Incubating
Part II
Two weeks ago, I wrote a blog
titled Incredible
India: Improving the Koenig Solutions Brand – Part I, since then, I have
thought about what to include in what would become Part II and I have decided
it should be about improving your Koenig Solutions experience.
After all that I have written
about my experiences in India, I believe given the opportunity again, I would
avail myself of Koenig Solutions services if their repertoire of courses
extends to include Enterprise Architecture though that would also require getting
trainers out of industry rather than just having people with book knowledge of
seriously impacting concepts.
Besides, there are other
courses that might be of interest too as one tries to keep in line with market
developments and establish a niche area of expertise.
Very
useful advice
There is however a few key
things that will make your experience worthwhile one that I share here comes
from someone who is quite conversant with the system and the way things get
done in India.
This is what he had to say, “This is India. However much we strive to
root out this sort of stuff, ubiquitous chaos, poor English and even
carelessness on behalf of some of the lower staff has always been and will
always be intrinsically part of the India experience of most of our students.
It takes a while to get used to and find the right mental disposition to tackle. As a rule of thumb, do not take sloppiness from anyone but under all circumstances remain calm and firm about stuff that is not to your liking. Call in the center manager if necessary.
Do not depend on no one. Most staff will never take any initiative whatsoever and will expect you to do so. If people don't understand you, they won't admit to it, thus adding to confusion. When in doubt or unhappy about the answer given or services provided - especially about issues pertaining to hygiene and health, ask to talk to someone else or take it to the reception desk or center manager directly.
Adjust your notion of time. Whereas most of us are punctual on time related issues, the majority of Indian folks are on IFT (Indian Flexible Time) which tends to drive us totally mad on our first India visit. Never wait till the last minute to make arrangements for something. Anything asked for less than 24 hours before deadline will most probably fail as most people are unfamiliar with concepts like timely resolution or urgency.
These days, I've gotten used to all things you describe and by finding ways to work around them by adjusting my mindset to how things work in India.”
It takes a while to get used to and find the right mental disposition to tackle. As a rule of thumb, do not take sloppiness from anyone but under all circumstances remain calm and firm about stuff that is not to your liking. Call in the center manager if necessary.
Do not depend on no one. Most staff will never take any initiative whatsoever and will expect you to do so. If people don't understand you, they won't admit to it, thus adding to confusion. When in doubt or unhappy about the answer given or services provided - especially about issues pertaining to hygiene and health, ask to talk to someone else or take it to the reception desk or center manager directly.
Adjust your notion of time. Whereas most of us are punctual on time related issues, the majority of Indian folks are on IFT (Indian Flexible Time) which tends to drive us totally mad on our first India visit. Never wait till the last minute to make arrangements for something. Anything asked for less than 24 hours before deadline will most probably fail as most people are unfamiliar with concepts like timely resolution or urgency.
These days, I've gotten used to all things you describe and by finding ways to work around them by adjusting my mindset to how things work in India.”
I think this is be on the front
page of every tour guide or brochure you get concerning India, it will go a
long way to helping you adjust to the severe culture shock you might experience
on your visit to India.
Your
preparations
In terms of preparations to go
to India, these are the things you probably need to note. Whilst a majority of
people using Koenig Solutions get a Tourist Visa, be prepared to consider
getting a Business Visa and if your stay will be more than 30 days you might
have to get an Entry Visa.
If based in Europe obtain
information about Koenig Solutions’ bank account in Belgium rather than
travelling with thousands of Euros, Pounds or Dollars of Traveller’s cheques.
On arrival in India, if you are
unsatisfied with anything let the management know and do not be fobbed off with
excuses or apologies if you are not satisfied with the resolution proposed. At
times, you might be offered a compensation which in Indian terms might be huge
but in general terms in paltry if not insulting, be ready to stand your ground
and escalate – you paid for a service, get the service you paid for.
Insist
on these, all the time
When it comes to course
material, your books should be shrink-wrapped, if not, they are second-hand
books, do not sign the receipts until you have been provided with new books.
For the curriculum delivered
from PowerPoint slides, I have found it is quite difficult to take useful and
relevant notes – insist on having those PowerPoint slides printed out at no
extra cost for you to annotate throughout your training. You cannot annotate electronic
copies and to be honest any decent PowerPoint-based training material provides
hard copies.
For each test-based curriculum
that you take, allow for at least 2 days after the course for study and preparation
for the tests. Whilst some might be able to walk into tests and pass
immediately after the training, others trying that might find that they will be
repeating tests before scoring a pass.
If you have non-lecture days
and need to study, the provided accommodations can be quite Spartan; I have
however not found out if public libraries are better equipped for this.
Other
useful tips
For the cost, I will advise
that you hire the mobile Internet dongle because Internet connectivity at both
the training centre and the accommodations can be patchy at time.
If you obtain an Indian SIM
Card ask that mobile data be enabled as part of the package if you need to use
your smart phone to surf the Internet.
Get a TravelCard if you use the
New Delhi metro, it means you do not have to join interminably long queues for
tokens to travel.
New Delhi of all the Koenig
Solutions Training Centres is nearest to Agra some 200 kilometres South where
the Taj Mahal is but the road to Agra has Mathura – the birthplace of Krishna
with the great statue of goddess Durga, Sikandra where the Tomb of Akbar the
Great is – the grandfather of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal, a good deal
of the Agra Fort and the Red Fort back in New Delhi.
It is better to get Koenig
Solutions to book a train to Agra or arrange with other colleagues to book a
more confortable bus that the Koenig city transit buses which will also allow
you to stop at these other places than just the journey to the Taj Mahal where
you are also put in the hands of unscrupulous restaurants or persons ready to
fleece you. If you have amongst you someone who speaks Hindi you can get much
done and if you have to be really assertive, have one amongst you who is
articulate, forceful and insistent on getting the results without backing down.
Be
streetwise
When it comes to food, be
careful, circumspect and wise. Cooked and cooked well is important, keep off
cold vegetarian dishes if you have no resistance to the local bugs. Most
visitors pick up Traveller’s Diarrhoea, so pack your Imodium take lots of
yoghurt/curd and eat lots of bananas. Lassi is a yoghurt drink that can
settle your tummy quite well but don’t even venture Bhang Lassi – it contains
cannabis but you might get more than a high, you could end up in hospital
paying bills as part of a medical scam.
For lunch you usually have the
choice of McDonalds, Subway, Dominoes or Hakka, then you have to decide between
vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes – I stuck with rice in most cases.
Haldirams which is purely vegetarian chain has many choices but be careful what
you choose and be sure you have the stomach for that choice.
When shopping, only use
reputable shops, it is better to see the price tags up front than attempt to
haggle then realise you have just become a victim of daylight robbery. If you
don’t know cashmere you might end up with a fine hybrid of polyester and nylon,
the real factory markings are not on the edges of the cloth, if the bales were
taken off the shelf, that chalk-like factory marking with the true composition
of cloth would have been cut off.
Always negotiate up front for
services that do not have a clear price tag – in the end, India can be fun but
you have to be aware, smart and really streetwise with a presence so you do not
get taken for granted and end up the worse for it. Be aggressive if you must
and walk away if you can. Click on the Koenig Solutions label below this post to see my other related posts.
2 comments:
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