What the leaves say about Hotel Wipro

MY WEEK

It's an early start. Breakfast with officials from the county of Shaoxing in China, better known as Asia's textile capital. Followed by a tea and interview session with Xu Huan Ming, secretary of the Chinese Communist Party's Shaoxing County Committee.

An official kept pouring hot water into our cups in which swirled a dense collection of Chinese tea leaves. Chinese tea is not something you can develop an instant taste for.

Needless to add, Mr Huan Ming has raced through three cups even as I contemplate the first half of my first one. A young Chinese interpreter sits on one side.

It's always interesting when you talk to someone via an interpreter. You express all your feelings (and words) to the interpreter who of course stares at you blankly. Then you turn around and look at the subject and nod.

The subject in turn looks at you for a second and then speaks for the next five minutes looking at the interpreter. I have not met one interpreter whose craft I have been satisfied with.

The problem is that transmission losses are huge. I would argue that roughly 70 per cent of the original content is lost in translation. What do you make of, "We would like investors to come and invest harmoniously." I guess I can guess.

Wednesday: A financially sound evening. Not making money but spending time with a bunch whose lives depend on it. Consulting firm KPMG hosted a gathering to showcase a large survey of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) to highlight issues CFOs are grappling with the world over.

One key message: Indian CFOs want to focus on cost control but can't as their firms all chase toplines. In such gatherings, the CFO is made to feel as the most important cog in the business wheel. I have attended discussions where the CTO/CIO is also made to feel the same way. Anyway, a CFO can get dragged off in chains if something goes awry, at least under Sarbanes Oxley, and that makes him important.

We gather into six or seven groups, with each table supposed to discuss the critical issues facing them for 20 minutes and then showcasing their conclusions to the larger group. My companions looked at each other, and then at me. I quickly announced I was a journalist, here to listen and maybe take notes. "As if you would be capable of anything else," their expressions seemed to say.

Friday: After a long and bumpy ride from Hyderabad airport, I arrive at the Satyam Technology Centre. This is my second visit here and I am 'attending' a conference on whether India can become a global manufacturing hub.

One panelist in our discussion was Dr Prahlada, the head of R&D at the DRDO. I've always had a vague notion of what a missile scientists should be. I know Dr A P J Abdul Kalam was also one. But these chaps are very warm, friendly and nice. And smart and humorous.

Maybe knowing that they could direct a precision guided missile at you from 1,000 km away gives them a certain confidence normal folks cannot muster!

Also...

At the Satyam guest house, the soap has a Satyam imprint on it, so does the tiny vial of herbal shampoo. Satyam has not diversified into soaps and shampoos but it's interesting how the overall scarcity of hotels is forcing IT companies to put up thousands of rooms across the country at a pace that perhaps beats the hotel companies themselves.

Am sure our smart analysts will soon start pricing in hotel valuations into IT stocks, among so many other things. So, what's your view on the hotel industry today?

Well, Indian Hotels is doing okay, so is East India Hotels but Infosys and Wipro are not getting the best room yields, as yet...