Multi-national company

I'm working from The Corporation's Delhi office today, which has highlighted some very interesting differences between our San Francisco headquarter offices and the sourcing offices in various regions of the world.

I've been to other office locations, but I think this is the first time I've truly been able to work abroad (My experience in Hong Kong was unique in that I was unable to connect to the network and therefore basically spent a lot of time eating lunch and shopping in the mall which occupied the first few floors of the building in which our office is situated.). Many of the visual cues which distinguish our headquarter buildings are here too in Delhi. There's wood paneling, our brand logos are everywhere, samples hang from racks in the hallways and old marketing images are pinned to the walls.

The cafe, however, is markedly different from ours in San Francisco. For one thing, it's much smaller (to be expected since there are significantly fewer people in this office) and the view is not quite as spectacular (though nothing can really compare to an unobstructed view of the San Francisco bay). Like many things in Delhi, there seems to be little order and the process to place your lunch order was pretty chaotic. And unlike our cafe in San Francisco, instead of an electronic cash register, a lone woman collected money, made change, and recorded each transaction in a notebook.

But the food was such a deal! For 50 rupees (approximately $1.25), I had rice, naan, daal, lamb and raita. And it was pretty tasty!

Furthermore, it seemed like each department took time to eat together in the cafe, enjoying each other's company and taking a collective break in the day. It just reinforces the idea that our office, and Americans in general, rush too quickly through lunch. A more civilized panda wouldn't eat his lunch at his desk, like I do so often.