Accenture
The delegation arrived safely in Bangalore and made their first visit to the global company Accenture, which is highly valuable for Focus India as it is the project’s main sponsor. Bangalore is worldwide the biggest branch of Accenture and more than 100’000 employees are working in its extremely modern facilities. The services Accenture offers range from consulting financial institutions, insurances and capital market to high-end technology solutions. After an interesting introduction about Accenture’s activities, the delegation got informed about the human resources structure of the company. The delegation received insights into the recruiting as well as the training process of Accenture. For “freshers” (University graduates), who complete the selection process successfully, Accenture offers an in-depth program. Besides the hiring process, the audience got informed about the challenges of being a global player since Accenture employs more than 300’000 people in 180 cities, all over the world, of which 8’000 – 10’000 are located in Bangalore.
Most of those employees are working in the technological field, whereas Accenture in Europe focuses more on consulting, which is its core business. Bangalore is also known as the “Silicon Valley” of India. Furthermore, Accenture very much emphasises the importance of having a diverse workforce. Therefore, their target in the future is to achieve a gender equality of 50 percent between women and men. In the second part, the Focus India delegation visited the Tech lab, which gave them an insight about their work, which incorporates software development and problem solving of existing ICT systems. Their latest developments impressed the whole group very much.
(Article by Jennifer Klar and Sarah Pfister)
Swissnex in India
In the afternoon, the delegation visited Swissnex in Bangalore. They started in 2010 on behalf of an initiative of the Swiss State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation. Dr. Balz Strasser, CEO of swissnex in India explained their mission abroad:
– Establishing the connection between different areas of work in India and Switzerland
– Facilitating the interchange between the private and the public sector
– Creating and presenting transdisciplinary project
– Supporting the efforts of Swiss academic institutions and R&D based start-ups
Furthermore Swissnex offers Swiss start-ups assistance at the beginning of their business set up in India. The team among Balz Strasser, provides business seekers with local knowledge, valuable contacts and even with office facilities in order to smoothen the start.
Afterwards, Franziska and Damian Carnevale presented to the delegation their success story of their company: beyond textile. They started some years ago their textile designing business in Banaglore. They entered in a niche market by producing textiles in India and ship them over to Switzerland. Amongst their customers are well known brands such as Zimstern, Elements and retail stores such as Manor, Interio and Pfister.
They moved the production to India because in Switzerland there are not enough skilled work forces, which obtain the techniques they were looking for. Additionally, they had a good network in India and felt very convenient with the culture. Franziska and Damian Carnevale had as well pointed out some of the challenges they entcountered, such as a stable electricity connection or the transportation between the urban and the rural areas. Nevertheless, they never regretted their decision of moving their business to India.
(Article by Moritz Widmer and Stephan Bleiker)