Who’s the boss

Now that I am settled in India, I finally have time to update the blog. I was surprised by the penetration and popularity of broadband here in just a couple of years. Almost everyone who had dial-up has upgraded to broadband for the same price.  The speeds aren’t very fast but you can get upto 200KB/s consistently. 

The reason I came to India was to work in the family business and get some experience running a company before I go for my MBA. I was involved in the software field (undergrad & work) for 8 years and now I am working in the manufacturing sector. These fields technically are not even remotely related but from running a business view they aren’t very much different. A business is like a sailing ship for ex: the captain steers and the rest of the crew work as a team to get the sails in place. So you don’t need to be a technical wizard and know everything in that field to be able to successfully manage the business. However, you have to know enough so that people can’t fool you.

A person needs to act like a “sponge” when trying to understand the intricacies of business in a different field in a new workplace. I try to follow the “rules” below:
- self-learning
- talking to the employees about their work and learning from them
- listening to work related discussions, even though you can’t contribute much

Finally, do not feel self-entitled to be the “boss” right away. You need to show the employees that you are willing to work just as hard as they are and not just boss them around because your dad owns the business. I have been working for a week and I already feel excited about the work. Sure I don’t have the technical background but running your own business is very rewarding and gets me motivated.