Of Indian IT Industry - Part 3

Part 1 , Part 2 .

Over the last few weeks, the world witnessed the crisis at India's 4th major Outsourcer. As I write this, I am happy that in the revival efforts, the new management has got at least it's basics right. As I stressed in Part 2, Indian IT is about it's ppl, the technical talent. If you loose your workhorses, then well no amount of polishing your cart is going to get you anywhere.

But as the events unfolded , It was interesting to say the least, how lot of varied entities reacted to it. I would try to make my understanding of the issue & reaction through some analogies below. Not an expert at these complex money manipulation things, but yes my 2 cents :) Go figure out the analogies if you can.

Analogy 1 : The issue , big deal for the company - really ?

There lived a happy family. Father, mom and 50 (k) kids in Agra. Kids worked serving foreign tourists in and around the Taj & naturally earned in dollars. Dutiful kids used to give over the entire dollar amount to mom for expenses & mom in turn used to give what was enough (or what she thought was enough) for the kids to show off to other kids in the neighbourhood that they were better off. (All kids in the neighbourhood too were tourist guides you see). Now Mom used to manage the house expenses brilliantly & saved quite a huge amount every month. She used to put all the money in a piggy bank and kept it safe in the loft of the house & yes , as is natural in Indian households, left the key with her husband. Now, the husband was a saint, or at least people in the neighbourhood thought so of him. Highly respected guy. He told everyone how strong his wife & kids were with finances that he ne'er had to do any work himself and could just boss around.So things were going just cool as mom ne'er used to touch the piggy bank. Actually she had no idea why she was saving in the first place as she ne'er needed the money , the cash flow from the kids was so good every month that she couldn't imagine when she would need the money. But since saving is good in our culture & every big family in the neighbourhood seemed to do it, she too did.

And then it happened one day. Husband vanishes leaving behind a letter saying that he doesn't know where is family is going. There is actually no piggy bank at home & I was actually feeding the boys with my money all this time. Can't do that anymore, I am off. Vroom @!

Neighbours went shell shocked, kids were devastated & mom really had no clue what was happening around. She knew the piggy was there, she also knew she ne'er told the kids the reality as she thought they were too small to know all this.But she also thought there was actually no problem as she ne'er touched the piggy anytime. But hey, who was listening. She had the kids to go to work everyday and they would just do fine.

The media reaction :

Oh my god, what happened ! How could the saint take me, the self declared guardian of the Indian society for a ride, No way. I am going to give it back in full measure. And moreover I am the one who has the sole right to create sensations by 'breaking' news. I can't take it anymore when someone tries to get ahead of me in that by writting a letter . Be him a saint or a blogger.

So he goes...
1.The chaiwallah near Taj ('who refused to be named') said the saint was always like this. Never to be trusted....Blah blah
2. 'Unidentified Sources' said it's very difficult for the family to survive, they actually lived their day with the help of the piggy, I don't know if they can eat this month's food with the piggy gone.
3. 'Unconfirmed' taxiwallahs near the Taj said the game is all over for the kids now. They have no idea how things will shape up.
4. And yep, the Indian blogosphere is not to be left far far behind. I was the self declared intelligentsia, he could have taken the entire world for a ride , not me ! So here I go .... ' The whole family should either commit suicide or consider selling off the kids one by one to neighbours, or yep better , the mom should get re-married. That would for sure solve everything.Period.

On Competitor reaction:

One neighbouring family which as a matter of principle never used to drive a car, but only 'drive on values' said.... Oh we are not going to get the family...tainted folks. (It's worth noting that they both shared the same room when they went to the temple festival last year). And yes, you know what - The kids ne'er used to make any money in real, they just went to the Taj, roam around when our kids worked and returned home empty handed. All this thing about kids giving money to mom & saving in a piggy is just crap. We always knew 'it. After all we are not the self declared morale keepers of the 'tourist guides' association for free.

As with any industry in the world, the true maturity of the Industry, the company & the supporting environment (read the media , the govt and other stakeholders) would be reflected only in the time of crisis. The problem with Indian IT has always been a little effort-high return business environment, the moment that started falling apart, the rot is coming out for everyone to see especially like kids fighting for the broken coconut in Vinayaka temple.

Life is indeed like a high speed race most of times. But when you see that the guy in the track next to you has hit a stone and falls down bleeding, it's upto you to set the priorities...you either take him to the hospital , or decide to run ahead to finish the race & claim the trophy. Or like many others, stand near the fallen guy and watch to say ' I won't take out anything voluntarily from him, but if the blackberry falls down from his pocket, Ah well, I can' help running away with it.

My Southwest Experience.

I had wanted to fly SouthWest Airlines at least once before I left the US. The reason had more to do with their famous philosophy of putting Employees first & customers second, which I too greatly believe in. A happy employee community would naturally in turn take care of your customers. I had also read unconfirmed reports that they actually disallowed a customer from flying once for treating their employee shabbily.

The difference in experience started from the check-in itself when they asked everyone to stand in a queue based on the numbers on their boarding passes. I couldn't make out anything from that except that it regulated the crowd a bit and allowed them to segregate passengers which helped in giving instructions. You have to note here that SW doesn't have seat numbers assigned to individual passengers. You can sit wherever you want (As long as no one else is seated there of course !)

The drama then started when they started making fun of other airlines by actually asking on the PA system to keep credit cards ready as they serve peanutes (SW doesn't charge for snacks or check in baggages). The whole announcement of safety precautions was done in a very interesting fashion and not the usual dull manner which might have bored out the frequent business travellers. A lot of the Airlines seem to have adopted this practice of late, I have come across quite of few recently.

The cabin crew was very jovial and it reflected their genuine interest in the job. Mid way across the flight, to everyone's surprise, the crew got along together to organise games ! The first game started with asking people to jot down the names of American states that have the same first alphabet for the state & state capital. (like Indiana, Indianpolis). That was fun , the guy next to me got all of them right.

The next game was of course gambling, considering the flight was headed Vegas. All of them taking part had to put a dollar with their seat # into a bag and pass it onto the crew. They would then pick a lucky passenger and he gets the entire loot. One guy from my team made it this time.

And then the best of it, for the ladies. All ladies were asked to take out their lipsticks & give their best smooches ! Naah, not to their co-passengers as I was expecting ( I had a great looking lady near me),but to the napkin passed along with the peanuts. The crew collected the napkins and then, the pilot judged the 'best lips in the plane'.

The way the crew kept occupied everyone made sure the 4 hour long flight looked like a 30 min one. It makes so much difference in productivity when employees have fun on the job. Ah forgot to mention the final trick they played when we landed in Las Vegas - ' Hello everyone, the temperature outside is 42 degrees with slight rain, Thank you for flying with SouthWest , we wish you a great stay in Bahamas :) '

Le Reve, Las Vegas : Highly recommended.

Le Reve stands for 'the dream' in french & is the name of a production show in one of the hotels in Las Vegas. More details here. A stunning display of acrobatics, aquatics, and art with repeated displays of limits in human endurance, Le Reve I believe is a must watch in a lifetime.

The entire stage for the show is actually a huge swimming pool which is almost 60 feet deep with hydraulic movements for different stages that pop up out of the pool. So if you ever head to Las Vegas for a vacation, don't forget to catch this one at the Wynn hotel. It's a bit provocatively priced at about 150 $ for a ticket and it took a lot of convincing on my part to push my friends for it.But once out of the show, none of them could stop from being overwhelmed by the sheer experience of it. You can of course check out some youtube videos of the show. The theme is a bit vague with the undefined dreams of a young girl taking shape one after the other, but the sheer amount of work that goes behind each feat in the show is just amazing. I was first left gaping at seeing people dropping from almost 100 feet in the air into the pool only to later discover that some of the performers were actually Olympians ! True to what the Ads say, it really seemed like a dream with my eyes open when it got over.

This show also gives a nice insight on the kind of scale that a determined human effort can achieve even if it's just for entertainment. Las Vegas itself of course is an altogether different story in scale, both hotels & businesses that surround them.

Stay Warm !

I never liked being around in places where temperatures don't show the decency of sticking above a particular threshold. My first brush with a 'real' winter was when I was in Orissa. I was a kid then and had lived all my life in Chennai until that point. I wasn't particularly liking the frenzy with which my parents were accumulating those black blankets. I hated the very sight of those rough ,artless piece of clothing, sleeping in them for an entire night was a scary thought back then. But then I had to and I lived successfully through the ordeal. And that was my first encounted with real cold climes...not to mention that the temperature rarily went below 10 C anywhere in Orissa. 

Then came Munnar, where I studied, and survived four long winters. Though the place is in the state of Kerala, it's climate doesn't even remotely resemble the Kerala weather due to it's altitude. The fact that most of the houses there had a good component of wood in them didn't help things much. The worst thing obviously was the need to get up early mornings to head for studies. 

Temperatures did use to go upto 5 degrees C there and at times touch an yearly low of zero. But not any further than that. 

And then came America. As I write this today, temperature outside is a punishing minus 25 C , yep that's right, a good 25 degrees down under the freezing point. Thermals, tough gloves and layers of clothing become the order of the day. The heating system is the lone saviour which keeps you sane. If some bunny gives me an argument 'there's no power cut in America' as a potent reason to migrate here from India, I now know how to defend that. Ah well, if there were power cuts, there wouldn't have been many ppl left in most parts of this country. 

As I leave starbucks after a cup of hot coffee, the greeting that's thrown at me doesn't amuse anymore... 'Stay Warm !'.  

The .303 Problem.

.303 is the name of the work horse of Indian Police services. It's a rifle that has been in service since the British Raj. If you are too particular about the dates, then 1880 it was , when the Rifle actually shipped out of it's factories. So for the last 128 years, the .303 Rifle has been untiringly rendering it's service in almost all the police forces in our country (State police forces) without exception. The paramilitary forces too used it as it's primary weapon till as late as 2001 when finally it's was firmly phased out in favour of the SLR (Self Loading Rifle, a 1950's product) during the tenure of Home secretary Kamal Pandey. But it's not as bad as it all sounds cos even though it's old, it's a very effective weapon with a fair degree of stopping power. And better, most of our policemen are actually trained on the .303 , so that ends up making it one of the most effective weapons in their hands when an 'aimed firing' need arises. The .303 did even prove it's mettle in the Parliament attacks in 2001.

But times & circumstances have changed a lot since 2001. And the present era calls for a huge spending towards modernisation of our Police forces. And of course, a systematic de-coupling of the police-politician nexus.

We as a nation have some of the best elite forces in the whole world , as proved in Mumbai. They are amongst the most intensively trained for sure. But as Mumbai again proved, the first line of defence in our system is always invariably the state police forces. And we saw heartening scenes when the brave Mumbai police jawans devoid of bullet proof jackets took on the terrorists with their .303's. It also proved systemic failures when the elite forces took more than acceptable time to reach the scene of crime. Also , we shouldn't forget that the most adopted terror tactic against our nation has been bombs dropped in trash cans, Mumbai was a new form which might not repeat itself again.

India today pays Trillions of rupees in taxes every year.We definitely have money to upgrade out on security. The political will hopefully will come now. As for upgradation of the .303, the most common excuse given is that an Automatic weapon in the hands of a routine beat policeman is too dangerous, for the unfortunate event of him becoming hostile, the risk would run high. It's a classic example of not attacking the root cause of the problem.

The average police constable doesn't live too comfortable a life if he belongs to the non 'Chai-pani' cadre. Having personally seen the lifestyle of the lowest rung of our forces, I am not usually surprised when I hear stories of Indian policemen going hostile against their own comrades. The problems are almost the same as the other low income Indian families. Daily family issues, Childrens quality education, daughters wedding, supporting parents back home etc.. Now add to that 12 hour work shifts, routine denial of eligible leave , no tolerance for revolt, punishment codes and strict disciplinary actions.

The mordernisation of out State police forces have to start from the bottom. Govt housing has to be ensured for all, creation of Police schools on the lines of Army schools, subsidized ration/groceries, counselling services,strict 8 hour workshifts, subsidized personal loans etc.. might be a good idea to start with. The point being , a constable who is adequately rested with lot less worries back home would be infinetely more effective than someone who is refused to go home to attend his sister's marriage and yes, lot less dangerous when he is armed while on duty. It is when we meet & solve this fundamental issues with our police forces that we can actually go and mordernise the .303's with AK 47's and Mp5 machine guns without any fear. Another important aspect is the working condition. Police stations should be equipped with technology. Special vehicles should be custom made for Chase operations. And all policemen on duty should be available on the radio.

One might ask, how in the world would these things help when most of the police force in our country is inherently corrupt. My answer is simple - No human being is bad by birth. It's circumstances that exist in our society today that makes us bad/corrupt/unethical. Lets change the fundamentals, we have got them wrong. And let's see if that brings about an attitudinal shift in the system. That's the best hope we can have today.It also comes from close observation of the system. An armed policemen is almost often never seen accepting bribes. I feel it's due to mere sense of ownership that comes automatically when a task demanding some responsibility is assgined to you. So when we create an ecosystem wherein we have a lot less stressed policemen on the street, armed, on the radio recieving intelligence, with a happy family back home, a financially sound bank account, a well equipped work place to head back to, I personally feel we would have created a very strong first line of defence. And that might make all the difference in most of the cases.

The right mix of Tolerance/Intolerance.

For years now, we as a country have messed up with our priorities of Tolerance & Intolerance. The Mumbai episode should be the wake up call to shun those practices & correct the indifference.

Tolerance : It was not even a week before the attacks that Raj Thackeray was making people of Mumbai fight with each other in the name of linguistic differences. Where is he now? Haven't seen him out of his house since.
Take a close look at our society & we can sense how fragmented it is. Hindus have intolerance for Muslims & vice versa. Go to Tamil Nadu & you can see intolerance for Hindi speaking people. Go to North India and 'Madrasis' are seldom tolerated. Go to Orissa & Christians are being burnt alive.
We as a country have seriously mastered the art of dividing ourselves into smaller & smaller groups that we essentially have forgotten our Nation. It's a classic example of how we are left counting the trees when the forest itself is on fire. I strongly feel that this attitude of us Indians cannot & should not go on if we are to go anywhere as a Nation. We are one country...agreed with lots of cultural,linguistic & religious variations. But this aspect should be our greatest strength, not our most exploited weakness. As my brother said, the perfect example is Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, A MALAYALI who lived in BANGALORE & got trained in PUNE, serving the BIHAR regiment, deputed to NSG in MANESAR, HARYANA laid down his life defending the nation in MUMBAI,MAHARASHTRA.This is India. Not the one that people like Raj Thackeray envision.

Intolerance : Time for a greater intolerance of course against the political class. India is a democracy and it has to be one for it's entire life & not just for the 3-4 months that we go to elections every five years. The 'post emergency period India' quietly took on itself whatever was fed to it. We don't need to do that. It's high time we all showed intolerance to the class of people who behave as self declared dictators once they get into power.
Another thought is the urgent need to walk into politics ourselves. If young India today wants change, then it's high time we made a serious thought about politics as a career. No one is going to change things for us if we don't do it ourselves. If the best career options remain the high paying corporates, then it shouldn't surprise us that the best & the brightest are heading there. If good people don't get into politics, bad people surely will. We need people who are more approachable with people's problems. A good leader should always know the pulse of the people he leads like the back of his hand. Our politicians have long forgotten that piece of Art.

'Head fake' by John Wood !

I just finished reading the book 'Leaving Microsoft to change the world' by John Wood. John was the Director of Marketing at Microsoft handling the Asia-pac region & used to report to Steve Ballmer. The book his about his life story of leaving Microsoft to create 'Room to read' , a 'not for profit' institution which builds libraries, schools & computer/language labs in countries like Nepal,India,Cambodia,Sri lanka etc. A classic book for anyone who nurtures an ambition of creating some change in the world.

John , a Kellogg grad, had the typical high flying life at MS and travelling across the world marketing it's software products. It all seemed to start when he took a conscious break to hike in the Himalayas to get out of his routine. A chance visit to a school library while in Nepal changes his life forever. He saw that a school with almost 400 kids didn't have proper books to read , leave alone a decent library. As he was leaving , the headmaster of the school left him with the words 'Perhaps sir, someday you will return with books' . What follows is an amazing story about how he built 'Room to read' from scratch and how it today stands tall with thousands of schools & libraries across the world to it's credit.

If you have read Randy pausch's 'The last lecture' (Another must read in a lifetime, be prepared to break down into tears towards the end ) or listened to his lecture, you would know what an 'Head fake' is . John has perfected the art intentionally or by pure coincidence through his book. Though it's his own life story, it takes you through by teaching business management, leadership skills, start-up gyaan & tons of fund raising techniques for non profits.

Two instances from the book that I liked the most : The first one is about Ballmer. John used to report to Ballmer and he casually mentions about running for the Boston marathon to him during an early morning jog together in Sydney. Several weeks later , during a conference Ballmer stops by him to congratulate him on his timing in the run .Better , Ballmer remembers the exact time that he clocked. A gem of wisdom for leaders there I felt . If you forget the people who work for you , sooner or later you would be going nowhere . And if you honestly care about them & let them know that you do in instances like these , you have already built the first few blocks of a successful team.

Another beautiful example amongst the several fund raising methods he mentions (that he came across throughout the world) is about some school kids in UK who raised money for his organisation during the 2004 tsunami. The kids were supposedly too small to do anything on their own and so devised a real cute plan with the help of their teachers. They went home and told their parents that they wanted to help out tsunami victims and for fundraising they would be giving their parents a deal. Parents can buy 1 hour of their silence @ home for 10 pounds ! No prizes for guessing how much money the kids roped in :)

Hodo-hodo zoku !

Couple of weeks back, the Wall street journal had a very interesting report on a new pattern emerging in Japan - that of employees refusing career growth/promotions.  They are called the so-so folks or 'Hodo-hodo zoku'. The larger issue at hand is that it's not a section of the Japanese youth who display this symptom, but an entire generation. The article even describes instances wherein bosses were afraid to break promotion news to their reportees. 

Nothing to be too surprised though. Perhaps just signs of a well developed nation. Japan has obviously passed the initial phase in the development of a nation in which India finds itself today. Long work hours, a strong work ethic, growth ambitions etc are of course the hallmark of a society which wants to get out of the state it currently is in. But once it achieves these goals, it's but human to think about a more emotionally fulfilling lifestyle. 

If you tell this story to anyone in India today, it might as well elicit a strong giggle. But what exactly is the holy grail of work life. Once into the rat race , one is not going to get out anyways, the system has taken care of that. Only people with real strong drive and determination have managed to exit the vicious circle and attain 'nirvana' if I could loosely use the word. 

So perhaps the young Japanese are finally discovering the 'right' & 'easy' way to live life. Spending a good amount of time with family & loved ones (which would obviously come at a cost to money & career) would of course  be more fulfilling way to live , at least for a good amount of the generation. Their forefathers have sweated it out, built a great nation. Let the current generation cherish it ! There's always the next generation to sweat it out again in case things get too much out of hand ...but then life won't go uncherished ! 

The joy of NOT seeing money !

No, if you are expecting the good news that I have been laid off..Ah well, not yet ! 

This is all about a small experiment that I carried out recently to check how many days pass from in my life without seeing a currency note physically. Money, I agree is important in life and it's not everybody who gets real good at making tons of it. As for me,  I have somehow always hated the currency form of money.It has always symbolized hatred & greed whenever I look at it, the inspiring pic of Mahatma on Indian notes not withstanding. Hence I decided to try out this experiment in the US to see how many days go without a meeting with the 'note'. I had also decided that I would make no voluntary effort from my side to avoid 'the note'. 

And the answer is 33 ! Yep, I sailed through 33 days in the US without getting to have a look at a currency note ! And believe me , the stint could have been far longer had not it been for my friend who decided to return some borrowed money in cash avoiding the usual cheque route. 

That also shows the penetration of plastic money in the US. There are very very few places which insist on cash these days & most of the encounters needing cash would have been actually aided by a broken card swipe machine. Another aspect which I came about is that I feel a lot less stressed/concerned about money when I transact the electronic route. It's strange but true. When you don't see the actually currency going from your hand, the inherent sadness/stress associated with parting with our money seems to get reduced. 

Added to this is another aspect of an higher valued currency. You get a meal for 5 $ , a good amount of daily utility stuff is priced between 2-5 $ . Though the absolute value of the good remains the same,again I feel the stress associated with spending is getting reduced due to the value of the currency. 

There are two things to be noted in this observation. The actual feeling might also reflect the character of the person. I might actually be stingy to think about the inherent sadness associated with spending money. On the other hand, for someone else, spending 5 lakhs and acquring a car might be far more empowering than buying a car for 10,000 $ . Absolute value being the same in both cases. The second aspect is that this rule might apply only to people who criss-cross international boundaries and transact off and on in different currencies.