Our journey into the busy streets of Delhi was now known by all, familiar even, making the trip as common as a subway commute into Manhattan. Today we had in schedule two companies fighting for the future of society in their own way, the first one being an indian branch of J. Walter Thompson (JWT), a market communications agency that has had clients such as Pepsi, Nike, UNICEF, among others.
After a warm welcome we were directed to an elegant, yet cozy, conference room where once again we were treated with the Indian hospitality that has pampered us since our arrival. Boxes of Domino's pizza were taken into the room, with the localized version having one of the country's signature seasons for the chicken, as well as packets of spicy pepper flakes alongside the pies. Vegetarian sandwiches were also served, and after some minutes that our hosts provided to enjoy these snacks the presentation started.
The first part of the presentation was just an introduction to the way India, and particularly JWT, does advertising, focusing on the urban middle class to sell products, and the masses to spread awareness with campaigns. A story is written to tap into certain emotions and depending on the product or idea there are many criteria, but it resumes to leaning into the culture, going with the flow, and leaning out of the culture and being revolutionary, many times both at the same time in the same commercial. Tradition and culture change from country to country and listing all we learned at that meeting would make for a case analysis of a country and not a simple blog, but in short it was about plurality vs individualism; masculinity that can also come in the form of restraint; as well as certainty vs avoidance, with a 10% of life being something you can control according to hinduism and its 90% of predetermination at the moment of birth, leading to leaving things until the last minute as a cultural phenomenon. In just an hour our tutorial about the culture in advertising was over and the most important aspect surfaced.
The second and final part was the core of the operation, the campaign to change society into a better place. JWT tries to affect communities to affect the individuals, to give a platform for people to realize they are not alone in the issue and that together, by talking, change can come into their lives. By using high-profile celebrities they have helped eradicate Polio, as well as removing the social stigma of menstruation and HIV/AIDS. Although TV commercials are the main vehicle of advertising, in the case of HIV/AIDS Indian Railways trains were used to spread awareness through the many states of the country, with each individual car covering a particular aspect of the awareness campaign. Businesses are not just there to make money, but to provide a better society and environment for future generations when used the right way.
As we finished our tea and made our final questions, we took a last picture and set off for our last company of the day, Quatrro. Here we had to sign in, and some had to register their laptops as cyber security in this particular business is of the greatest priority due to the nature of their clients, ranging from banks' clients' information, to credit card holders' informations. We were entering one of the titans of the Businesses Processes Outsourcing (BPO) of the country as well of the globe.
Quatrro offers services ranging from technical support, mortgage services, knowledge services, to process services (as is risk and fraud management of credit cards) and many other services. The BPO-IT is a very lucrative industry providing 8% of India's GDP, giving Quatrro opportunity to grow alongside the country's rapid GDP growth rate, as proof it has expanded and has presence in over 75 countries and since the moment it opened there has not been a single night that it has closed, offering 24/7 services around the globe, but primarily to the United States. The financial success is not enough for us Jaspers, it was also reassuring to know how it plans to shape the future, and it does so by being the largest private sector employer of women, providing high level jobs to shatter the glass ceiling and give hope to aspiring workers even in other fields and walks of life, that there is much more a woman can do in India nowadays, and even more in the future.
After the presentation and another round of Indian hospitality, we were shown the base of operations of these BPOs, where the phones never stopped ringing and every minute was employed in business-related activities. Even in such a businesses-oriented space, the culture permeated heavily into the walls, whereas in the US there are "hang in there" poster, they had, along other motivational posters, religious pictures and altars as we have crosses in our Jasper classrooms. We were allowed to roam free and see everyone work, creating curiosity not only in us, but in the workers who did not seem to expect visitors and yet greeted us with smiles as they continued their activities. At the end of this tour questions were answered, group pictures were taken, and our last night commute in Delhi concluded. Our duty is to prepare and rest, as tomorrow we venture into Bangalore, a new city, a new state, a new set of companies trying to be the change they want to see in the world.
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