Day 7 In India

Day 7-January 9, 2014

    Today the group stayed locally and took a 10 minute walk up  our visit of the day. TATA Group is a huge multi-company conglomerate with business interests all around the globe. One of the divsions of TATA is TATA Consultancy Services

     In India, TATA is involved with everyone's lives from they time they wake up until the time they go to bed.  Under the TATA Group's corporate umbrella are TATA Motor Group (which makes the world's cheapest car, the NANO), watch companies, power companies, internet service providers, steel companies, insurance providers and much, much, much, more in India.   This video gives a brief look at what they do.  But you may not know they also have an impact on our lives also.  They own Jaguar/Land Rover, the Canadian division of Tetley Tea, the luxurious Taj Hotel chain (with US Locations in NYC, Boston & San Fransisco..here is a promo video) and the recently formed TATA/Starbucks, bringing the chain to India. 

 

  TATA is also deeply involved with technology and business solutions.  It is one of the largest consultant firms with a reputation for giving businesses a competitive edge.  We met with the leaders of the Information Resource Center (IRC) at TATA Consultancy Services (TSC) in Bangalore.  The Building we met in is built in the style of Disney's Epot Center Sphere.  We were ushered into a modern conference room where we were introduced to the team leaders & later the majority of the IRC team.

  At TSC, there are over 300,000 associates.  About 1/2 of those associates may need access to a piece of business or market information at any  time.  The job of the IRC is to supply the needed information to the associate in a given amount of time.  This information could range from a market analysis for a particular industry, predicted business trends in a 3rd world nation, etc.  The job of the IRC is to basically be the library of TSC.  There are many different types of libraries other than the traditional public, school or college libraries.   In today's world, there are law libraries, large corporations have libraries, and also special libraries.  Many times libraries serve as a Knowledge Management Center, that distributes knowledge or information to those who need it.  The IRC is an award winning Special Library and truly serves the role of a Knowledge Management Center.  Associates can be working on projects involving banking, pharmaceuticals, public utilities or any possible topic imaginable and will need information pertaining to that business sector.  The associates will need the IRC to supply them with particular business information so they can go ahead and use that information to serve their clients. 

This is a previous logo.

  TSC's IRC also consists of printed books, magazines/business journals, CDs, DVDs, Audiobooks and also online data bases.  The IRC is much a like a library in the sense that people can physically visit the library for materials on business and related topics.  Associates can also send in requests for information using a Global Reference Desk digital system.  These digital requests are then processed by the librarian working the reference desk and the information will then be sent to the associate after it is all retrieved. 

   The IRC's mission is to: "Provide timely and effective access to information and build a comprehensive pool of resources and expertise to share."  There are many corporate libraries through out the world, but this is the most impressive one on such a grand scale. 

    Since no cameras were allowed inside the building, I was unable to get any exciting photos. But the group we met took plenty of photographs for our visit.  We are hoping they will share those pictures with us.  If so, I will post them for all to see.  As always, we were received as special dignitaries and treated to a wonderful South Indian lunch in one of  TSC's Executive Lunch Rooms. 

  After our lunch, we got together with "Sam" (Prof. S.D. Tyagara) from XIME to finish up our discussion on leadership.  He finished up the discussion of the film Twelve O'Clock High and how effective the leaders in the film were.  Demonstrating that good (and bad examples) of leadership can be found in many places & we can take what we learn and apply it to a business setting.

  Since there is not many pictures to share or exciting things to show, I thought I would pass along so info about Indian Food.  

  In India, food is meant to be eaten with your hands.  Luckily they also supply us novice Westerners with utensils to help.  But you can get used to it & it really is as simple as 1 2 3.  Check out this instructional video showing you how to eat.

  

I also found this on YouTube that can give you an idea about the cuisine.     http://youtu.be/Ly1j0KX6VTA
This Video was created by the CNN of India, NDTV and is in Hindi....but just looking at the food & the scenery will give you a good idea about the Bangalore food experience.  

I never get a chance to find out the name of most of the food I eat, but some of my favorites so far are:

Rasam 

 & Chaat.