Coming to an end...

The MBA program at ISB has come to a close (congratulations to all the grads!), and it's suddenly time to leave Hyderabad, the beautiful ISB campus, and the many incredible friends we've met here during the past 2.5 months. It's strange to think that in 24 hours, Ty and I will be on to the next phase of our adventure in the region, including exploring northern India, Nepal, and Thailand for several months. It seems that not too long ago, we were sitting in the Fuqua computer lab, trying to construct a way to spend our final semester in India.

As we pack our bags and prepare to leave ISB though, I am feeling extremely grateful for the opportunity to have learned from the students here - about life in India, the similarities and differences between our cultures, and the value of expanding one's boundaries, both literally and figuratively. India seems to me to be a country of much complexity, beauty, pain, and promise, and I hope that I am able to return in the future and be a part of this dynamic place. By attending ISB, I have been able to learn about

one of the most rapidly changing countries in the world

alongside some of its future leaders - the people who will mold India's future in business, politics, healthcare, and social enterprise. It has been an honor to be part of this group.

Thank you to the ISB Class of 2009 for the hospitality and friendship, to the International Center at Fuqua for making the exchange possible, and to the Duke MBAA for hosting this forum for sharing experiences among Fuquans throughout the world.

Starting a Business in India: An inspiring example

An earlier Duke-initiated question for the blogs was in regards to starting a business in my host school's country. Immediately, I wanted to highlight the experience of one of my classmates and good friends here at ISB, Dr. Radhika Vasanthakumar.

At the time the posting was to be written, Radhika was out of town, presenting her entrepreneurial undertaking in Seattle, Washington at an international social venture competition. This past weekend, she and her three committed ISB teammates were again gaining international recognition for their work. The team, presenting their venture "Pioneer Healthcare", was chosen from 50 initial entrants and 18 presenting teams at the Asian Global Social Ventures Competition (held at ISB) to represent the region at U.C. Berkeley next month. I have no doubt that they'll continue to inspire judges and audiences alike, utilizing Radhika's 20 years of experience as a gynecologist in Tamil Nadu (both in cities and in rural areas) and the team members' joint health sector experience and ambition to improve access to healthcare in India.

The Pioneer Healthcare model is based on the premise that villagers in many parts of the country lack access to very basic but necessary healthcare services. According to Radhika, many clinics in rural India are understaffed, overcrowded, and in physical disrepair. Frequently, trained healthcare providers prefer to (or can only afford to) practice in urban areas, impoverished villagers cannot afford or physically tolerate long journeys to city hospitals, and out-of-pocket payments for medical bills are often too much for a village family to absorb. The Pioneer Healthcare team's mission is to expand access to quality, affordable healthcare to villagers in India, and the venture's plans are as detailed as they are grand.

The team aims to increase the provision of quality primary care in rural villages by capitalizing upon a hub and spoke model in which village care centers/clinics are connected to a Pioneer Healthcare city hospital with secondary care facilities, technological capabilities, and advanced medical knowledge. The team has thoroughly analyzed the venture's financial viability, funding needs, human resources potential, technological capabilities, incentive programs, operations and logistics, and sustainability. Additionally, Pioneer Healthcare's advisory board is comprised of a number of leaders from ISB and the medical establishment in India, and the team is garnering support and enthusiasm both locally (in the form of winning school funding for launching the business over the next two years) and around the world (see references above).

Regarding the specifics of launching this project in India, I was curious about (1) funding, (2) regulations/accreditation, and (3) the ease of starting a new business.

Funding: Radhika's venture would be funded through both equity (promoter and external) and debt. Given its dependence on leverage, I worried that the project may potentially be stalled due to the worldwide economic downturn. However, Radhika states that obtaining debt for the investment will not be as difficult as one might assume. She has been reassured that the healthcare industry in this country is indeed essentially recession-proof, and the banks with which she has discussed her initiative are anxious to invest in a financially viable and sustainable hospital/rural center network. Presently, private hospitals and healthcare facilities are being established in large numbers in India - a result of tremendous unmet needs, deregulation, and profit potential.

Regulations/accreditation: According to Radhika, there are no regulations or necessary accreditations in India for starting one's own hospital or healthcare facility. Once she secures the capital and the land on which to build, no government entity or medical regulatory body will stand in her way.

Ease of starting a business: Finally, my multiple conversations with this inspiring friend have led me to believe that it is relatively easy to start a business in India, once one has a thoroughly analyzed business model and financial support (not to mention a passion for making the venture a reality). Note: Nowhere here do I mean to assert that developing the business model or finding financial backing is easy! - I have been amazed by the efforts of the Pioneer Team (and specifically Radhika). This model has been crafted, refined, judged (multiple times), and refined again. The next steps involve building strategic partnerships with village headmen, professional schools, and existing practitioners in the pilot region, while finalizing plans for the launch of the business.

Radhika's passion and vision for rural healthcare is just one (incredible!) example of the exciting entrepreneurial spirit present in India today. At ISB, many students are working on plans for their own businesses, family ventures, or institutions that combine social empowerment with earnings generation. From my perspective, the Indian market, both in the health sector and more broadly, has significant profit potential, numerous unmet social needs, and a population of workers, consumers, and entrepreneurs that make it an exciting location for investment and new business ventures.

Many thanks to Radhika for sharing her story and for her ongoing inspiration and commitment.

Teamwork in the Indian Context

Duke's question of the week is about teamwork and the differences between teams at ISB and those at Duke.

In both form and function, teams are essentially the same at both institutions. Teamwork is an important part of each course, usually comprising 25-40% of each course's workload and grading. At the beginning of the ISB school year, students were assigned to teams teams within their sections (very similar to the core course teamwork structure at Duke). At this point in the year though (the final weeks of the MBA program), students are allowed to choose their own groups, and teams are usually composed of 4-5 students. The ideal team interaction at ISB would involve every member having prepared the case prior to a team meeting, then analyzing the scenario as a group, learning from one another's diverse perspectives, and finally coming to an answer better than the sum of the individuals' independent solutions. In theory, that's the way teams should work at Duke too, right? ...But we all know that sometimes the ideal team interaction is sacrificed in the interest of time, sleep, and sanity! Just as at Duke, teams at ISB find their own ways of interacting and completing tasks too.

As with most new experiences, teamwork here took a bit of getting used to...

Little interaction, lots of trust: As a new student in the community with no prior interactions or trust with my randomly selected team members, I was surprised by the ease with which ISB students split up assignments (not worrying at all about my ability to complete a task - bold!) In several classes, I had to really push to get team meetings scheduled (as opposed to just dividing write-ups among the groups via email and compiling at the last minute), and I felt like the loud, dominant American team member. Other American exchange students expressed the same sentiment and the frustration with the lack of in-person interactions, timely submissions, and email communications within teams at ISB. Some students went through an entire term at ISB never having met face-to-face with their team members, which is very different from my experiences at Duke. That having been said, the students here have worked with one another for nearly a year, and they have established trust, norms, and ways of communicating which we, as exchange students, couldn't possibly understand...the same likely happens in every community over time.

Honor and accountability: As a general rule, it seems that the Duke students at ISB are more aware of Honor Code issues than our local colleagues. Students here must submit an Honor Code cover sheet with every assignment, but the institution doesn't seem to enforce its meaning as much as Duke does. Whereas the Honor Code at Duke is addressed in every class and is a frequent topic of discussion among teams and the larger Fuqua community, I have not sensed the same appreciation of the Honor Code in team interactions here. Most of my classes have not offered an evaluation process for team members, and accountability suffers as a result. Teams with one or two non-participating members seem to rely on the strong contributors to get the work done, but all members names are submitted with the assignment, and grades are given to everyone (in most cases) equally, regardless of the time or effort expended. In more than one exchange student conversation, I heard about team members who had never responded to a single email, written even one sentence for an assignment, or attended a team meeting for the entire term! Although these cases were surely the exception (and ISB students were in the middle of a stressful job placement process, to give these exceptional cases the benefit of the doubt), I'm more appreciative of the emphasis on team development, personal responsibility, and accountability at Fuqua than I was before this experience.

Phones ring, teammates answer: Although Duke students certainly have been known to surf the internet, send a text, or answer a quick call during team meetings, I was totally thrown off when team members here at ISB would carry on long phone conversations in team meetings. I spoke to two friends at ISB about the issue, and they thought it was so funny that I noticed such a thing, remembering their first experiences as professionals in the U.S. and the difference in accepted phone behavior between the two cultures. One woman stated that she was shocked to look around the cubicles in her New Jersey office and not see anyone chatting on their cells during the work day. Another said that she literally had no idea that her mobile had a "silent" function until she moved to the States for work. Prior to that experience, she simply left her ringer on and answered (regardless of if she was at her desk or in a meeting!) whenever it rang. Although I'm sure that different Indian (and American!) companies have their own phone etiquette, these friends' stories indicated that the behavior of some of my teammates here is typical among professionals and students alike in India.

In conclusion, there are more similarities than differences between teams at ISB and those at Duke. Individual teams each have their own norms and ways of coping, and while teamwork can be a really rewarding experience in some cases, it can be hellish in others - and that's true of teams anywhere in the world! However, being away from Duke makes me even more convinced that there's definitely something unique and special about "Team Fuqua."

Happy Holi!

Happy Holi everyone!

We finally had the opportunity to participate in the first big Indian festival since our arrival, and it was seriously fun (and colorful, as you can see!) ISB is having its official celebration of Holi a few days late, as classes were scheduled today, interfering with a school-wide event. This Saturday, I expect the entire student body and faculty/staff to be colored and wet as well...which I suppose means trying to really scrub and get the dye off of my skin and out of my hair is a futile task. (You can see that one long shower and scrub session didn't do much to ease the color!)

Today's mini-Holi celebration was quite an experience, and the U.S. has to figure out some way to adopt such a holiday! Perhaps red, white, and blue dyes on the 4th of July???

2009 Duke India Business Forum!

Recently, a colleague from Fuqua gave me the details on the upcoming Duke India Business Forum (www.dukeibf.com/DukeIBF/Home.html). The date of the event is March 22, and registration is available online.

I hope that the students who have worked incredibly hard to plan the event, attract worldwide business leaders as conference speakers, and organize important, student-oriented questions to address at the conference are rewarded with a broad base of participants. Although I expect to see many Indian students in attendance, I'd like to encourage non-Indian Fuqua students to attend as well. I recognize that the student life at Duke is busy and that multiple opportunities for learning and interaction compete for students' time and attention. However, the importance of India to the business world - a world in which we will all be players in the coming year - is impossible to ignore. The more prepared we are to encounter, partner with, and learn from India, the better global business leaders we will be.

Having spent 2 1/2 months in India at ISB and traveling through the country, I can appreciate how much potential and need exists in the country. The IT sector has gained much attention, and the outsourcing of manufacturing, BPO services, and pharmaceutical production have entered India's increasing global spotlight as well. With over 1.2 billion inhabitants, the country cannot be ignored and will certainly impact each of our careers post-Fuqua.

As the country climbs the development ladder and becomes evermore important as both producer and consumer of global goods and services though, the disparity in wealth and opportunity continues to exist. Whether we have come to business school to learn about operations or marketing or strategy, we will leave Fuqua as leaders of consequence, and India's vast opportunity and complexity will have an impact on us all. Hopefully we will impact India and her people positively as well, and the Duke IBF is a great way to help define how each of us can make our mark.

Please consider joining the event, and enjoy!

Random ramblings (Life at ISB)

Isn't there a saying that goes something like, "You didn't realize how good you had it until it was gone..."?

I'm certainly feeling this sentiment as I encounter some of the more frustrating parts of being in business school in India! The timeliness, feedback mechanisms, and formal processes at Duke seem brilliant to me now that I'm living without such things. Granted, ISB is a young school and is breaking ground in a number of ways, but in terms of Western efficiency, transparency, and structure, the school's got a lot of growing to do.

For all of you that have traveled or lived in developing countries, you know that organization and structure are relative terms and that, comparatively, the U.S. has them pretty well mastered. I suppose that knowing ISB is a top-ranked global B-school led me to assume (improperly) that things would be almost as organized as at Duke. Well, lesson learned!

One big difference between Duke and ISB with regards to following formal processes is the course structure and syllabus. While courses are essentially set in stone at Duke (and Hopkins, Dayton, and Chaminade - the other US universities I've attended), here at ISB, students in all but one of my courses have convinced the professors to eliminate assignments, alter grading schemes, or change the dates of final exams after the classes are underway. Emails are circulated by students to vote on such changes (in the most structured of such changes), but the assumption is that if you don't reply, you agree with the proposed change. I can't even imagine a scenario in which this would happen at Duke... When a syllabus is printed, it's final (and, in my opinion, that's a good thing!)

Similarly, in a pass/fail elective that I'm taking (read: pass for showing up, fail for missing more than one class), two of the four initial classes were rescheduled on the morning of the 12:30 class. In one case, multiple last-minute emails went out with conflicting times, and when students missed the class, we were instructed that in the case of another "miss", we would indeed fail. In the fourth class, no attendance sheet was collected, and the entire original class schedule for the term is now "pending." Classes can (and likely will) be rescheduled from the allotted times to any given day of the week (weekends included) or hour of the day (during other classes as well). Something just seems illogical here.

So, in closing, let this not be pointless (or semi-therapeutic?) ranting but rather a way of reminding all of you Duke MBAs that we're really lucky for what we have - the well-planned, formalized structures that make living and operating in a B-school environment all the more enjoyable.

The Financial Crisis

The global "crisis", "slowdown", "recession", (pick another depressing and scary descriptor) is certainly making its presence known in India at the moment, though not nearly as much as it seems to be in other parts of the world (namely, my home in the U.S.). My experiences with other business students here have revealed uncertainty, nervousness, and frustration, and professors at ISB often discuss the global financial situation in classes, making theory more pertinent to our lives at present. The crisis is presumably affecting the people with which I've interacted in India in two major ways:

1. Access to jobs (ISB students)
2. Access to capital (businesses and individuals)

Access to jobs:

Students at ISB are in a one year program, so without internships and both the first year and second year opportunities to recruit, the stakes are high during the winter terms (January-February). The on-campus placement process is nearly complete, and roughly 25-30% of the class has a job, according to unofficial reports from students. Although no official placement figures have been released, students have discussed fewer "short list" or "closed list" spots to interview, fewer offers, and lower salaries from companies. For the students that have worked and lived in the U.S. or in Europe prior to attending school, the difference in salaries between the Western companies and those in India has been a large frustration, and going back to the U.S. from ISB is particularly challenging given the current environment. My assumption is that the situation is bleak at all business schools right now, but the ISB students are nearing the end of their time here (graduation is in just over one month), and the pressure is building. In my Behavioral Finance course, the professor (here to teach from Chicago), asked the students to raise their hands if they had been placed, and of the 40 in the class, no more than 10 raised their hands - a sobering picture of the crisis taking its toll on some of India's best future leaders.

Despite the pressure and anxiety though, my impression is that the discussion about jobs, placements, and the downturn in the global economy is much more frequent and serious in the U.S. (from talking to friends at Duke) than at ISB. Perhaps this is because students in the U.S. have seen the change in B-school job prospects decrease over the last two years, whereas the ISB students entered school when the crisis was beginning. Maybe the American students have seen more daily reports on unemployment figures in the U.S. and have watched their investments plummet, creating excess anxiety. In any case, though the situation is dire at our exchange school, the worry isn't as palpable as at home.

Access to capital:

I have been surprised to see Hyderabad continue its pace of business, construction, and growth with relatively little change in the past 3 months. Whereas I am bombarded with pictures of "going out of business" signs, foreclosure postings, and ever-growing unemployment lines each time I read a U.S. newspaper, I do not sense the general unease of the population in Hyderabad like I do in the States. Even as I write this posting (at 8:00 am on a Sunday morning), I can hear construction workers hammering metal and moving large rocks one of several visible construction sites from campus. I have yet to see any "going out of business" signs in Hyderabad or Kerala, and our multinational corporate neighbors here, Microsoft and Infosys, continue to buzz with activity each day and night when their employees come and go.

A month ago, two leaders of developing world projects for major U.S. philanthropies were on campus to speak about microfinance and social entrepreneurship. They both argued that while developed economies are being hit during the crisis (as well as the people that work and invest in these economies), many small, undeveloped or developing populations have not been harmed. Because capital was not readily available in the past, because investment and savings options were unheard of, and because of the lack of connectivity to the developed world, these people and economies 1) didn't have as far to fall, and 2) were not well connected enough before the crisis to feel its effects. I'm sure that other theories exist to counter this opinion, but I was surprised (and a bit relieved, to be honest) that in some areas - typically the worst-off to begin with - people with very little are not being stripped of what they do have.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, etc. Enlighten, argue with, and/or agree with me!

Note: After posting this entry, I received a link to an Economic Times analysis of the job situation at ISB. Perhaps my reports from students were lower than the real numbers, which are reported to be more around 50%. Sorry!

Note #2: Just yesterday, the Career Services department reported via email that 41% of the current students seeking jobs have been placed (with one month to go until graduation).