From Spinning Wheel to Fiber-Optic Cable: TGS Gives Goes to Bangalore

The economics and e-commerce module set out to understand the new age of Indian economics. Over the past five weeks students have learned and experienced the entire economic spectrum of India, from rural to urban and from low-tech to high tech. The student experience mirrored India’s economic transformation from spinning wheel to fiber-optic cable. This past week students did a deep dive into the world of high tech India in India’s ‘Silicon Valley,’ Bangalore. This photo essay will share our experiences.

Great organizations need functional teams. We started this week by testing the teams in an Escape Room challenge. Both The Kala Collection luxury brand and the EdArt Non-Profit Organization were challenged in new and exciting ways after being locked in a room together for over an hour.

Students were welcomed to Christ University for an incredible workshop on E-commerce and Digital Marketing with top commerce professors and third year business majors.

In a peer to peer learning model our students paired up with their Indian counterparts to exchange information on both theory and global experience.

Professor Rishikesh gave an inspiring Socratic-style lecture that involved more questions than answers to challenge both Christ University and THINK Global students. Here they were introduced to the Lean Business Canvas, a modern one page planning document that many startups use in both E-commerce and traditional commerce.

The workshop concluded with our student organizations doing a mock-pitch to Christ University student. The Christ University students played the role of savvy venture capitalists who asked specific and difficult questions to determine their return on investment (ROI).

After the pitches, the students went back to work on business planning and adapting their pricing scheme. The students had the opportunity to collaborate with MBAs from a range of tech-based startups in Bangalore.

After days of workshops and learning in Bangalore we traveled East across Indian to the coastal city of Pondicherry. Nearby, we visited Auroville; a future oriented community who follow the spiritual, non-religious, teaching of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Starting with only a barter system they have transformed into a multi-faceted economic system for the common good. Pictured here is the Matrimandir, the spiritual heart of Auroville.

Students pose under an amazing Banyon tree at Auroville. The branches have grown down and rooted themselves in the earth and now support the expanding  growth of the tree.

As all CEOs in this day in age know, you need to both work hard and play hard too! During our surf lesson in Pondicherry all students were able to disconnect from the burdens of creating a startup company and enjoy the interaction with the waves in the Bay of Bengal.

All in all we had a fruitful week developing our business IQs. Stay tuned as these guys continue to develop their plans, prices and pitches before next week’s learning showcase.