A Strategy Safari to Kuala Lumpur

Strategy Safari is a course at IIMA, this time with zero credits. It is aimed at visiting companies in a different country and hence understand strategies under different social, economic, political and cultural backgrounds. Malaysia was the chosen destination this time, as it has been for the past three years. We were a team of 36 led by Prof Ravi C visiting a set of companies across a spectrum of industries - Entertainment, Automobile, Tourism, Shipping, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Infrastructure development, Communications, Airlines, Petrochemicals, Palm Oil and Manufacturing. It was a fun filled educational tour and my first experience beyond my country's borders

Planning logistics and working at the ground level had always excited me. It is long since I took up some work in this area, hence started getting involved in the most involved part of the tour - planning. Starting from booking tickets, getting travel insurance, collections, payments, foreign exchange, coordination with travel agents - every single thing was fascinating and I was totally excited about the trip all together right from the day it was finalized.

We reached the Ahmedabad International Airport on 3rd evening around 8:30 for a flight scheduled at 11:45 PM. I was a bit tense since I had to pack/unpack a lot of times when people gave me some advice or the other - keep your mobile phone in hand baggage, none of the sharp objects in hand baggage not even stapler pins (??!!!), where to keep the camera (my camera is a olympus analog museum piece - even then, should I declare it ???) Finally all these came to an end and I checked in my baggage and then came the emigration formalities - the person was staring at my face and my passport photo which was taken in class XII (trust me I have grown more beautiful these days ;-)) and I had to explain a lot to that guy that it was infact me !!!

Malaysian Airlines economy class seats are not very comfortable I should say - not even as comfy as the deluxe buses between Hyderabad and Chennai. They had a small monitor for everyone so that we could see one of the four movies they telecasted. I chose to see one arbit Hindi movie, I dont even remember what its name is and I got so sick that I slept off unconsciously despite the uncomfortable seats.

It is not everyday that you wake up to see the brightest blue sky and be among the whitest clouds, but 4th of December 2005 was one such day. I have read in books where they say 'It was a beautiful day' - and I understood its full meaning only then. I was told that the flight had been a bit delayed due to some bad weather conditions. I was also told that the sky in the night had fireworks with thunders and lightening around. I was so sad I missed it all. Wait a minute I hadnt missed it all after all... there came a rainbow that is between the plane and the clouds and I tried to take a pic of that...


then the flight started descending and we saw a ship sailing over the sea... then the set of palm plantations all over Malaysia... Well I am travelling in a flight for the third time now and the first time over the seas - no wonder I am this excited. Whoever said the three things that continues to excite people across ages are Train, Elephant and Sea obviously hasnt traveled by plane :)


Airports are all the same - be it Ahmedabad or Kualalumpur - they are confusing !!! One always gets lost the first time. You have absolutely no clue what formalities you gotta complete and how you will get out of the Airport. There are beautiful shops around, there is a train that runs within the airport - some formalities on one end of the track and others on the other end. Fine thank God there was our Prof and others who knew what exactly needs to be done. All I could write in those sheets without referring to a bunch of my documents was my name :|

All formalities complete and we are out - Right there, there is a cellcom outlet - 20 RM (1RM approximately equal to 12.5 Rupees) is all you need to get the GSM mobile connection. No proof, no forms - 20RM and you can make calls immediately (My friend had applied for a corporate connection with Airtel that takes 2 full days to get activated) I hadnt made ISD calls all along... I understood there is something called a neighbouring country concept where you dial a special code and get lesser charges - something similar to our Airtel to Airtel kind of thing. 80 cents per minute to India seemed a very decent deal and there I was mobile there as well !!!

A bus was to take us from KL airport to our hotel - Grand Continental, where we had a twin sharing room. It is almost an hours drive we were told. The first thing that struck me is the bredth of the roads and their cleanliness. There is almost nil overtaking on the roads :| Almost all vehicles move at the same speed - minimum speed of 90 Kmph !!! Wonderful drive through the city getting fundaes from the tour guide - You can not travel in a tour bus in Malaysia without a guide, its a legal requirement - there were more than one instance where we cursed the laws for this additional baggage !!! But you know theres always one who doesnt complain at all ;)


A typical day went like this - Wake up at 7:30 types - have bath - eat breakfast - board bus - go to company 1 - have snacks - listen to their ppt - have lunch / go to company 2 - have lunch - have snacks / go to company 3 - have snacks - listen to ppts on all companies, go for tours, listen to speakers from outside, ask lots and lots of questions - finish off everything by 6 - go shopping - hunt for a veg restaurant - have dinner else skip dinner - return to room - showcase all you shopped to friends - decide on where the best bargains were struck - make plans for the next days shopping - go to sleep by 12/1 AM !!!

On the first day we went to the most important fun place in KL - Genting Skyway. The cable car ride is something noone should miss. It is simply an awesome experience. The place is always burried among clouds and needless to say extremely cold (not as cold as Zainabad I should say) People desperately wanted to go to the rides but most of them were closed since it was already time by then. So they compromised on some ride that was open - one of the kiddish rides with kids and shouted their hearts out just for the heck of it :))


As opposed to the rides, the ones that have seemingly no time constraints are the casinos. I understood the consumer behaviour of gambling there. The games are played with the highest level of professionalism - dies are cast using randomizers, cards are picked up from randomizers and so on. So, a cast of a die or a pick of a card are truly random - there are machines ensuring so. Every possible combination is equally likely and independent of the previous draw - atleast that's what probability says. But you should see the people there. There are long lists of previous draws and fights going on among friends as to what the next draw will be. Losing out just seem to get them addicted more and more. A few posts back I had rambled why India should not institutionalize gambling and related stuff. I am still standing by that thought - simply because simulating that high level professionalism here will be very difficult and I personally feel there are one thousand better things to do in India. KL has done most of these and is saturated and hence gone to gambling.

One more thing that amused me is the hotel Annalakshmi. This is in the midvalley mega mall. They have this concept of food being saviour of life and hence one should not charge for food. So, when you go there, you eat as much as you want and pay as much as you want for the buffet meal that is there. There are other sources of income like special juices, sweets etc which one needs to pay for. The organization hasn't gone through a loss till date for the benevolent ones pay much more than the freeriders. I can't help but appreciate their concept of benevolence and not looking at it as a business.


Malaysia is a place that is promoted as a shopping destination (so is Singapore, hongkong et al???) There are many many malls all around... and there is a china town - the typical bargain bazaar where you are told a price of 110 and you ask for 10 and buy for 15 RM !!! The malls are pretty much the same - you seen one mall, trust me you seen them all. I used to think when I go to TNagar in Chennai that people have no other job but to shop. What I seen in Chennai is not at all a crowd when compared to the KL malls... they just shop like they breathe and eat. Talk about eating, there are very less number of vegetarian restaurants there. McDonalds is the only place where you get veggie burger with an egg based sauce - which you can avoid by telling them in advance !!! If you can eat anything that crawls, flies or walks, then you will feast in KL... If you wont even eat egg based cakes and icecreams, boss you better learn to cook your own food.


What to shop for in Malaysia? I seriously don't know :) Partly because the time we had was very less and partly because we went to the hifi places. I personally found electronic gadgets that are found in both the places (India and Malaysia) at comparitive prices. But there are hi end models of mobiles and other electronic items available there. Similar chocolates are cheaper in the malls than at the airport. But again, you will get rare chocolates in the airport. I dont know if every worthwhile city has this china town where you get watches from. They are damn cheap. Almost everyone in our gang bought watches that are branded Rolex or Calvin Klein or some other hifi name and every morning we greet each other asking 'My watch still runs, does yours?' Souvenirs are best bargains again in China town.

One more place not to miss in KL is the times square entertainment park rides. In case you are enthusiastic about them, you tend to like them a lot. In case you are like me, who hasnt stepped on to any of the rides before, please do get on to them and have an experience of a life time. I for one hadnt been on a roller coaster before (a roller coaster ride has always been emotional for me :)) or a DNA mixer (huh?) I was so scared initially but went once again and enjoyed thoroughly.


The companies we went to were one of the top companies in the industry. In cases more than one, that was the only company in that industry !!! The stability of the Government and the sheer small size of the country have played a crucial role in making the country an almost developed country. They say they have poor in their country as well - those with monthly income of 1500 RM or less (that is about 20 K a month - boss every entry level employee in TCS, Wipro and Infy is poor by that rule - I know we have to consider something called purchasing power parity things to decide these but even then, it is too much !!!) Mobile phone penetration is something like 98% and hence STD booths are non existant.

When we returned on the 10th, I was left with a weird feeling why Malaysia is still called a developing country? One of my friends said - because it is in the East. Seemed to make sense.