The visit to MDI (Management Development Institute) was probably one of my favorite in interacting with students in a similar program. We visited on Saturday, 1/9/2010 and it was like any other day of the week. The students are in class full time, six days a week. We started off the session with an informational video about MDI and then a skit put on about Americans by the MDI students ... and they hit it right on the head for management perceptions in the USA!
We then moved into a discussion about if outsourcing was outlawed in the USA. The MDI students has a lot of opinions, but it seemed as though they had the perception that our government has more of a hand in our everyday workings of business, which I do not believe is true.
We then moved into perceptions from both sides (American & Indian) on outsourcing and India in general. I shared the story that I was at a wedding the weeekend before leaving and everyone acted like I might not come back to Milwaukee. The band stopped and the song "Jai Ho!" played at the reception and the crowd went wild. The song is quite a hit in the USA, but mostly because of the movie Slumdog Millionaire and it has a catchy tune. The reality is that most Americans in business have no plans of actually coming to India to see what it is all about. Which is sad to me, but the truth nonetheless!
After the classroom session, we walked across campus for a cup of chai and some time to chat with the students. Those 25 minutes are probably where I learned the most and realized that these students are REALLY smart. They talk to us like English is their first language and since most of the students had some type of engineering or computer science undergrad, the knowledge base is only going to expand exponentially for the country in my eyes.
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