Visit to Infosys9/24/2007
Leaving my camera caused me to miss shooting some classic Indian images. As we made our way through the maze of Monday morning traffic - hard to believe it could get more crowded - I passed some of the most interesting sights. Many cows lined the roads, eating the garbage left by the string of bazaars (vegetable stands) lining the roadway. Most Indians do not own refrigerators and buy their fresh food 1-2 times daily from these food stands. The rural farmers load their produce and make their way to the city at the crack of dawn each day. As we drove along, hundreds of people walked down the median on their way to work. Many of these people were on their way to the office parks we would pass along the way. Infosys actually furnishes bus transportation for their employees. This is one of many amenities provided to their workers. The Infosys campus is another diamond in the rough. Many of these office parks, malls, and universities seem to spring up out of nowhere amid the informal collection of homes, shops, temples and shacks. Dell, Bosch, Intel, and a series of other Seven men started Infosys with only the $250 they gained when their wives pawned their jewelry. Now it is a $3 billion global brand. This is the company that inspired Thomas Friedman to write, "The World is Flat," because he was so taken back by the numbers of impressive, hard-working people. Now I can see why. Besides their intelligence and hospitality, what impressed me the most was the worldview that each one shared. They all believed that, in an age of increased cross-cultural interaction, we should focus less on our differences and more on our similarities. I agree. In fact, the more I interact with people from other countries, the more firmly I believe that our similarities outweigh our differences. One gentleman, Aditya Nath Jha, told us that he thinks we should learn from the young people when trying to build relationships with people from other cultures. Little children play in the sandbox together, with those who were perfect strangers to them beforehand. This does not seem to bother them in the least, since they approach the activity with mutual interest and are not threatened by the others. Today, as we shared our experiences, laughed together and discussed the importance of putting differences aside, I find that his analogy is as good as any I have heard. |
Today I visited the corporate campus of Infosys, which was one of the pioneers in the information technology field and is now the icon of IT outsourcing in India. I purposely left my camera at home since I did not want to play the tourist and also did not know if I'd be allowed to take photographs. I was right in assuming they had high security controls. We arrived to locked gates and armed security with a sophisticated system to check us in. 
familiar names dot this contrasting landscape. Infosys is in a totally different category however. Its sprawling campus contains over 50 buildings, including offices, food courts, recording studio, pool, and recreational facilities. We passed a short golf hole in the middle of the grounds that is used after hours.