017 Of Muskaan and McDonald's

We started the morning early, heading to IDSA to attend some lectures that had already been arranged. The first was by a company that focused its efforts on creating sustainable efforts for bettering the lives of the less fortunate in India, and that was a truly interesting talk that we had the opportunity to listen to.

One of the day's speakers.

The company provides multitudes of resources for villages, such as basic amenities, and even helps to teach illiterate women how to read Hindi which to me is an incredible effort. Rather than providing a handout, the company provides a hand up, essentially embodying the lesson, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a life time.” The fact that this company (obvious yet that I can't remember its name?) is providing the means for those from less fortunate backgrounds to be successful is commendable, and I love that such continued and devoted efforts are being emphasized in India.

After the lecture, the group had the wonderful opportunity to visit an NGO that is currently providing education for children and adults with special needs, called Muskaan.

Muskaan's founders.

The efforts that are being taken are inspiring and I was so glad that we had had the chance to listen to Muskaan’s founder speak, as well as tour the school’s facilities. Muskaan provides training for its students who are capable, to live independent lives, and provides an opportunity for other students to live at the very least, meaningful ones. It was so wonderful to hear about all the classes and training that Muskaan provides, not only to students with special needs, but also to their parents. Individuals who have special needs are still marginalized and oftentimes ostracized in India, and who can say the situation is any better back home? That some of these children have the chance to feel appreciated and loved to me, was amazing. During the talk at Muskaan, one issue that came up was that they hardly receive any government funding, which was heartbreaking. I feel like organizations such as Muskaan should be given as much help as they need within reason, especially when they’re turning people that would have originally been shunned into productive members of society. After the talk, we had the opportunity to purchase some of the products that the Muskaan students had made, and purchase we did!

Some of the products made by Muskaan students.

Business-savvy kids.

All in all, it was a fascinating and inspiring experience. And we later found out that Muskaan means “smile”! :)

After Muskaan, we returned to FIIB and were soon joined by the FIIB students. We had quick lunches (Subway! Boss!) and soon headed off to our market research project together. My team, consisting of Jarred and Aaron, was paired up with two FIIB students, Vinayak and Riddhi, who were tons of fun. We ended up choosing McDonald’s to survey and were sent to South Extension Market to get our research completed.

South Extension Market.

It was pretty cool.

Our research project choice: McDonald's. (read: LAZY FATTIES)

We camped out in McDonald’s and set up our game plan, choosing to talk to that McDonald’s customers, employees and manager.

Indians are just like us. Basically.

We took turns surveying the customers and essentially got great responses and learned a lot about the differences between McDonald’s India and McDonald’s America. Much like back in the States, McDonald’s in India are franchises as well. McDonald’s has done phenomenally well in India, beating out even the likes of KFC, which honestly surprised me as KFC’s primary product is chicken whereas McDonald’s is well-known for its beef products, which a majority of Indians cannot eat due to cultural/religious restrictions. One reason for this is because of McDonald’s adaptation of their menu to suit local tastes. Beef products have been eliminated completely from their menu in India. In fact, the company doesn’t even use “beef-based oil” to fry their products anymore after a scandal and a lawsuit that ended up with millions of Indian customers boycotting their products.Yikes. McDonald’s India offers cheap products that are considered by most of their customers to be of supremely high quality (versus in America, where McDonald’s is considered junk food by just about everybody).

Another interesting difference we observed was the function McDonald’s plays in India versus the function it plays in America. Back in the States, most people view food from McDonald’s as a cheap, easy and convenient meal that you grab on the go or if you’re in a hurry. In India, no one goes to McDonald’s alone – eating at the restaurant is a family/social affair. You go with your friends with the intention of hanging out and spending time together. Also, while McDonald’s in the United States relies heavily on its drive-thru, many of the Indian customers we talked to either had no concept of what a drive-thru was or simply laughed at the idea. One customer asked us, “Have you SEEN Indian traffic?” which was a point well made. After talking to some of the employees, we found that there are no negative perceptions to working in McDonald’s in India the way there are in the States. In fact, a lot of the workers were college students who were trying to make some extra spending money while studying to obtain their degrees. Unfortunately, the manager was too busy to set aside some time to talk with us about his role in the business, but he was kind enough to provide the number for the district office, so Jarred and Aaron will try to get a hold of him some time tomorrow.
After finishing up the project, we left South Ex with the rest of the group and headed back to IDSA. We had planned to grab some dinner with the FIIB students, but couldn’t coordinate transportation in time, so we ended up eating separately. Most of us walked to a restaurant right next to IDSA and had a pretty delicious meal before heading back to our rooms for bed.

Looks 'shopped.

Dinner + Friends!

Amazing Race tomorrow! Super excited!