As the Satyam debacles unfold, people are looking upto their role models within the industry for their expert opinions. Hope no more surprises out from the closet, no more role models going down. We are all shaped by our environment. Most of us are deeply influenced by our teachers, parents, friends and close social circles. For me, these influences brought out the best in me. As an aspiring entrepreneur, no other role-model in this field came as close as Mr. NR Narayana Murthy did; now the caretaker of Infosys Technologies Ltd and Infosys Consulting. “NRN” as most Infoscion’s address him, embodies the qualities most business leaders, aspire for. A man is admired when you feel alive and active in his presence. Hailing from a middle class family, NRN has always made it a point to lead by example. Blending old-fashioned values with visionary thinking, NRN had come to define the standards of personal integrity and corporate governance for India Inc.
This is where the likes of Ratan Tata, Azim Premji, Dhirubhai Ambani, Vijay Mallya and NRN built the fame of India Shining and put India on the global map for others to follow. This is how the legends are made of. For the past two decades, NRN has led the IT charge for India as co-founder and CEO of Infosys. After handing over the operational reins of Infosys, Mr. Murthy now spends most of his time traversing the globe serving on the boards of organizations and premier business schools such as Wharton and the Tuck School of Business in New York, and hobnobbing with heads of state on world affairs. NRN is an optimistic, a fighter and one who can stand up against all odds, and this notion I acquired during one of his speech in Infosys, Pune. I had my share of interaction with him, and it was nothing more than a victory to me, than to be asking questions to my childhood hero and one of India’s leading industrialist. The rookie me asked, "Sir, what is your success mantra?", and NRN replied "Again, please do not address me as Sir. the answer is Passion". He mentioned again, because the audience constantly addressed him as Sir, and rightly so, and he remained humble enough to be known with his name, and for the uncomfortable one's, he suggested adding an extra title such as Mr. With a squeaky clean image and impeccable credentials, NRN is to me, and to billion others, a PERFECT ROLE MODEL, not only within the business community, but outside it as well. His entrepreneurial thinking, perseverance and simplicity are the qualities I hope to emulate.
Satyam Shivam Sundaram, which means a beautiful truth in the form of God, was an below average 1978 bollywood movie which faced critiques and initial hiccups to get through the censor board. But this was not the case for a company "Satyam". Start of 2009 saw the chairman and chief executive of one of India’s biggest outsourcing groups, Satyam Computer Services, confess to fixing the company’s books in a $1bn fraud described as the country’s “Enron”. This had taken the entire India Inc by surprise and comes as a shock to many. Once a role model and hero for many in the end turned out to be a fraud. The shareholders, clients and more importantly the earnings of 50,000+ employees were at stake. As the satyam fraud started unfolding, more and more people started coming into the picture. PwC the auditor of the firm, were immediately taken out and KPMG and Deloitte where assigned the necessary roles. How can one man create such a huge mess and get unnoticed? I am sure the story goes beyond that !!
Is money everything? It's a debatable topic, but yes money is important. Common lets be honest - it's a means of living. I set out to question what the hell money is and what it does to the different classes of people. I set out to find out what other people thought about all this. I set out to prove that there was something to be learnt by looking at all this closely. How do we ensure that Ethics in decision making, Character Ethics and Corporate Governance are always maintained at highest levels? Even incentives will eventually involve money, but will that stop from cases like Enron, Bofors Scandal, the Satyam debacle to occur?! The point to ponder on is how do you and we all in this society would act to this situation.
First and foremost - Wish you a prosperous new years !!
While I worked and still work in large teams, and that I debated with some of my colleagues on the pros and cons of leadership, I decided to take this topic for the new year. Enjoy :)
As Mr. N.R. Murthy the founder and now the caretaker of Infosys, said, Leadership about leading by an example. as a leader of a large group of diverse people I tried to work within the framework of this adage. I believe that leading by example is about being first. For instance, if you want trust, be trusted first, if you want pro-activity, be proactive first, if you want timelines, be on-time first, and this I learnt during my stint when at times due to hectic work timings I was at times not able to be with the team on time for an early morning breakfast or coffee. For me, Leadership is about showcasing part of who I am. My parents have always put a strong emphasis on education and ethics. Throughout my personal and professional life, I had always maintained a very strong belief in doing what was ‘right’ and tried to operate within a personal framework that was honorable to this.
In the middle of my first project with with a travel & tourism company, I went through a significant failure that stretched the process of analysis and unnecessarily delayed the schedule of the software delivery. In laying down the conceptual framework, I was at times tempted to teach the team shortcuts to meet the deadline. In any project, process adherence will take a beating if you do not have adequate duration available. But as a group, the team worked together well – we debated, we confronted, we learned, but we never compromised on Process.
My ex-employer (from 2003-2008) has always followed the highest standards of corporate governance. Today every action of the company is the focus of public attention. My challenge was to continue maintain that standard as the company competed globally, and even after my departure, I still practice to do so. The experience today has been rich, which has helped me quickly organize the tasks and resources the team required. After all implementing the values and maintaining enthusiasm among team members are the two most important goals that a team leader has to set.
