India; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Part 1 of 3)

I just returned back from a week long business trip to India. My trip started in Delhi and saw me travel southbound to the cities of Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. I am a well traveled person, but nothing prepared me for India. This is a unique country (Continent) that offers surprises and dichotomy at every corner. I returned back from India with a greater appreciation for the Indian culture, people and their dynamic economy.

The Good
According to Indian Child Website "...India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area while it supports over 15% of the world's population. Almost 40% of Indians are younger than 15 years of age." Why is this good? You feel the strength and the energy of the youth of India everywhere you go. I spend most of my time flying, meeting with hi-tech executives, driving and lodging at hotels. It is incredibly fresh to see youth between the ages of 22-30 take charge of the economic life in India and produce world class results.

For example, there are numerous privately owned airlines in India including the two that I used during my travels, Jet Airways and Kingfisher. Upon arrival to the curb side of the airport, clean cut young employees of Kingfisher, wearing their red uniforms, approach your car. If you fly with Kingfisher, they take your bags and walk you to the ticket counter inside the airport. All of this, without asking for a tip. That's service (Are you listening United Airlines?) Both airlines employ Bollywood quality, beautiful young fly attendants.

They like what they do, offer service with a smile and do it with consistency that sorely lacks in our airline industry. Ours is filled with people who suffer from either middle age crisis or menopause hiding behind union protection rather than provide service with a smile. (In my return flight with American Airlines, one of the flight attendants was celebrating her 40th anniversary of service. Need I say more?)
How about our companies? While Kingfisher and Jet Airways offer a proper hot meal (2 selections) served in ceramic plates with metal cutlery in every flight lasting over 60 minutes, our airlines are cutting out pretzels. Our standards have suffered so much from a race to the bottom mentality in our service industry that no-drama Jet Blue airlines, with their mediocre service, shines like a beacon among the old and rusted. How is this possible? We should be the "Young Turks" at the early age of 233 vs. India in its' 6000s. The captains of our industries need to take a long hard look at themselves and figure out why they cannot run a profitable company without exploiting either the workers or the customers. Otherwise, they will soon be working for their Indian counterparts.

Tomorrow, I will write about the bad and the ugly. Stay tuned....
Read Part 2 here