Posted by Business Line, Mar 14, 2008

He’s a Swede with a Chennai posting who is enthusiastically discovering what will work, and what will not, in this ‘open and friendly’ country.

"I’ve seen that people are a little scared of conflict, and say: ‘Yes, yes’. But things are changing. For instance, I don’t think it’s a big deal anymore that I work for an Indian company. My friends would say: ‘Wow, you work for an Indian company’; it’s neither positive nor negative, they are just surprised."

He is looking for a beach house on the ECR in Chennai, so he can run on the beach in the morning, and also clean it up! Oh yes, Marcus Wilhelm, Chief Operation Officer, Photon Infotech, is different in many ways.

An expat, he knew Photon for some time before joining it last year. Having lived in Shanghai for two years, he makes interesting comparison between the two countries and finds India holding a huge advantage in its talented and trained manpower. “ ;I love India more than China because the talent is so much better here.” English language is another advantage; “India is more open and people more friendly. I’ve already been invited to several weddings and people’s homes! This is certainly an adventure,” says the Swede.

A computer science major — “I used to work in computers when computers were not cool!” — Wilhelm describes Photon as “an IT and not an outsourcing company; we differentiate ourselves from other offshore and outsourcing companies by concentrating on cutting-edge technology, particularly in the area of the Web. We have a majority of our employees (1,500) in India not because it is cheaper or better, but because there is an enormous amount of talent here that you cannot find in the western world.”

While you can find good IT professionals in India, the problem is “finding the right people and making them stay. We don’t want to be a body shop; we want people… down to the smallest developers, who can talk to clients and improve their business, not the other way around, like: ‘Tell us what you want and we’ll do it for you’.”

The endeavour is to create value for the client through suggestions that will benefit them, as happens in companies like IBM. But the Indian outsourcing companies he has worked with in the past do a lot of spoon-feeding; “this is what we want and nobody has to come out with their own ideas.”

He admits that this could be an Asian thing, “but I’ve seen that people are a little scared of conflict, and say: ‘Yes, yes’. But things are changing. For instance, I don’t think it’s a big deal anymore that I work for an Indian company. My friends would say: ‘Wow, you work for an Indian company; it’s neither positive nor negative, they are just surprised. But when my mom says the same thing, she is excited. She’s been here several years ago and was fascinated by India.”

Settling in

From China to India was a transition Wilhelm took in his stride, enjoying it all the way. “Indians are so warm and friendly; as I told you I’ve had so many invitations. Also, it’s great to have open discussions with people here which I never had in China. It’s a very expat life that you lead in China as a westerner, all by yourself, even in the office where you don’t have lunch with other people. But here it is very different; more open and westernised and a lot easier to integrate.”

But the difficult thing though is to “get used to the social scene in Chennai which is very family-oriented. You tend to stay home with your family; in Sweden after work we go out for a beer and hang out with friends, but it is very different here… you don’t tell a colleague let’s discuss this issue over a beer, it has to be done in the office.”

Right now he lives alone but his girlfriend is moving over here. Till then his evenings are occupied with work or an occasional dance or music performance, and the odd play he has seen. “Obviously there are things to see/do here but you have to seek them out, but people are incredibly friendly and that’s a great thing!”

While he eats mostly in the office, he does have somebody to help him at home. “I love Indian food and that’s the most amazing thing here. Everybody who visits India loves the Indian food in India which is not the same with China; I didn’t like the Chinese food in China, but the Chinese food here is great because the spices here are great. I can even think of becoming a vegetarian here simply because the spices are so good. In western vegetarian food it’s much more salads and tofu, there is no taste. But the vegetarian food here is great,” says Wilhelm.

Chennai could be better!

Coming to Indian cities, is Chennai a particularly easy place for expats to live in?

A long, deep sigh says it all. “It could be better. For one thing it’s not an easy, walkable city; I miss that a lot. I like to walk and there should be sidewalks… you try to walk on the sidewalks here and people are selling things and you have to crowd around. I was in Delhi for a weekend; we walked in the park and you can suddenly say, ‘We can drop in this restaurant for lunch.’ In Chennai you can’t do that; you need to know the restaurant and at least I don’t know enough…”

Also, Chennai could do with better infrastructure…. roads, airports, better traffic flow, though things are getting much better. “I think the service is very good, people are very friendly, including in restaurants and hotels, something that you don’t have in China. People are very helpful in general and you feel safe, which is a big deal!” Though he wishes there was a fast-train service here, as in places like Hong Kong or Tokyo, to reach the airport.

On many young westerners now opting to work for IT majors out of India, Wilhelm says, “It is an exciting opportunity, in the same way an Indian wants to work in the US. One of the key things I’ve seen here is that even if youngsters spend two weeks in Europe, where we have many clients, or the US, they get out of their comfort zone. A lot of youngsters in Chennai are a little spoilt, they’ve been here their whole life, have someone to cook for them and have no experience. Even when it comes to going to a client dinner or taking somebody out for lunch, they don’t know what to order. But once they go out for only two weeks, they become much more communicative, much more open.” That’s the good thing about seeing the world; you might not like the food or the weather but the experience makes a difference, he adds.

He is now hunting for a house. “I would love to live around the ECR, for us the beach is the best thing ever, but when I do find a home there I’ll make sure I’ll clean up the beach, as I found it to be very dirty. When I was there for a while I’d run in the mornings on the beach and the fishermen looked at me strangely... and they were throwing trash there and I was like: ‘What are you guys doing? It’s such a beautiful beach!’”

If he had a choice, which country would he live in?

“The question is which company I’d like to work for because if I wasn’t doing anything I could be in a remote island. I could work anywhere if the work is interesting and the people and the culture are nice.”

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http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/life/2008/03/14/stories/2008031450020100.htm