Monday, October 30, 2006

Infosys Technologies - The Best Company to Work for in India

Incredible Infy

Business Today has selected Infosys Technologies as the best company to work for in India.

The following is from the Business Today November 5th Edition.

What is the secret sauce that makes Infosys the best company to work for in India, year after year?

Chintamani ‘Buck’ Devashish is the Managing Director of Sterling Commerce India, an AT&T company, and also an Exfoscion, as all former Infosys employees are called. This 40-year-old, IIT Mumbai and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus was among the early employees the IT giant recruited way back in 1987, when it was still a glimmer in the eyes of its seven founders. It’s been 10 years since Devashish quit Infosys, but once in a while his nostalgia still gets stirred. Consider the last time round when that happened: Devashish, who had a long stint at Infosys subsidiary Yantra, was on a flight back to Bangalore from the US when he bumped into Infy Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy on board the airport shuttle. Murthy, Devashish says, understandably, did not immediately place him, but when the Exfoscion jogged his memory a bit, India’s bestknown tech ambassador broke into a broad smile. “He immediately enquired about me and my family,” recalls Devashish. “Not only was he carrying his luggage himself, but when I offered him my seat in the crowded bus, he politely declined. Humility, respect, affection and genuine concern for the fellow human being…Murthy had lost none of it despite all the success. If you have to understand why Infosys and its HR practices are unique,” Devashish continues, “you have to understand the DNA of its promoters and how this has percolated down the organisation.”

Today, Infosys employs 65,150 people—far too many for Murthy or any of his co-founders, including CEO Nandan Nilekani, to remember by name—but the system tracks everyone individually. When terror attacks took place in London past July, the company ensured that every UK-based employee’s family members in India were kept posted. Whatever help—emotional, monetary or otherwise—that the distressed employees needed was provided. “That has become kind of routine to us. Whether it is a personal emergency or a natural disaster or any other issue that affects the welfare of the employee and his family, we are always ready to lend a hand,” says Bikramjit Maitra, Vice President and Head of HR at Infosys.

That’s no easy achievement. Over the last five years, the headcount at Infosys has grown at a CAGR of 40 per cent. Before it rings out 2006-07, Infy may add another 15,000 employees. The challenge for Infosys, then, is straightforward: How to remain, in some sense, a garage start-up at heart, while creating systems and processes that can withstand the stress of high-velocity growth? For instance, in the July-September quarter, Infosys logged a 50.4 per cent growth in revenues to Rs 3,451 crore over the same quarter last year, and by the end of this financial year, its annual revenues will soar to Rs 13,853 crore. Says S. Subramanyam, Managing Director, Ascent Securities and Consulting: “Underpromise and overdeliver. Infosys has done that consistently. What is amazing is the company’s ability to scale and execute.”

Making sure that ability improves as Infosys multiplies in size is something Nilekani and his team already worry about. “We work hard to ensure that Infosys sets benchmarks, including in HR practices globally,” says Maitra. Adds Hema Ravichandar, former head of HR at Infosys who now runs an HR advisory firm: “A big differentiator for Infosys is its ‘conscious paranoia’ to succeed and outperform itself. That means, she explains, a strong organisational thrust on innovation. Add to that its manic focus on execution, robust, institutionalised and scalable people processes and attention to stakeholder concerns, and you have a great recipe for sustainable success.

Paranoia It Is

Over the last 12 months, Infosys received 14,63,264 resumes from hopefuls. How many did the company hire? 22,913. That means every applicant has a less than 2 per cent chance of becoming an Infoscion—that is, an Infosys employee. Purely from a probability point of view, you’d be better off trying to crack the Indian Civil Service exams. Yet, Infy doesn’t allow itself to get smug about it. Especially, when it goes recruiting abroad. It might sound amusing, but Infosys was actually a bit apprehensive when it hit the US campuses mid-2005 to hire undergrads. “While Infosys is an aspirational brand in India, it is becoming known on the US campuses only now,” says Nilekani. “But we were pleasantly surprised by the response we got.” As many as 126 US campus recruits, plus 25 UK on-campus recruits, are now undergoing training alongside Indian hires at the software engineering boot-camp that Infosys runs at its facility in Mysore.

Why fuss over the recruitment of a bunch of kids from American campuses? Hasn’t Infosys been a global company for some years now, deriving 98 percent of its revenues from abroad and spanning 17 development centres in five countries? The answer to the question lies with Mohan Das Pai, a six-foot threeinch bearded giant of a man, who stepped down as the CFO in April this year to head the HR function.“For a company to be called truly global, what are the metrics?” he asks. “Do we get bulk of our revenues from the international market; do we have a footprint in various countries across the world; does our board reflect a transnational character and does the workforce also mirror this?” The answer, obviously, is ‘yes’ for the first three questions, but ‘no’ for the last one. Reason? A bare 1,958 of its 65,150 employees are non-Indian. Gathered from 59 different nations, they represent just 3 per cent of Infosys’ workforce, and Pai is keen to diversify the talent pool. “India will remain the largest source of technical talent, but there are areas where we need to cherry-pick global talent,” says Pai. Adds Priya Chetty Rajgopal, Vice President at search firm Stanton Chase: “Such broadening of the pool from where an organisation recruits leads to cultural diversity and is an asset to the organisation. It could also help prevent any kind of political backlash against outsourcing in general.”

Glass Ceiling?

There are, however, a couple of causes for concern at Infosys. “There is an invisible glass ceiling beyond which one cannot grow, except for the promoters,” says a former employee who now works with a competitor. “While it is undoubtedly a great growth engine, it does not have professionalism.” It’s a sentiment that Mohan Sekhar, Member of the Board and Chief Delivery Officer, iGATE Global Solutions, and who at one time headed Infy’s North American delivery, shares. “Given their growth of recent years and the changing HR landscape, they will probably face challenges in retaining key people,” says Sekhar.

While Nilekani denies there’s any invisible glass ceiling (see Infosys Is A Meritocracy), Ravichandar also says that Infy has to be careful. “It is critical that the employee stakeholder is never taken for granted and customised engagement plans are designed to ensure an inclusive work environment,” she says.

Indeed, there was a year (2003) when Infosys did not make it to the top 10 of BT’s Best Companies to Work for survey because of industry flux and its own inability to meet employee expectations. The following year, however, it came roaring back at #2 and has stayed at the #1 position since. Its dizzy growth and sterling stock are clearly one part of the reason. But as Chintamani ‘Buck” Devashish mentions right at the beginning of this story, there are several other ingredients that go into Infy’s secret sauce.




A Day in the Life of an Infoscion

As a devastating cyclone struck bhubaneshwar in early 2000, it killed several people, destroyed property worth several hundred crores, and generally decimated everything in its path. Several hundred kilometres away, K. Sunita, then a software engineer based out of Chennai with Infosys Technologies, was worried about the fate of her parents who lived in Orissa’s capital Bhubaneshwar. Communication lines had been cut off and there was no way to reach her parents.

As news about the scale and nature of the cyclone began to trickle down, Infosys swung into action and set up a helpdesk to assist employees and their families located in Bhubaneshwar. That apart, Infoscions went around helping their colleagues and families. The company chartered aircraft to airlift its employees and their families to safety. “It is this kind of commitment,” says Sunita, seated at one of the hundreds of cubicles in Infosys’ campus buildings, “why I can’t think of moving to a different company, despite having spent eight years at Infosys.”

In those eight years, Sunita has grown from being a software engineer to a senior project manager now, in charge of a team of 180 people. Needless to say, Sunita is one of those who have benefited from Infy’s stock option plans, but she quickly clarifies, “That is not the reason why I have stayed. I like the open work culture environment. Everybody’s career is clearly mapped and people are rewarded on the basis of merit. That’s why I have not looked at a single outside job offer.”

Original story (Subscripiton required)





Brand Infosys
Revenues: Rs 9,521 crore (2005-06)
Profits: Rs 2,458 crore
Total employees: 66,150
Attrition (per cent): 12.9 (in the last 12 months)
Average career tenure: 3.87 years
Training budget (actual): $145 million (Rs 667 crore)
Training man-days (actual): 8 lakh
In the past one year, over 14 lakh have applied, of which 22,913 got hired




Interview With Nandan Nilekani, President, CEO & MD, Infosys

"Infosys Is A Meritocracy"

Infy’s ebullient CEO explained to BT’s Venkatesha Babu why his company continues to remain India’s best employer. Excerpts:

Can you decouple revenue growth and people numbers?

We are addressing this challenge in two ways. One is internal, the other is on the client side. Internally, we are trying to ensure higher efficiency especially on fixed price projects by using reusable (software) components. On the client side, we are selling higher value services and solutions.

What about attracting the right kind of talent internationally?

It is true that we have a great brand equity in the Indian marketplace. Infosys is seen as an aspirational brand—an advantage that, as of now, we don’t enjoy everywhere else. But we have made considerable progress on this issue. Infosys Consulting was started completely by a bunch of people internationally. This year we recruited 126 people off the campus in the US and 25 in the UK. We are hiring in China. Today, around 3 per cent of our workforce is non-Indian. Managing cultural diversity would be a key issue.

What about this perception that there is a glass ceiling at the very top, since it is still dominated by the founders…

(Interrupts, sounding a bit weary)…I think it is a very unfair thing to say. Raghavan (co-founder) left in 2001, (Narayana) Murthy stepped down in 2006, when my time comes, I will follow them. (Mohan Das) Pai, who is not a founder, handles significant responsibility. At the end of the day, ours is a transparent culture. Infosys is a meritocracy.

How will you ensure that there is connect between employee and the company as it grows rapidly?

We are acutely aware that there would always be demand for talented people. HR does a number of programmes to ensure connect between the company and its employees. We fundamentally believe in the philosophy of sharing wealth. This, along with our value systems and unique culture, is what makes Infosys different from others.

Infosys plans expansion in Trivandrum

IT services major Infosys, which is on a massive expansion spree, is likely to have its own campus in Thiruvanathapuram in a year or two. N Radhakrishnan Nair, CEO, Technopark campus, who is part of the Kerala delegation at BangaloreIT.in said that the company would have its own campus in the city. “Starting November, Infosys will begin construction of its campus and has taken up 50 acres of land. It plans to have 2.5 million square feet of space that can seat more than 5000 people,” he said.

In the first phase of construction, around 600,000 sq feet of built space will be completed. “The catalyst for the Infosys’ interest in Kerala is the COO Kris Gopalakrishnan who hails from Thiruvananthapuram,” said Nair.

At present, Infosys has more than 500 people working at its facility in Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram. In May this year, senior Infosys executives including Kris Gopalakrishnan met with Kerala CM V S Achuthanandan to discuss their growth plans in Kerala.

The Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram houses 110 companies and 12,500 people. In the next six months, the number of employees is expected to touch 20,000.

Another initiative by the Kerala Government is an integrated township for the IT sector called Technocity. This project would be a private-public partnership involving 500 acres of land very close to the existing Technopark. The land acquisition is expected to happen in the next one year.

Original story

Saturday, October 28, 2006

West Bengal to Provide 100 acres of Land to Infosys

West Bengal, the latest state joining the IT bandwagon, has showcased its strengths and offerings in the knowledge sector at India's premier tech event Bangalore IT.in

The state IT department is processing applications from Infosys and Wipro for allotting about 100 acres and 50 acres respectively on priority. The land clearance for both the IT bellwethers is expected during the current fiscal (2006-07).

Highlighting the state government's initiatives and pro-active policies for the IT sector, West Bengal IT minister Debesh Das said Saturday that world-class infrastructure facilities were being created across the state, especially in Kolkata, for IT and IT-enabled services (ITES).

'We are creating an additional built-up space of about 13 million square feet to generate over 130,000 jobs seats in the next three years in Kolkata. The IT Park being developed by the Delhi-based DLF group will be the largest of its kind in the country,' he told reporters here.

'In addition, a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), spread over 130 acres, has been approved by the central government exclusively for the IT industry, with 30 acres earmarked for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs),' Das said.

Keeping in view the land requirements for future growth, the state IT department plans to acquire about 330 acres near the airport. The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (Webel) has already allotted 200 acres at Salt Lake in Kolkata for IT and ITES companies.

'Our government is also setting up a 'knowledge corridor' at Rajarhat in Kolkata for global IT players, including many from Europe and the Silicon Valley. A new town will be built on 8,000 acres with integrated facilities, including schools, hospitals, playgrounds, theatres, shopping complexes and residences,' Das said.

The state IT department is processing applications from Infosys and Wipro for allotting about 100 acres and 50 acres respectively on priority. The land clearance for both the IT bellwethers is expected during the current fiscal (2006-07).

To ensure uniform growth of the IT industry across the state, the West Bengal government is building land banks at Kharagpur, Haldia, Durgapur and Siliguri in the northern region, where the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) have set up earth stations to provide connectivity on 24x7 basis.

To attract investments in the high-tech areas such as knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), very large system integration (VLSI) design, mobile computing and electronic manufacturing services, an Advanced IT Park and an electronic design automation (EDA) delivery centre will be located near Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in about 100 acres.

In a bid to minimise the demand-supply gap in human resources, the state government has begun offering incentives and subsidies for setting up IT-centric training institutions.

'With pro-active policies such as flexible labour laws, permission to employ women on 24x7 basis and declaring the IT firms as public utilities, we have created an eco-system to ramp up human resources.

'We propose to include IT in the list of essential services to prevent disruption in their operations due to strike, protests or demonstrations,' Das pointed out.

'With about 45,000 people employed in the IT and ITES space, West Bengal has been growing at about 100 percent annually over the last couple of years. We are aiming to generate around 15 percent of the country's total IT revenue by 2010-11 from the current three-four percent,' he said.

'We are also taking a number of measures to usher in e-governance, by computerising all the 54 departments and connecting them through broadband access to each development block and local body,' Das added.

Original story

WiMAX facility for Infosys Bangalore Employees

SDA-India reports that Aircelhas received requests from IT majors such as Intel, TCS, Infosys and Wipro to provide WiMAX facility to their employees so that they can work out of homes in case of emergencies.

Aircel is a registered member of the WiMAX Forum. Aircel has launched wireless Internet services through WiMAX technology in Bangalore after Chennai. Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access, popularly known as the WiMAX technology, enables 'last mile' connectivity using Near Line Of Site (NLOS) wireless equipment.

"Initially, Aircel aims to make Bangalore 'wire-free' using WiMAX technology enabling wireless Internet connectivity for SME, enterprise and residential use," said Ram Shinde, senior vice president, Aircel Business Solutions, while announcing the launch.

The release said that Aircel was also identifying and deploying Wi-Fi 'hotspots' throughout the city with indoor and outdoor points backhauled with WiMAX. Internet services at these 'hotspots' would be enabled through pre-paid cards integrated with Payment Gateways for on-line registration and subsequently activated using the 'Authentication, Authorisation and Accounting (AAA) mechanism.

Aircel has enabled the WiMAX based internet connectivity at the Palace Grounds, the venue for the four day Asia's largest IT Event beginning October 28 to enable the exhibitors and business delegates to get a first hand experience of the technology.
The company was also in the process of Wi-MAXing Vidhan Soudha, the state's secretariat that housed the Assembly and the Council, and adjacent buildings belonging to the state government.

The release said with WiMAX, end users could have Internet accessibility based on portable technologies at an affodable price.

WiMAX is unaffected by environmental or climatic disturbances and provided relief to organisations from 'last mile' connectivity concerns both in urban and rural areas with limited network infrastructure. The company also quoted a forecast, which suggested that the WiMAX subscriber base in India was likely to cross 12 million by 2012.

The company had recently launched WiMAX in Chennai with 90 per cent coverage across commercial areas in Chennai and has already enabled wireless connectivity for SME and enterprise clients through WiMAX based on 802.16d standards at a speed range of 2 to 10 Mbps. This would help the end user to stay connected to the Internet and Intranet with high uptime, the company said.

The State Government has invited competitive bids from five entities, including the public sector ITIL, Spanco, Microsense and KBIT to set up a USD 20 million project to unwire Bangalore city covering a serviceable area of more than 500 sq km from January-February next year.

Aircel would team up with either ITI or Microsense depending upon the outcome of the bidding process, the official said.

Original story

Nandan Nilekani is the 'IT person of the year 2006'

Infosys CEO and Managing Director Nandan Manohar Nilekani won the coveted `IT person of the year 2006’ award by Dataquest Magazine. The Dataquest Awards for 2006, which took place in the Capital on Thursday recognized Nilekani’s contribution to the IT industry.

Nilekani, who is deeply involved in pushing the cause of the Indian IT industry is also the co-founder of NASSCOM and the Bangalore chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE). He is also the member of the National Knowledge Commission and part of the National Advisory Group on e-Governance.


The Dataquest IT Lifetime Achievement award was conferred posthumously, to Late Arun Kumar, former Chairman of NASSCOM and former CEO of Flextronics Software Systems.

Prasanto Kumar Roy, President and Chief Editor, CyberMedia Publications said that Kumar played a pivotal role to help open up an avenue of collaboration with the Pakistan IT industry. “He was closely involved in fostering entrepreneurship from TiE, to the band of angels, with strong motivational skills. In 1999, he drove through his software company’s initial public offering (IPO). It was the first successful IPO based on the book-building, price discovery process,” Roy said.

The Pathbreaker of the year 2006 award was conferred to the MCA-21 Project of the Ministry of Company Affairs. Driven by the MCA, this mission project under ht e-Government of India’s National e-Governance plan is a landmark project on a very large scale of information technology in the shortest possible time frame. Y.S. Malik, Joint Secretary MCA, received the award.

Also presented on the occasion were the "Dataquest Top 20" corporate awards. The Best Employer award was conferred to Tata Consultancy Services, Top Growth Company award went to Red Hat India, Innovation award conferred to Microsoft India, Top IT company and Top Software Exporter award given to Tata Consultancy Services, IBM India was adjudged as the Top Server Company, Cisco Systems became the Top Networking Vendor, Top Printing and Imaging vendor award went to HP, NIIT got the Top Training company award, Microsoft India became Top Package Software vendor, Top Distribution award went to Ingram Micro and HCL Infosystem became the Top PC Vendor.

Dataquest Awards are based on the DQ Top20 survey; India's most respected awards of the IT Industry, these awards are given to the leading company in the major IT segments. Dataquest Achievement Awards are a celebration of excellence in IT, the DQ IT person of the Year, The Lifetime Achievement and the Path Breaker awards are an acknowledgement of the exemplary contribution of the evangelists and super- achievers of the Indian IT industry. The DQ Top 20 is the India's most authoritative and respected survey of the IT industry and market, often referred to as the "Bible of the Indian IT industry.

Original story

New generation of leaders ready

We are making sure we have a whole crop of people who can take charge of this company over the next several years. It is reasonable to assume that leadership will be taken by new generation of leaders, says Nandan Manohar Nilekani, CEO and MD, Infosys



Colleagues opine that leadership qualities come naturally to Nilekani. His task at the moment is to tread the fine balance between maintaining Infosys’s values and culture while scaling the company’s business to greater heights.

In an interview with Priya Padmanabhan and Latha Chandradeep of CyberMedia News, the Infosys CEO and MD shared his strategy on how he plans to do this and also capitalize on the dynamic nature of the IT services business landscape.

What are you doing to build leaders for the future?

Leadership development is something we are concerned with. We are obsessed with creating the longevity of the corporation. And about creating a company that goes beyond generations of leaders. When the current set of leaders are no longer there, how do we ensure the longevity of Infosys and continues to thrive, prosper, retain its value and culture, DNA. One of the shortcomings in India is that we don't create multi-generational leaders. So we are trying to do a lot in terms of building, grooming and empowering them and creating career plans for leaders. We are making sure we have a whole crop of people who can take charge of this company over the next several years. It is reasonable to assume that leadership will be taken by new generation of leaders. We have good leaders like Mohandas Pai, Srikanth Batni, Balakrishnan and others. I think we are making sure sustainability is there. That is a very complex exercise.

Does Infosys intend to stick to services alone, or do you plan to expand beyond it?

I think we should not knock what we do. The services business is very strategic, complex, sophisticated and has many business benefits. We are using the knowledge of business, processes, technology, consulting and creating solutions that make global companies more profitable and competitive. I think that's our strength. Our strength is in harnessing people, processes, technology and intellectual capital to create solutions that deliver our customers outcomes for their business. It may be through software, consulting or BPO. Whatever it is, at the end of the day, we look at it from the eye of the customer.

It is a big opportunity. You don't ask Intel why they produce chips. You don't ask Dell why they don't make Operating systems. In every business, every company chooses the playpen in which they wish to operate.

Do you believe the services opportunity is fairly significant and huge for you to continue doing this for the next 10 years?

About 40 per cent of our revenues today comes from services that did not exist five years ago. This is by no means a static organization. Everyday, we are thinking of new services, new offerings, new platforms, new IPs and new forms of operations on optimization. There is a constant churn of offerings.

Our point of view is that globally companies are going through a huge challenge. This challenge, in some sense, is similar to what companies Nanadan Nilekani, CEO & MD, Infosys went through a hundred years ago. It is a combination of demographics, emerging economies, globalization, technology, flat world and regulation. There is a fundamental change in the way companies are run today. You can’t run companies the old fashioned way anymore. They have to use technology, process standardization, answer regulators in 50 countries and have to mine data to get profit. We call this whole thing ‘Think flat’. Companies that think flat will look at themselves and think of changes to be made to be effective in a changed world. Infosys itself is an example of a flat company, because we operate in that model. So we are well placed to advise other people on how they can become flat companies. In the next few years, every industry is going to go through this turmoil. There is a role for a trusted partner who can provide advise, guide, provide consulting, technology and IP to help customers make the transition. So there is a huge opportunity.

MNC IT services players are getting into the global delivery model game in a big way. How would you differentiate in this highly competitive arena?

I think global companies are coming here since their customers are telling them to come here. They are demanding this because what we brought to the industry was a disruptive solution. By pioneering and innovating GDM to its current level of sophistication, we brought in a way of service delivery that was faster, better, cheaper and innovative than the legacy way of doing this. In any industry, if there is anything that can give you faster, cheaper and better service, more innovative, it will substitute the old. In that sense, we are setting the agenda globally for how IT services should be delivered. Our customers, employees and investors have understood this. So we think global players who have done things the old way have no choice but to reengineer themselves to look more like us.

We think this is causing enormous disruption and turmoil. They have to figure out how to tackle the backend work, manage internal conflict and pricing tug of war. The model has caused a lot of internal disruption. It is like the innovator's dilemma. They have to untie and reconfigure the entire business model. In the mean time, we are doing what we have been doing better. We are going out into the market and expanding. They have to relearn the business.

Original story

Leading Infosys 2.0

Leadership in transition is a particularly painful time for companies. But not for Infosys and Nandan Manohar Nilekani. This year's Dataquest IT Man Of The Year continues to take Infosys and the Indian outsourcing story to new heights

By Latha Chandradeep and Priya Padmanabhan of COIL

BANGALORE: When we walk in to meet Nandan Nilekani at the Infosys’s corporate headquarters in Electronics City, Bangalore, he is busy munching an apple. He is on a diet, Nilekani tells us between bites, which he follows only when he is in India.

Invariably so, as his overseas visits are packed morning to night with back-to-back meetings, midnight flights and of course, stay in hotel rooms.

Nilekani, the 51-year-old chief executive officer and co-chairman of Infosys, is firmly in place, meeting customers around the world and ensuring that Infosys is delivering on its value proposition, be it in software solutions or consulting services. And now, destiny’s favorite child—Nilekani firmly believes that he was at the right age, at the right time, at the right place with the right people—is on a mission: to make Infosys outlast its founders and become a successful entity run by multi-generational leaders across the world.

Who better than Nilekani to appreciate the value of preparedness? His predecessor N. R. Narayana Murthy, who stepped down as chairman in August, had prepared the entrepreneur-founders in the early nineties to lay the foundation for a scalable Infosys, the benefits of which was reaped only post-2003 when it went past the $1 billion mark and now on track to achieve $3 billion in 2007. Hence, his obsession with creating longevity of the corporation—going beyond generations of leaders—while continuing to thrive, prosper and retain its value and culture, the basic DNA.

Nanadan Nilekani, CEO & MD, Infosys So far, Infosys strategy has been driven through consensus by a leadership team that has been together for years. Nilekani says: “We have a congruence and commonality of approach. What we have is a collective vision. There may be subtle changes when leaders change. It is not like in western countries where there is a huge change when leaders change. It is more collegial and organic. Core culture and values will be the same. Infosys is really the contribution of many people—not individuals. Sung and unsung people.”

The task, therefore, of creating next gen leaders is easily stated than done. However, Nilekani, naturally inclined to lead and organize, and remain relaxed despite the nature of challenge, sounded clear about one thing: “The children of founders will not work in Infosys. It is a conscious statement. We do not want a company that is inter-generational family set up, but a fully professional one.”

In a way, most of his time today is spent focusing on grooming leaders, empowering them and creating career plans for them. This is similar to changing tires of a car in motion—maintaining the fine and steady balance between achieving rapid growth and scale without compromising on the company’s values, client satisfaction and culture. “The challenge is how to scale up rapidly and also manage execution well so that you don't miss a beat. How do you do things differently from what you have done in the past and achieve your strategic goals of transformation.”

At the very fundamental level, the current leadership team knows it is all about change and managing change. What it has put in place is a three-tiered structured approach to change that lets them do future gazing. Every year, a five-year scenario planning session looks into the basic assumptions (both explicit and implicit) made by the company a few years back to see if they still hold good or is there a need to re-jig to suit a new set of realities.

“Companies run on a set of explicit, tacit assumptions about the market, customers, about the future, world and technology. What happens to them often is that some of those assumptions are changing. There is something happening either in the external environment and internally, where the theory of business is changing,” explains Nilekani.

Once these are set or reset—as the case may be—business units align themselves to the new challenges and business goals. The intermediate three-year strategic planning exercise that follows scenario planning then focuses on translating the strategic stuff into transformation results. It is here, at this point—the nuts and bolts level—that operational excellence is maintained in sync with strategic direction. The delivery of this is ensured through the operational quarterly and annual plan.

This kind of assumption setting has enabled Infosys to quickly capitalize on any opportunity coming its way and hit the ground running at the right time. All of this, in turn, has resulted in 40 per cent of its current revenues coming from services that did not exist five years ago.

Passionate about GDM

One of the country’s most cash-rich companies—close to $1 billion—Infosys’s reluctance to look beyond software services and its Global Delivery Model (GDM) continue to be sore points.

Nilekani refuses to give in and takes the charge head-on, stating, “What we do is very strategic, complex, sophisticated and has many business benefits. We are using knowledge of business, processes, technology, consulting and creating solutions that make global companies more profitable and competitive. Our strength is in harnessing people, processes, technology, intellectual capital to create solutions that deliver our customers outcomes for their business.”

Indeed, by applying the GDM paradigm to consulting—considered to be high-touch business—it has brought about a certain disruption in the business. By reconstituting the services offering in consulting and disaggregating that into high-touch and low-touch, it has been able to deliver services faster, better and cheaper. And, Nilekani believes, anything that is innovative and that which is faster, better and cheaper will substitute the old.

With the confidence of one who knows what it takes, Nilekani adds, “We are setting the agenda globally for how IT services should be delivered. So we think global players who have done things the old way have no choice but to reengineer to look more like us. The model has caused a lot of internal disruption. They (competitors) have to untie and reconfigure the entire biz model. In the mean time, we are doing what we have been doing better.”

The leadership team at Infosys is certainly not getting their knickers in a twist over the entry of global service majors like IBM, HP, Accenture and others and increasing their offshore mix and delivery mechanism. Nilekani reckons that they are rather late to the GDM game and would take a while besides effort and turmoil before they leverage the India advantage.

He likens GDM to the running of a very complex sophisticated global supply chain of information. “It is not something that is easy to replicate. We have created significant barriers of entry around ourselves,” stresses Nilekani.

On leadership and longevity

Unwilling to be put into a specific leadership mould, he states: “There is no cookie-cutter leadership style.” But Nilekani is known for being detached and relaxed amidst crisis, and his ability to get to the heart of the problem while everyone around grapples with it, is a pre-cursor to his style of leadership.

He attributes Infosys’s success to different people who brought different strengths to the table. It has over the years perfected a system (thankfully not made into a fool-proof process yet) where the strengths of people are exploited while a collective safety net deals with the weaknesses of the people.

“One of the unique strengths of Infosys is that the organization is more important than any one individual. Loyalty is to the firm and the vision of the firm and its values and mission. Therefore, we have a simple rule—the interests of the firm override the interests of any individual. That is the final glue.”

It is also a question of the sum being more equal than the parts. Nilekani’s theory of organizational longevity focuses on creating a set of leaders such that “collectively they are capable and individually they are more capable in some of the things.”

Nilekani contends that the attributes of an entrepreneur are great in the beginning but not sufficient to build a large company. “When you have entrepreneurs also playing a leadership role like us, you have to change with the times, otherwise you become obsolete.”

These changes include the conscious steps taken in the early nineties: best practices in budgeting, financial visibility, education and training, and processes besides building world-class campuses. “We built a system for scaling up and made sure the right people occupied the right spots to scale up.”

Nandan Deconstructed

For a person who joined Infosys when he was 25, Nilekani has come a long way both in terms of experience and stature. And it is not just by mere luck alone though that is what Nilekani would ascribe to in his desire to be not seen as larger than life persona.

T.V. Mohandas Pai and Kris Gopalakrishnan, colleagues and close friends, say that he is a natural leader. His penchant for driving strategy and rallying people around comes with an almost effortless ease.

Nilekani sees himself as a “relaxed” kind of person, who is more analytical and cerebral than emotional. “I am relaxed, I don't get flustered too often and I can get detached from any situation. That allows me to step back and look at things in a more dispassionate way.”

Nilekani, the unsophisticated, small-town Dharwad boy rubbing shoulders with the city slickers and well heeled at college, grew up literally and figuratively during his stint at IIT Mumbai. He discovered his organizational skills and his ability to remain detached during crisis, when he organized the annual cultural fest of IIT Mumbai known as Mood Indigo.

Reminiscing on those days he says, “Looking back at my contemporaries in IIT, one thing that stands out is that those who had a well-rounded life have been the most successful. An important lesson is that you need to be multi-dimensional in your interests.”

Nilekani’s interests include reading and music. His musical tastes extend to Simon & Garfunkel, Neil Young, Jethro Tull and Don McLean.

He can hold his own with any great professor or CEO on technology and strategy. Be it holding forth on outsourcing with Thomas L. Friedman or dealing with rookies in the company, Nilekani has the knack to get people on to his side. His innate ability to rally around people and drive strategy was demonstrated early this year at the World Economic Forum at Davos. Nilekani conceptualized and took the lead in pushing the India Everywhere campaign that caught the world’s attention and brought to focus India’s strengths and enormous opportunities.

Kris Gopalakrishnan raves about Nilekani’s ability to bring together diverse sets of people and getting them to work as a team. “He stood out as a leader from day one at Infosys.”

Obviously, there is no escaping comparison between him and Murthy. Mohandas Pai sums up the two: “We have two great leaders in Murthy and Nandan. Their personal styles are very different. Murthy’s style is focused, pushy and aggressive and perseverant, while Nandan is more relaxed and lets you work at your own pace. He pushes you when it comes to need.”

Another aspect of Nilekani’s leadership quality is his knack for connecting dots at various levels and then correlating it to present the big picture along with a strategy to match. Pai relates an incident of how Nilekani’s almost intuitive insights took everyone by surprise when an important customer came visiting.

“We all sat around talking, and within 10 minutes Nandan had analyzed the CEO’s problems and told him what strategy he had to take to run his business. Everybody was astonished because it was a business that we were not in!”

Having achieved so much at the age of 51, Nilekani admits that he has been unusually lucky to achieve so much success. While his personal aspirations are fulfilled, his larger public goal is to contribute in whatever way he can to help India take advantage of this “historical opportunity.”

“India is unusually placed to do well in terms of outsourcing, demographics and the global economy. This is something that comes to a country once in a millennium.”

As for the Dataquest jury, there was no question about the choice for IT Man Of The Year. The panel was unanimous in its recognition of the outstanding work Nilekani has done at Infosys over the past year: “Of the smooth transition at the helm at a time of rapid scaling up and intense competitive pressure; and of the continuing, and considerable contribution to 'brand India' that Infosys, under Nandan's leadership has achieved; and to the Indian technology story on the global platform.”

Amen to that!

Original story

US college grads keen to join Indian firms

Nicole Dun made her way through customs at Bangalore International Airport, then onto a bus bound for Mysore, India, 86 miles away. She was understandably nervous. A freshly minted 22-year-old computer-science graduate of the University of California at Davis, she was leaving the United States for the first time and on her way to her first serious job.

It wasn't at Google, or Cisco, or eBay. Along with about 300 other American college grads over the next year, Dun has signed on as a software engineer with Infosys Technologies, the red-hot Indian engineering firm that plans to add 25,000 employees to its 58,000 over the next year.

She'll train in Mysore for six months before joining Infosys's Fremont, California, office.

Only a few years ago, so-called outsourcers like Infosys were the villains of the high-tech world, accused of farming out work to dirt-cheap programmers in Indian office parks -- and putting Americans out of jobs. Now those same companies are setting up shop in the United States. More striking, there are plenty of young American engineers eager to sign up.

Infosys says more than 1,000 American college students applied for the first 126 spots in its new Global Talent Program. Why? At about $55,000 a year, Infosys's entry-level pay is comparable to that of other engineering employers. But its new hires recognize the benefits of global exposure for their careers.

"The training itself is looked upon highly by other companies," says Brandon Pletcher, a 23-year-old computer-engineering grad from the University of Arizona. "It gives us the edge to do our jobs better."

The new trainees will attend lectures and hone their programming chops, then test those skills in development centers throughout India, working on actual software projects with experienced colleagues.

Dun and Pletcher also emphasize the valuable 'cultural training' they're getting by working with other trainees from India, which is Infosys's intent.

"Creating a multicultural outlook is part of our effort to truly leverage the power of globalization," says Bikramjit Maitra, the company's head of human resources. In the multiculti spirit, it also brought a piece of America to India. "Once we got to campus, there was a bowling alley," says Dun. "I felt like I was home."


Original story

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Stephen Pratt to Speak in Consulting Summit 2006



Link: http://www.consultingcentral.com/Summit_2006

Stephen Pratt, CEO of Infosys Consuting will be one of the 4 speakers in Consulting Summit 2006 from Kennedy Information.

The sixth annual Consulting Summit is pleased to announce the following conferees:

* Paul A. Laudicina, Chairman, A.T. Kearney
* Chris Meyer, CEO, Monitor Networks
* Stephen Pratt, CEO, Infosys Consulting
* Brad Smith, COO, Kennedy Information

The Summit offers a unique opportunity to network with and learn from other leaders in the consulting profession. The format allows for participation from attendees, and we encourage you to share your thoughts and contribute to the discussion.

Original story

Looking for the World's Best Stocks?

Here are two sobering statistics concerning the state of the U.S. economy:

1. Nine of the 10 largest IPOs of 2006 and 24 of the 25 largest IPOs of 2005 occurred in foreign markets.
2. The economies of Argentina, Belarus, Belize, China, the Czech Republic, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, the Philippines, and Russia are all growing faster than that of the United States.

In other words, not only are we no longer the most dynamic economy in the world, we're not the world's financial capital, either. As Alan Murray wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal, "We are witnessing a crucial moment in history -- the movement of U.S. capital markets abroad."

So why, then, are you investing only in the United States?

All is not lost
Apologies if you're already diversified across some foreign markets. It's true that U.S. investment in foreign securities has been rising rapidly of late. In fact, foreign holdings now account for 17% of all U.S. stock ownership.

But that's still too little. What's holding you back from making foreign securities up to 30% of your portfolio?

I'll take a stab at that one
There are lots of reasons individual investors are concerned about investing in foreign equities. First, accounting rules differ from country to country. Next, there's currency risk and the confusing tax treaties. And then there's government corruption, unstable political climates ... the list goes on.

These risks have probably held you back from stacking up on foreign securities.

But consider: If you're not actively investing in foreign stocks, you're shrugging your shoulders at the incredible growth potential that emerging markets offer. You're also making your portfolio riskier -- because your job, savings, and assets are probably parked right here in the good ol' US of A, meaning you're relying almost entirely on the U.S. economy to help you achieve your financial goals. And while the U.S. economy is strong, significant growth is available elsewhere.

Hot markets, hot returns
Look, the world is changing, and there is no turning back. As retired Infosys Technologies(Nasdaq: INFY) chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy observed in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, globalization is actually "accelerating."

And know that there are incredible profits to be made from these changes. Just consider the history of Infosys. Mr. Murthy founded the company in 1981 with $250 of seed money. Today, Infosys is worth more than $26 billion. If you're keeping score at home, Infosys has returned 109% annually.

Holy pancakes!

Do those opportunities exist today? Sure. But no one with a conscience can promise 109% annual returns. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be looking.

Get those global gains
If you're already looking to add international exposure to your portfolio, then you're headed in the right direction. There are many ways to achieve this level of diversification. One way is to invest in American companies that derive significant revenue from foreign countries -- a list that would include Nike(NYSE: NKE), Coca-Cola(NYSE: KO), and Anheuser-Busch(NYSE: BUD).

You could also take a look at a number of low-cost exchange-traded funds. Vanguard Emerging Markets, for example, has returned nearly 18% over the past year and has an expense ratio that dings you just 0.30%. Among its current top holdings are Infosys, Posco(NYSE: PKX), Cemex(NYSE: CX), and China Mobile(NYSE: CHL).

Of course, the downside with funds and conglomerates is that your gains will always be muted. So if you're ready to start searching for promising stocks in international markets, consider joining Motley Fool Senior Analyst Bill Mann and his team at our brand-new Global Gains international investing service.

Never before has The Motley Fool been able to help investors navigate the sometimes muddled waters of foreign markets. Global Gains aims to beat the market with foreign stocks while teaching you how to analyze and invest in other countries. With years of experience living, working, and investing abroad, Bill is more than qualified to help you do just that.

So if you're ready to make your portfolio better diversified and add the potential of great global gains, click here to try our just-launched Global Gains service free for 30 days.

Original story

Joke - Infosys Technologies is Confident about its Aviation Software Prototype

A contract was to be given to Indian vendors like Satyam, Wipro and Infosys to build an aviation software by XYZ aviation company. Now XYZ wishes to test the prototype to evaluate all the vendors. Depending on the prototype evaluation, the final vendor selection will be made.

The XYZ CEO has invited all the vendor CEOs to a party and then take all of them to the personal small plane. He also have done another trick. He called the CEOs individually and told them secretly that the plane is going to use the software for the first time, which is provided by their company. That is Infy's CEO was told that the aviation software installed was build by Infy, Satyam's CEO was told the software was build by Satyam, etc. The plane is going to take every CEO from USA main land to Hawaii, including a tea party in air.

After hearing this, all the CEO's except Infy de-boarded from the plane and provided some excuse for some urgent meetings. They were very sure that the prototype software from their company contains bugs.

The XYZ company's CEO was very impressed on Infy's CEO. He was almost to give the deal to Infy. But just before providing the deal he asked, "Ok you are so confident about your aviation software?".

Infosys CEO then told "Yes. I am so confident the plane will not fly at all, so there is no chance of crash."

Source: Srijeeb @ Orkut

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Infosys vs. Google : Which employees are more spoilt?

Infosys is a huge company in India while Google is a huge company in the U.S.A. Well Indians are known for their hospitality. Both companies are known to spoil their employee’s silly, well let’s put them through their paces and see which company can make their employees the spoilt brats they are aiming for.

First: Infosys (Main Facility)

1. Hostel: 2,250 rooms to accommodate 4,500 trainees. 5 star luxury.

2. 3 (Yes, THREE) Food courts which can accommodate 3,000 people at any given time. They have 8 kitchens offering anything from Domino’s Pizza to Pave Bhaji (Indian Dish).

3. Employee Care Centre:

A 10 bed hospital

+ A bank

+ A Laundromat

+ A 10,000 sq. ft. gymnasium

+ 6 shuttle courts

+ 22 table tennis boards

On top of that: a 25,000 sq. ft. swimming pool

+ A 6 lane bowling alley

+ Climbing walls

+ Meditation hall!

+ 11 pool tables

Wait! There’s more: A book shop

+ Supermarket

+ Beauty Salon

+ 4 screen multiplex (with a geosidic dome!) capacity around 1,500 people.

+ Amphitheatre

4. Hold on, don’t forget the sports! There’s a cricket ground (an actual stadium)

+ An 8 lane Olympic running track

+ Basketball court

+ Volleyball court

+ 8 (EIGHT) Tennis courts

+ 6 badminton courts

+ 4 squash courts

+ A football ground

All of this on around 330 acres of land. Can easily accommodate 10,000 employees.

Google has been beaten. From what we know, they cannot even compete with these guys. All the lava lamps in the world can’t compete with the IMAX Dome they got there. Now for a moment, lay back, be stunned, and dream of working there.

Original story

Infosys counts on processes

ndian outsourcer Infosys Technologies Ltd. swears by processes. It needs them to coordinate the delivery of services, which may involve staff on the client's site and offshore in India.

"It is like managing an assembly line spread across many locations, and to do that effectively, processes are critical," said B.G. Srinivas, senior vice president and head of the company's European business.

Infosys, of Bangalore, is India's second largest outsourcer, and has over 60,000 staff worldwide, delivering software, IT, consulting, and business process outsourcing (BPO) services to over 450 customers.

To make sure processes are adhered to, Infosys has developed applications for project management, budgeting and quality measurement. "When you have these tools online, and a person from any location can access the information, then a certain transparency gets built into the process," Srinivas said.

The company insists that every stage in project implementation is documented, to ensure there is no gap in communication among teams working in multiple locations.

In an industry where staff turnover is a fact of life, outsourcing companies like Infosys need to plan for this attrition. Infosys has developed a knowledge-management system and tools to retain knowledge of the customer's requirements and business if staff quit, Srinivas said.

Project staff work as a team, and within each team there are core staff who are perceived to be less likely to quit their jobs. Even if one or two employees working on the project quit, the rest of the staff can continue the work while the team is being restaffed, Srinivas said. At 11%, Infosys' current staff attrition rate is not so high as to be able to disrupt a project, he said.

The company is also able to add more staff to a project quickly if the customer requires it. At any moment, between 76% and 80% of Infosys staff are assigned to a project, with the others forming a "strategic bench" of staff waiting to be assigned. "Almost 100% of the bench is offshore, so the cost of retaining this bench is significantly lower," Srinivas said. If a customers needs, say, 100 more Java developers, Infosys can have them working for the customer in two to four weeks, he said.

Infosys spends about $100 million a year on training staff on new technologies, soft skills and leadership. At a facility in Mysore, near Bangalore, the company can train up to 4,500 staff at a time. The company plans to set up a new center in Mysore over the next year to train another 9,000 staff, according to a company spokeswoman. All the parts of the supply chain have to be planned for well in advance, Srinivas said.

Original story

Narayana Murthy among the top 15 most admired business leaders

Infosys chief NR Narayana Murthy and UK-based Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal are the two Indians among the top 15 most admired business leaders of the world in 2005.

Microsoft chief Bill Gates tops the list.

A new global study conducted by Burson-Marsteller with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has ranked Murthy as the eighth most admired CEO while Mittal has been ranked 15th. Over 600 global business influentials drawn from a cross section of 19 industries in 65 countries voted for the online survey. No female CEOs or chairmen have been chosen.

Interestingly, Murthy was ranked ahead of Jeffrey Immelt of General Electric, Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation, John Chambers of Cisco Systems and Jorma Ollila of Nokia.

Six of the CEO's in the list are from the United States, while four are from UK. The top six positions are shared by the two countries.

The list includes one national from Japan, India, Australia, Finland and Netherlands each. Mittal's name has been put in the Netherlands' list since his company Mittal Steel was registered that country.

Despite the predominance of American companies among the top four most admired leaders, more than half (nine of 15 or 60 per cent) represent other regions -- UK (4), Finland (1), Netherlands (1), Japan/France (1), India (1) and Australia (1).

Eight of the top 15 leaders (53 per cent) are company founders.

All of the global most admired are insider CEOs (CEOs who have been with the same company for three years or more).

"Business decision-makers clearly voted for long-term performance and proven track records over fleeting success," said Patrick Ford, Burson-Marsteller's Global Corporate/Financial Practice chair. "The tenures of these top-ranking CEOs are not short-lived. They had an average tenure of 21 years to repeatedly prove themselves."

"The selection of Bill Gates as the 2005 world's most admired leader not only recognises his ongoing stewardship at the company he founded but it also acknowledges the powerful effect that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has had on Bill Gates' reputation," remarked Dr Leslie Gaines-Ross, Burson-Marsteller's chief knowledge & research officer worldwide and the study's architect.

Original story

IT majors on hiring spree

There has been no let-up in the domestic software majors' hiring spree, with more than 27,500 IT professionals joining the country's five biggest firms during the past three months, while the momentum is only likely to gain further.

The country's top-five club of IT players - TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam Computer and HCL Technologies added a total of 27,583 employees to their pay rolls in the July-September quarter.

The robust hiring momentum has virtually shrugged off the concerns related to soaring wages eating into the company's profitability as all the five companies have reported impressive financial results for the quarter ended September 30, the experts feel.

The collective employee strength of top four IT companies - TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam Computer at the end of the period was 2,37,016.

The country's second largest software exporter Infosys added 7741 employees during the June quarter, while industry leader TCS announced net addition of 6663 employees in the same period.

Earlier, Infosys had announced it plans to hire 25,000 employees this year while TCS announced it would increase the headcount by 30,500 people.

Another software major Wipro recruited 5328 employees during the July- September period this year, taking its total staff count to 61,179 employees.

During the June quarter, about 2,000 employees joined Infosys on a single day, which underlines the company's continued focus on investment in creating training and recruitment engine to meet its growth objectives.

Infosys plans to add 10,000 employees in the last two quarters of the current fiscal. During the first quarter, it had added 4,200 freshers, while the later additions stood at 2,140 employees, which excluded the job additions at the company's BPO subsidiary Progeon.

Industry experts said the robust recruitment plans of the IT companies were also aimed at offsetting the impact of high attrition rates plaguing the market.

TCS has continued to maintain the lowest attrition rate in the industry at 10.6 per cent, including BPO (10.6 per cent in Q1).

Out of the total job additions of 5328 people in IT Services business in September quarter at Wipro, which has expressed its willingness for a more aggressive stance on acquisitions, 605 employees were from their completed acquisitions during the quarter.

HCL Technologies had 3826 employees for the September quarter and reported a 11.7 per cent increase in headcount in a single quarter.

Satyam added 4025 associates in the quarter, taking the total employee strength to 31659. Total resources, including those of subsidiaries and joint ventures, increased to 34908.

According to IT industry body NASSCOM, the technology services segment would hike the employee count to 3,90,000 in 2006 and has a demand for 8,50,000 professionals and 1.4 million back office professionals by year 2010.

In 2005, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and TCS increased their headcount by 56,000 people and have continued with robust hiring momentum since then.

Original story

Infosys presses panic button on talent, Wipro says take it easy

Information technology heavy-weights Infosys and Wipro seem to have contrasting takes on the question of a crunch in human resources in Indian IT industry.

The Infosys management has constantly highlighted a looming danger of a crunch in engineering talent in the country whereas the Wipro management has chosen to underplay fears of a human resource crunch arguing that there isn’t a dearth of qualified people if “engineering talent is supplemented with non-engineering talent, wherever possible’’.

With the IT sector set to see a recruitment overdrive in the coming years, to maintain growth rates, the supply of talent has emerged as a key question mark over the industry. As many as 10 lakh people are likely to be hired over the next two to three years in the IT sector.

The IT majors have seen their employee strengths rise from around 4,000 in 1999 to over 60,000 at present. “The limiting factor for India’s growth will be availability of trained people. It is the biggest challenge for the sector as IT companies increasingly battle for talent pool in the country,’’ says Infosys human resources head T.V. Mohandas Pai. “While the number of engineering colleges in the country have increased in the last six years from 523 to 1,352, the quality of students is a cause of concern,” says Pai.

Wipro chairman Azim Premji, however, says, “There is adequate talent available in the country and no need for panic’’. Reports of a human resource crunch in India was creating more panic for customers than companies, he said. Several functions can be performed by trained B.Sc graduates and there is no need for depending on engineers alone, he added.

Both Infosys and Wipro have incidentally begun their own schemes for creating talent supplies. Infosys has started a programme called Campus Connect at over 100 engineering colleges in the country under which teachers are trained to teach the latest technologies in use in the industry. Wipro has started the Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) programme, in collaboration with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS-Pilani), to hire BSc graduates and train them in software engineering over a four-year period.

During the financial quarter that ended on September 30, Infosys added 7,741 employees, the country’s largest IT exporter TCS added 6,663 employees, and Wipro hired 5,328 employees during the period. While Infosys had projected a total of 25,000 employee hirings for the current year its latest hiring figures show that the company is set to hire 28,300 employees for the year. TCS has projected a headcount increase of 30,500 people for the year.

Original post

Integrity campaign must specify, not sermonise

The ‘Integrity India Campaign’ launched by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and headed by N.R. Narayana Murthy raises some interesting questions and possibilities.

The intention of the campaign is laudable. As India’s economy grows and Indian companies extend their footprint across the globe through dramatic acquisitions across a wide swathe of industries, it is galling for India to have the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt exporting nation in Transparency International’s Bribe Payers’ Index.

For CII to anticipate a trend and latch on to it early is nothing new. Remember how it wrote up the first Corporate Governance Code, when confidence in Indian business was at a real low in 1996. That was when greedy companies (large, small, known and unknown) took advantage of a stock market and realty boom, raised large sums of public money for greenfield projects that languished for the next decade, while the money went into private pockets.

But there is a vast difference between writing a code and holding seminars to discuss it and actually walking that talk. Murthy knows how angry corporate India was when a Sebi-appointed committee headed by him proposed some far-reaching steps to improve corporate governance and independence of the board.

Will the Integrity India Campaign be different? According to the CII, the campaign aims at “creating a national debate, consciousness and positive action to inculcate the values of transparency, accountability and efficiency in economic activity”. That is nothing new. We Indians are good at discussions as is evident at every seminar on good governance or corporate social responsibility. Murthy himself has got the campaign rolling by lambasting corporate and bureaucratic corruption.

A general tongue-lashing is not without its uses, but the Integrity India Campaign will achieve results only if it picks up specific projects that reek of corruption and pursues them doggedly with all the tools at its disposal, including ticking off CII members who are prone to cutting corners, bend the rules or dictate policy by befriending politicians. Will CII have the courage to do that? If it does, it can truly transform India’s image, but we will have to wait and watch.

Projects and contracts that are guaranteed to give India a bad image are never a secret—they are pretty brazen. For instance, the Information Technology (IT) industry is India’s pride and joy, because the top few companies in this sector have set high standards of ethics and governance. But these companies are themselves aware that key e-governance contracts, with long term implications to the integrity of our systems, including licenses, voting cards etc are going to companies with strange antecedents. Hasn’t the industry remained silent about how these are tendered and decided?

The same goes for infrastructure. For several years now, it has been clear that corrupt and venal politicians and bureaucrats are dragging down India’s economic development. In the 1990s, every industry house in India was aware that the government’s policy on Independent Power Projects (IPPs) was simply unworkable. Yet, each one of them quickly set up a power project or spun off captive units into IPPs. Industry associations watched silently, even when the media warned that failed projects and an inability to pay such high cost of power would inhibit the growth of this crucial infrastructure. That scenario has materialised exactly as predicted, but some of those who let it happen are competitively feted as the “original reformers”.

India’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are in an identical position today; every large industry group has rushed in with plans for small, medium and large SEZ. But barring Rahul Bajaj, who has publicly opposed the policy on SEZs (even while he has planned one of his own, on land already owned by his Group), industry has remained silent. The real economic arguments against SEZs have come from US-based economists Raghuram Rajan and Jagdish Bhagwati, not Indian industry associations.

Two of India’s hottest investment destinations—Bangalore and Pune—are also among the worst in terms of infrastructure. Pune’s bad roads must be seen to be believed, and despite the strides in construction technology, its flyovers on the busiest roads are being constructed forever. While the industry in Bangalore has dared to incur the Gowda government’s wrath by speaking out against crumbling facilities, the degeneration of Pune remains a mystery because it is a city of public-spirited citizens and has large concentration of Right to Information activists; yet, they have had no impact on local municipal administration.

Mumbai’s taxis are a similar eye sore and tale of embarrassment. We are the only country in the world which has pretensions of global leadership with beat up old Fiats and Ambassadors comprising the taxi fleet of its commercial capital. Everybody else in Mumbai has moved on to more efficient cars. While air travel has increased phenomenally, but what Murthy and CII’s industrialists do not face is the daily cheating of passengers at the Mumbai airport. We have allowed the creation of such a tight cartel of unions, permits, licenses, dubious ownership and haftas that a small bunch of people can hold the city to ransom. The official argument against change is the livelihood of drivers, but this is patently false. Most drivers are migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and are exploited by ‘taxi owners’ who are usually petty bureaucrats or police officials employing un accounted money.

There are probably hundreds of such examples, but if Murthy can pick up even four key projects and campaign for complete change, he will have the nation with him and give credibility to CII’s campaign.

Original post

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Happy Diwali !

Wish you all a Happy Diwali.

- News Team

Tata-Corus deal, sign of confident India Inc: CII

The Confederation of Indian Industry has said the Tata Steel-Corus deal is a sign of a confident India Inc and reflects the consolidation of the Indian industry in the global economy.

CII President R Seshasayee said the deal is a sign of India Inc being recognized as a very significant global economic player. The "internationalization" of the Indian corporate sector has reached a new high with this landmark deal, he said.

Sunil Kant Munjal, past president, CII, said the deal signified -- Indian companies, especially larger corporates, are pursuing global aspirations, groups like Tatas are showing leadership in many fields and the Indian steel industry seems to have come of age, having been at the beginning of consolidation last year.

"This is a precursor of what we can expect over three to four years, he said.

Rajive Kaul, past president, CII and chairman, CII International Council, said the deal was reflective of the consolidation of the Indian industry in the global economy.

CII chief mentor Tarun Das said this is the first scaling up of an Indian company to global scales. The deal "is a result of a dialogue between Tata Steel and Corus, the whole strategy is a reflection of the Tata philosophy of working with partners, with values and ethics. It is a different role model of acquisition and it is unique."

Echoing the sentiments, DS Brar, Chairman, CII Indian MNCs Council, said, "There is tremendous growth potential for Indian MNCs. Change in domestic environment has encouraged and propelled Indian companies to go global."

He said the Indian corporate sector had witnessed active overseas investment in diverse sectors since 2005-06, with top 10 overseas investments totaling $4556 million. It is in keeping with this trend, said Brar, that CII and Infosys have launched the plan to create 100 Indian MNCs. The initiative will provide an "ecosystem" for entrepreneurs and Indian companies to accelerate growth as successful next generation billion dollar MNCs.

The CII-Infosys initiative will include sharing of practical experiences of successful Indian MNCs mentoring, introducing global best practices, involve knowledge partners and nurture aspiring MNCs.

CII and Infosys have received an overwhelming response to the programme and companies like ICICI Bank have shown interest in partnering with them.

There are 37 companies in India with a turnover of over $1 billion. The programme aims to explore the potential of leveraging their experience. The successful companies will help mentor the aspiring 100 Indian MNCs.

Original story

BBC signs 10-year £85m outsourcing deal with Xansa

Xansa has beaten off competition from Capita, Infosys, BPO and EDS to clinch preferred supplier status with the BBC in a £85m deal.

Xansa will deliver finance and accounting services across the BBC, including purchasing and sales transaction processing, artist and contributor payments, financial management and project accounting, payroll processing and expenses.

The outsourcing group will provide services from the UK and India. Voice contact will remain in the UK, with other services carried out at Xansa’s shared service centre in Chennai, India.

The deal follows months of speculation over what route the BBC would take to cut costs and direct more funds to its creative department. It is hoped that the deal with Xansa will save the broadcaster £200m, or 1.5 million license fees, over the 10 years of the contract.

Zarin Patel, BBC group finance director, said the deal was an excellent one for the organisation

'By moving our transaction processing to India we are demonstrating that we are prepared to take bold and imaginative decisions that offer the licence-fee payer great value for money, while still maintaining the highest quality of service delivery,' Patel said.

Alistair Cox, Xansa’s chief executive, said he was delighted to have won the contract to outsorce the BBC's finance and accounting function.

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From Xansa website

Xansa wins preferred supplier status with the BBC

Outsourced finance and accounting deal will release funds for creative programming

Xansa, the outsourcing and technology company, has won preferred supplier status with the BBC for outsourced finance and accounting (F&A) services following a competitive bid against Capita, Infosys BPO and the current incumbent EDS.

The contract, worth around £85m over 10 years, will be one of the most prominent F&A deals let to date and will save the BBC in excess of £200m over the life time of the contract, equivalent to 1.5 million licence fees. This will be a major contribution to the BBC's strategy to minimise the cost of its support services and release more money into their creative output.

Working closely with BBC Finance, Xansa will deliver finance and accounting services across the BBC, including purchasing and sales transaction processing, artist and contributor payments, financial management and project accounting, payroll processing and expenses. As prime contractor Xansa will also be working with Siemens Business Services to provide infrastructure, applications support and customer service facilities.

Xansa will provide the services from a blend of locations in the UK and India. All voice contact will remain in the UK, with other services, including transaction processing, to be carried out at Xansa's award-winning F&A shared service centre in Chennai, India. The BBC will therefore benefit from Xansa's integrated delivery capability - enjoying the advantages of value and proven expertise, whilst maintaining onshore customer service.

The new contract is expected to be signed in November, with Xansa taking over responsibility for the services in July 2007.

Commenting on the announcement Zarin Patel, BBC Group Finance Director, said:

"I congratulate Xansa on winning this major contract. The BBC will benefit from Xansa's proven expertise in managing outsourced Finance and Accounting Services, and we look forward to developing close a relationship with them."

"I believe this is an excellent deal for the BBC, and I am confident that Xansa will help us further to transform our finance and business processes. By moving our transaction processing to India we are demonstrating that we are prepared to take bold and imaginative decisions that offer the licence-fee payer great value for money, while still maintaining the highest quality of service delivery."

Commenting on the announcement Alistair Cox, Xansa's Chief Executive, said:

We are delighted that Xansa has been selected as the preferred partner to deliver F&A services across the BBC. Our expert technology and back office services allows our clients to do more with their own business and we are confident that we will, as the UK leader in F&A services, enable the BBC to minimise its administrative costs and to free up funds to invest in its core business of creative programming.

"We are particularly pleased to be the BBC's first offshore business process outsourcing partner. This comes on the back of our recent prestigious award from the National Outsourcing Association for Offshoring Operation of the Year and is another terrific endorsement of our leading offshore position and capability. We very much look forward to working with the BBC."

Stock market world ends flat

The markets ended flat on Friday after a volatile session with the benchmark index closing at 12,709 levels.

The Sensex moved in a broad range of 12,679 – 12,849 levels in the intra-day trade. In the broader markets, the Nifty ended flat at 3676 levels.

Infosys Technologies ended in red at Rupees 2064.10 with a net change of -4.40. Infosys stock world started becoming flat after the rise following the earnings.

Reliance Energy was the biggest gainer at the Sensex. It moved up 1.6 per cent. Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Cipla, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, Reliance Industries, Hindalco, NTPC and SBI also ended in positive turf.

However, Satyam Computer, which shed 2.8 per cent, was the biggest loser. ITC Ltd, Bajaj Auto, Dr Reddy's, Maruti Udyog, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ACC, TCS, Infosys Technologies and Grasim Industries were the other key losers.

Murthy urges youth to lead a simple life

Chairman and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies N.R. Narayana Murthy has urged the youth of the country to lead a simple life, so that they do not become vulnerable to corruption.

Speaking at the programme to launch the "Integrity India campaign" by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Thursday, Mr. Murthy said, "corruption has nothing to do with poverty, it has everything to do with greed."

He said that it was usually the rich people, especially the bureaucrats and those from the corporate sector, who were corrupt rather than the poor.

The CII campaign focuses on the young Indians and aims at creating a national debate and consciousness and positive action to inculcate values of transparency, accountability and efficiency in the economic sector.

Mr. Murthy said this was an important time in the history of India, because it was the first time post-Independence that there was a sense of confidence, candour, enthusiasm and acceptability about India all over the world.

"The youth today have lot of confidence, energy, high aspirations and idealism. You can make India a global power and boost its economy with your confidence and strength of character."

He said that the younger generation had a great responsibility to transform this country for the better and they could do it with a good value system and a sense of sacrifice.

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Infosys works hard to keep staff

In the Indian outsourcing industry, attracting and retaining staff is critical to keeping the business growing. To keep its staff, Infosys Technologies pays them the same or, at times, better than the rest of the outsourcing industry in India, and has set up large state-of-the-art facilities that pamper the staff with on-campus beauty salons, shopping arcades, subsidized restaurants, jogging tracks, and large gyms. The job also gives staff an opportunity to be posted abroad, which is a key attraction for a lot of Indian staff.

Infosys, like other Indian outsourcing companies, does not have a trade union. The company does not encourage unions, nor have the employees shown any inclination to unionize. Part of the reason is that salaries in the Indian outsourcing industry are already far higher than in other sectors of the Indian economy.

Trade unions have instead complained about the large number of hours staff work at outsourcing companies. IT services staff often work late in the evening, as they need to deal with customers in the U.S. and Europe, in different time zones than India.

"I am usually late at the office, either completing work or to get a call through to a customer or a colleague in the U.S.," said an employee at Infosys' Bangalore facility.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) staff have to work night shifts to service customers in the U.S.

"Work in all offshore operations is hard, and I am usually in the office for 11 hours a day, apart from about two hours of commute time," said a software engineer at the Indian software development subsidiary of a U.K. company. "The salary at Infosys at my level is lower than what I currently get, but every software engineer wants to work there for the brand image Infosys has," he added.

Work at Infosys tends to be in fits and starts. "You could be working up to 13 hours a day when you are on a project, but for months on end you could be without anything to do," said an employee at Infosys' facility in Hyderabad, India. The employee joined Infosys in May but was without work till August this year, though on full salary. "When you join a services company, you have to prepared for this," he said.

On the bright side, there are fewer layers of management at Infosys than at many other offshore operations, and opportunities for career growth are high, said the Infosys employee in Hyderabad. Software engineers can even look forward to careers in consulting, even though they have not gone through business school, he added.

However, software engineers working in product development would rarely consider employment with outsourcing companies like Infosys.

"In the services industry you are working on a small portion of a project for which the specifications have been laid out by the customer, so you don't get a feeling of ownership," said an engineer at the Bangalore product development subsidiary of a multinational technology company.

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Infosys banks on low costs - Kris

Interview: Infosys' president discusses the company's strategy for the European market.

By taking advantage of its ability to deliver services offshore from low-cost India, Infosys Technologies can offer IT services to European customers at 30 percent to 40 percent lower cost than they would get in Europe, according to S. Gopalakrishnan, the company's president and chief operating officer.

Gopalakrishnan discussed the company's strategy for the European market in an interview, an edited version of which follows.

IDG News Service: Do you see Europe as a top priority market?

Gopalakrishnan: Europe is probably the No. 1 priority for us. We want to balance our portfolio, which is now tilted towards the U.S., so we are investing proactively in Europe and Asia Pacific, and out of that Europe seems to be yielding results faster than Asia Pacific. Europe as a region is also the second-largest market next to the U.S. It also seems to be opening up for offshore and global sourcing in the last two years. It is far more receptive, and you have large deals happening in Europe, which in turn has given us confidence that this may be the right time to focus on this market.

Europe is also now willing to accept that these deals can be structured differently. In traditional outsourcing deals, you would take over a complete IT department and run it. What companies like Infosys have been proposing is that not all employees need to be brought in, but you need to do a selective transfer. It is better for both the clients and the vendors, and European customers are now willing to accept that.

In Europe, the U.K. is the biggest market for us because it is English speaking. France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Nordic countries are the other markets we have addressed. In the future, we need to look at markets in southern Europe like Italy, Spain, and Portugal. We will also expand in Germany and France where the potential is fairly large, but we need to make more investments in these markets, because they require you to hire local people who know the language and the culture. If you look at Germany, for example, the markets are in the financial services and manufacturing industries, and specially in manufacturing, it is very difficult to interact with customers without knowledge of German. In contrast, in the Nordic countries and Switzerland you can make do with English, because companies there have made English the common language for IT.

There is some difference in the type of work that we do in Europe versus the rest of the world. Although Europe accounts for 25 percent of our revenues, on the BPO (business process outsourcing) side, 50 percent of our revenues comes from Europe, and most of that is from the U.K., because language is very, very important when it comes to BPO.

IDG News Service: Do you see an opportunity for Indian companies to offer BPO services in continental Europe in languages other than English?

Gopalakrishnan: It is challenging to offer BPO services in other languages, but we do it as part of an overall services strategy. We do it for example for a client for whom we are providing IT services.

IDG News Service: Is it important to have near-shore capabilities in Europe both for BPO and IT services?

Gopalakrishnan: Near-shore capabilities are required because of the need for local language capabilities. We have a center at Brno (in the Czech Republic) and we have doubled the capacity there in the last year. We are supporting clients in 11 European languages from Brno, and it is mainly in BPO. We also have a disaster recovery center in Mauritius. Since Mauritius is French-speaking, we are supporting some French clients from Mauritius. We have also opened a number of offices across Europe, and these will get larger as we look at larger projects and more consulting assignments.

IDG News Service: Does building more expensive on-shore and near-shore capabilities change the economics of the business?

Gopalakrishnan: The economics of the business will get changed only if you change the model. If the model is our global delivery model where 30 percent of the work gets done near the customer, and 70 percent of the work gets done in a location like India, then the economics does not change. Because if we are spending more, we are able to get higher (billing) rates as well.

IDG News Service: What benefits do you offer European customers in comparison to European outsourcers like Capgemini and LogicaCMG?

Gopalakrishnan: If you look at a pure implementation of the global delivery model, companies like Infosys have an advantage. Earlier customers were reluctant to look at a global delivery model, because they believed that it did not make much business sense for them to do it. The labor laws were also very stringent, and customers were not able to shift the work significantly offshore, and hence they were looking at it primarily from a specialized need or specialized services perspective. Now companies are looking at it from a global delivery model perspective.

IDG News Service: But your competitors in Europe also have an offshore delivery capability.

Gopalakrishnan: We are more experienced doing that. Our services are more mature, and having done this much longer for our clients in the U.S., clients in Europe now want to benefit from our model. [Our European competitors] are not able to scale in India. Compared to the overall size of these companies, their operations in India are very small.

It is just not about having people in India. It is about having your people and processes tuned to the global delivery model. For example, you need to be able to take a project, break it down into components, and distribute that to be done in different locations.

We are organized globally around a client or an industry vertical, so the operation in say Paris or India comes under the same manager who has the incentive to distribute the work better. He has an incentive to move the work to India, while the manager say in Paris of one of our competitors does not have the same incentive.

IDG News Service: What can the customer in Europe look forward to when outsourcing to Infosys? Lower prices, for example?

Gopalakrishnan: The way it works, is that for work done locally we charge the same or slightly more, while for work done in India the charges are different, because of the lower costs in India. That is the reason why overall the project costs are lower, because the more work is done in India at lower price points, the more the customer stands to benefit. The benefit for the customer is from execution at lower cost locations through the global delivery model. The other location we are adding is China. We are starting to support some global clients from China, specially those companies that are moving into China.

IDG News Service: Do your processes need to be tweaked to address the requirements of European customers?

Gopalakrishnan: To some extent, our processes will have to be slightly adjusted to European requirements. The European process is more rigorous, they are much more engineering oriented, than even in the U.S. We will have to aim for a higher level of quality, and higher discipline and engineering orientation for the project. It is about much more rigor and discipline in how we execute, how we test, how we deliver the software.

IDG News Service: European companies are still more reluctant to lay off staff than in the U.S. How do you plan to get around these issues?

Gopalakrishnan: On the staff side, we are willing to take some employees from our customers, but only if it fits into our global delivery model, which requires that 30 percent of the work gets done on site. A lot of European clients are willing to work within those parameters. Part of the reason for that is even though unemployment is high in some countries, it is also true that they are not able to staff a project. Companies are finding it difficult to get the people with the right skill sets, specially in newer technologies like Java, J2E, and .NET. They are also finding it difficult to get staff to work on older technologies like Cobol and CICS because some of the people have retired, and new people are not learning those skills because there isn't a large market for that.

IDG News Service: There is this perception that European companies are more comfortable outsourcing to Eastern Europe.

Gopalakrishnan: There are two reasons for that. One, it may be more acceptable within the organization to move the work to Eastern Europe than to India, because of their common culture, and also because some countries in Eastern Europe are part of the European Union. It is also beneficial from a language perspective, particularly for Continental Europe. On the flip side, you cannot scale in Eastern Europe as in India, and costs are higher. Even attrition of staff in Eastern Europe is higher as people can easily move and get work in another country.

IDG News Service: What cost savings can you offer European customers?

Gopalakrishnan: The savings work out to 30 to 40 percent on overall cost, as compared to getting the work done locally, either outsourced or in-house. Cost is only one factor. We can also offer improved predictability, quality, delivery on time, faster execution, as well as access to resources. There is the saying that you come to India for cost but you stay for quality. That is really true for services.

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IT firms seek graduate flow throughout the yr

Indian software powerhouses have called for a change in the education system such that it would put out graduates at different points in the year, unlike now when almost everybody graduates in the May-July period.

With their hiring levels reaching gigantic proportions, IT firms are beginning to face the problem of having to do most of that hiring in the first half of the fiscal and concentrate their training resources during that period. Firms in US, for instance, are seen to be able to better handle hiring needs as students graduate at two different junctures.

TV Mohandas Pai, HR head of Infosys, says, "We see lumpy hiring patterns in the first six months because students graduate in hordes at this point. In Q3, it is typically senior people who are sought after. Then comes the crisis point as the market becomes dry in fourth quarter."

Says Pratik Kumar, executive VP (HR), Wipro, "Having two sets of graduates pass out every year, can help us phase out hiring. I hope colleges can think along these lines."

Already there are enough indications that the big three of Indian IT — TCS, Wipro and Infosys — will hire more than their targeted numbers for this year. Says Sudin Apte, senior analyst, Forrester Research, "They need to build the delivery team to ensure they are on track. Our research shows that the top three firms need to go to 200 engineering colleges to do their fresher recruitment. The process spans out quite long."

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Thursday, October 19, 2006

Murthy lambasts bureaucrats and corporates on corruption

A CII-spearheaded "Integrity India Campaign" against corruption was launched here today, with IT icon N R Narayana Murthy advocating a simple life and lashing out at bureaucrats and corporates for being "more corrupt than the poorest of the poor." "It is the big bureaucrats and corporates who are more corrupt than the poorest of the poor. Corruption has nothing to do with poverty. It has everything to do with greed," Murthy, Chief Mentor of software giant Infosys, said, launching the Confederation of Indian Industry campaign.

The campaign aims at creating a national debate, consciousness and positive action to inculcate values of transparency, accountability and efficiency in spheres of economic activity, the CII said.

Murthy gave a call to the youth to contribute towards making India a power to reckon with in the global market, at a time when "there is a global sense of confidence and acceptability about India."

"For the first time in the history of post-independent India, there is sense of confidence, enthusiasm and acceptability about India in the global market and this is the time for the youth to consolidate upon what has been done so far," Murthy said.

The youth today not only has tremendous responsibility but also the potential to transform the face of India and accelerate its economic growth "through their energy, enthusiasm, integrity, dedication and sacrifice," he said.
-PTI

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