INDIA EXPERIENCE by DAVID O'DELL
Summer 2017 - India
Faculty Led Trip
The faculty led trip to India was an eye opener, a feast for the senses (not to mention taste buds!!), and an experience that I will never forget. Even having known and gotten close with Indian friends for a lot of my life, I never realized how diverse India was until I got there.
I grew up as a third culture kid, and have been exposed to an array of cultures before this trip, but as many people find, India is unexpected and it’s something everyone needs to experience for themselves. The world is smaller these days, and even the farthest countries are quite easily accessed, so I know I will continue to travel, to learn of and experience different cultures. But despite my upbringing and my future plans, this trip to India was and likely will be one of my most valuable for two reasons-- the personal experience and professional development.
The Jindal Global Experience and a study abroad were offered during June 2017, for India and I opted in for both of them. I decided if I was going all the way over there, I was going to get as much out of it as I could. I was impressed. The first week was traveling, touristing around and visiting a surprising number and caliber of professionals in industry, and it seemed like they were as impressed with us as we were with them. Some companies on the roster were billion dollar leaders, like Infosys, who hosted a couple five-course meals with some partners for us-- we learned an incredible amount about IT services, consulting, and the future of big business in just one day, and got a VIP tour around their Bangalore campus. Other companies were much smaller, but leaders in their own right, like Jaipur Rug Co., which is connecting buyers of quality, handmade rugs to the women in rural villages who create the rugs while pulling themselves and other women in their villages out of poverty (see The Wealth at the Bottom of the Pyramid, by C.K. Prahalad). These companies each took an interest in us and many of us have made lasting connections to take with us in our careers and lives.
The study abroad gave us the opportunity to integrate our knowledge earned in JSOM into a real world situation with one of these billion dollar companies, in a highly competitive industry. This company was none other than our namesake: Jindal Steel & Power, Ltd. I can’t express how incredible this experience was. We were presented with a choice of two three week consulting opportunities (one in HR, one in marketing), so we dove right in on day one. We learned as much as we could from the company about their business and their history, and about the trends and culture regarding their customer base, developed some strategies and recommendations for them, and then presented to the management of those respective departments. I was on the marketing team and after six months I heard back that they took two of our recommendations. The result was that we nearly doubled their social media following (adding 15,000 people in only six months). The four star hotel, weekend trips, and private corporate jet to a remote power station was pretty sweet, too.
I grew up as a third culture kid, and have been exposed to an array of cultures before this trip, but as many people find, India is unexpected and it’s something everyone needs to experience for themselves. The world is smaller these days, and even the farthest countries are quite easily accessed, so I know I will continue to travel, to learn of and experience different cultures. But despite my upbringing and my future plans, this trip to India was and likely will be one of my most valuable for two reasons-- the personal experience and professional development.
The Jindal Global Experience and a study abroad were offered during June 2017, for India and I opted in for both of them. I decided if I was going all the way over there, I was going to get as much out of it as I could. I was impressed. The first week was traveling, touristing around and visiting a surprising number and caliber of professionals in industry, and it seemed like they were as impressed with us as we were with them. Some companies on the roster were billion dollar leaders, like Infosys, who hosted a couple five-course meals with some partners for us-- we learned an incredible amount about IT services, consulting, and the future of big business in just one day, and got a VIP tour around their Bangalore campus. Other companies were much smaller, but leaders in their own right, like Jaipur Rug Co., which is connecting buyers of quality, handmade rugs to the women in rural villages who create the rugs while pulling themselves and other women in their villages out of poverty (see The Wealth at the Bottom of the Pyramid, by C.K. Prahalad). These companies each took an interest in us and many of us have made lasting connections to take with us in our careers and lives.
The study abroad gave us the opportunity to integrate our knowledge earned in JSOM into a real world situation with one of these billion dollar companies, in a highly competitive industry. This company was none other than our namesake: Jindal Steel & Power, Ltd. I can’t express how incredible this experience was. We were presented with a choice of two three week consulting opportunities (one in HR, one in marketing), so we dove right in on day one. We learned as much as we could from the company about their business and their history, and about the trends and culture regarding their customer base, developed some strategies and recommendations for them, and then presented to the management of those respective departments. I was on the marketing team and after six months I heard back that they took two of our recommendations. The result was that we nearly doubled their social media following (adding 15,000 people in only six months). The four star hotel, weekend trips, and private corporate jet to a remote power station was pretty sweet, too.