Dear Colleagues,

Ten days ago,  I completed a fabulous and productive lecture tour through India.  This was organized by our wonderful  Ultradent colleague, Girish.  Our talented and hard working territorial manager for the region, Nicolas accompanied us on this tour.  Nicolas found and hired Girish as Nicolas had appropriately come to realize that we needed talented and focused effort every day on the ground for a country as large and complex as India.  The picture above shows in one picture our closest and most “immediate” family of Ultradent stalwarts in India.  On the left is Ramish, an incredible devoted, loyal and caring professional supporter of Ultradent and for many years now, Girish and his lovely daughter and to my right, his most lovely wife with another lovely daughter  and finally, Nicolas, our beacon now for the last few years in South East Asia including India.

My first day was spent at the World Dental Show for India where I met with our distributor there Abetabh, president of Omega  (Please note picture of him with recently placed cast; he’d just fallen and broken his wrist at the beginning of the meeting as he was rushing around.)  and several sub dealers (the two in picture three are twin brothers of a third generation dental company out of a very special and small sect of India who are known for their integrity and most interesting connections to the earth, even in many ways similar  to our early American Indians).  Prior to the lecture we had a ribbon cutting event for our booth and as shared with our distributor and sub dealers.   Following this, I lectured to some 650 dentists for some 4 hours.  They were most attentive and interested.  Please note pictures 4 though 6.  And, just to keep things spicy, simultaneously and with the help of many young dentists, this group made the Guinness Book of Records by performing oral checkups on over 10,000 patients, a 24/7 effort! 

In the evening following this lecture, I was brought to a large football stadium where I presented to 3,500 dental students, young dentists and their professors.  Wow, what vitality!

The next morning, off to Coimbatore to present to a fabulous group of about 160 highly educated dentists.  These dentists are afforded great training and from around the world because of the dedication of the former Secretary General of the India Dental Association, Dr Veerabahu who lives in Coimbatore.  He, with the help of his wife and daughter (also a fabulous dentist and described as the “pillar “support with her 13 year old daughter to her father.  I have to say with pride of her however  that she is a classy “self thinking”  “pillar”.) have built and run a very special  CE facility and program that serves a rural but very large even population wise .  Dr Veerabahu, also known as  “the little general” has the care and passion of a saint yet the roar and command of a lion.  He is credited (and because of his very hard and self sacrificing work) to have taken dentistry in India to its “next level”.  Wow, I was really impressed with this 71 year old gentlemen. 

 And yes, each program on this tour, began with a most interesting lamp lighting ceremony of which this one did also.  And wow, what a day, an all day lecture plus  we traversed  three different cities that day all at least an hour and a half apart by jet flight.  Sorry, I don’t have pictures of this wonderful event and “the little General”.  It was all most meaningful and humbling to me.

The third day I lectured in the city of Bangalore.  This is probably the most modern city in India, and with a population of a few million.  It is the principle city that our US  IT companies and call center companies have outsourced to.  I spoke to another fabulous group of over one hundred dentists and yes, first the fun and respectful ceremonies (complete with the donning of the Maharajah “crown”).  This program was organized by a young dentist Dr Sibi , who with his kids and wife, make it all happen.  Furthermore this guy is the editor of a dental magazine in India that is distributed to some 40,000 dentists!  Another hard working guy who folds his family into his hard work.  They all radiated.

The fourth day and “still ticking”:   I had the opportunity to present at one of the better of the many, many dental schools in India, the KLES College.  We had an amazing and gracious welcome from the Dean of the school, who with several hundred of his students, attended my lecture (This Dean was/is pure class).   

In the evening, I presented for about 45 minutes to over 100 prominent dental dealers and dentists, about 50:50 mix sharing, with them who Ultradent was and where we wanted to go in India.  This program was sponsored by our distributor Omega.

The fifth day:  Back to Mumbai/Bombay,  a ribbon  cutting ceremony and more for our new office and as shared with our distributor in India!  Wow, many highly respected gurus of dentistry in India attended!  Hey, we now have an office in India!  Following this, Girish had a nice program set for me  to present to these “gurus” and others  at a near hotel.  Please note the photo of the champagne toasting and with our Ultradent team/family accompanying me at the front.  Following, demonstrating the Valo to them and with their eyes “popping”!

Still some unfinished business:  On the way to the airport, we made a stop first at the very special practice of Ramish where he and his lovely wife treated us like kings.  He is one of the most humble, noble and loyal  souls/professionals I have ever met.  Then, still before arriving at the airport, we go to the “knight in shining armor”, Satish, who first came to Ultradent in 1994 and now  several times after and with his colleagues including groups of Indian dentists for education.  Satish is a special loyal supporter.  Note first picture with our team, Ramish and his lovely and supportive wife to his left and the rest plus finally, with Satish and his office team in his office.  Wow, such wonderful loyal and supporting humans!  We are most fortunate.

The program in India was a well orchestrated program complete with several interviews by several magazine editors and more.  Girish and Nicholas gave it their all.  Hugs to both of them.  And, it is great knowing we not only have Nicholas on our team in South East Asia but we also have the fabulous Indian, namely Girish, slugging it out for us with his great care, quality, integrity, innovative ways, and super hard work!  Add to this our fabulous International leader, Jim Wilson, our fabulous regulatory team headed by Corey and Dianne who are giving it their very best to get our products positioned in India, Ger Bastiaans, our incredible advisor and long term colleague who studied the marketplace there two weeks prior to my going even providing a most comprehensive and meaningful report on India with his special advice plus, many, many others of our team such as the very caring and hard working  Phyllis T who have all made their/your contributions in great ways.

A special thanks to those named here plus even others plus other special moments too numerous to fold into this presentation.  As it is, I already have folded A LOT more pictures etc into this report than the norm.  But hey, how does one fold the most populated country (or second, they and China debate over this) into a short or even moderately  short report and when the events are maximized by a driven caring and hard working colleague such as Girish?

Fun stuff and thank you all,
Dan