliers less than 30km from the facility and try to have all products made in India. AOer the discussion, the par1cipants toured the facili1es, which included the main assembly line for Tata cars and visited also where the Jaguar is made using a batch process for the Indian market. AOer touring the facili1es, Sachin Singh, Plaiorm Manager of Nano, spoke to the group about the Nano and the Ace projects. This was a very interes1ng talk in which the group learned how two very similar projects with very similar objec1ves had completely dierent outcomes.
SUHANA SPICES Suhana is a 50-year-old family business that produces spices, pickles, and food products with a strong Indian iden1ty. They sell to 120 million customers worldwide and most of their customers are Indians living abroad. The group was hosted by Vishal Chordia, Director of Strategy & Marke1ng (Founding family, third genera1on) and Sagar Pande, Marke1ng Manager. AOer the par1cipants were treated to a tradi1onal, homemade lunch, they were guided through a facility tour, where they visited several produc1on lines. The tour included a visit to the storage room of unprocessed chili peppers, which is their main raw material. Suhana processes 25 tons a day. The group also saw the processing and mixing of dierent blended spices, and the lines of packaging and prepara1on of products for transport. AOer the tour, the group had a deep and dynamic conversa1on with Mr. Chordia, in which he shared his path to becoming a third genera1on manager in the company. Some of his stories about overcoming challenges were very insighiul, especially to the owners of family-owned businesses in the group.
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DHARAVI Dharavi is known as the biggest slum in Asia, with an es1mated popula1on of 1 million people, it is like a city within the city of Mumbai. The par1cipants visited Dharavi and were guided by locals, thanks to the organiza1on Reality Gives, an NGO that helps the Dharavi community. The par1cipants visited a wide range of businesses that operate within Dharavi, such as recycling of plas1cs, aluminum, and glass, pojery-making, and leather tanning. The par1cipants also visited the residen1al areas, which are mainly organized by religion, or language, and represent the many dierent cultural communi1es living side-by-side. One of the highlights of the tour was the view from the rooOop of one of the recycling factories, in which one can take in the real dimension of the surface covered by Dharavi. Also, the experience of walking through its very busy and narrow streets was unforgejable. Once back in the Reality Gives oďŹƒces, the par1cipants met with Megha Gupta, who started an online market place called Dharavi Market that sells arts and craOs made in Dharavi to the world. Dharavi Market has been very successful and has enabled some of the ar1sans in the network to grow their businesses beyond Dharavi.
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SOCIAL ENTERPRENEURS PANEL On the last evening in Mumbai, the par1cipants hosted a panel discussion with several social entrepreneurs who shared their amazing stories: Ameera Shah is the Founder, MD, and CEO of Metropolis Healthcare Ltd., a mul1na1onal chain of diagnos1c centers with 800 collec1on centers across South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Hema Patel is the Founder of Amba Weave, and a Trustee of WomenWeave. She was accompanied by Wasim Ansari, a third genera1on weaver, who is benefited by both organiza1ons.
Sangitaa Advani is the Founder of SA Media, a firm of freelancers offering content and design services, from communica1ons strategy to implementa1on, in print and online. Saumya Roy is the co-Founder and CEO of Vandana Founda1on, a micro-finance organiza1on that helps the urban and rural poor to become economically self-sustaining. Vibha Bakshi is a filmmaker who co-produced and co-directed the award-winning film “Daughters of Mother India.”
AGRA AOer four intense days of business mee1ngs and visits learning about the entrepreneurial and corporate scene in India, the tour ended with a cultural visit to the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, where par1cipants had a chance to learn a lijle about Indian history and cultural roots.
PARTICIPANTS FACULTY Nelson Fraiman, Professor of Professional Prac1ce & Director, Deming Center, Columbia Business School Medini Singh, Senior Lecturer in Discipline, Columbia Business School ECLA PARTICIPANTS (by company) 123 Seguro (ArgenKna) Mar1n Ferrari, Founder & CEO ClandesKna (Cuba) Idania del Rio, Founder & CEO Leire Fernandez, Manager Corbac (Chile) Chris1an Cortes, Founder & CEO Greca (ArgenKna) Rocio Gonzalez, Founder & CEO Grupo Gastronomico (Chile) Samuel Telias, CFO Andres Turski, CEO Eduardo Wainstein, Director Ilumexico (Mexico) Ana Lucia Coll, CIO Luisa Mar1nez, Talent Management Manuel Wiechers, CEO Intelligenxia (Chile) Nicolas Guiloff, Founder & CEO Raul Undurraga, COO Pulso Salud (Peru) Ana Maria Llerena, Founder & CEO Mar1n Olano, Founder & Director
STAFF AgusKna Besada, Associate Director, Deming Center Maggie Hopkins, ECLA Program Coordinator & Program Manager, Chazen Ins1tute Kalpana Kanthan, Associate Director, Deming Center Angela Quintero, ECLA Program Manager & Senior Associate Director, Deming Center Sinergia (Uruguay) Macarena Boja, Founder & Execu1ve Director Federico Lavagna, Founder & Director Tes America (Colombia) Alvaro Pa1ño, Business Development Daniel Rosas Tapia, Founder & CEO UruIT (Uruguay) Marcelo Lopez, Founder & Head Sales and Marke1ng Iang Yim, Founder & CTO USS (ArgenKna) Guillermo Ferraris, Founder & Director Eduardo Kbal, Founder, COO & CFO Watergush (Mexico) Antonio Aguilera, CTO Xavier Paez, CEO ECLA ALUMNI Ipeth (Mexico) Alejandro Cuervo, Founder & CEO Nazca Ventures (Chile) Felipe Henriquez, Founder & Managing Partner
The W. Edwards Deming Center Columbia Business School Uris Hall 3022 Broadway, Room 204 F New York, NY 10027 T. 212 854 1122 deming@gsb.columbia.edu www.gsb.columbia.edu/deming