Skip to main content

Learning from a business trip

I am currently on a short business trip to Nairobi, Kenya. While I sat in my overnight flight from Mumbai to Nairobi, tired from all the running around I had to do, I decided to learn from this experience. The overweight luggage, carrying things I didn't need, hat books to carry etc. Now, the experiences here are personal. So, to some of you, it may be quite obvious or irrelevant. But, pick what you like.

1.  Starting early - start everything early. Start packing early. Start weighing your luggage early, contact the hotel early. Book the cab early. Do everything earlier than you think is 'sufficient'. People may think you are crazy. But they are not going to run around for you. So screw them!

2.  Invest in bags - If you are a frequent air traveller, invest in good bags. Light, sturdy and those that will keeps your stuff in place. My biggest mistake on this trip was to carry a suitcase that was utilised only 70%. There are multiple problems with this. Firstly, the bag eats into your luggage weight limit permissible on the aircraft. Secondly, since the stuff inside is not packed tightly, it moves around. When I opened the bag midway (you'll know why as you read on) I saw all my neatly ironed clothes had become a mess. It could also be a good idea to split the stuff into 2 bags if you don't have just the right size.
Also, buy a good overnighter with a smaller laptop bag inside. This helps you utilise the 8Kg/ 10Kg cabin baggage limit effectively. And the laptop bag inside is what you carry to client site.


3.  Pick stuff wisely - pack depending on where you are going to stay. If you are going to be put up at a decent hotel or service apartment, don't bother packing towels, toiletries etc.If in doubt, don't hesitate to speak to the hotel. These things add weight and once you check-in you realise you wasted time, space and weight.

4.  Books - I am not much of a kindle guy. But on trips, I feel like I should give it a try. My criteria of choosing books for a trip is I pick books that I won't get on line. So I carry Marathi books. Other I can get to read on iPad via the Kindle app. If you are Kindle friendly, nothing like it!

5.  Medicines - you don't get all medicines everywhere. Always carry a the basic ones on you. Some countries don't allow some medicines carried into their borders. On landing you may have to dispose them off, but I would rather do that than being sick alone with no access to basic medication.

6.  Connectivity - This is my second trip to Nairobi. The first one was for just 2 days. I didn't take a mobile connection then. I incurred huge costs on international roaming. This time around, I took a connection as soon as I landed and it's turning out to be the wisest decision. 
Irrespective of the length of your stay, if you can quickly get a local number for cheap, get it! Connecting with local friends, calling a cab, calling home, staying in touch on Whatsapp, all becomes easy. And remember, it also helps other people call you!

7.  Eatables - Call the hotel and find out if they serve Indian cuisine (most do). You don't need to stuff your bag with eatables then. I am carrying 4 packs of biscuits this time which I could have totally avoided.

This is it for now. If  you've got any, do share!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The oscar for dilemmas

As I was travelling from Goa to Pune in a Bus, I overheard some conversation and could see a lot of dilemma on the face of a fellow passenger. As the story evolved, I could connect with him. Thus it went: They were a couple, he was with his fiance/wife/girlfriend (a non-ma/behen relationship). There was another girl (pretty) who wanted to a lady's seat. She could get it only if this gentleman would give up the company of his travel mate as there were no other female passengers on the bus. I have been through similar situation and have said no and felt guilty about it till the society at large did something equally unjust to me. But this incident in the bus the other day, sparked off some more such dilemmas that I have come across quite often. I thought of having a golden globe of dilemmas; put them on the blog and see which is the most common dilemma. First being the one above, the second dilemma that comes to my mind is of cheating in exams. No No. Me cheating is taboo enough! It ...

The business of all that is complex

Very recently I have been following Jason Fried's posts on 37signals.com. I am impressed by his minimalist thoughts and the whole idea of customers 'growing out of' and 'growing into' your product. Per Jason, there are just a certain simple features that customers really want and a product company should strive to be the best at those features. But beyond these features, your customers will always have some desires and will keep asking for more features. One should learn to say no to such demands and crowd the Product with features that only a few of your customers will actually use. These frills not only hamper the performance of the product technically, but also make the Product manufacturer waste a lot of effort in the form of product support and other allied activities. This seems to have been working for folks at 37signals.com and many more such companies (SFDC, Flip Video recorders etc.) I then started thinking of this philosophy in the context of Indian IT co...

RSS - an answer to the caste discrimination

One of my old post on Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh drew a comment today. It posed a few question about the stand RSS takes on the issues of caste system in our contry. The reader also asked if RSS could be a possible solution. And this, my dear readers in the fuel for this post. Let me put forth some facts about the organisation called RSS right at the beginning. RSS is a social organisation. There is no formal registration and participation is completely voluntary. It is not a political, religious or profit making orgnisation. There are no posts, there are only responsibilities (in fact that what they are called). These facts make it clear that this is a place where entry and exit is pretty easy. There are no costs involved with either. Which means there is no-one who can tell you that he will get you registered with the RSS and do you a favour. RSS is for everyone. In my opinion it is a perfect place where caste ism cannot exist. There are no reservations for a certain community. T...