As our group met with firms, some of the consistent questions we kept hearing were ‘how long have you been “outside”?’ and ‘do you have the stomach for India?’ The latter question was quite literal, as frequently it seemed like we were being tested through the type of water we requested to drink. (If my bizarre Australian/American accent wasn’t enough of a giveaway that I had been living outside, my preference for Bisleri certainly was). These questions quickly became a pet peeve for our group – we were all of Indian origin and felt a strong connection to our country of heritage.
I can understand why this was a concern for many firms, as understanding the Indian mentality is indeed important for conducting business. For me, while I’ve grown up outside India – the connection has always been strong through yearly trips to India, having many close ties through cousins and friends, and being heavily involved with my family’s business. Part of it has been my own fascination and love for India – during college I chose to spend 2 months in Bangalore researching growth and innovation in the tech sector for my senior honors thesis, and was also involved in social entrepreneurship start-up Vipani focused on the rural sector. On one end of the spectrum I’ve spent time in Kashmiri refugee camps, in villages, ashrams, training as a yoga teacher, and on the other end of the spectrum I covered major Indian IT services and BPO companies while working on Wall Street. In the year before coming to Sloan, I was living in India and working both on PK Clean as well as helping out with the family business – engaged in everything on the ground from property investment decisions, hiring & firing, managing vendors, training staff through series of classes, designing offices and logos, marketing and presenting to clients … really the whole gamut.
So what does it really mean to have a stomach for India? Perhaps there’s something more to it than the Bisleri test.
