Welcome to TATA !

My first week here in Mumbai has been quite exciting so far. On the day I had left Switzerland, the coordinator of my internship at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) told bet hat I would stay the first 3 weeks in Mumbai and participate in an introduction programme of MBA graduates starting in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) department right now. I felt honoured, it sounded like a great chance to have a good start. But when it started on Monday, I felt very lost. I was the only one not to have done an MBA and I just had no idea about all those theoretical models and processes they were talking about. This programme is the first edition of a fast track programme which will put the participants in middle management positions in only 1,5 years. The 15 people admitted were selected amongst more than 1000 applicants all across India. In the first session we were told clearly that the ultimate goal of this „Janus Programme“ is that one of the participants will eventually be TCS’s next CEO. To be honest, I felt a bit überfordert and stupid. But soon I realised that the people leading this workshop were not so keen on all those theoretical things and that the participants were extraordinarily great people: young (22-32), intelligent and very open and interested. We all live together in a nice hotel (ca. 4 stars). The programme is very interesting; we get to learn about all the fields of BPO. But it is quite though. We leave the hotel at 9am, come back around 10pm and than have to prepare group assignments and presentations. So we get around 5 hours of sleep per day as a maximum and there’s no free time at all. It is a hard but very good start into the company and a smooth start into Indian culture, I’m glad I can be part of it

During this week I learned a lot about TCS but also about the whole TATA Group. Historically, the Tata family initiated the development of India by starting off the textile and steel production for export in the second half of 19^th century. The Tatas are an important part of Indias national history and identity, everybody knows and many admire them. There are TATA companies in every field you can just imagine: steel, automobile (land rover, jaguar, tata (cf the tata nano the cheapest car of the world 2500$... and it meets all the international security standards), telecom, chemicals, watches (slimmest watch of the world), tea (Tetley tea), leather (production for zara, etc.), energy (provides half Mumbai with electricity), hotels (all the taj hotels, including the one attacked), airlines (air India), etc. The Tatas are very innovative companies; there were many “firsts” developed. What stroke me most is the community focus of the group: 66% of all the TATA profit goes to charity all over the world, Ratan Tata (the head of TATA) lives in an apartment (not a house) downtown. Sounds like a good PR strategy, doesn’t it? But the thing is that it’s not PR at all. All those facts are hardly being talked about in public, so most of the people don’t know about it. Humility is a very central value of the Tatas.

The company I’ll be working in for the next year, Tata Consultancy Services is an IT company working with companies from all over the world. TCS started in India what this country is now known for everywhere in the world: the IT industry. I’ll stay here in Mumbai for 2 more weeks and then head to Baroda (about 400km north). To be honest I don’t really know what I’ll be doing there. J My job description said I’d be introducing and leading an internal structure for cultural and language training in the market research department. But some days ago I was told that my first 3 months will be very busy because I’ll have to help 30 Hungarians arriving for a project to settle down in Baroda as well. If there’s one thing I’ve learned here is that I should expect the unexpected. You don’t need to know things that don’t yet matter at the present point of time because it’s very probable to change again. Just some examples to illustrate this: While presenting a group assignment, they suddenly tell us that now they want someone else to speak. I was told 5mins before that I’ll now have to deliver a 1hour German language session for our group. It might seem difficult sometimes, but it is a great way to make you learn the maximum possible.

A bit out of context I want to tell you about how I manage with food and climate over here. After a couple of days I was a bit proud to be able to handle the spiciness of Indian food. I could eat everything, so I did (but still sticking to my rule of not eating any street/”dangerous” food during the first month). Soon I was to realize, that to be able to eat spicy food does not mean to be able to handle it. From last Wednesday on I couldn’t eat anything spicy anymore. My stomach could just not cope with spicy food for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack time. I had stomach-aches and didn’t want to eat anything any more because everything here is spicy (except the sweets). So during 3 days I tried to eat only plane rice and bread. Absolutely tasteless but now at least I feel better. I’ll definitely stop eating spicy for breakfast and try to be more conscious with the other meals as well.
The climate is a bit harder to adapt to. During the monsoon time it’s hot and humid… no matter were you are. So there is A/C everywhere. And it’s very cold: I always need to carry a sweater/jacket when I go to the office. Consequently, I don’t turn on the A/C in my room… which is ok in terms of temperature because the building is well built. But not in terms of humidity, everything is a bit wet: the bed sheets when you go to bed, the clothes you washed, the walls which build mold. I haven’t really figured out how to handle this, but I’ll get there eventually.

To sum up: I’m tired but quite happy over here. I guess I’m the perfect example of the honeymoon stage of a cultural experience. J