It’s true – India is home to 1.13 billion people.  And no doubt it takes a lot of administrative horsepower to manage all those people in the sprawling, untidy, still-maturing democracy that is India today.

 

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.

Its become pretty humorous around the office actually.  I'm starting to like wielding my stamp!

[will upload picture soon - server down :( ]

Our team keeps growing, and somehow we keep expanding the number of amazing people participating in d.light's extended family.  This weekend was a good example.  My girlfriend Sarah, who had led the executive education programs at the d.school,  took on the task of leading a highly accelerated  full design training  with a  motley crew of  hard core sales staff, marketers,  admins, mba's,  social change agents,  and  designers.  It was super fun and our new team-India excelled at bonding and tackling the ambiguous job of being 'designers.'  

Our job was to improve the 'lunch' experience for street vendors.  From the git go we learned all about being open, observation skills, and key interviewing tactics.  Then we hit the road in 2 teams with notebooks and cameras, spending the lunch hours with our users and collecting tons of juicy stories which later found their way onto white boards, walls, and windows as pictures and post-it notes.  From there we extruded our deepest insights into a single point-of-view statement, and amidst some healthy laughter we brainstormed all the possible solutions to meet our street vendors needs.  The day ended to music and some ubber rapid prototyping with random styrofoam, card-board, and other office supplies turning into mobile vendor carts, loudspeakers, and stamp pressing machines.  Based on the looks of others who passed by our 'war room' - activities like this were definitely NOT going on in most of the corporate offices around Delhi last Saturday ;)  It was a great first step and eye opener for our new team here, and an important step in our gaol to make to making everybody in d.light's operations, whether they are in sales or finance, a great designer - filled with understanding and empathy for our customers.

Thanks Sarah & thanks Joe for leading a wonderful day.  Thanks Mr. India for coming up.

PS:  For any and all of you amazing product designers out there who are looking for a killer job.. please check out our latest posting in India:  http://dlightdesign.com/jobs/JD-PD-India.pdf