The purpose of the Project Team’s preparatory trip from January 2nd – 12th 2018 is getting a first impression of India, meeting the partner companies we intend to visit with our 27-strong delegation (consisting of 23 students and 4 professors) on our onsite seminar in March/April, organizing suitable transfer options, and checking out accommodation and cultural activities.

Destination 2: Pune

Did you know that…

  • …Pune is known as Oxford of the east and is currently the 8th city of India.
  • …the density and quality of the Universities is one of the factors why many international companies settle in Pune (located in the western State of Maharasthra).
  • …Pune is about to become the second biggest tech-hub in India.

Here we visited our partners T-Systems and Franke Faber. It was highly interesting to see how T-Systems has grown impressively within only one and a half year of operating in India and also to get an insight into their structure, strategy and values. Together with Madhuri Shastri, Head of Business Development T-Systems India, the team could outline a promising program for the delegation visit in April. She also introduced us to Milind Kaulgud, CHRO & Vice President T-Systems India, who mentioned the influence of the German values on the company culture.

Our second meeting took place at the Faber manufacturing plant in the outskirts of Pune. Milind Aher –  Milind seems to be a common name in India – the plant HR Manager, gave us a warm welcome and took the Focus India team on a walk through the plant. Franke Faber has been active in India for some years already, focusing on kitchen hoovers and hubs. Visiting their production facility provided us with an idea of how they operate in India, how products are assembled, tested, stored and transported.

We had a delicious dinner and a drink on the hotel’s rooftop and at least managed to see part of the city from above. For sightseeing there was unfortunately not enough time. After visiting the Franke Faber plant, and driving to Mumbai by bus, we had the chance seeing the rural areas around Pune, which showed us a different picture of what we had seen so far. Together with our heartwarming guide Dej Raj  we had interesting discussions about live in India and Switzerland and the similarities and differences of the cultures. We would have loved to have some more time in Pune and hope to be able to see more of the historic buildings once we are back in April. Now we are in the Mega City Bombay, the most vivid and last stop of our preparatory trip – stay tuned.