Joe King, head of Audi India, is struck by the optimism that he finds all over India. Whether it is his landlord’s rags-to-riches story or the encounters he has had with his staff and customers across India, he is fascinated by the experience – and thinks this will live with him for the rest of his life. He came to India eight months ago after a long stint in Australia. As he acknowledges, he had everything going for him there – a nice lifestyle, a house on the beach, living in Sydne. But he chose this job for the huge potential, the learning opportunities and the be part of a success story. So having decided to take the plunge, has he been overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of India? Given that the whole of Australia’s population could be probably be compressed into Mumbai, how has he coped with seeing so many people? Interestingly, King looks at the population as an opportunity. His exposure to Bollywood has been limited to watching ‘3 Idiots’ and his other passion, of course, is Cricket. He has travelled to the Taj Mahal and like all visitors there has been enchanted. He has done the Jaipur, Jodhpur and Ranathambore circuit, too. Here is what he thinks about India:

You have come from a place with quiet and clean environment. How do you cope with the dust, the noise and the pollution? Isn’t it tough?

From a certain point of view, it’s little bit of a hassle… To be fair, the noise, the colour, the smell, it’s all part of the charm. Everything is on the go. It’s also unbelievably invigorating…

Yes, we experienced Holi in the office, we had a dry Holi with rose petals, we didn’t have a full Holi. When we arrived, we had Ganesh Utsav, and got a first-hand experience of the same. We all jumped into the procession and danced.

When you landed in Mumbai, the sight of so many human beings, the huge population and the crowd, weren’t they intimidating?

I think that puts perspective into to the opportunity, that’s the attractive thing. At the international airport, you look at 20,000 people.

It’s not daunting to see so many people. It’s just a view of the land of enormous opportunities. On the ride through the city, what you see is shop after shop after shop, all doing business. They are all at several degrees of success. That’s not intimidating, that’s the opportunity.

What do you hate in India?

Nothing, though I don’t love sitting in traffic. But I have sat up to 5 hours in motorway in Germany in traffic, and on an odd occasion in Sydney. So it’s not unusual.

Given another opportunity, would you look to work in India again?

I clearly don’t have a problem with it. I couldn’t tell you how I love the change. I love the food. My son’s school has an option of western lunch or Indian lunch, and clearly he chose Indian lunch. We have a cook at home, and really 95 per cent of the food is Indian food. The only thing I can’t get used to is eating dinner at midnight.

Here if you go for a dinner, you drink till 11.30 and then you have your dinner and then you go home (at home dinner is at 7-7.30 pm)

Indians are notorious for being late at meetings. How do you tackle this?

If any of our managers are late for a meeting, then they need to sing, dance or tell a joke. And that has ensured pretty much everyone is on time.

Any other aspects of work culture that caught your attention?

Here people are highly educated. Even in the school situation, it’s very, very dedicated, which is not there in Australia. India, in general, has highly-educated and highly-skilled people.

This is part of a series on expat CEOs working in India

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