This week I went on my first official visit to a customer here in India. I was quite excited about experiencing this as it is one of India’s largest companies within its segment. We went there by car, and as it was not that far away in distance this seems like no problem, though being in Mumbai it is. Traffic can be quite bad and the roads are of variable standard, well mostly bad standard… So it took us 1,5 hours one way… But I am still enjoying the scenery of Mumbai and having my Indian colleagues sitting next to me in the car providing interesting facts about the areas we pass by and generally about Mumbai made the trip even more fun J We passed Dharavi, which is Asia’s largest slum. And actually a large production area for goods exported and sold in the Western world. It is estimated that the turnover is around 500 million USD a year! They produce a lot of different goods from leather clothing and belts to plastic wheels for suitcases. Amazing that all this goes on in this slum area of the city.
Well, after some time in the car and some new sights of Mumbai, we arrived at the customer’s office area. Driving through the gate I was asked to show my passport and they looked for my employment visa… I was quite amazed by this! Apparently, if one is here only on a tourist visa, the larger companies won’t let you into their premises… Well, my passport and visa was approved (almost felt like I was entering another country..) and we continued towards the main building. Upon entry here, we were met by some security guards and led to a room where I had to again give them my passport and register in order to be allowed in to the building… The others did not have to do anything as they were all local Indians.
So after all this we went for the meeting. I was (as so many other times here) the only female. But am getting used to it now. Though, what surprised me a bit was that when greeting and shaking hands, I was standing on one side of the room with two of my male colleagues, while the other male colleague was on the other side of the room, the representatives from the customer still greeted all the men first before me. Totally ignoring me before he had greeted my male colleagues! I assume this shows how India still has quite some way to go before men and women are considered equal. But other than this experience, I felt like I was treated with respect.
They actually also took a photo of me and together with me to publish in their internal news as they clearly was happy about having visitor from the head office of our company coming there J
After the meeting we were invited to join them for lunch and finally I got to try Indian canteen food J And as all Indian food it was goooood!! Though served in these prison-like plates in metal as you can see in the photo.
Well this was just a short summary of my first visit to a local company. I have not mentioned how the meeting itself was (some quite interesting observations here to) but believe this kind of information I should keep to myself. But it was very interesting to participate in such a meeting and I hope there are several more to come so I get to experience more of Indian business culture.
Well, after some time in the car and some new sights of Mumbai, we arrived at the customer’s office area. Driving through the gate I was asked to show my passport and they looked for my employment visa… I was quite amazed by this! Apparently, if one is here only on a tourist visa, the larger companies won’t let you into their premises… Well, my passport and visa was approved (almost felt like I was entering another country..) and we continued towards the main building. Upon entry here, we were met by some security guards and led to a room where I had to again give them my passport and register in order to be allowed in to the building… The others did not have to do anything as they were all local Indians.
So after all this we went for the meeting. I was (as so many other times here) the only female. But am getting used to it now. Though, what surprised me a bit was that when greeting and shaking hands, I was standing on one side of the room with two of my male colleagues, while the other male colleague was on the other side of the room, the representatives from the customer still greeted all the men first before me. Totally ignoring me before he had greeted my male colleagues! I assume this shows how India still has quite some way to go before men and women are considered equal. But other than this experience, I felt like I was treated with respect.
They actually also took a photo of me and together with me to publish in their internal news as they clearly was happy about having visitor from the head office of our company coming there J
After the meeting we were invited to join them for lunch and finally I got to try Indian canteen food J And as all Indian food it was goooood!! Though served in these prison-like plates in metal as you can see in the photo.
 |
| Indian canteen food, tastes much better than it looks! |
Well this was just a short summary of my first visit to a local company. I have not mentioned how the meeting itself was (some quite interesting observations here to) but believe this kind of information I should keep to myself. But it was very interesting to participate in such a meeting and I hope there are several more to come so I get to experience more of Indian business culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment