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Thursday, September 02, 2004
Who sets the rules of the game?
Aditya thinks that I have mellowed down and uses the metric of the number of people named to measure the duress that my pen's sting has been facing. He wonders why I have not mentioned the rift between Rohit and Nilanjan during the seminar!!!
Yash tells me that the posts have become too much of the 'one size fits all' type and there is no ripping off of the people who won't be happy unless they are ripped off (sic!)
Mayank's comments (both by his own name as well as by the name of Gumnaam...oh yes, I have means of knowing all about it) seem to suggest that my blog is fast becoming a fighting forum for the batch.
Pavithra (through her unintentional-cum-intentional pseudonym, Name) has to say that my infamous blog is busy mis-conveying my intention by plotting me as the champion of the cause...the same as her mails on loos and meal-skipping contributions to OCS wars do to her intention.
Pavan got the impression from reading my earlier blog entries that I am a little too distant. He feels that this was contrary to the requirement in the election setting at the time.
Neeta says that she is not comfortable with others reading her blog (it is beside the point, though and yet, half of the regular readers of student blogs in IIMK know about her blog) as it contains her feelings and if she knows that there are others reading the blog, she may be forced to play to the audience. Incidentally, she says she has not read the famous IIMK blogger (read yours truly) even once.
All these people seem to have a lot of time on their hands, is the first observation that I can make. Reading and in cases, writing blogs requires a lot of time and patience, which I am sure that these people do not have a scarcity of. Another thing that they have in abundance is a way of looking at things that is certainly not on the same lines as mine.
Aditya is of the opinion that in order to be really honest to my feelings (which can be nothing else but blasting others off), I need to write another private journal. I can not be writing blogs that are anything more than slander aimed at people around me.
Yes, I admit that humans are prone to baser feelings but there is a certain limit to that. As soon as a person starts being subjective towards his feelings, he is biased, judgemental, and prejudiced either against or in favor of a particular situation or person. Regardless of the names that I have taken in this blog in past, I have always tried to be as objective with my recording as possible.
There is absolutely no question of playing to the audience being an absolute essential of a publicly read blog. It is for the author to decide who the blog is meant for. The very fact that the author has decided to maintain a journal on the net and not in the confines of his/her room means that he/she is prepared for others reading and commenting on the blog. It is a little odd to imagine the possibility of someone who is so naive as to think that there can be things written about private lives without people diving head long into it with quite a good amount of salt (to go with it).
There are two options for the (in)famous blogger...that he/she decides to play along and make the blog an overtly and at times unwarrantedly, sensational account of fictitious happenings...and thus, kills the blog and the entire purpose with which he/she started out in the first place. The other option is to be true to no one but his/her own self and write what comes to the mind...irrespective of the reaction to it, to the highs or lows of reader interest. After all, the blog is meant to be an outlet for the writer, and not an entertainment channel for the reader. The reader is just an incidental convenience...incidental because that is what the blogger should limit the reader's role to...convenience because the comments on the blog can tell the blogger how far he/she is from the general perception.
I and my Mode C belong to perhaps a third category...the one where the readers are not just incidental but at the same time, do not guide the process on account of their convenience. The very fabric of this blog is to understand the other perspective and align that with the Calvin way to take on life. The rules of the game have been clear to me from the very first day...I will write things that I believe are important to me...whether it sustains the interests of the readers or appears to them as the ravings of a lunatic is something with which I will not bother myself. I have written about my deepest fears, my greatest sorrows, and my biggest achievements in this blog and if I had actually been looking for an audience, all these would have found no part to play.
All the same, I don't care a damn if others read all that I write and make it a point of judgement when it comes to me...if they are so immature, I am better off without them and their patronage. If they achieve thrills from reading my reviews or my comments on events and people, good for them...if they think that my blog is a forum for ripping off people...championing the cause...poisonous journalism...discussion forum...a publicity mechanism...too bad.
Ladies and Gentle Men, give me a breather. Comment on my posts' content as much as you want, but not on the intent because that is something you are not going to affect by even one teeny little bit.
Incidentally, this is what the result of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Assessment Test has to say about my personality type:
ENTPs are usually verbally as well as cerebrally quick, and generally love to argue--both for its own sake, and to show off their often-impressive skills. They tend to have a perverse sense of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil's advocate. They sometimes confuse, even inadvertently hurt, those who don't understand or accept the concept of argument as a sport.
Posted at 05:55 pm by Nitai
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Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Dahi vadai...garam samosa...masala dosai
I had promised...to serve masala in this post...and so be it. At the risk of sounding some people off and even making my reputation of being the official gossip even stronger (if at all that is possible), I am back with another story...nay, not a story but as true a representation of thoughts as possible. Well, it has hardly been a point of contention...my facts, that is. What has been worrying people is either my take on the facts and their portrayal as I do it, or the effect of that portrayal on things that are held sacred (the institute name, for example...however, I do not really think that IIMK is such a weak brand after all).
What's with the introduction and all, the reader would say and may be even shout at the bland screen in front of him/her to get on with it. Representing the poor sod that the screen is in such cases, I will make an appeal on its behalf and in the short of the long...let's begin from the beginning. The past weekend at IIMK is as apt a place to start as any because that was what gave all the fuel to the fire that I am planning to stoke.
The IT Seminar was the topic of discussion in the meeting called by the Student Council some days back and the question being discussed was whether attendance to the seminar should be made compulsory. As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, the SCon members rode on a wave and got things round to their view. But there were some people who were not satisfied...no sir, not satisfied at all. Some like Shailendra made their displeasure felt then and there and there were others, too who are what I call the cribbers. Now, this is an interesting class of people and I hope I will be able to devote more time to them some day. As of today, let it suffice to mention that these people have the habit of reserving their comments for the time when they have stopped to matter. There are very few occassions where these people actually take a cue from Kotler's marketing fundas and be proactive.
There is another class of people worth mentioning...and these are the do-gooders who do not want themselves being questioned for what they do. These people are generally too full of themselves and the value of what they have been doing and they forget the fact that they have been doing things because it is of their own volition. They have the feeling that since they are doing something that others are not, they can get away with more than the others can.
What the do-gooders have been thinking of the cribbers
The reaction from the cribbers did come, but as expected, it came when it did not matter. It became a matter of general knowledge on campus (almost like... ye PSPO nahi jaanta) as to what Vinay felt about the way people have to be thanked or what Shailendra had to say about people talking on their mobile phones as they move (rename the mobiles, somebody :-))...or...this one takes the cake...what Kiran felt about rock shows. As was pointed out by the people who worked for the various committees, these people were those who had not bothered to put a foot forward when it mattered and were conspicuous by their absence when the others were running from pillar to post getting things done...cleaning guest rooms, for God's sake. Did they have as much (or even anything, for that matter) to say about the inefficiency of those whose responsibility it is to keep the guest house clean and ready? Did they, for even the remotest moment, think about giving a suggestion as to what can be done to improve things (Anurag, in my opinion, gave a wonderful perspective to it...the difference between it 'should' have been better and it 'could' have been better)
The most absurd part of it was the fact that some people have really taken things for granted and if they feel that by exercising their right to comment on something, they can do away with their responsibilities...they are mistaken. To comment on what happened is one thing, to pass an observation is one...but to actually pass judgement and say things are not acceptable!!!...acceptable by whom? Who set the rules? Have you always done what is acceptable to others? For those who have been missing their meals and spending nights to make the event a success...what is acceptable for them? Is sitting in the room and when forced to attend the seminar, saying that their contribution was not less...acceptable?
What the cribbers think of the do-gooders
Yes, I know that the post has started sounding like a vendetta program and I have actually started doing something that I had been hitting at just a few lines earlier. However, I have tried not to be judgemental and just give the facts as they have appeared in the past few days. In trying to write the opinion of one class about the other, I have only mentioned what I, myself, could gather from the various mails that were exchanged in one of the notorious OCS wars of IIMK.
Let's get on then, if the cribbers are done cribbing about what I have written about them.
If the cribbers in our batch have shown their potential by trying to find out all that was wrong and point it out clearly and explicitly, the so called do-gooders did not do badly either. These were the poeple who were born with the gold spoon in their mouth. They take their responsibilities too seriously and have the tendency to rush in numbers to the places where even a single person would do. They also talk saintly and do the sins themselves. They do not care enough to do things that they preach and yet, when some one comments on it, they start listing down all that they have ever done for the common good.
It is thus that Pavithra lets us know about the daily routine of the volunteers...and Anirudh, after putting his foot squarely in his mouth during the vote of thanks, asks Vinay if he had volunteered for anything. What do these people think, for God's sake? Admitted that they did a wonderful job in organising the seminar but does that give them the right to silence others? They were the ones who asked for it by volunteering for the jobs...if the job is successful, they take the credit...why are they backing out in taking the blame if things go wrong?
What I think about the whole thing
I don't think that my opinion matters at all...at least not to the cribbers or the do-gooders I have been writing about...they will continue with their lives as they were (I will be surprised if they will not). However, I have promised to my blog that I won't pass any judgements on any body and whenever I start doing that, I will pull down my entire blog. It is only my perceptions that I am going to record here and if they do change at a later point of time, I hope that I will be faithfully able to record that, too.
So, what I actually do perceive out of the entire affair is that the issue is not about doing good or cribbing. More than that, it is the basic ego in all of us that is to be looked upon. For people who have not done the most of what needs to be done, something going wrong is perhaps a vindication of their deciding not to do anything in the first place. It is like an opportunity for them to raise the issue which makes their own stand amply clear...that it is not that they could not have done it...in fact, had they done it, it would have been better, and what went wrong would have been just right...perhaps the alpha male playing out his part, though in a slightly different way.
There are those who think from the other side, too. I have done this and I have seen that and I have worked on this and that...who is the one challenging my superiority...I am sure that what I did was the best anyone could have done...they can not really be serious when they say that there could have been anything done better than this!!!
And to top it all, there was some talk of inter-year rivalry too. With the goof-up by Anirudh (which was not a goof up from his standards since he knew the pulse of the people being addressed) and not many in the senior batch turning up for the seminar, there was another set of cribbers (mostly from the first year) who spared no time to start the blame game (which they call exercising their rights)...the case of I won't do it myself but if you do it and do it wrong, I sure as hell will get your neck.
The game continued with the first yearites being blamed for talking too much before they actually do anything...another case of I have done it, prove that you can do it better before you criticize me.
What is the point in all this...the lesson...the moral? The idealist would want the egos to be suppressed, and more people coming up from both the gangs and joining the community of those who do things and do not speak about it (oh how I wish I could be one of them but kya karein...control nahi hota). However, the things do not happen that way. Egos will always play a big role in a place like this where achieving is everything...where failure has very high costs and success very high rewards...look at the Gods...Rama...Krishna...has anyone ever been immune to it???
Posted at 01:54 am by Nitai
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Sunday, August 29, 2004
Marketing brand India through a rock show???
The title of this post might give a wrong impression to the readers about what exactly this is all about. Honestly speaking, it is nothing but the result of a sleepy mind that could not find a better way to relate the events of the day. The second day of AIMS '04, Annual IT Management Seminar at IIM Kozhikode kicked off today with a bang. With yesterday's speakers having made their mark with some very informative and illuminating speeches, the enthusiasm amongst the student community was quite high and it was fitting that the efforts put in to organize an event of such a scale were vindicated.
Agenda for the day was even more interesting than yesterday, as it involved some of the top shots (one a CEO, another a Chairman) discussing ways and means to develop Brand India with special emphasis on the BPO sector. Mr Arun Seth, Chairman, BT India and Chairman, ITeS-BPO forum, NASSCOM, Mr. Neeraj Bhargava, Group CEO, WNS Global Services, and Mr. Sam Iyengar, Senior Advisor, ITSMA were the panelists for the discussion. Mr. Sam Iyengar, who moderated the discussion started off on a funny note as he suggested that the audience do not take his role as a moderator too seriously and the tigers in the audience who were active yesterday, continue to pose questions and participate in the discussion.
And so it was for the bigger part of the session as the baton continued to be passed between the speakers on the stage as well as the people off it in the audience, who raised some very pertinent questions and in effect, gave direction to the discussion.
Mr. Iyengar kicked off the discussion by asking Mr Bhargava about his views on Brand India and how he perceives it to have grown over the past few years.
Mr. Neeraj Bhargava
Mr. Bhargava said that the negative publicity that Indian IT sector has gained on account of the offshoring backlash has actually been helpful in many ways. It has gone a long way in making people aware of what India is and where it is heading. More than that, it has been the work of the new age Indian IT companies that has built the image of India. Indians as a community, Mr. Bhargava pointed out, have also been quite popular in other countries like US through their increasing prosperity.
Mr. Bhargava emphasized on the challenges faced by the brand India ambassadors today. He said that it is not only important to continue leveraging our advantages, but also to be more sensitive to people who have to leave their jobs because of us. We have to clearly articulate what Indian companies stand for and how they can help make the other countries more productive. Another challenge in Mr. Bhargava's opinion was to show to the world that India is a secure solutions provider and that Indian companies have the right infrastructure and the right work conditions to enable long term relationships with the clients.
In response to a question later, Mr. Bhargava said that we need to follow the model and example of the Japanese who also started off with a low cost advantage and have gradually moved on to a high quality situation where they top the markets even in competitive countries like US. He said that it is only now that Indian companies have started thinking of things like the market share and with the economic surplus that they have produced, it is time to go ahead and invest in their brand formation.
Mr. Bhargava also highlighted the need of focusing on upcoming industries like automotive components, health care and bio technology. He said that the time is right to take ownership of brand India now and work towards its development. He said that the low cost proposition that India has can not be used endlessly for brand development as it can only attract customers but the real situation does not end there. Most of the hard work, he said, has already been done and a platform built for the future managers to exploit.
Mr. Bhargava made it clear that the role of the government in building Brand India is going to be minimal and mostly made irrelevant. It is the companies that are going to show the world as to what India can deliver. The high standards of working at the Indian MNCs will go a long way in establishing a culture of high work ethics in Indian companies across strata. Mr. Bhargava also highlighted the need of being empathetic to the client country's society. For the Indian scenario, he said that it is advisable to let the market forces prevail and not worry too much about the MNCs coming in and eating up our companies' share.
Mr. Arun Seth
On being called upon by the moderator to share his views on brand India, specifically in relation to UK and Europe and discuss whether brand India is differently understood in different parts of the world, Mr. Seth agreed to the supposition. He said that the Indians started moving to US in the 60s and most of them who went there were professionals who have now created a name for themselves and are all in important and respectable professions. However, in case of Europe and the UK, the people who went there were from the lower strata and actually joined jobs like being in the post office or the airports. Mr. Seth also said that for the Indian companies, Europe can actually be a better destination compared to the US as the work can be easily moved there with no strict hire and fire policies like the US.
Mr. Seth said that ten years ago, India was not a favorite destination for investment but with the domestic IT companies becoming multi national, the investor confidence has been growing by leaps and bounds. At the same time. Mr Seth said that it is important not to let this get to our head and be insensitive to the various factors like the job loss in US so that we are not hit by something in the future.
More than looking at the IT sector alone as the builders of brand India, Mr. Seth said that we should be looking at the services industry as a whole and that is what NASSCOM has been doing for quite some time now. He also said that due to the service industry taking center stage and other factors, we are at a disadvantage when it comes to manufacturing industry. Mr. Seth also pointed out the possibility of reaching a stage where Indian IT companies will own the brand, own the customers through mass customisation and other actions, and thus be able to outsource its production to countries like China.
We, as Indians, Mr. Seth mentioned, do not demand the quality from our providers that we ourselves are only too happy to provide to our customers. This mentality has to change and we have to come out of the shortage economy mentality to let our market get in sync with the demand and supply model. This move, he said, will also help us counter ethical issues like corruption and black marketing.
When asked about the competition that Indian companies face in their own backyard from the MNCs setting up shop in India, Mr. Seth said that it should actually be welcomed and we should start thinking in terms of scale. The low scale companies who can not perform should actually be weeded out of the market. We, as Indian companies, should also go out and do stuff like event sponsorships, etc to develop our brand and also through peer to peer system, give out our message clearly.
Mr. Sam Iyengar
Mr. Iyengar, moderating the discussion, mostly summarised the points made by the other speakers. He also made some observations, especially regarding the fact that India Inc has had its brand built more by accident than design. Whatever be the case, however, it is true that the current generation of Indian IT companies are able to walk tall and set high expectations of themselves.
Talking about the existing culture difference between the Indian companies and India in general, Mr. Iyengar said that he was confident that the former will do wonders to improve the latter. he also said that it is important for the Indian IT companies to realize that once they build a brand for themselves, it is actually going to be collectively qualified as a brand for the Indian IT industry and later for the Indian nation, on the whole.
According to Mr. Iyengar, it is important for the Indian IT companies to take a more active role in the local issues of the places where they do their business, by paying taxes, being more socially responsible, and so on. It is important, he said, not just to take the jobs away from the US but to also give them something back in return.
In reply to a question about the competition that Indian companies face from other countries like China, Mr. Iyengar said that growth depends on culture in the long term and though China, due to its highly centralised administration can get things executed fast in the short run, it will be India who will finally win in the long run due to its sustainable advantage of being the first mover. He said that to consolidate this advantage, it is important for the Indian companies and some societies like the NASSCOM, FICCI, CII, etc to take stock of the branding scene and develop a brand India that sends a unique, suatainable message that resonates in the market place.
Mr. Iyengar, in giving the slogan of 'Come for cost, stay for quality', put across in a nutshell, the entire focus in building brand India.
Another attraction for the day was the rock show to be organized in campus. I had volunteered for the event and though we did not have much to do (apart from helping set up and probably dismantle the humongous sound infra, do some printing stuff, etc), it was fun for as long as it last. There were two bands slated to perform, courtesy Rahul Gandhi (I must write about him sometime...he is one interesting character and much different from the image I had of him earlier...that is, before meeting him)...both from Kerala.
The bands arrived in the afternoon and had all set at the IIMK Steps, which actually turned out to be a good venue for the show. Giving the feel of a stadium, the show had everything going for it to get it into the groove...well, almost everything but the audience. We had earlier posted some invitations and posters in different parts of the city and after some co-ordination with the security at the main gate, it was possible for the visitors (mostly from NIT Calicut) to enjoy the rock.
The first band to perform was LeoLads who started off well...too well, probably for the first song of the show (ought to have started with a 'lower' number) ...and then, to top it all, moved on to Bryan Adams. From that point onwards, it was down all the way as the vocalist murdered one song after the other (what was that mammary...ia stuff, by the way???) despite the guitarists and the drummers doing quite an efficient job.
It was only post dinner that the actual fun started. Man! Were EverGreen (name of the second band) evergreens!!! They played some superb rock for nearly two hours and believe me, the place rocked and continued to rock much after they had stopped...after acceding to repeated requests of one more...
The band from Cochin presented the songs from the masters (including my favorite...'we don't need no education') and also two of their own compositions. However, with hardly any response after they sang their own compositions, they did not try any more of them...and probably for the better, since there were hardly any of the qualified audience (except may be the likes of Rahul Gandhi, Anudeep and others) to appreciate their original efforts.
However, the end result was amazing and the way these guys got the show rocking must have given a lesson or two to the other band that performed earlier (poor guys...they are only learning...they are new, for God's sake). The biggest asset EverGreen had was their vocalist. This guy over shadowed even the amazing guitarists and played well and fully to the audience, running amok and even dancing with the people in the audience.
To say the least, the rock show rocked and despite the limited turnout from within the campus (as many as about 70 people turned up from outside), I would say that for the rock enthusiasts, the show was a rip-roaring success.
It was thus that IIM Kozhikode comes to the end of AIMS'04, two thought provoking, mentally stimualting days of some high quality stuff, organized with some high quality passion and dedication.
Just reflecting...the last two posts on the blog have only been facts and nothing else. This, however, is not my style. Despite everything, I have my own feelings and emotions associated with the past two days where apart from the front stage activities that I have written about in these posts, there have been a lot of behind the stage plays that I have failed to capture so far. My next post (hopefully tomorrow) will be a truly masala post with the inside stuff on what actually went on over the past two days within the hallowed portals of IIMK.
Posted at 11:56 pm by Nitai
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Saturday, August 28, 2004
Annual IT Management Seminar 2004, IIM Kozhikode
AIMS 2004, the first of a series of annual IT Management seminars, was the talk of town atop one particular hill of Kozhikode city. IIM Kozhikode hosted the stalwarts of the Indian IT industry as they shared their ideas and thoughts on the theme Marketing of IT Solutions. Spread over the 28th and 29th of August, the seminar was attended by some of the big names of the Indian IT industry and with the pertinent nature of the theme, it was all the more beneficial for both the concerned parties. For the students of IIMK, it was an opportunity to know how the thought leaders of the Indian IT industry are planning to counter the imminent threats of offshoring backlash in the US and the ever growing challenge from other cheap man-power countries like China. For the IT corporates, they had the chance to interact with what is widely perceived as the cream of Indian intelligentsia. An opportunity to not only clarify their stand in front of an audience of one of the IIMs, but to also make their own sales pitch in front of the business leaders of tomorrow was something no company would have missed.
Credit goes to Abhinav and Anirudh of the second year at IIMK, who form the core of Abakus, the systems interest group at IIMK, for not only conceptualising this event but also bringing it to fruition and what a fruition at that. The student council of both years, the entire Placement Committee, and not to mention the numerous volunteers who managed all the logistics did a wonderful job and it is their efforts that are going to go a long way towards building the IIMK brand and helping it compete not only nationally but also on a world level.
Day 1, AIMS '04, IIM Kozhikode
The seminar kicked off with the inauguration of the event as the distinguished speakers and Dr. Krishna Kumar, the director of IIMK, lighted the lamps. After the traditional inauguration and a bouquet welcome to all the guests, Dr. Krishna Kumar gave the welcome speech. Dr. Kumar mentioned the mission and vision of IIMK as being identified as a national institution of international reckoning and adopting a number of measures to accomplish the same. He talked about upcoming events in the institute that will further strengthen the industry interaction with the institute. He also talked about the various executive management programs undertaken by the institute. Mr. Kumar appealed to the guests gathered to help the institute achieve its objectives, specifically by helping to develop its intellectual capital.
The stage was then set for the seminar with Mr. Arun Seth delivering the key note address and narrowing down the context of the discussion with some exquisite examples and some very pertinent data to support his presentation.
Mr. Arun Seth, Chairman, BT India and Chairman, ITeS-BPO, NASSCOM
The thrust of Mr. Seth's speech appeared to be the inherent advantage that India possesses in terms of intellectual capital. Enlightening the audience about the fast ageing China and a relatively young India, he said that we have a big competitive edge because of that. Also, due to our youth, we come across as ones who do not have any legacy to hold us back. Mr. Seth pointed out the role that NASSCOM has been playing in the growth of the Indian IT sector by lobbying with the Government to get tax and other benefits. NASSCOM were the first to coin the term IT Enabled Services for the BPO sector, so that they come under the IT umbrella and get all the related concessions. It was because of the NASSCOM's intiative in pushing up the de-monopolisation of VSNL, that the telecom industry has seen such phenomenol growth.
According to Mr. Seth, there was the need for the IT industry to align with institutes like IIM Kozhikode to train its middle management with the best business practices.
With 50% of the CMM enabled companies in the world being Indian companies, Mr. Seth said that India has gained an advantage that can be converted to a $50 bn industry with the generation of 2 mn direct and 2 mn downstream jobs in years to come. This can be made possible only if the current marketers of Indian IT sector focus on and exhibit the unique advantage that Indian IT possesses of having a disruptive model where IT and BPO are delivered together.
The need of the day, Mr. Seth said, is to move the marketing operations from the back office to the front office and change the solution based approach to a more partnership based game plan. He proposed that the much hyped about offshoring backlash is actually less a threat to Indian IT companies than that caused by reservations about data security issues in the clients' mind.
Mr. Sam Iyengar, Senior Advisor, ITSMA
In an impressive presentation, the senior advisor from ITSMA put forward the changing face of marketing in the Indian IT sector. He said that presently, a huge chunk of marketing goes into marketing communication. A more proactive role can, however, be played if the level of discipline existing in the delivery model of the IT companies is also brought to their marketing model. Mr. Iyengar said that the focus should shift from being process oriented to being innovative...from being internally oriented to market oriented...from being just technical to being consultative. He said that there is the need for a proactive solutions portfolio and a move from verticalisation to identifying specific market segments and moving forward to capture them. He said that this shift from the tactical to strategic marketing will clinch the deal for India IT Inc.
Mr. Iyengar mentioned that it is important for the global players from the Indian IT sector to be global and at the same time, behave local so that they can be close to the customer fabric. According to Mr. Iyengar, Public Relations needs to be replaced with the execution of a brand strategy to increase the visibility of India IT Inc. More value based pricing is required to hold and re-gain the market that was initially won over by the low cost proposition alone.
Mr. MV Sarma, AVP, GIS, Computer Sciences Corporation India Ltd
Mr. Sarma from CSC dealt with the service marketing part of the Indian IT companies. Customer loyalty through service management, he said, is the key today. With the stringent down times that are imposed in the world market (only about 23 minutes in an entire year), Mr. Sarma said that the IT companies need to be process oriented with customer satisfaction as their main focus. He said that being proactive today means not just going to visit or calling up the clients, but to use tools and technology to predict failures and prevent them. He said that the infrastructure needs to be improved to achieve sustainable cost reduction and despite the inherent quality advantage of India, if the Indian IT companies do not realise that the challenges vary across different verticals, it will be difficult for them to grow.
As per Mr. Sarma, there exist certain gaps in the companies due to under developed middle management that needs to be filled up by using tools like decison making matrix so that the right time is chosen for various tasks like enhancing capacity and so on. Apart from the process related productivity that everyone talks about, Mr. Sarma said that it is essential to focus on infrastructure based productivity by integrating the various processes and moving from an ad hoc organisation to one that enhances customer satisfaction.
Mr. Sarma suggested the four pronged aproach of maximizing, measuring, maintaining, and marketing customer relations in order to get the message of Indian IT companies' coming of age across to the CEOs, the CFOs, and the CIOs of the world. Mr. Sarma also talked about the unique world sourcing strategy adopted by CSC to properly co-ordinate its business functions by optimizing on time zones and resources across the world.
Mr. Deepak Khosla, GM (Central Marketing), Patni
If the previous speakers had talked about the need to introduce changes in the Indian IT companies' marketing game plan, Mr. Khosla explained how to go about it. He divided the Indian IT industry into four different phases. Phase 1, he said, was between 1985 to 1995 and included start ups in application development and maintenance. The primary driving factor in this phase was low cost. The second phase extended from 1995 to 2000 and was the age of e-Business, ERP and most importantly, Y2K. IT, and Indian IT companies, in particular, became fashionable and the new mantra was quality at a lower cost. Mr. Khosla said that the third phase from 2001 to 2004 has seen cutting edge work which is still delivered out of the offshore-onsite model. Security, productivity, and project management have been the key words in this phase. Coming up, he said, is the fourth phase from 2004 to 2007 which will experience a major shakeout in the market that will turn from being based on an offshoring to an outsourcing model.
Contrary to popular belief, Mr. Khosla pointed out that the backlash against offshoring in the US has actually helped both Indian and US companies. For the Indian companies, the backlash has focussed the attention of the US client towards the new possibilities in India that they may have been unaware of earlier. At the same time, for the US companies, they are now outsourcing the kind of work that is different from their basic fiber, and thus the kind of work that they were not supposed to be doing in the first place at all. This, Mr. Khosla said, would only make the US companies more productive and increase their profitability.
Mr. Khosla also mentioned that the main reason for Indians preferring the MNCs coming into India over the core Indian IT companies is the fact that more than anyting else, they possess a much stronger brand. The focus of India IT Inc, therefore, should be more on converting more suspects sitting outside the sales funnel into real prospects. When these prospects go down the sales funnel, they pass through areas where their interest is first narrowed down and then refined so that they end up coming out of the funnel as long term customers of the company.
Mr. Khosla also stressed on the importance of internal marketing within the organization to reinforce its core value proposition. He said that depending on the catch, different people have to be involved in making the sales positioning of the company and thus, marketing , despite being the external face of the company, should be aligned all over the length and breadth of the company. With more of B2B instead of B2C businesses in the Indian IT sector, Mr. Khosla said that online medium's importance as a channel of communication is underlined.
Mr. Khosla pointed out that there are different tools available for different marketing strategies and their optimum use can help the Indian IT companies to move ahead from labor arbitrage and skilled labor propositions to a more innovative and value driven strategy.
Mr. Subhash Dhar, Head, Communication Services Business, Infosys Technologies Ltd
Mr. Dhar started off the post lunch session with the words that he believes that there should be no marketing department in a company since marketing and business are synonymous. He emphasized the fact that instead of being apologetic for what we have, we should realize that we have built some great value for the Indian IT sector and the need of the day is to capitalize on that and increase our under utilized share of the pie. Mr. Dhar said that the English speaking capability of Indians along with the low cost are understood value propositions and have thus been commoditised. It is more important in the current scenario to put due emphasis on the other value propositions that Indian IT companies are providing and yet not highlighting. Marketing's role, in Mr. Dhar's opinion was to rally around these values such as an asynchronous enecution model, better quality, lower total cost of ownership and so on, such that the market can be fully exploited.
Mr. Dhar wanted the Indian IT companies to focus more on their core competencies and follow the more evolved hub and spoke model instead of the peer to peer model of knowledge management. He said that it is important to grease the cycle of innovation and become a part of the value chain of the customers.
Ms. Sangita Singh, CMO and Vice President, Wipro Technologies
One of the youngest VPs of any IT company in India, Ms. Singh has received several awards for her role in shaping the marketing policies of Wipro Technologies. Her presentation for the day highlighted the work that the marketing team at Wipro did to achieve this objective and as such, set the benchmark against which other companies can calibrate themselves.
Ms. Singh noted that it is important that the absolute defnition of marketing be circulated amongst the internal customers of an organisation to enable it to send out measurable business benefits. This can be done through an integrated framework evolved over time to target multiple audiences. Moving from a focus on Go to Market strategy for each business group, Marketing has to generate demand through information and make more focussed and informed sales pitches to get relevant and big business. Ms. Singh said that in deciding partners, the major factors that a customer considers are the peer group and the company's web site. Adopting measures like search engine optimisation, information gathering and management regarding calls to and from Clients to Wipro through the ILG tool, white papers, web events, etc will help an organisation to maintain a balance between the push and pull models and sustain this balance.
Ms. Singh highlighted the importance of brand differentiation vis-a-vis just brand awareness and said that the time had come to identify, have insights, target and measure opportunities for growth. Ms Singh said that to achieve this objective, it is important to continuously innovate in marketing policies and make sure that all the company's employees share the same idea about the company and its marketing program.
Mr. Ramkumar Ramamoorthy, Senior Manager, Corporate Marketing and Communications, Cognizant
Mr. Ramamoorthy called upon the Indian IT companies to leverage their internal assets to build marketing platforms where referral and relationship marketing have a greater role to play as compared to the currently practised transactional marketing. He said that for the IT industry, unlike others, all three out of cost, quality, and volume are high. It is important in this scenario to employ inside-out marketing that focuses on strategy, customer relationship management, employee and analyst marketing, amongst others. Mr. Ramamoorthy said that to do this, it is important to practise proximity marketing and Cognizant, in shifting its executive management to client locations, has done exactly that. It is important to understand the pulse of the market which might vary across different regions and as such, Mr. Ramamoorthy said that Cognizant decided to get seen most where it matters most to be seen.
They aligned themselves across verticals and sub-verticals instead of on the basis of technologies or geographies and this, Mr. Ramamoorthy said, was achieved through what he called dominance marketing, that is getting into a particular sub-vertical or vertical, dominating it, and then expanding further. Mr. Ramamoorthy said that the biggest problems that the customers face and which sometimes even lead to contract terminations, are lack of communication, lack of responsiveness, and clash of cultures. To counter this, it is important to blend in the customers' location with a local sales force and a local executive decision making body empowered to take real time decisions to maintain the competitive edge.
Mr. Ramamoorthy also mentioned the means adopted by Cognizant to develop and sustain their customer relationships through end user customer meets, forming customer advisory councils, and so on. He said that an employee led marketing program is the one that is more likely to be successful. As a security provider, Mr. Ramamoorthy said that it is important to go for quality assessments at an enterprise wide scale.
Mr. Aju Thomas, Tata Consultancy Services
Mr Aju Thomas, from TCS, was the last speaker of the day and he presented a technical paper on how a systems driven approach can benefit the organisational structure from the marketing perspective. He said that in the current scenario, there are some improper consultancy engagements and the minor reason for this may be that the client does not understand its needs properly and is in effect, a bad client. However, Mr. Thomas said that the converse is also true and there are cases where the consultants lose out because of their own inefficiencies. They tend to take up consultancy engagements that do not match their expertise profile, and at times are unable to understand the clients' culture and the expected scope of the engagement.
This lack of clarity, that is required to bridge the gaps between customer expectations and the actual deliverable, Mr. Thomas said, may be countered by a systems driven approach that has the feedback and verification system in-built. This methodology, if employed, would bridge the gaps that may be cognitive, perceptive, communication or implementation based in nature. The focus, Mr. Thomas said, should be on product features that the client is actually going to use. Similarly, he pointed out, the high risk projects like nuclear projects require the formal method rather than the classical method. Therefore, in Mr. Thomas' words, a system based on the multi-modeling approach and having adequate provisions for inter departmental communication, can be the effective model employed for marketing of IT solutions.
The second day of the IT Seminar tomorrow promises to be another exciting venture, all the more so since there are some big names lined up, including the CEOs of some Indian IT companies, who will be participating in a panel discussion. A rock nite is also on the cards and it won't be an exaggeration to say that I am earnestly looking forward to it.
Posted at 11:08 pm by Nitai
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Friday, August 27, 2004
Reading signs at the cross roads
More than one half of the first term is over and it is time to take stock. What did I have when I came here...not much, I suppose. Unlike the freshers who are here straight out of college, I was one of those who have had the taste of blood and are in to perhaps sharpen their jaws. After two years in Infosys, it could never have been the same thing. I do not know if this is to my advantage or works against the purpose with which people go to B-schools. I don't subscribe to the school of thought that considers inexperience as an advantage or on the other extreme, youth as an indispensable factor in perspective moulding. I believe that there are pros and cons of both and as such, I will win some and lose some.
Right from day one, I had realised that there are people here who are achievers and there are those who think that they are achievers. The real achievers are hardly ever seen in the limelight (not to say that those who are in the limelight do not have what it takes). Almost all those who have done some wonderful work in the past are either too busy with their future to give thought to the present or it may be that the others are too involved in themselves to give these achievers any thought or credit. As against people who have had the courage and expertise to run their own businesses, who have interacted and worked with the best in the world, who have as great an academic and co-curricular record as any one could possibly dream of, I have come here with what can be called a clean slate.
This slate, when written on, should not just be an academic report card. There is so much more to learn from this place and the people. The big question is : Can I do it? The even bigger question is : Will I be allowed to do it? The answer to the first question, as can be seen, is very much dependent on that to the second question. An affirmative answer to the second question means that not only should I be able to establish some rapport with people who might not actually encourage it, but also that I get sufficient learning from the courses at IIMK to at least come to a level where I can also contribute, in some measure, to the discussion with these achievers. The academia in India has often been blamed for not providing just this. Whether IIMK features in the rule or the exception is something that I will take up in some later post where I want to discuss all the courses taught here and their significance to me and my purpose, both in terms of the effectiveness of the course content as well as the relative efficiency (relative to me, that is) of the faculty who have been associated with the courses.
I am still trying to look at a way to find the first part of the answer. I believe that I can do justice to my efforts to that end only when I have probably interacted some more with my batch mates and separated the chaff from the grain. I am not sure if I am even capable of doing this (am I a good judge of people???) but one thing is certain...I am definitely going to try and perceive the way an individual executes his idiosyncratic beliefs, especially in the hills of IIMK. Probably a blow by blow account of my perceptions on each of my batch mates' perspectives, expressed through entries of the blog, is one way of going about it. Whether I will take it up depends on a lot of things, even the very least of which is their feeling about being the guinea pigs for my experiment. As of now, I do not even know them all...some of them, not even by name. Perhaps it can be gradual...start recording my takes on them (through the blog or otherwise) one by one. I am sure that with 134 people in the batch, I will be able to know each one before I write about him, even if I take only one day to write about one person.
There have been quite a few comments on this space on the net that I have made my blog, especially after I wrote the now-dead post on the student body elections. There have been people who say (and feel???) that I write well and there have been people who find the blog 'entertaining'. Some call it Baba TV (Baba is the nick that I have been blessed with, here at IIMK) with politics, movies, novels and other such masala in it while there are others who identify on a more psychographic level with what I write.
Surabhi wants to know what she needs to do to get her name into my blog (hey, Surabhi, you got it, I want a treat :-))...Aditya wants me to write something interesting before midnight and warns me that it better be good...Yash says that I need to write soon as things have been dead in IIMK for too long...Akshat wants me to write about things that are not right in the campus...Swapna wants her dose of entertainment that will help her pass the time...
What do I want to do? I just want to write...whatever comes to my mind...my thoughts and feelings...but all aimed at a particular objective...to learn...to adapt and adopt...to evolve...
AIMS, the Annual IT Management Seminar of IIMK, starts tomorrow. With the bigwigs of the Indian IT Corporate world making an appearance, the sessions promise to be interesting. Having been with Infosys for two years, I might even be able to relate to a seminar for a change. Let's see...
Posted at 11:18 pm by Nitai
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