Friday was a very short day. We started off with a brief review of the week. I cannot believe how much we packed in. A bit too much, in fact. There were no real breaks, no time to recover. I also didn’t get a lot of time to spend with the team. If I were to do it again, I would think 2 weeks would be better. Everything we saw was important, and we are going home with great information. I would not have taken away any of the sessions.

Laurent and I put together a quick set of slides regarding recognition. Raghu pulled together an impromptu meeting of all the BMS folks. He asked us to talk about our impression of our trip with the team, and then to present our recognition to the team. It was very difficult to narrow down my choices. I feel my whole team is doing a much better job. I think that is due to some of the new leadership (Smit and Abhijit), and our focus on quality (Premalatha and Jasmine).

After the impromptu recognition meeting, I dragged the Internet Marketing team outside for a photograph. We weren’t allowed to take the photo inside. We weren’t allowed to take it just outside the building. We weren’t even allowed to take it facing away from the building. We had to go all the way outside the security complex to the road of the IT Park to take it. So we all hiked outside. One of the security guards took the photo of us. This photo is the best souvenir I am bringing home with me.

Lunch was at a nice restaurant in downtown Bangalore. On our way there, it had started to drizzle. While we were eating, it started to pour. We could see the sidewalk flooding. This is a big problem in Bangalore, particularly during the monsoon season. This was the second flood we experienced. The food was wonderful. Nisha Rai and Nupur Maini came with us to help Laurent and I shop for some jewelry for our wives.

Shopping was a lot of fun. Raghu recommended a place called Tanishq, so our driver brought the four of us there. The jewelry shop was a Tata company. Tata owns everything… cars, telecom, water, energy, electronics, steel, they are into everything. Anyway, we went into the shop and the ladies helped us pick out some very nice pieces of jewelry. There was a definite Indian / Asian flare to the jewelry, which is exactly what I was looking for. I hope my wife likes what I picked out. The ladies were a big help, and we all had a great time.

We drive around town a bit, saw some of the sights, and headed home. This was our first early night. We had dinner at the restaurant downstairs, and went to bed early. Tomorrow is a big day. We are off to Mysore.