Namaste, greetings from India!  This is the first installment in a series of blogs that follows the Yellowseed team as we set up a web-development office in South India. Over the next four weeks I’ll share info about traveling in India, hiring Indian programmers, setting up a office and nurturing an effective and happy team. More has happened here in the last three days than a month in our home-town of Nelson, BC. While I have a plan for this series - being in India has taught me that plans (like traffic rules) are arbitrary. Sometimes it’s best to go with the flow!

Personal Connections

We have been working remotely with Bala, our web programmer in India, for several months. All has been going well; so why the heck did Rik, Natalka and myself travel to the other side of the world to set up an office? I asked Rik this question over chapatis and sambar and this is what he said:

Making strong personal connections sometimes requires meeting in person. I want our team to feel like a team.  I want each person to feel strongly connected to each other even across so many times zones, and sometimes wildly different cultures. I also want the work that we do here in India to come from a place that resonates with our company and from a team that shares our values. The city of Thiruvannamalai is a holy place in South India, a home of many yogis and siddhars, and yet it is near Bangalore, the IT hub of Asia, creating a great synergy of spirit and technology.

To this Natalka added,“in an age where so much business is done through the internet - there’s a loss of personal connection. You can lose sight of why you’re doing something if money is your only goal. Our vision involves more then monetary goals, we want to help people. We have to know our own team on a personal level if we are going to work at our best helping others. We want to do business with our hearts - this involves making genuine connections with our employees, co-workers and clients.”

Group bonding at the beach

In a few hours we’re heading to Pondicherry, a French colonial town on the Bay of Bengal. The loose plan is to spend some downtime with Bala - to get to know each other and this area a little better. In the next installment I’ll share some vital travel tips that have (thus far) kept us sane and healthy. If you’re thinking about growing your small business through offshoring - stay tuned over the next 4 weeks for some tidbits on how to set up a sweet work space, hire programmers and create a solid team.