Monday, October 27 - The Factory

Monday started early for me as I woke up at 2:00 am after a 5-hour nap. I stayed in bed until 3:30 and then decided it was time to get up.  I noticed the honking horns outside had quieted, but it was short-lived and by 4:00 am they resumed their chatter.  I spent the next few hours calling home, working out in the gym, and having breakfast.  At 9:30, Anita and Shalabh, the husband and wife team who run Conserve India, picked me up for the commute to their factory. 

The factory is west of Delhi in the neighboring state of Haryana. Surprisingly, when we crossed out of the city limits and into Haryana, the landscape became almost instantly rural, with farms all around us.  Anita quickly pointed out, however, that much of the land had been sold and would be developed into residential high rises and industrial parks.  She continued by saying that the Conserve India factory was  the first in the area, but had been joined by 70 others in the last four years. 

We arrived at the factory after an hour-long commute and Anita and Shalabh showed me an amazing array of handbags, wallets, laptop and iPad cases, and household furniture made out of waste products including plastic bags, seatbelts, tire tubes, discarded army canvas, and more. They explained how they train and pay a fair wage to "ragpickers" to collect the waste, and train the factory workers to work with each type of material. The proceeds from the sale of the products are used to support the Conserve India school attended by 100 children in the slum.  Anita does all of the product design work and leads the social projects, while Shalabh oversees finance, sales, and production. 

As we toured the factory, Anita explained that their goal is to help the people in the slum who have no education or technical or "soft skills."  The school is meant to be a launching pad for kids to enter the government schools and the factory a training ground for other skilled jobs. 

After the tour, we talked about the projects they would like my help with. They involve developing a succession plan that Anita and Shalabh can implement over the next several years as they contemplate retirement, and thinking through how to accelerate the growth of the business.  After sitting in on a meeting with a potential product buyer and having a wonderful home-cooked lunch, I was able to work on a succession plan framework.

As the sun set, we headed back into the city. This time the trip took two hours and was filled with what I now know are called "auto-rickshaws" (see the green and yellow carts in yesterday's post), motor scooters darting and diving in an out of traffic as if the other vehicles were stationary, and busses, trucks, and bicycles. Of course, all were honking incessantly (except the bicycles).  In an effort to save time, at one point we turned off onto a frontage road more suited to a four-wheel drive dirt track, which Shalabh referred to as "the road less traveled."  All the while, our driver maneuvered expertly through the maze as calmly as if on a Sunday afternoon drive in the country. 

Some pictures from the day are below.  

Anita and some of her creations:

Outside the factory