Tag 4: Himalaya (the ayruveda company ;)

We have changed the blog-team, so Terri has written the following blog. For the next days Peter, Oliver H., Oliver W. and Terri will write the blog entries.

Half a breakfast

God has intervened and 100 Carmelite nuns have usurped our breakfast space. We are allotted half an hour for breakfast and an organizational meeting in the Main Block, which turns out to be quite a challenge for a few in our group. An 8.15 start becomes a 9.00 start, after people scramble to pack - a certain football team kept some sport fans up ‘til the wee hours of the morning. Room keys are found, lost and found again. A Tamil pathway sweeper grabs my suitcase and insists on carrying down the stairs and rolling it to the bus (any bus). Three attempts to help myself are determinately dismissed, although neither of us speaks the other’s language.

A toll road!

So we’ve managed to position ourselves firmly in the Bangalore rush hour. We’re accompanied by the amazing Prof. Dr. Doreswamy and pick up Prof. Suniti along the way. The landscape is utterly dry, mixing dust with each intake of breath. Bangalore is officially 9 million people - unofficially 10.5 as it expands to the outlying regions, where former lonely villagers are speculating on the
best time to sell off their land to real estate developers. The area around in the flood plain of the river has been reclaimed by the government to increase the water supply. The farmers are not happy.

Wellness since 1930

The tag line is indeed new. This is the second year in a row, the FH had the opportunity to visit this privately held company whose core competence is health care and personal care products based upon the ancient Indian practice of ayruveda and scientifically tested and proven to meet the rigorous demands of modern medicine. Not to mention the competition for the most stringent standards from various regions of the world, making compliance a challenge depending upon the target market. Their first product, Liv52, is a household name in the average Indian household.

The German connection

From an exPfizer consultant, who made Himalaya a trusted brand when it began to be prescribed by medical doctors, to WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management and yes, the University of Applied Science Wuerzburg | Schweinfurt! They only give a half dozen tours per year, so it was a fabulous opportunity to listen to presentations by Mr. Raghavendra V Kulkarni & Mr. K G Umesh, Head of Human Resources, where they used video from the BBC and CNN India to highlight the Himalaya process from seed to shelf. The may even be willing to start a discussion as to how we might work in collaboration!

Products are now available online in Germany (website in English). When they’re ready & have approval for direct sales in Germany, we’d be happy to help them ;) All web design and development was done in India.

Kengeri Campus

The day finished with a tour of the beautiful Kengeri campus, our home for the next few days. Kengeri opened in 2009 and looks it has won multiply awards for its green gardens and energy efficiency. It is the home of the engineering faculties and half of the MBA program.