|
| 'India itself will be a big consumer of IT' | |
| Q&A: Subroto Bagchi, Vice-chairman of MindTree | | Subir Roy / New Delhi October 16, 2009, 0:04 IST | |
 Subroto Bagchi, founding member and vice-chairman of software services firm MindTree, has just passed another milestone. His third book, The Professional, which was recently published, outlines what it takes to be a professional’s professional. The book begins and ends with the story of Mahadeva, a destitute child without parents who would hang around the Bangalore government hospital where his mother had died. One day, through sheer chance, the hospital authorities asked him to bury an unclaimed dead body. Thereafter, he spent a lifetime burying those who had no one with such dedication that he earned everyone’s respect and admiration, thus making him the archetypal professional’s professional. Bagchi spoke to Subir Roy on his two worlds — software and the professional. Excerpts:
How is Indian IT sector likely to change in the wake of the global downturn?
I see new leaves coming through. Only yesterday I was hosting the CEO of the Silicon Valley Bank. It is a banker to startups, not a commercial bank, and continues to do well. He senses that the US economy would be on the uptick. by the end of this year. I would not say that the worst is behind us but it is almost behind us.
How do we fit into this into this universe?
It is common to see Indian companies with more than 60 per cent dependence on the US. Moreover, the US economy has gained bellwether status. If a European or an Asian company plans expansion of its IT capabilities, the first thing it asks is what is happening in the US? If people begin to question the fundamentals of the US, the mindset is that this is the time to conserve resources, not to spend. So, the US creates cascading sentiments.
Now that we see green shoots emerging, how do you see Indian IT becoming different?
In the next five to ten years, the large players will have to re-examine their reason for existence, their positioning, and redo their social contract. It is not enough to be a great IT company any more — this happened five years ago. The current top management in the IT industry is inadequately prepared to engage with the new entrants. There is a big generational gap. The things that motivated you and were central to your dreams, are no long true of this generation. Second, India itself will emerge as a large consumer. Look at the UID project: If there are 20 components, each component has a humongous IT content. So you require 20 Nandan Nilekanis and 20 times what Nandan is going to spend when you conjure the image of the Indian economy in the next decade.
Your book refers to an observation that Indians are good at execution, not dreaming up new things. How can that change?
That paradigm is beginning to dissolve but it will take its own time. Dreaming up new things requires what Yves Doz calls existential knowledge, the highest of the three layers I talk about in the book. It is where you are looking not just at specifications but at unstated needs of unknown customers. You are taking large risks. If you look at the imperative of that then you understand that in a sense it is a generational issue. The current generation of 20-something is likely to be more risk taking than yours and mine.
This ties up with your observation about a generational gap.
It is an opportunity. Creativity is seldom vertical or sectoral. When it pervades a nation, it has a collective flow. During that period of flow — it can last two, three generations — no one sector is riding the tide. It is a time when society experiences a flow in a core systemic sense. At that time your art, literature, architecture will all improve. One, the creativity of a nation is not a process but an output. Two, hyper creativity is multidisciplinary. Different sectors will cooperate with each other. We are entering a period when Indian authors, films-makers, dress designers are becoming global. Indian software creativity is also becoming global. Then there is interplay of all these things. When this happens, your acceptance precedes your arrival.
You talk of the ethical professional, but there is also the reality that you need survival skills in the corporate jungle. Is reconciling the two a challenge?
That is a challenge at multiple levels. The first is that right from when the habits of young people are moulded, the system begins to give wrong signals. The second issue is the societal challenge. Religious leaders, politicians, rock stars and other role models in society give you different sets of messages. So to begin with, there are challenges for a young person to understand what is the right thing to do. However, there are two realities. One is that no matter how corrupt, dirty or debauched a society may be, it always has the professional’s professional and then there is the rest. The difference between the two is integrity. The difference between the professional’s professional and a competent individual is that the former creates memorability. If you do not have a desire to build a legacy, then you do not care. Then there is the second reality — at the end of the day it is a matter of personal choice which is not a function of your education, training and organisational imperative. Look at Mahadeva. Orphaned at eight, had he become a pickpocket, a drug dealer or even a terrorist, all justifications would have been available. But he did not choose the convenient over the right. No extent of being pushed to the wall justifies choosing the convenient over the right.
What is the role of the professional in succession planning?
Let us talk about the flip side of the issue, helping someone who is at a lesser position than you are. Inherent to the idea of succession planning is that you are grooming someone. You groom somebody who is not ready yet without a direct expectation of reward or return. What is there for me in grooming the next CEO? It will benefit the company but there is no quid pro quo for me. What I’ve realised while working for last 10-15 years and particularly in writing this book, a time comes for all professionals when the hierarchy of need changes — from money to peer recognition to self-actualisation. The core of that self-realisation is in serving. If you look at the professional’s professional, you will find that they have crossed that threshold where individual brilliant work is keeping the soul alive. A stage comes when the only way of reenergising the soul is through an element of service. And if an organisation is lucky to have such professionals, it will never have difficulty in succession planning.
|
|
Content Guide
|