View of Sao Paulo from our Hotel Rooftop
Those of you who know me probably are aware that I think that I am one of those who has traveled the world and know most of what there is to know about it. Well, this is one of those situations when I am made aware how little I know about it.
My team and I arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil on January 3 for a 3 week consulting project as part of our course work at Business school. We finished our first week here and whoa it has been a whirlwind week full of surprises, shock, moments of awe, and helplessness (is this a word?).
- Sao Paulo and its confines house 27 M people. Yes, you read it correctly : 27 Million people. Making Sao Paulo the world's largest urban dwelling in the world. And here I was thinking Sao Paulo is Rio's poor cousin with about 1000 people.
- The infrastructure in Sao Paulo is nothing short of awesome. Wide and organized highways, paved streets with clear signs, tons of bridges and tunnels. etc. Why am I harping on this? Well, let me tell you why. The World likes to compare Brazil to India and China and if what I've seen so far in Sao Paulo is any indication Brazil is about 20-30 years ahead of India in terms of infrastructure.
-The demographic of people here is so diverse that we (as people of Indian origin) can pass off as Brazilians. There are a lot of native Brazilians who have the skin tone as us. No wonder we have everyone come upto us and speak in rapid Portuguese - and we have to be lame and say "sorry we dont speak Portuguese". Decades of cross-breeding has led to a diverse mix of races here. No doubt about it.
-Lifestyle of people (again from a week of observation) is crazy. We hit up bars near our hotel on Wed and Thu and they were packed at all times in the evening. We went to an Irish pub to watch Florida Vs Alabama on Thu nite and the bar was packed with young Sao Paulans. Of the 200-300 people there there about 5-10 watchin the game. People walk into restaurants at 11 pm to start dinner and hang out till 1 am. Not sure when they have time to sleep and work!
-Food has been very good. I would not call it great yet but people tell me we still have not gone to the better places. Grilled beef ('Grelhados picanha') and Grilled Pintada (Pintada is this Brazilian fish only available here) have so far been my favorites. Chopp is a Brazilian beverage that looks and tastes like beer but only lighter with lower alcohol content - tasty!
-Our project has been super intense. We are working hard (to my surprise). We are working with the largest publishing firm in Brazil. Our project goal is to help them better monetize their online advertising revenue. They print and manage online about 50 magazines in Brazil (including Playboy!). They would like to improve their online advertizing revenue. We are talking to competitors, partners, and anyone that we think is relavent. Our final presentation will be to the CEO and President of the publishing house - so we better do a good job!
-I realized how much I would have hated my life if I recruited for management consulting and accepted a job in traditional managament consulting. We are living that life now. Housed in a conference room all day our team of four is constantly bouncing ideas of each other, interviewing people (sometimes asking the same questions), and in general trying to learn a $5 B illion business in 3 weeks. Tiring and energy sapping!
-Our host at the firm has been great so far. In general the people we've met so far for work are all young and smart entrepreneurs who realized huge potential for the internet in Brazil before the rest of the world. 3 of them in their mid-30s are visiting professors at the best universities in Brazil because of this. I am surprised at how visionary and passionate they are.
-Language. whoa. It's been a while since I've been at a location where I have no freakin' clue what people are saying. Seriously. Portuguese is not an easy language. We have had to resort to writing everything down and pointing to it or in general to pointing to things at restaurants, cabbies, and stores. Helpless feeling. Although we are picking up the language slowly.
-Planning on hitting a beach near Sao Paulo tomm (Sunday).
-Rooting for the Bengals today (hate the Jets!).
hope everyone is doing well.
later
