Our second day was a Monday, this is where the real work began. We where meeting with WIPRO, who are the India Microsoft, in fatc they do a lot of the development of Microsoft’s products. Starting in the 80s, WIPRO went from making cooking oil to developing software and transformed Bangalore from a military town to the India Silicon valley.
We were picked up at our hotel by Mark, an American based Wipro sales guy. We all packed into a van and we’re driven to “electronci city” on the other side of town. Bangalore also had an electronic manufacturing phase, much like Silicon Valley and the name stuck as the area where all the businesses where based.
Traffic was unbelievably bad, it was far worse than anything I’ve seen. Bangalore exploded about 10 years ago and the single 4 lane highway was soon overwhelmed. It took us an 1 1/2 to go about 12 km and in India, traffic comes from all sides at once with people and animals thrown into the mix.
We left India behind and entered Electronic city. There are about 300 companies here and it looks more like a collection of corporate campuses in the US than it does India. After we went thru security, we entered the college-like campus where EIGHT THOUSAND peoplework everyday. It’s modern, well equipped and bustling with activity.
WIPRO has a large company in India, currently areound 30,000 people work for them and they are growing rapidly. They are adding campus that will house another 12,000 workers across the street. Oh and this is only one of their offices in Bangalore alone. Traffic is going to get worse.
Our meeting was good, they did the dog an pony show but it wasn’t anything special.
The days are long, we show up, do meetings all day and go to dinner with the vendor. Indian companies don’t have a line between personal and professional lives and also, they are wining and dining us.
Went back to the monument to Imperial British rulers, aka my hotel and passed out.
I check out tomorrow and fly to Hyderabad to meet two more vendors.