Maybe it’s a legacy of the British civil service; maybe it’s something in the water… I don’t know.

 
Whatever it is, the level of bureaucracy is mind-blowing. And, since people casually say that all the time in the abstract, I’m going to get all data-driven and quantitative about it. The craziest part? Most of the examples of this that I’ve experienced recently are from interactions with the PRIVATE SECTOR.

 
Here goes:

•  I had to sign my name 158 times to open a new HDFC bank account, and the paperwork isn't finished.  I had to stamp every one off those pages with a little corporate stamp that costs $8 down the road and somehow proves that the signatures are legitimate.
  

• d.light spent over $1500 in legal fees to get the first bank account open; mostly due to back and forths over the exact correct format for upteen board resolutions, some of  which had to be signed by directors living overseas initially.  After all that - YES Bank would only issue me one debit card for the whole company - and they dont have a credit card available for corporates.
  

• To then get debit cards for my employees I had to write another 68 signatures!

• I had to file a document of over 100 pages in order to get a VAT# in the state of Uttar Pradesh (so that I can sell lights and the government can take their sales tax).  Now we have to go to court and stamp a lot more papers.  the whole process takes about 3 weeks.
  

• Since arriving here I’ve had 28 checks rejected for having a “bad date” or a “bad signature,” including when the 8 in 2008 was in a slightly heavier ink form, and when my signature loop varied in placement.

• The total number of checks I’ve had rejected during the past 3 decades of life in Pakistan, Benin, Mauritania, United States, Canada, Rwanda and Macedonia? That would be 0.

The last few days felt exactly like the end of June 2007 when it all started in d.light's first office in Mountain View, CA.  Fast forward  1 year to India - and I had 4 people in our new office in Noida, UP, India on Monday, 5 people on Tuesday, 6 on Thursday, and 7 on Friday.  The 8th came on Monday and we hiring in another today.  Meanwhile – its absolute mayham with all hands on board.  Containers of products are arriving in the ports, we are getting distributor requests almost on an hourly basis from all over the world, the media is abuzz, web companies, designers, media, distributors and customers are calling into the new office, and meanwhile we are cranking out fliers, posters, finalizing pricing on new products, and reaching out to our corporate and institutional partners. 

I got home the other day to speak with Ned and I could barely breathe, the whole day I would literally start an email, get through one paragraph before taking a call, which led to 2 emails half started, then a group meeting, then a distributor would arrive in the office, then some vendors.. and when I stopped to look around I noticed that literally everybody in the entire office, was embroiled in a similar level  of extreme multi-tasking.  We are literally co-creating a sub-culture within d.light for India and I’m am soo excited with the awesome awesome caliber of people we’ve got.  Its taken months – but we've built a great team - d.light quality.

To put this in perspective, I have worked with a lot of teams before, but I have never worked with a group of people who were complete strangers several days earlier, and who come from different industries, speak different languages, and yet are able, without any orientations or prompting, to create magic and jam so fast and so well.  Here’s to India - here's to Team-India - and lets go sell some lights!

I have a king size bed with bright pink sheets.  100% true.  They were the only ones in the store that fit the bed – J  Its laughable though – because Sarah and I went out the day after we bought them to try and find some more toned down colors. We ended up looking in the local textile market called Lajpat Nagar, which has just about anything you could dream of – but the vast majority of the towels, sheets, curtains, etc won’t last that many washes.  Then we looked in high end but eco/social stores  like Fab India, with excellent quality, and then the in-betweens, like big-bazaar and the home store, which are  situated in India’s new mega malls.

 
Anyway – as we bargained with the storekeepers in Lajpat Nagar, or sorted through the bulk bins in Big Bazaar, there was almost nothing that suited our tastes.  Lots of paisley patterns and garish colorings.  In fact – we didn’t even find one sheet set in the whole mall that came with either 2 sheets (top and bottom.. they all just came with one) and/or one plain solid color.  It just wasn’t there.  I wasn’t looking for a plain solid color, but I also can’t imagine not having that option available.  Nor could we imagine selling a bed sheet set with only one sheet.  That wouldn’t be the American or Canadian reality. 

 
In the taxi on the way home, I was remarking that Xian, d.light’s chief product designer, wouldn’t be caught dead sleeping in those patterns.  In the midst of chuckling over the possibility, it became so glaringly obvious how out of our element d.light sometimes is – trying to remotely design for the Indian, and rural Indian at that, customer.  No matter  how much time we spend in villages – we as foreigners still can’t completely appreciate all of our customers tastes and sensibilities.

 
That’s why I am so happy that we now have an Indian sales team shaping up and some product designers with both architecture and mechanical engineering backgrounds that should be joining us next week!  The office is growing – and the more Indians helping us to make decisions about India the happier I am.  The tough part is going to learning how to incorporate d.light’s culture and values into a growing office, and meanwhile taking the Indian culture out of India to our other offices.

The global world is amazing.  I just got back from a trip into rural Uttar Pradesh, India, and I’m amazed to see how computers, internet, and cell phones are flourishing despite the absence of reliable electricity, and furthermore how these instruments are truly democratizing the flow of information!  Its getting harder and harder to pull one over on anybody these days – even if they are semi-literate and live in an unelectrified village. AND, its getting easy and easy for people to do business and improve their lives.

That said, I am beginning to think that the legal profession is one of the last big barriers to democratizing business and allowing small and micro entrepreneurs to play on a level field with the corporates.  I would never have thought that over the last month I would spend 50% of my time dealing with legal and bureaucratic issues, nor, that one of d.light’s biggest expenses in the past few months would be legal. Ouch! Every time I get another monstrous bill, I keep asking myself, 'what is going on' – and 'why is it costing literally thousands and thousands of dollars to complete this paperwork, especially when that money could better be put into manufacturing lights and delivered into the hands of families?'

I was brainstorming with my friend Jeff Gupta-Smith, about how the legal profession is structured in such a way that ordinary people like ourselves are intimidated, scared, and unsure in making our own legal documents.  However, for the most part – all those documents are fairly simple/standard, except that so much weight is put on saying things in just the right manner (and unintelligible form) – that it becomes almost impossible for somebody without extensive training to feel confident.  It seems that we/lawyers/systems of justice have created a legal forms that generates billions of dollars of value (mostly for itself) essentially propogating a language that is indicepherable to the masses.  Wouldn't it be amazing if we could do a revision of the legal language (just like every other language) and make it accessible to all?  I'm dreaming of a day when anybody can go on-line, regardless of the language they speak or how fluently, and get access to great legal templates, and file and share all these docs/forms for free and instantly.  It can't be that hard...

On a more personal level, I can't stand distracting myself with legal details, and I want to rush out and build a great business.  Neverthess I am stuck.  So I am wondering if anybody has any suggestions as to when in a companies growth they need to worry about legal, and how important is it to set a company and legal foundation up perfectly from  the get-go? I ask and am simultaneously empathisizing will all who have passed before me in setting up global entities.

There is a reason I've been writing so little lately.  and its because I'm so busy learning the hard way.  I was caught in a bubble of relative ease during my childhood and then MBA at Stanford.  Arriving in India, and in New Delhi in particular, to set up a global company, I have been battling with a different set of circumstances, and with a new culture that doesn't understand or value social entrepreneurship the way I want it to, and certainly not compared with its 5,000 year old history. I think this would be a challenge in any environment, but without corporate budgets and their extensive resources, I salute and want to learn from all the social entrepreneurs who are out building global companies in new countries!  I am looking for YOU and for your advice :)

Challenge Numero Uno: Housing/Office:  Moving is supposed to be fun. New. Exciting.  But I've found it to be extremely exhausting.  I grew up in a USAID household where we moved countries every 3-5yrs.  When we touched down in a capitol, there would be a driver who whisked us to our new fully furnished house, with a little spiral bound booklet of what the city had to offer, where to get good drinks and food, and what to do for fun on the weekend.  A cook would most likely be at the house and a generator at the ready in case the power went off. If we needed anything, or anything was broken, somebody would help us out.  oh - so nice. it seems a bit like a dream now.

My experience:  I got a pre-paid taxi to a $5 hotel because there is nothing really in between a 5 star $200/night and 1 star $5/night.  There was no hot water and the sheets smelled but that was fine - I was on an mission.  I didn't have internet but could get basic email on a little USB key I bought.  It was impossible to hold team meetings or make calls because my cell phone kept getting shut down.  But none of that bothered me, I had a huge network to reach out to, and I really only needed a 2 bdrm house and a couple hundred feet of office space to put some desks.  How hard could it be? Meanwhile, I could set up the legal structure for our company, deal with distributors, launch some products, and start hiring the team.

HA.. I was definitely operating on America time not India time.  The reality of India for me is that everything seems so easy and seems so possible and straightforward.. but then in reality it always, always, takes 10 times longer and is never simple.  I now budget 4 times what anybody tells me, whether its a consultant, lawyer, taxi driver, or dinner invite.  The best advice I got was from my girlfriend, who has never even been to India, who told me that I needed to start operating on India time, and stop trying to force India to operate on Sam time.

Thinking back on our first d.light office outside Stanford - It took me 15mins and a template I grabbed off the internet to sign our office lease, and within one day we had moved in, furnished the place off craigslist, and painted and changed the locks at wal-mart.  wow.  It took me 8 weeks to find a house here that would accept a private lease from a foreigner, 2 weeks to get my house lease squared away, and a full day of waiting in 10 different lines, and signing and thumb printing the back and front of tens of pages, just to move into a house that had nothing.. not even a refrigerator. 

I was just not prepared for India - and I should have paid a consultant, friend, initial hire, somebody ANYBODY to help with this.  I always was pushing it off saying i'll hire somebody when i have an office, or I don't want to spend all the money on a consultant, but the lesson I learned is HIRE EARLY somebody who is local and help me get set up as fast as possible.  it will save tons of time in the long run. 

The good news is that I have a great guest-room so one thing I can do, that is culturally appropriate, is host guests!

JOB DESCRIPTION: CONSUMER RESEARCH | HUMAN FACTORS SPECIALIST

US

d.light design is hiring a consumer research and human factors specialist to research and synthesize deep consumer, market, and distribution insights which can be developed into meaningful products & services.  This position will report directly to the CEO-India and operates out of our new headquarters in Noida.  The candidate must also be ready to join a rapidly growing startup and tackle multiple responsibilities, including product design, brainstorming, managing office logistics, and performing admin support as needed.

This is an incredible opportunity to work with a high growth Silicon Valley social enterprise funded by both US and Indian investors including Mahindra & Mahindra, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Acumen Fund, Nexus India Capital, Gray Matters Capital and Garage Technology Ventures.  Our goal is simple – to eradicate kerosene lanterns from the face of the earth.  To do this we will become the market leader in delivering safe and affordable lighting solutions to over 1.6 billion people who currently do not have access to electricity.  Our initial focus is India, where we will provide modern lighting to the 78 million families still using kerosene lanterns.

YOU

You are a self-starter.  You can formulate and execute research plans independently, and you are able to offer creative solutions to problems.  You are curious, patient and eager to spend multiple weeks at a time in rural & semi-urban UP, MP, Bihar, etc. sleeping in villages houses, building relationships and learning about our customer’s needs through observations, interviews and spending quality time experiencing their lifestyle.  You are outgoing, have a hands-on prototyping mindset, and you are comfortable with brainstorming multiple solutions and ideas with teammates. You are adaptive and excited to join a start-up, and willing to take on a myriad of roles, which will initially include coordinating logistics, setting up our design office and assisting the CEO.  Most importantly, you are a budding social entrepreneur, with the desire to empower the underserved and positively impact the lives of others.  These are the things that drive you through the long hours of work and extensive travel required.  Your role is to:

RESEARCH & ANALYZE

• Spend days and weeks interviewing and observing rural and semi-urban customers in order to build empathy and understand their true needs & context, i.e. needfinding
• Organize customer research data & draw insights and build frameworks from which d.light will make strategic & product design decisions
• Extensively research current market space, including competitor products, electronics & consumer goods markets, and rural & base-of-the-pyramid markets
• Spend quality time with multiple members of d.light’s supply chain in order to draw insights and innovate on d.light’s processes
• Actively prototype viable product & service ideas, packaging, instruction manuals, and marketing strategies in order to gain insights and develop strategies
• Synthesize customer data and effectively communicate insights and research summaries clearly to d.light team via powerpoint, creative visuals & diagrams, prototypes, emails/teleconferences, etc.
• Offer design advice and guidance as the leading ‘Customer Expert’

MANAGE & COORDINATE (until Office Manager is recruited)

• Organize & supervise day-to-day administrative activities for the CEO.  Take charge of IT related issues & challenges.
• Provide logistics support especially travel & accommodation

QUALIFICATIONS

• University degree; Engineering and/or social sciences degrees a bonus
• Hindi & English fluency required, other north Indian languages a bonus
• General know-how of Indian business procedures.  Extensive familiarity with Delhi/Noida a bonus
• Strong communication skills:
  • Able to communicate respectfully with rural customers
  • Able to properly coordinate & communicate with local & international businesses
  • Able to clearly present research findings via written and visual documentation to d.light team
• 2-3 years consumer product/customer/market research
• Engineering, Product Design, Graphic Design, and Web experience a bonus

COMPENSATION

Compensation is commensurate with experience.  The Human Factors Specialist position is an integral part of creating our India team and product portfolio and will have a competitive salary. 

INTERVIEWS

You will favorably impress us by contacting India@dlightdesign.com and including your CV and either:

A description of a project where you used the human-centered design process to bring something new to the world—especially as it relates to product design.

OR

Your response to this exercise: Find an environment where you can watch people who you believe are earning less than Rs. 150 per day going through daily life (such as a park, a restaurant, a transit station or vehicle, etc.)  Spend time observing activities and interactions, documenting what you notice (in photos or diagrams for instance) and share with us your thoughts about how people’s experiences there could be enhanced, and what resulting opportunities there might be for a viable market offering.

Following successful phone interviews, Erica Estrada (Product Engineer and VP Customer Research) will conduct personal interviews in Noida.

JOB DESCRIPTION: VP SALES INDIA

US

d.light design is hiring a VP Sales Executive who will report directly to the CEO and build sales and distribution in India. This position is based in Delhi and is an incredible opportunity to work with a high growth Silicon Valley social enterprise funded by both US and Indian investors including Mahindra & Mahindra, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Acumen Fund, Nexus India Capital, Gray Matters Capital and Garage Technology Ventures. Our goal is simple – to eradicate kerosene lanterns from the face of the earth. To do this we will become the market leader in delivering safe and affordable lighting solutions to over 1.6 billion people who currently do not have access to electricity.  Our initial focus is India, where we will provide modern lighting to the 78 million families still using kerosene lanterns.

YOU

You are passionate social entrepreneur, driven to create change and improve the lives of millions of Indian families. You are a great salesmen, with a successful track record and at least seven years experience executing sales and marketing initiatives in India. You are extremely entrepreneurial and creative in acquiring partners and leveraging resources. You are driven to succeed and willing to travel extensively and work long hours to propel d.light. Finally, you are a team builder, ready to build increasingly sophisticated sales teams and a leader that inspires others and acts with the utmost honesty and integrity.  Your role is to :

Lead

·         Create sales and distribution strategies for rural and peri-urban environments

·         Build the d.light brand by managing a national distribution network and sales force

·         Measure distributor and sales team progress against leading indicators

Sell

·         Market test products new to the Indian market and consumer

·         Hit high volume targets in 18 months for d.light’s first five products

·         Engage a range of distribution partners, including multi-national corporations, regional distributors, non-governmental organizations, and government offices

·         Manage key accounts including negotiating pricing and terms with distributors

Plan

·         Forecast sales volumes, profit margins, and net profit and achieve clearly defined, mutually agreed upon revenue/gross profit targets

·         Manage and meet marketing expense budgets

Innovate

·         Develop and continuously evaluate promotional and advertising activities

·         Deliver innovative business models, branding, and marketing approaches

·         Work closely with d.light design’s manufacturing and design officers to consistently improve our product line

Qualifications

·         Masters Level Degree

·         Strong direct and remote sales skills. Extremely comfortable dealing at senior levels. Must bring strong negotiating skills and ability to close

·