All Quiet on the Bangalore Front

Despite extensive preparations, Jay’s new IT office opened in Bangalore with a very small and quiet ceremony. The passing of the legendary Kannada language film star Rajkumar two days earlier required plans to be rapidly scaled back out of respect for this local idol.

The Karnataka State Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy declared that all government offices and schools would be closed, flags would be lowered to half-mast and public ceremonies should be reduced for two days. It would have been seen as disrespectful and poor business practice to have proceeded with the originally planned gala event, but the decision to scale back the ceremony did not come in time to stop the office from being festooned overnight with balloons and flowers.

Following the expected business behavior during this time of mourning, the BearingPoint office was closed on the day of the grand opening. Only the senior management team of the Bangalore office and the three senior managers who flew in from the US and China gathered in the office on the afternoon of 13-April for the ceremony.

With events taking such an unexpected turn and the office so empty, Jay called Helen to join the small gathering at the office to add one more person to the celebration.

The ribbon cut ceremony was conducted with neither ribbon nor scissors. Instead, our Bangalore-based staff festooned our four senior Global Development Center managers with sandalwood leis. The four dignitaries then ceremonially lit the eight wicks of a large oil lamp in the office lobby. Smoke billowed up and covered the ceiling temporarily, but the a/c units soon had it under control.

We will need to read up on the significance of this type of opening day ritual. We thought ribbon cutting with oversized scissors, silver-plated shovels pitched into unturned earth and champagne bottles bursting on newly painted ship hulls were universal acts of inauguration. More to learn here in India.

On Friday a press conference was held at the office. During the weekend the balloons and flowers will be taken down. On Monday, all the BearingPoint employees will file back into the office and resume their earth-flatting work effort. They are none the wiser of the quiet ceremony, but all are beneficiaries of a new place at the global table.