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The King Size Bed Sheet Revelation
I don't like shopping. and i'm not a huge fan of Pink. but looking for bedsheets made me realize getting local staff and local designers is a higher priority than I would have thought. welcome to the king size bed sheet revelation... and its impact on growing a global corporate culture.
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.
thx
I appreciate your work
Hello Sam,
I came across your blog a couple of days back. I appreciate the work that you are doing. I am originally from India, and actually lived in Delhi while I was working with Fabindia as Head of Apparel Design. I studied design in National Institute of Design. I quit my job and later worked with NGOs in textile craft sector in remote areas of the country. I moved to Boston last year because my spouse is working here.
I saw some familiar names in this post and couldn't resist writing to you. I have started a small social venture myself, and also plan to apply for GSB Stanford this year. I have yet to understand in detail about what and how you are doing in order to reach your goals. I am sure that you would be coping well and would have made a good network in India, but I still thought to drop a note to say that I would be very happy to help if I can in someway ( I know this is quite vague but I just felt like dropping a short note for your good work). Your work is inspirational for me.
hello
Hi Sam I just found out about d.light from an article on www.greentechmedia.com. http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/dlight-shines-light-where-energy-doesnt-flow--1009.html I'm really impressed by what you're doing and really just wanted to say "wow, well done!".
I'll try to donate to the OWCF fund sometime soon. I'm amazed at the CO2 emission reductions alone (besides all the other good things that come from the lights) and I think you should partner with someone who sells carbon credits. I understand selling carbon credits is rather complicated but if you can get it set up and then sign up an airline or something like that you might be able to get rather a lot of money out of it. Just a thought. Personally I'd like to start offsetting my own CO2 emissions but I'll do it by donating to you or buying CFLs for my friends rather than giving money to some guy who is planting some trees.
Also while I'm at it, your website needs a little tidy up - there are borders in the middle of text, the link to your blog wasn't right and your "news" section was not up to date. Again, I'm sure you've got better things to do but I thought I'd mention it in case you can direct someone else to sort it out.
I wish I was so entepreneurial. Keep it up!!! Benjamin