From Bangalore to London: Saurabh Bharti's Journey Through Indian Culture, Cuisine, and IT Consulting

Mark Smith: 0:06
Welcome to the MVP show. My intention is that you listen to the stories of these MVP guests and are inspired to become an MVP and bring value to the world through your skills. If you have not checked it out already, I do a YouTube series called how to Become an MVP. The link is in the show notes. With that, let's get on with the show. Today's guest is from the United Kingdom. He works at EY. He was first awarded as MVP in 2024. He's a seasoned Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations consultant, brings rich and diverse experience spanning various industries. He's passionate about knowledge sharing and actively contributes to the Microsoft Dynamics community through insightful blogs and a dynamic YouTube channel. You can find links to his bio, social media, et cetera, in the show notes for this episode. Saurabh, welcome to the show.

Saurabh Bharti: 1:08
Thank you, Mark, for having me here. It's a pleasure to be talking to you today.

Mark Smith: 1:14
Yeah, it's great to have you on the show. I have just returned from London. I missed you. Unfortunately Didn't get to see you there. Tell me about food, family and fun. What do they mean to you?

Saurabh Bharti: 1:27
Oh, everything, okay. So I come from India, right, and India, one of the thing which is, I mean, everyone in India you will find that food and family is everything. I think that's the priority, right, and you get a lot of variety of foods across different regions. Every 100 kilometers you will travel. Maybe I'm saying more, but you will find a new type of food which is available there. So it's it's. I'm a big time foodie, uh, in london also, I try to explore as much as indian food wherever I can get it, so I, I can travel for an hour to go and find out some good food places. So, yeah, and about the fun, yeah, so I, I, I mean I love cooking first, I love traveling second, and I'm not sure I mean that you, you do follow or not, but I do follow the lot of political uh news and things specifically indian uh in indian context. So, so that that's a really interesting thing. Sometimes, every day at least, I will watch some 30 minutes podcast or anything related to the Indian politics.

Mark Smith: 2:57
Interesting. You mentioned going around London for Indian. What I found in my time living there is that Indian food is very different in different parts of London. Like you get, I feel like where I lived the Indian food was, but I was taken across London I don't even know specifically, but it had a big Indian community around this part of London and the food was just amazing. It was amazing. So, yeah, it differs from place to place, even in London, right?

Saurabh Bharti: 3:31
Definitely, and I think it varies, I mean very much depending on the taste you have about the Indian food basically. So in India also. You know, if you are in the northern part of India and if you will taste the southern part of dishes there, it will be a bit different. They will put that flavor in, and when you will have the northern part of Indian food dishes in southern part you will have a bit different flavor because they add their flavor into that. So same goes possibly in London also.

Mark Smith: 4:09
Yeah, when I was 10 years old I was invited to my first Indian meal. Where I lived in New Zealand there was a very active Indian community around me. It was in a market garden so they did a lot of vegetable. They owned a lot of the businesses around growing food crops in New Zealand and, 10 years old, very impressionable. I was asked to go to this Indian dinner and there was this friend of the family kind of he was called an uncle but not biological, and he was like oh know that your fat, your mouth, will catch on fire, like it will. It will burn you a little bit. And so I chickened out going to this dinner and of course I've always regretted it because, as when I got older, I was invited to other indian meals etc and of course absolutely loved indian cuisine. But uh, I remember that from 10 years old, that the fear of the heat being put into me. And now I grow Carolina Reaper chilies myself which are one of the hottest chilies that you can get.

Saurabh Bharti: 5:12
Next time you are in London, I mean I'll definitely come and meet you and I'll take you around here for having some good Indian food.

Mark Smith: 5:21
I would like that. You know what? I've never been to India. I have had so many. You know. People say I should go to India. I almost went a couple of months ago when I was working for IBM. They had me going to do a meet and greet with a large bank, a London bank, that had gone to our outsource center there and then at the last minute it didn't happen and I was like that was going to be my first time to really experience Indian culture in India. But it's yet to happen. Yet I'm waiting for an event to be put on that I get an invite to and perhaps I can go then. Or Microsoft sent me there, or something.

Saurabh Bharti: 6:00
Definitely you should visit India and for India, for India, you need to possibly go couple of times because you can't explore the places in one trip. So you should go and you will definitely enjoy the food first thing, but also more than that, you would enjoy the kind of hospitality in India like we for for the people. So you would, you would definitely enjoy that part and also like different cultural heritages and things which you have. It right, you, I mean you can choose your destiny depending on what you like. You like rivers, you can go to a place. You like beaches, you can go to a place. You like beaches, you can go to a place. You like mountains, you go to a place. You like old heritage, you can go to a place. So you choose what you would like to visit and you love visiting.

Mark Smith: 6:57
So what about this? What if I go and live there for three months and you know, because my wife and I are discussing this type of travel where we go to a country for three months and we'll take our kids and everything and I can still do my work, she can still do her work from there. If I was to do that for India and therefore, over that three months, use it as a chance to explore on the weekends and things like that, where do you think I should base myself for that three months? Where should be the base be? And then I'll use that to go out and travel across India, use all your wonderful train network and whatnot. Um, what? Where should I base myself in your opinion?

Saurabh Bharti: 7:35
Yeah, you know you should not base yourself at one location for entire three months. I would say go three places.

Mark Smith: 7:45
Nice, I like it. One month in each location, one month.

Saurabh Bharti: 7:49
And you know, airbnb can help you out really quick in that. So no worries about that. I would say, the one month you can go to the northern part of the India, right, and there are a lot of good places there. You have mountains and other things to explore there, and then and the northern part is also having like capital of india, like delhi, okay so you recommend delhi, as I go base myself in delhi as the first one yeah, delhi, or near to Delhi.

Saurabh Bharti: 8:20
You have some hill stations around like six, seven hours of possible drives. You will find that and you can enjoy nature really good there. And the good thing about Delhi and nearby that is that you can explore a lot of different heritages like Taj Mahal you would have heard Redford and a lot of places out there. So every weekend you can go anywhere from Delhi and explore this. So Saturday, sunday is fixed for you. Monday to Friday work. Friday evening take car travel, that's it.

Mark Smith: 8:59
Excellent. Now, when I take a car, is it best to hire a driver to take me everywhere?

Saurabh Bharti: 9:05
It depends. I mean, if you can drive and if you are allowed to drive, depending on the driving license and other rules, you can drive yourself. It's not really difficult like London or UK to drive in India, so you can be easy there.

Mark Smith: 9:23
Nice, nice, so Delhi, that's the first one.

Saurabh Bharti: 9:26
That's Delhi, first one for a month. Go around and look for the places. The second is I would suggest you go and base out yourself in Bangalore, okay, and that's the southern part of India. And first thing is, if you go to Bangalore, you will meet a lot of community folks there. It's an IT hub for India, right? So a lot of IT companies. I mean you will find many people there from Dynamics community as well as from the IT industry, right? So if you would love to visit them, it's a startup city for India, a lot of startups in Bangalore, right? So that might look like a bit of work related, but the weather in Bangalore is really really pleasant, right? So it remains around 20 degree, 18 degree or something like this during the year, except a few months, but it's really pleasant.

Saurabh Bharti: 10:28
So if you stay there in Bangalore, first thing is within Bangalore, you will be having a lot of places nearby, like 100 kilometers or 150 to explore, nearby like 100 kilometers or 150 to explore. But you have got a lot of other cities from the in the southern part, like there is a city, there is a state, it's a state like Kerala, so you can travel there like in a night duration. So Friday evening, leave Saturday morning, you are there, explore for two days, come back Mondayay morning, right. So made major cities of southern part you can explore from there, right so so that's, that's bangalore now. Third one is bit. I think I would I mean for me it is difficult to tell you, but I think I have a doubt in two places. So one is the very famous destination. It's a Goa, so it's a beach like place where you have a lot of beaches and a lot of tourists.

Mark Smith: 11:33
I have a good friend from there. My understanding was colonized by Portuguese right.

Saurabh Bharti: 11:38
Exactly, exactly. So that's one place where you can be there, but the thing is that if you are there then you can, that you can do it from Bangalore as well, like you can go, so that you can cover but the other part, other third one which I would recommend is the eastern part of India, right, which is kind of a very, very nature driven right you, you find a lot of mountains and rivers and it's a very pleasant or peaceful I mean places you will find, and it is like a lot of people do not explore that because it's a bit far to travel from like center of the India. Like, let's say, you will be in Delhi when you land there, possibly, or Bangalore, but if you go eastern part right, it's really beautiful place.

Mark Smith: 12:32
And so any particular place to base myself.

Saurabh Bharti: 12:36
I think Guwahati is the major city where you can be placed there, because it's a city right so, which will be easy for your internet and rest of the things to put together, but close to that, you will have a lot of places to visit and explore. So, yeah, this is good, this is good.

Mark Smith: 13:04
So yeah, this is good, this is good. Last last question about my future travels is um, what month of the year should I arrive for the? For if I'm there for that three months and I'm going to those three regions, what month should I arrive? So you know what month one, two and three, weather wise optimal. What do you think?

Saurabh Bharti: 13:19
you know, I think you should avoid uh possibly april or april, may to july or august, uh, because that's bit uh uh kind of uh uh a hot, uh kind of weather which you might find in some places. But rest of the uh the months are good to visit uh delhi avoid in the december and january, uh, because it's bit uh like winters are very extreme there, and when we say winters are extreme it's a very foggy nature. I mean uh that you find it so, so you might find a visibility issue when you are driving and things right, so possibly that you can keep it for a Bangalore. Then you come back in February or March in Delhi, so that would be good for you.

Mark Smith: 14:14
Superb. Thank you very much. I can see an expedition being planned. That's going to be awesome. Now back to you. Tell, tell me, how did you get into IT?

Saurabh Bharti: 14:54
oh, how did I get into IT? So I'm, my education background is I'm a computer science engineer, so I have done my engineering. When I finished my engineering though I was kind of having a good interest in the programming and things, but possibly I was not that good in the programming that I can code really well or something I did have a lot of good understanding, thought to pursue something in the IT itself, but bit of a different like which is different from the coding, so which is kind of a consulting or something which I can explore now when I think about that. So I thought like what, what, what next I can do? So I thought to pursue the master's Now when I started thinking about that. So I started thinking about the MBA for my next journey. But in MBA when we do right, so we more think about in finance, marketing and other areas, right. But again, that was not my possibly again the interest, because my interest was in the IT itself, right, because of my education background of computer science engineer. So then I pursued my MBA from one of the universities central university, government university we have in India which is focused on the information technology. So I pursued my MBA in information technology, information technology. So I pursued my MBA in information technology and that course was really interesting because it was a mix of how you can use the technology on the management side of the work in any organization, which also brings some flavor of consulting right. So that's where I think my I continued my IT journey and when I finished my master's, I got the opportunity working with a small company in Bangalore.

Saurabh Bharti: 17:01
So I started my job there and I started as a consultant junior consultant there, but I really didn't have any clue that what I'm going to do. On day one and I entered into the office after my formalities, I met the team and then someone came to me and said that, hey, we are working on an ERP. So I said, okay, that's good, you're working on ERP and that's really interesting. And before that, I just heard about the SAP or Oracle in ERP. So I didn't have any clue about that. We have Dynamics as ERP product or something. So they said like, oh, there is a product called Microsoft Dynamics Acceptor 2012,. And we are working on this product and we are going to implement this for one of our customers in Middle East and you should start exploring this product and start learning about this thing.

Saurabh Bharti: 18:05
I said, okay, what? Then asked like, like, what is dynamix? Is it really a? But then then then they explain about that it's a microsoft product, so which brings a bit of confidence that yeah, if microsoft has some products of I mean, obviously there must be something which they have built right. Good, so that. So that's where I landed into. I mean, continued my journey as a computer science engineer to the master's in IT and then landed into this job and got introduced to the Microsoft Dynamics Acceptor 2012 R2. And that's where I started. Yeah, Wow.

Mark Smith: 18:47
How did you end up then in the UK?

Saurabh Bharti: 18:50
Oh, that's again a kind of a tenuous journey now. So I mean, before I start talking about how I landed into UK, right? So it was year 2013 when I started my career in Microsoft Dynamics as a consultant and it was a small company, as I told you, right? So there it was not. I mean, at that point of time, normally we did not have a lot of learning resources like how we have today. We have a lot of blogs, a lot of Microsoft Learn content is available I mean more than the blogs and the other YouTube channels and a lot of things are there. And I remember that time we had one partner source portal and that is where you used to get all the information about every module and everything. So, but it was very, very complex thing, right, like you have to read everything, follow everything. So I started using that.

Saurabh Bharti: 19:50
But the good part about the small organization is that they put you in front of the customer right. They give you that exposure that you go and talk to the customer right, and I was very lucky at that point of time there was one of the senior person who joined that organization in our team as the lead or team lead for the finance area and the background of his was that he was the finance controller in his previous job. So he was coming from a pure accounting background, a pure accountant right, who understand the accounting I mean in and out and he was based out somewhere in Europe and then he had to come back to India for some reason. So he joined this organization and I was put with him because I was put into the finance and first thing is I'm coming from the IT background computer science engineer, it masters. No clue about debit or credit. I still understand the debit and credit as a plus and minus, as a mathematics terms. So I was put in there and then I started working with him.

Saurabh Bharti: 21:09
So my job was to learn the product, the technicality of the product, and his job was to give me the problems from the accounting terms. And so he used to give me in Excel that these are the five accounting entries. After you post these entries in the system, I want to see the trial balance and this is how your trial balance should look like. So that was my exercise given by him, not any hands-on exercise by Microsoft Learn or anything. And then I used to post those accounting entries and then we used to put a lot of effort in that because it's a new thing for I mean it might look very easy now but back that time it was a very new thing for me and for him also. It was a learning because he was learning a product. So he was a domain expert and I was kind of exposing myself to the product. And that's where I started learning. And as a finance consultant I started my journey. So he was my I can say, more than a team lead. He was my mentor, the first mentor who helped me in understanding in and out about the accounting, finance and everything. And that's where I started. So that was my first company.

Saurabh Bharti: 22:27
After that I left that company and I joined PWC India and PWC I mean my experience was at a different level because on a day one they put me in front of the customer. They said, like this is the customer, go to them and talk to them about this project and what we are running. So it was like you just thrown out for the swimming in a sea, right, like without asking anything, without asking anything. So I joined PwC, had a lot of exposure to the customer. Facing roles was always most of the 90% time was always at the customer side, talking to customers, working with them very closely, and the good part about the PwC was that I got introduced to Microsoft as well. At that point of time in my career stage and it was due to it was 2017 when I got exposure to Microsoft.

Saurabh Bharti: 23:31
Directly working with Microsoft was because in India, the new tax regime was coming, so the GST was getting introduced. So before that, they were using the VAT and other sales tax, so the GST was getting introduced. So before that, they were using the VAT and other sales tax, so the GST was coming in. And the coincidence is that it was like before that, the startup for which I was working they were working a lot of projects in Middle East, so which means I was the finance consultant, but I didn't have any exposure to the tax and the localization Because in Middle East there was no techs at that point of time. So when I landed into PwC, they didn't have any person, because most of the resources who were working they were finance consultant and they were working on a normal project where the techs requirements were there. I was the only misfit person who didn't have any tech background, so they had to put me into this role where we were doing the rollout for GST across India for all the customers which PwC had. So that's where I learned about the taxation and the GST. Worked with Microsoft because GST framework was not there. So they built up the GST framework in Dynamics. We know that a lot of issues whenever Microsoft launches anything. I mean we had to help them in getting resolved things and work with them. So, yeah, that's where the journey started with PwC worked with them. So, yeah, that's where the journey started with PWC worked with them. So, yeah, that was PWC.

Saurabh Bharti: 25:06
After PWC, again for a year time, I joined my first organization back and that was just because I had a very good relationship with my first organization and I was always very, very grateful to them because I got the mentors and they helped me building my career path. So they asked me to join back them because they had one customer in USA and they were building a data analytics platform using the Azure and Data Lake and Dynamics CRM. There were a lot of systems were there, so I joined them for only specific for that project. So I started working with them, left BWC from that point of time, joined them, and once I joined them, I was in US that one time, after joining them for a couple of months and worked with them, I was in us that that one time, after joining them, uh, for a couple of months, and uh, worked with them, helped them in the product, that project.

Saurabh Bharti: 26:09
And that's where my blogging journey started, because I was in usa and in usa there was a time difference between india US, so it was like a opposite. There is a night, then day. So after my work I was evening, I was at my apartment and then I was thinking like what to do? I don't have anyone else to talk to because everyone is sleeping back in India, right? So that that's where I thought like, okay, I'm facing some issues and I learned something new, right? And that's where I remember, I think before that this new feature management, the workspace was released for FNO. So I thought like I think let's start talking about the new features which Microsoft is launching, right, Adding to the product Microsoft is launching, right, adding to the product.

Saurabh Bharti: 27:05
So that's where I started writing the LinkedIn articles and start talking about my. So what I started doing every week I used to learn something new. I made that as a routine and I used to just type it in a Word file, put a screenshot and then just post it on LinkedIn. So no fancy language, nothing there. It's just like we make notes on paper. So I started doing that and started putting things there.

Saurabh Bharti: 27:37
And then COVID happened during that it's starting 2020. And then April May, so the COVID started getting hit and then I came back to India at the right time and then this project finished and then during that time only, I joined Microsoft in India. Oh yeah, so I was in the Microsoft for their consulting practice. So I joined them during that 2020 and then worked with them and I was really enjoying their working with the Microsoft because there were a lot of brilliant people around me and we were doing the large scale projects which Microsoft was handling across the different part of the world. So everything was going good and things were nice. I was kind of enjoying my work.

Saurabh Bharti: 28:32
But again, I mean, as you said, like so things like didn't stop you thinking about the next level. So then one fine day, I got the call from my linkedin connection, right, uh, who used to follow my blogs and saw my work around, like what I used to post it and things. So uh reached out to me and asked like are you interested working with EY. And I said okay, for which location? So they said, like London, do you want to come here and work with us? So I said okay, so, okay, so I'm happy to refer you in EY. So I said okay. So I sent my resume, it was referred to the EY and then had a couple of round of interviews and then I landed into a job with London. So that's how my journey.

Mark Smith: 29:28
That's so cool. What I like about that is and I'm going to talk about it a lot in the various posts and stuff I do is that your blogging opened a door for you into a new job market, a new opportunity, and I think that's so important. You know, you obviously became an MVP off the back of that, but your writing has enabled you to get opportunities and I think that is amazing.

Saurabh Bharti: 29:57
Blogging. I mean blogging has helped me. I mean like anything it's. It's not only about I mean I always say that it's not about how much I help the community, uh, using my knowledge and things but I think it has helped me a lot in in enhancing my skill set as consultant and giving me a different perspective. Because what happens, like when you are on a job in the project, you just think about that project, those problems, right. But when I do the blogging, I have to learn a new topic. So I have to prepare for that and do things, so I'm learning something new.

Saurabh Bharti: 30:38
And the second thing is when you reach out, go to the community forum, you see a lot of people are putting the questions and the issues and the problem which they are facing. So if they are facing the problem, it is 90% likely that you will also face the problem when you are in that situation. Right, because they are not it happens very less that they are they are very new people but all of them are very experienced, professional, right. So if they are facing the problem in those type of situations, it's very likely that next time you get into that project and you will also face that problem. So if you solve that problem there or if you look at the answers which other people are giving. You saved yourself, you built your knowledge and the experience and next time you get that issue you say hey, I know this, I can solve I love it I love it.

Mark Smith: 31:32
Saurabh, thank you so much for coming on the show. Uh, we're out of time. I could go on because there's, there's. You're a wealth of knowledge, but thank you so much for joining me. No worries, Mark, thank you for having me here. Hey, thanks for listening. I'm your host business application MVP Mark Smith, otherwise known as the NZ365 guy. If you like the show and want to be a supporter, check out buymeacoffeecom forward slash NZ365guide. Thanks again and see you next time. Thank you.