The course is halfway over and it feels like it has gone by fast in some respects and long in others. The time aspect has definitely gone by fast. It is hard to believe that we will be flying out of Hubli in less than a week. However, the building of our team feels like it has been going on for a long time because we are working together so well. We have determined and now understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We have already worked well on a variety of different deliverables. We listen to and respect each other’s input and we are all contributing to the various projects and assignments. We have definitely formed our group into a team.

This was most obvious in our recent assignment, the 500 Rupee Challenge. We were given 500 rupees as a starting loan and were instructed to build a business using that capital and make the biggest profit possible within a limited time of two days. The goal was to exercise our creativity and ability to innovate. Our team worked great together including brainstorming possible ideas, subdividing tasks, and working together to develop and execute a business. Our business was to fabricate and sell strands of paper cranes. With just five team members, we all had to multitask and work together to cover sourcing and purchasing supplies, fabrication, sales, and accounting. It was great to not only see different team members show strengths in certain areas, but to see the group recognize and embrace those strengths to become more as a team then we could be as individuals.

Besides bringing skills to this assignment, we each brought our cultural differences. It was interesting during the brainstorming phase when one group member would come up with an idea that would work in their country, but due to cultural differences would not work in India. Additionally, the bargaining culture of India played a very interesting a unique role for our product sales that would not normally be a factor if we were selling the crafts in America. It was great to have our Indian teammates on board to help with that aspect. I look forward to continued positive results with my team as we work our way through the second half of the program.