Out of the office update : I’ve been on the road since last week (Europe and Asia), and won’t be hitting the “green, green grass of home” until early next.

Three days into running a Technology Futures workshop in Bangalore, and there’s a sliver of a gap to blog an off-topic observation. It’s a very succinct one too.

In a few short years India is going to kick the world’s arse.

Two stories :

1. On the plane I got talking to a senior exec at Accenture. He talked about the growth of the company, and his comments were so startling I had to ask him to repeat them. He said that in the last five years Accenture India has gone from 200 to 28,000 employees. They’re still adding 1200 per month (at this point it’s ok to re-read that last bit, and yes, you did read the correct numbers).

2. We needed to buy a laser printer for our mobile office. We went to a computer shop we picked at random. They did not have the model we wanted in stock, but, to our amazement, offered to deliver it, along with a credit card machine for us to pay. They also gave us a delivery window of ninety minutes. As we left the shop I thought we’d never see them again.

Ninety minutes later the hotel calls to say our delivery has arrived. Problem was, the damn thing was faulty. Cue a phone call to the shop, who says they will send someone out in thirty minutes. We start the clock, and sure enough, thirty minutes later a guy arrives. Granted, he was not a technician but he knew a knackered printer when he saw one.

Cue another phone conversation with the shop where I stress we really need a working model today. They in turn call the distributor and three hours later we have a brand new replacement printer. I made a comment to the delivery guys (who delivered a colour laser printer on the back of a 50cc motorbike) about how much I appreciated their effort. His reply?

“We have to provide good service.”

Look out world.

To paraphrase the words of broadcasters around the world – at least the English speaking ones – I apologise in advance for the break in transmission.

I’m off to India tomorrow for the next phase of the Innovaro Technology Futures programme. When you’re running a programme like this, spare time is gold dust, and so I expect I’ll return to normal broadcasting after March 7th.

Stay tuned…

I’m travelling through Asia on the way to London at the moment, and so will be posting less regularly until I’m back in the office in early December…