Jaago Re! One Billion Votes campaign has made voter registration really simple. A powerful campaign with powerful tools and messages. Jaagore is about creating awareness amongst the Youth, people who have never excercised voting and also a way to educate voters at all levels. I believe Jaagore is n
ot about voters registration. To me its a matter of making people realize on how they act to improvise the system. How many of us really know that the number of youth legally entitled to vote (18-30 years) is around 30%. For the matter of fact until I received my first voters card years ago, even I was not aware. The campaign for the first time in India is making use of the online registration form and helps register your name within 5 mins. It helps understand the different constituency and updates with the latest happenings around. After all education, health, slums, rains, draughts, food, riots, poverty, modernization, youth power...everything needs a change or rather improvement. Our votes can't bring a drastic change, but atleast can act as a stepping stone in making some change happen. Each vote is crucial. That doesn't mean to wake up and just go and vote. Gain the knowledge of all the candidancy within your constituency who will be standing for elections. Now-a-days the general elections also publish the records of each of these candidates. So all information is infront of us. It's upto each individual to make use of it. It's our right to decide whom we vote and how we can help improve the system. Understanding the ideology of the parties and the individuals representing the party is one way and the best way to do it.
Chart your journey and excercise your right to vote.
No Vote - No Say !! - Vote today, don't curse tomorrow...
Sacche ko chune - acche ko chune - Aamir Khan's election awareness campaign commercial
References (All about general elections 2009) : http://pib.nic.in/elections2009/default.asp
Campaign against Criminals in Politics (Contains list of some MP's with criminal background) : http://www.nocriminals.org/
Learn more about the main parties: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9240158-251f-11de-8a66-00144feabdc0.html
As it just got interesting, I decided to finish this blog with some research comments and give my opinion to the HECian Strategic Consultant I met. We had debates and arguements, all moving in the positive direction, talking about how the future trends could be shaped up. Taking these information into account as well as the market research work from various sources, I recommended and stressed on the following points as the key trends in the near future for IT Outsourcing to my HEC network.
- IT Outsourcing could reach USD $ 200 Billion by 2010.
- Of 25 Global “Breakout” companies identified by Fortune Magazine in 2005, 22 are in IT and Bio-Tech.
- The list of 10 richest people in the world in 2006, 6 came from IT or invested in IT and bio-tech area.
- Information Technology can create more jobs than other fields. One job in IT can facilitate more than 25 jobs growth in other areas.
- IT workers in China & India are pushing their regional economic levels to new highs.
- Asia’s IT outsourcing business continues to grow > 20% annually
- Russia’s outsourcing business predicted to grow a little over 30% in 2007 and could compete with leading IT giants in India & China within next few years
One thing is for sure...information technology is everywhere and the outsourcing trend is here to stay. You cannot just ignore it. The important point is that how you embrace the technology and based on the business model, use it to make your business much more profitable and reachable to the different consumers. With IT, it's a matter of winning in this Flat Flat World. After all it brings in the global competitiveness. It is a major force that can help you change your business as well as to adapt your business globally. IT outsourcing trend will continue to increase due to business conditions (e.g. cost, quality, skills, access to market). Some companies will move fast in the value chain and occupy a key advantage in IT industry. Companies that prepare to do business globally will succeed when others may fail - in the long term. Continuous education & training are the keys to succeed in the fast changing Outsourcing world.
I hope the experience of this conversation was informative to some extent, atleast it helped me reach my audience at HEC academic management, as I went on to meet the director of Fortis to discuss on more current issues and global concerns. I also remember having similar conversation with a Economics professor of the Said Business School, until I met the representatives of IE :)
I think I just couldn't wait any more, so decided to do immediate research on this topic. I started pondering on how things started working for each of the countries in Asia Pacific, Western and Eastern Europe. So I came up with the following SWOT analysis (Source of research from Carnegie Mellon University Benchmarking Study):
What does the Asia Pacific Region offer in Outsourcing?
- Some of the fastest growing software industry in the world are located in Asia
- Growth rate > 35% annually over the past 5 years
- Highly educated & motivated workforce (India, China, Japan ...)
- Strong engineering & manufacturing focus (Japan, S. Korea, China)
- Well-established infrastructures (Japan, S.Korea, China)
- Strong government support (S.Korea, China, Singapore)
- Many countries have adopted “India’s IT Model” as the growing vehicle for economic prosperity
- Highly entrepreneurial & innovative
- Some countries are well adapted to global business but many are still experiencing language and cultural issues
- Some geo-political risks
What does the Western Europe offer in Outsourcing?
- Software industry is steady at > 8 % growth rate annually
- Highly educated in some areas (Ireland, UK, Scandinavia)
- Strong engineering & telecommunication focus
- Very protective of legacy systems & applications
- Governments are still the largest consumption of software
- Very high overhead cost due to bureaucracy & liberal laws
- Outsource “near-shore” to Eastern Europe
- Culturally diverse (languages, legal, business practices etc.)
- Economic polarization – some fare better than others
- IT Polarization: Scandinavia and Ireland are very active where France and Italy are more conservative
- IT education in many countries is slow to catch up with fast technological changes
- High unemployment among the younger generation
What does the Western Europe offer in Outsourcing ?
- Software industry is growing fast but still immature
- Highly educated & large untapped talent pool
- Strong mathematical focus, limited practical experience
- Lack IT infrastructure & support environment for global business
- Governments are the largest consumption of software
- Low labor cost but not well managed
- Receive outsourcing works from Western Europe > USD $ 500 Million
- Culturally diverse (languages, legal, business practices etc.)
- Economic uncertainty due to growing pains – change is difficult
- Political uncertainty - Several social models and directions resulting in high risks business environments
- High unemployment among IT labor force - Most skilled workers left for Western Europe – significant “Brain Drain”
- Limited project management & relationship management skills
More on Trends and final closure comments in the next blog...
I was very impressed with the way the Information System classes concluded at IE Business School for the first term (Nov '08 - Feb '09). Working as an IT/Telecom /Travel Services Consultant for the past five years, I had to constantly deal with the concept and the modelling of the offshore-onsite model, also known as Outsourcing/Offshoring. So before the economic downturn officially came into picture I was researching on the different trends in outsourcing, and how it is being perceived especially in the western and eastern europe, taking into account the different unions and regulations these countries have. Before I joined IE Business School, I had met with one of the Strategic Consultant from HEC Paris somewhere in 2007 and he sort of interviewed me on why people go for MBA and as well opened upto what he intended to do after the life as a consultant. He was seeking opinions on outsourcing some part of his business, and this is were I thought I was good at. Taking in numbers through my experience.
We all know, earlier it was the pre-historic man who took charge of the world by looking for food and shelter. Somewhere between 5,000 BC and the 18th Century (I would like to call it as the "Agricultural" period), it was the Kings, land owners, emperors seeking to conquer land and crops and build onto their assets. Between the 18th Century and the 20th century began the industrial period. Factories adn equipments came into picture. OIL, Steel, Finance were teh key jargons then. And then finally the technological age, skills, knowledge, talent, people and process. Software Entrepreneurs and Technologists were on a roll. (Lets learn and forget the .com bubble burst here :)) This is were Outsourcing, along with various other technology and concepts, kicked in.
So I thought, what can I offer him for his business. I started noting key requirements and started making some suggestions on the regions he can start picking up on. So the IT Outsourcing market increased 80% from USD $19 Billion in 1999 to more than USD $100 Billion in 2006 according to the sources from IDC http://cdn.idc.com/. The IT outsourcing market was lead by India with 45% of the outsourcing market share, 18% to Canada & Europe, 18% to China, 8% to Russia & E. Europe, 6% to South America, and 5% to Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines) (Say the sources of University of Michigan Business School)
More on the research in the next blog...
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.
ot about voters registration. To me its a matter of making people realize on how they act to improvise the system. How many of us really know that the number of youth legally entitled to vote (18-30 years) is around 30%. For the matter of fact until I received my first voters card years ago, even I was not aware. The campaign for the first time in India is making use of the online registration form and helps register your name within 5 mins. It helps understand the different constituency and updates with the latest happenings around. After all education, health, slums, rains, draughts, food, riots, poverty, modernization, youth power...everything needs a change or rather improvement. Our votes can't bring a drastic change, but atleast can act as a stepping stone in making some change happen. Each vote is crucial. That doesn't mean to wake up and just go and vote. Gain the knowledge of all the candidancy within your constituency who will be standing for elections. Now-a-days the general elections also publish the records of each of these candidates. So all information is infront of us. It's upto each individual to make use of it. It's our right to decide whom we vote and how we can help improve the system. Understanding the ideology of the parties and the individuals representing the party is one way and the best way to do it.
