There are few greater joys in life than the liberation you feel after letting down your guard. You know that moment when you see their eyes widen – that smile of acknowledgement appears on the others’ faces. You are no longer a stranger, a colleague or a classmate – you are recognized for you, the individual. It wasn’t until 3 months of weekly phone and Skype calls, ongoing online chats, 1 weekend together in Philadelphia, and 4 days in Athens, Greece that this moment finally happened with my Kelley Direct AGILE study abroad team.
It was Thursday, our 4th morning in Athens. We boarded our eggshell-colored van with the Managing Director (our driver’s self-appointed title) of the vehicle behind the wheel. It was going to be our last day at the client’s office. We planned to review our final PPT deck with our client contact, Dimitris, when we reached – but only after placing our now regular delivery order for freddo cappuccinos & espressos. Because we wanted alignment from the client before we presented to the company executives, we had to complete the deck the night before. Unfortunately for me, “the night before” ended up being 5am – less than 4 hours before our departure from the Divani Palace Acropolis hotel.
Poor planning? Sure, you could blame some of the situation on that. However, I would argue that a bit more credit should be awarded to several other factors:
A Dedicated Team
The team – right from the beginning – was determined to provide a helpful and applicable recommendation for our client. That was always the priority. This meant that everyone was willing to do what it took to get the job done – even if it meant sacrificing a little sleep here and there. My East coast teammates had to get up at 4 or 5am PST to make calls with our client in Athens. They made it work. If I had to stay up to get our presentation done, so be it. We learned very quickly that being adaptable was going to be a big part of this job.
Adaptability
Priorities and expectations changed throughout the term as we learned new information and spoke with more people for the project. In addition to the regular email and Skype communication with our client, we also had the opportunity to speak with a marketing agency, a prospective client and the District Manager (head of the Greek division) before our trip to Athens. Those conversations helped us better understand the client’s needs, the Greek market, and the state of our client’s brand and product awareness in their target market.
Fortunately, we also got to meet other marketing agencies (shown in the two pictures above) and four staff members to help us develop our project. Unfortunately, those meetings came just days (or a single day) before our final presentation to the client.
Getting the Full in-country Experience
In addition to having this great interactive, educational and transformative experience, another huge benefit of taking this class was the opportunity to visit Greece. Professor Tatiana Kolovou (our faculty coach who is originally from Greece), Terrill Cosgray (the Executive Director of Kelley Direct), and Faculty Chair Powell did a great job planning several activities to give us a taste of Athens and Greece: we all hiked up to the Parthenon, had a networking night with students from ALBA (the top business school in Greece), had a group souvlaki dinner, and a traditional Greek food tasting night.
Even after that we wanted more, but with all of the other class-related work we had to do it was difficult to fit it in during the work-day. This meant that the only time we had to see more of Athens was at night. That brings us back to the beginning of the story – to the night before the Thursday I woke up with fewer than 4 hours of sleep.
Before heading out for our class dinner in the Gazi neighborhood (nice area with many restaurants and places to go out), our team decided that it would be good for me to stay back tomorrow morning to finish extracting the key takeaways from all of the meetings we had with the client’s employees and the marketing agencies this week so it would be ready before the final meeting with our faculty coach. I reluctantly agreed, but secretly wished that I could have found a way to finish earlier.
After dinner, everyone wanted to go out and experience the city more. Not wanting to miss out on this chance to spend time with classmates and see more of Athens, out I went with the others. We ended up on a rooftop bar called 360. The view alone was worth it (see below), but going there also gave me the chance to speak with several more of the classmates I hadn’t spent time with yet. Making connections with more new people is something I’ve been working on, and I’ve learned that one of the prerequisites of this is just being there.
A few hours later, the group climbed up to another rooftop bar, which was not nearly as nice as the previous. I decided I had my fill of Athens for the night and grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. Having downed a Red Bull at the first bar only an hour earlier, I was still awake. That was when I made the decision to work on the presentation and get it done that night (early morning). I really didn’t want to miss the last client meeting in their office.
Removing the Filter
Fortunately I was able to get up and make it to the lobby in time to depart with the team in our eggshell van. It was on this trip when I began “telling my team how I really felt” as they say. As I’m sure you already know, not having enough sleep can potentially make you a little more irritable and remove some of your filters. I’ll omit exactly what I said for confidentiality reasons, but it was probably the “f-bomb” that really got my teammates’ attention. I was just letting the team in on some of my thoughts and insights in a more direct way than I had been, and to my surprise it was very well-received (they were enjoying it). After the car rides to and from the office and the day we had with the client I was unofficially rechristened to “new Pathik.”
I wouldn’t say that it was some daunting task to stay calm and avoid swearing in front of my peers. I’m a relatively calm and collected person in general, but I’m probably even quieter in professional settings. I like to take my time to think through what I hear and observe before responding, which gives me the strength of good insight. However, it does hold me back in conversation. That is something I want to work on, and have been for a while now. But getting similar feedback from teammates and seeing the positive response towards my more open side has encouraged me to focus on developing this skill again.
Final Thoughts
I’m grateful for the opportunity to participate in this class because more than anything it made me closer to many of my KD classmates than I would have ever had the chance to otherwise. Experiencing the “struggle” of figuring out what we needed to do for an entire term and spending time together in-person twice created a bond with my team that will endure for a long time. Not only that, but we developed a strong relationship with our client contact in Greece, who I know will be keeping in touch. That relationship in particular opened me up to a country and culture I had not interacted with, and likely wouldn’t have interacted with if it hadn’t been for this course and Tatiana.
What was pleasantly surprising about Greece, was how similar some things were to India. Even though I was born in the U.S., I have a close tie to Indian culture, and have visited India many times. The notion of loose time, the hospitality, their relaxed nature, and even the chaotic roads all reminded me of India. Unfortunately, it also seemed like the lack of value for some the ruins (until maybe more recently) was also something that was similar for both countries. So much that we know about Greece and what even brought my wife to Greece with me was the ancient history. She made a trip out to see Socrates’ prison (even though it may not have actually been the right prison according to some sources). It’s good to see how many resources have been put into the acropolis now with the museum and ongoing restoration. Otherwise that part of history is lost.
It was also very helpful that most Greeks seemed to speak English and were willing to help. This became even more apparent when we traveled to Italy the next week where very few Italians seemed to (or willing to) speak English. I know I could have done a better job learning at least a few more Greek phrases than Kalimera. That is something I know I’ll spend time on before I visit another country.
Finally, I want to thank Tatiana for her sharing her passion and love for her country with us, and specifically with my team and my wife as well. She actively made an effort to ask about Bhumi and gave her many great suggestions on where to go in Greece (including a famous poet sandal-maker who custom made a pair for Bhumi). One of the reasons I chose to come to Kelley for both the MBA and for the job is the people, and the Hoosier hospitality was apparent in Tatiana’s interactions throughout our time in Greece. She put in great effort to connect us to anyone who might be helpful to our project in Greece, and even came with us to one of the agency meetings to make sure things went well. I appreciated her specific feedback for our team and myself as well. Even though we were working on and updating our deck and presentation until the last day, we were better for it.
I would also like to thank Terrill and Phil for their efforts in putting this course together. I know Phil helped find the companies and organize the course, and Terrill was instrumental during the in-residence portions in Philadelphia and Athens. This class ran very smoothly overall, and I’m sure they had a lot to do with it.
And of course one of the best parts about this experience is that while we were learning business and life skills, a real Greek business gained valuable insights and support for their new product marketing efforts during a tough time period and rough economy. Knowing that we were able to make a real difference was extremely rewarding.
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