Working on a consulting engagement with a global Deloitte team is turning out to be a brilliant experience. The melting pot of accents from four different countries creates its fair share of confusion but, with the help of ‘Beached As Bro’, I’m slowly getting the team to warm to the kiwi monotone.
Furthermore, we’re making the most of our time in Rotorua. On Saturday we went hurtling down the luge track and on Sunday we took off for a day-trip to Hamilton, where Deloitte global (a kiwi, an american, a canadian, and a welshman) took place in the national dodgeball championship. Sounds like a bad bar joke and the results echoed this as we went crashing out in the second round.
So my time in the Auckland office is limited …. but not gone completely. I’ll be heading back on Friday in time to meet the new faces in the office at the first firm drinks of the new year! Good times all round.
The consulting life presents you with a wide range of projects in all sorts of weird and wonderous locations. So I arrived back from my annual leave to the welcome news that I’d be working for a client in Rotorua for the next 6 months. What makes this project really exciting is that I’m working with a team of 10 supply chain gurus that have flown in for the project from Deloitte UK, US, and Canada!
It is forecast that carbon emissions from developing countries will exceed those of developed countries in the coming half century … yet the rules are different for large developing countries and as such a global reduction benchmark isn’t considered appropriate. Driving down the coast of India in an autorickshaw is, bizarrely, a great way to see the developing world in action and to appreciate their specific issues.
The problem is two-fold. Firstly, there are 800 million Indians living on less than $2 per day and it’s not feasible or reasonable to place additional expenses on them to lower carbon output. Secondly, the country is developing rapidly and the appetite for energy, more food, and better transportation won’t go away.
Sustainable development in such a country therefore needs to be cheaper than alternatives and support development needs. There are a few examples – solar panels may be more efficient than power lines in getting energy to remote villages, and the Southern tip of India is now blanketed with kilometres of wind turbines. But in a country that currently has little to no formal rubbish collection system, there are many huge issues to address. It requires some careful global policy, but also provides some huge business opportunities for those that can develop and apply the right green technologies – food for thought for the Deloitte Sustainability Initiative?
On a related note, read up on urban planning in the Brazilian city of Curitiba if you get the chance - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curitiba#UN_Convention_on_Biodiversity. In a country plagued by deforestation and rapid development, Curitiba stands as the third greenest city in the world.
And that’s enough from me about India! Back to the world of consulting in the next blog.
Racing an autorickshaw down the coast of India isn’t everyones idea of cruisy annual leave but its a brilliant way to get some new perspectives on the world and, for us, was the ideal outlet to help promote education in the developing world.
The official cause for our race was the “Freedom Through Education” initiative, which raises money to build schools in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Through our friends, family, and with the help of the Deloitte intranet, we managed to raise over $6000. What made this fundraising particularly exciting for us was the opportunity to visit schools that have been built with FTE money and interact with the children - we even spent one full morning teaching 8-12 year olds geography classes in a Mumbai slum! I don’t know how much of a future I have as a teacher but my funny accent and appreciation of cricket meant I could hold their attention long enough.
The kids are amazing. Despite having so little, they are happy, intelligent, and incredibly eager to make the most of their opportunites to learn. To put it all in perspective, education in India is still far less developed than countries such as China. 40% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of students reach high school. Investment into educational infrastructure is crucial to changing these statistics. By providing a new generation with the right to education you are taking the first step towards a long term improvement in living standards. It was good that we could do a little bit to help this process and we’ll keep looking for new ways to apply ourselves to this cause.
10 days in an autorickshaw provides plenty of time for thinking. In the next blog I’ll put on my consultant hat and share a few questions I grapled with on both the opportunities and issues provided by economic growth in the developing world.
I’ve just returned to the glorious new grounds of the Queen Street Deloitte Building from a 5 week epic adventure to India. It seems like the interns have covered all that is exciting about the new building so we thought it better if I shared some of what I did in India. So here’s a taste of what Deloitters get up to in their down time!
The main purpose behind the trip was to take-part in a 1200km autorickshaw race (think tuk-tuk) down the South-Eastern coast on India. Aside from the obvious adventure, the major purpose was to fundraise to help build new schools and facilities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. So prepare yourselves for a three-piece series! Here I’ll talk about the race itself:
The race delivered on every bit of insanity that was promised and at times bordered on reckless endangerment. The only rule on Indian roads is that size is right so when you’re not flying over potholes or dodging roadside animals, you’re avoiding rogue buses. The rickshaws themselves aren’t made for long distance and we found ourselves driving at night without headlights. At various times we also lost our clutch, muffler and even a whole wheel. This is better off than some of the other teams which flipped their rickshaws, drove through buildings, and had total engine meltdowns.
The real highlight was the people. We were navigating by word of mouth as we had no map (the people are your map!) meaning that we were constantly pulling over in small villages asking puzzled and excitable locals for directions. Three kiwis travelling in an autorickshaw is massive news and this was compounded by the huge local media coverage we got along the way. We never got sick of people chasing the rickshaw screaming ‘Daniel Vettori, Daniel Vettori!’.
More on our charitable contribution and interaction with school kids in the next blog!
‘Fly Home Friday’, moving office, a sprinkle of client work, and a Christmas Party on top. All in days work for a consultant in the festive season.
Fly Home Friday is the monthly get-together when us festive consultants jet back to the home office for a day of knowledge sharing, updates, and, as we’re all on different clients (in different parts of the country), a good general catch-up. Combine that with the big office move to Queen Street and the client work we need to get finished by Christmas, and it promises to be an action-packed day!
‘Work hard, play hard’ is the motif though and come mid-afternoon we’ll be donning our santa hats and heading out to a winery for our final hoo-rah of 2009.
Cheers
Once more sitting amongst a well dressed collection of businessmen/woman at Wellington awaiting the Auckland flight call. It’s been another eventful week, from experiencing my first Wellington earthquake to the unofficial launch of the North Island Consulting Social Club. Most of the Auckland practice is on projects down here at the moment so we teamed up with the local consultants and 25ish of us sat down for a civilised dinner. Good times … I sense a weekly event coming on.
Lounging at the airport after another great week working on a client in Wellington. Back home for Friday and looking forward to Jandal day and the rooftop bbq at the Auckland office!