Emerging in an Emerging Economy

Growth opportunities come my way all the time. As a curious person, I try to absorb these opportunities to learn. Often, ration and reason win out to my explorer spirit. That pattern changed a few weeks ago when one of these opportunities headed my way – and I snagged it.

I went to India.

A friend from LA was spending six months with her family in India and invited me to join her. The experience of a mere eight days in India was powerful, so transformative to me that almost a week after my return, I’m still absorbing it. Witnessing the vibrancy of the colors, patterns, sounds, and motion of 1.4 billion people going about their lives was impressive and overwhelming at times. As a person who has dedicated my career to helping organizations and their people feed curiosity to learn and evolve, I feel compelled to share my personal experience of the impact eight days in India has had on me and my own growth. I have emerged a changed person.

I’ll start with an upfront apology in advance if I misinterpret anything I witnessed or offend anybody with my interpretation. I’m admittedly an ignorant American striving to become less ignorant by experiencing other cultures first-hand. If you have a different perspective or interpretation of a situation, feel free to offer your comments below. Correct me, please. With that, I’ll share my experience through my Western eyes.

My lessons of the time can be summarized in one common point:?perspective shift. As a leader and life-long student of talent development, I know the power of shifting perspective and how that can help transform companies by supplying fresh solutions to problems. For me, my experience shifted my perspective in a few new ways that I know will make me a better leader and learner.

First is the perspective of the speed of change. Beginning in 1991, India began loosening economic restrictions, which led to meteoric economic growth. According to the World Bank, the economy grew from just below $300 billion in 1992 to just shy of $3 trillion today. ?This led to the services industry occupying close to 55% of the GDP of India in 2019, made up largely of the IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry, now a staple of the global economy. ?Cities that were centers of IT/BPO like Hyderabad transformed almost overnight. As we drove through my friend’s neighborhood in the Hitech City area of Hyderabad, I felt like I was on Tasman Drive in the Silicon Valley, passing high-rise offices labeled with the Fortune 500 companies which occupied them. Intel, IBM, and Dell sat along Indian companies like Tata and Tech Mahindra, all contributing to the majority sector of the economy:?services. The new Durgam Cheruvu bridge proudly introduces the newer parts of Hyderabad as an impressive cable-suspension bridge with a Vegas-like light show (the Indian flag appeared in the cables as we passed). To think that the majority of this part of Hyderabad could sprout up in a span of only a few decades was a mind-shifting perspective for me, one that I would not have thought possible.

This led to the discovery that the idea of “possible” is rather subjective and has deep roots in our cultures. In India, I witnessed an expanded definition of “possibility.” Born of need and sometimes economic desperation, I saw countless examples of ingenuity and innovation. For instance, getting around India was full of imaginative scenarios. If you would have asked me three weeks ago how many people could possibly fit on a motor scooter, my limited Western mind would have said, “Possibly two”. Then I witnessed families, sometimes including grandma, two parents, and children, on a single scooter. I saw four grown men riding a scooter chest-to-back. We even witnessed two guys moving a freezer, rather successfully, at 30 miles per hour via a two-wheeled scooter. What surpassed the very high bar of “not possible” on a scooter was elevated to a three-wheeled auto rickshaw, essentially a motorized 3-wheel trike covered in a metal box painted green and yellow. Scooters and auto rickshaws outnumbered cars easily 10:1 on side streets and I witnessed them as an important element to the last mile of moving goods. In a much more sobering way, I witnessed creativity and ingenuity in capturing the attention of the few of us who were tourists. India has been hit hard by the drop in tourism during COVID-19 lockdowns. In 2019, tourism accounted for 9% of India’s GDP. That industry was virtually destroyed. Monuments and forts were surrounded by tour guides, sometimes outnumbering guests in line, hoping to get employed for a few hours and providing us their best pitch, often all at once. The impact of our choice to these guides and their families did not escape me. My friends confirmed my hypothesis: that the drive of many people of India to innovate and engineer something better/faster/cheaper comes from a root of poverty and practical need that has now been woven throughout the culture into a spirit of invention and entrepreneurialism. We Westerners and the world are benefitting as a result.

This history of India provided one other area of perspective shift. India just celebrated it 72nd year as a republic, a mere grade-schooler as a nation compared to other countries dominating the world economy today. Yet the history and monuments that stand as reminders go back to the myriad of dynasties and empires that ruled parts of the country. The engineering and design detail that went into building structures like the Taj Mahal or the Amer Fort by artisans at the time are still incredible by today’s standards. Realizing they were built 400 – 500 years ago, you definitely get a new perspective on the power of innovation.

The final perspective comes from witnessing the disparity between the have and have-nots in India. According to the UN’s Multidimensional Poverty Index, 271 million people in India were lifted out of poverty between 2006 and 2016. While the middle class is growing as India creates better access to electricity, clean water, and education, the desperation among some is impossible to miss. As we sat across the river from the Taj Mahal one afternoon, I couldn’t take my eyes off a colorfully-dressed woman in the dirt on the banks of the river, working hard to pull weeds and fill a basket, likely to boil and eat, according to my friend. Across the river sat the glorious Taj, full of semi-precious jewels and built of marble, standing in stark contrast. ?

By now, my observations may have earned a few eye rolls and giggles from my Indian friends who might be amused at my marvels. As I disclosed upfront, I’m just an American looking to learn. My parents, who were returned Peace Corps volunteers, taught us to appreciate our privilege but never be so arrogant as to believe our culture was “the best”. With this intent, I offer my perspective as an American woman who is growing and learning, and one who will forever be changed by the experience of eight days in India.