The letter I wrote to Mr.Azim Premji- My Chairman!

AHP(Azim Hashan Premji) writes to us once a month. I had once replied to his mail and underneath you will find both his address and my feedback about his thoughts!.

Memorable days those! :(

Dear Wiproite,

I delivered a speech at India Leadership Forum organized by NASSCOM, Mumbai- India . I am happy to share the same thoughts with you. Globalization seems to have descended upon Indian organizations in a way that would look like a dream come true. Apart from the well known role of IT in the global arena, many other industries are now moving swiftly into it. These include diverse sectors of the economy such as engineering services, hospitality and health services, tourism, medical transcription and education. The future therefore holds in front a new mirror, in which both hard and soft elements of leadership are visible. On the hard side, we see that global strategies are being heavily served by information technology and enterprise wide planning that includes suppliers and customers into the firm's strategy. On the soft side, we see that effective cultural integration involves learning in context and behaving in a manner that elicits continued business engagement.

The recent NASSCOM estimates show that the IT Software Services and ITES in India are estimated to reach a little over USD 17 billion by the end of March 2005. This represents an overall blended growth rate for Software and ITES exports is 35% over last year's revised estimate. IT in India is known more for exports to overseas countries. But it has an equally important role within the country as an engine of economic expansion. IT has been contributing significantly to the growth of nations in the global economy. A 2001 study of major technological revolutions over the last three centuries by the IMF has revealed that IT enhanced the growth rate of the US economy by 1.8% per annum between 1995 and 2000 and contributed to 7.9% of its GDP. In Japan , IT accounts for 9.7% and makes up 9.6% of UK 's GDP. If you were to consider India , our IT industry size was $20.6 billion in 2003-04 and it constitutes 3.3% of the Indian GDP. Indian IT exports have the potential to grow to 7% of the GDP by 2008. Some of the enablers that have aided India 's march in the global race are cultural enablers.

First, is the respect for knowledge. Indian society since ancient times has recognized the importance of knowledge. Even Kings have paid homage to the knowledgeable sage. The trend continues to be visible in Indian society. Successful companies have capitalized on this long-standing strength of Indian culture.

Second, is the educational rigour. Indian professionals have gone through the grind of competitive educational systems, from nursery schooling to professional college education, and the hustle and bustle of corporate life. The Indian society seems to have become adept at filtering talent progressively. Competition has pervaded educational spheres as early as school and assumes significant force for professional courses. In corporate reality, this has implied that only few can reach the top management levels.

Third, is the tolerance for ambiguity. Ever since the institution of the Indian joint family, tolerance for diverse opinions has been in the Indian social fabric. Fathers and sons, uncles and nephews within the same joint family would debate over complex family issues and still remain undivided. A similar spirit of accommodation of viewpoints prevails in successful organizations.

Fourth, is the exposure to multiculturalism. The Indian educational setup has the three language formula, which has implied a multilingual dimension to the Indian workforce. Diverse Indian languages make for a natural adaptation right from school to work life. The key in all such adaptations has been tolerance for diversity and the capacity to learn in different situations. In work context, this has guided creation of harmonious business relationships.

Fifth, has been the quality of processes. This has been more apparent in the Information Technology area where companies have pursued rigorous Quality standards such as SEI- CMM. Some of them have achieved the highest level in these models and related models like the People CMM. The rigour has been even stronger in companies that followed simultaneously other approaches like the Six Sigma. This has ensured quality output for the client even as development cycle times were crashed on a continual basis. An important cause of success of these initiatives has been the commitment from top management in process initiatives.

Looking forward, there is optimism in the air when analysts speak about India . According to one of them, India could well be the world's third largest economy in less than 30 years from now, after the United States and China . In fact, India could grow the fastest among all countries at an average 6 per cent, going past Italy , Germany and France in the 2015-2025 time frame and past Japan in 2032. Even post-2050, India may continue to clock some of the highest growth rates in the world. But achieving this is not going to be easy. We need leadership that is not only transactional or one that moves from task to task. We need leaders who are truly transformational.

Transformational leaders do not depend on authority or charisma. The attributes needed are more intrinsic to the personality of the leader. I would like to briefly mention some of these.

First, transformational leaders identify themselves as change agents. They are not content to let things remain as they are even if it seems very comfortable.

Second, they are courageous and value driven. They are willing to look ahead and work towards creating a better future. Their vision creates a sense of purpose both for them and their organizations.

Third, they are lifelong learners. They pick up the ability to deal with complexity and uncertainty. They are also able to guide others when they are lost in the maze of ambiguity.

Fourth, transformational leaders communicate high expectations and express important ideas in simple ways. They give individual consideration, personal attention and continuously coach and advise their team members.

Also, they delegate enough to promote a culture of pro-activeness in problem solving. They anticipate many problems before they happen and do not wait for one crisis to strike after another.

In order to achieve business leadership, we must realize that IT is not an end in itself but a means to impacting the Customer's business. The challenge is to target IT applications in such a manner that it impacts business. And this is where both the Customer organizations and the IT Solutions provider have an important role to play.

First, we must identify what really drives productivity in the Customer organization. Is it the numerator, number of units or Value or the denominator, cost and effort? We must focus on what matters the most. This needs in-depth Customer knowledge. This also means understanding the Customer's business model and priorities. This varies not only from industry to industry, but also between organizations in the same industry. We must not be trapped by generalizations about industries as they could be misleading.

Second, we must have a holistic view on prioritizing investments for our Customers and also help them find value in sunken IT investments. IT investments are built on one another, often in complex ways. Many companies with apparently lifeless IT investments may be missing one final piece of technology that needs to be found. This is an interesting opportunity. If IT companies can help the Customer in a systematic manner to find the missing link, it could lead to unleashing enormous benefits for both. Identifying such links and building on them could be an enormous transformation tool.

Third, we must ensure that technological and managerial innovation go hand in hand. Many companies have discovered that when technology innovations outstrip managerial innovations, the benefits fall through the crack in between. It is like a car with a powerful engine but a wobbly chassis. It cannot get far. For customers to achieve higher returns on their IT investments, organizational structures and business processes need critical improvements. Partnering with IT vendors, who have tremendous managerial depth and understanding of business process changes, will help customers maximize on their ROI.

Finally, we must realize that there cannot be a silver bullet to achieve leadership. Out of the myriad opportunities ahead, we must decide what to focus on and what we should ignore. If we chase after a wrong goal, we will end up getting exhausted. Let me end with a parable that makes this clear.

A small kitten had just returned from cat philosophy school. He was running around in circles, trying to catch his tail. A seasoned old alley cat looked on and asked the kitten what she was doing.

"I have learnt that happiness is in the tip of your tail, and I am trying to catch mine, so that I will always be happy."

The old Tom replied: "You have learnt well. I never received a fancy education, but I too have heard that happiness is in the tip of my tail.

What I have also discovered is that if you forget about trying to catch it, it will follow you wherever you go."

Thank you once again for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts.

Azim Premji

My mail to AHP
15-3-2005

Be it yesterday when in train I was reading Louis V. Gerstner Jr ‘s “Who said elephants can’t dance” or today as I am reading through the transcript of your speech at NASSCOM I am amazed at the Simplicity and continuous Sanguineness that leaders like Louis V. Gerstner Jr and Azim Premji deliver through their speeches.

Dear Sir,

As I am writing to you I might have read the speech transcript you had sent to employees a nine times in completeness. And to extract every drop of juice of your Sugarcane Speech I have rolled it over and over from top to bottom a dozen times.

As I thought I had got 50-60% of the message into my mind ,I decided I must write to you my emotions and thoughts on your Speech. But I am sure that tonight your thought mosquitoes bit me more than live ones as I am drafting my views to you.

As rightly started ,Globalisation has been the Ubiquitous word in the industry. In my view the most globalised thing since 1991 has been the word Globalisation in India. Every effect of it and every moment since has been researched.

It has been quite comical to note the change of events since globalisation in two parts of the world. As America the nation that indirectly forced India to liberalise stands at a precipice amidst huge Trade and Fiscal Deficit ,a local laborer at Tirupur down South in India who at his age of 40 headed the movement against Globalisation now at his 60’s is a Millionaire and says that he has a potential to double his wealth every 2-3 years. He (a illiterate then) now is worried about the depreciating rupee and writes to the finance minister. This is globalization of Mind…!

Your second paragraph emphasizing on Statistics surrounding the IT industry takes me to the times of Late Dewang Mehta who projected the software industry to earn 88b$ by 2008. But there has been a lot of stability and pruning that has effected the industry since then and the earnings are now(2005) at a modest and realistic 17 b$. I foresee a similar stabilisation to occur across countries of the world post globalization.

Further I would like to focus the statistics away from GDP. Rather than looking at what percentage IT contributes to GDP ,we should look at what percentage of various sector's contribution to industry is done by IT. For instance IT will win, if in agriculture that contributes close to 35% of GDP ,IT is responsible for 4-5% of agri sector's growth. Similarly IT should be seen as a partner in every sectors growth rather than being looked upon as a separate one.


With regard to your usual way of Enumerating points to the reader, I was making a classical analysis of the parameters that you had quoted as cultural enablers.

With regard to the respect for knowledge I believe our ancestors had a foccused array of thoughts which influenced every following generation. This was the success of Indian gene that produced very smart and capable pass outs against western compatriots.

With regard to the education rigour I believe that our educational system failed to channelise the rich cultural repository that India is known for .As a result today be it the IT industry or as a Nation we have a abundant resource of technical talent but very few leaders. This is because of the absence of case studies and motivational tonics which did not supplement our well known tech. adept Curriculum.

With regard to the tolerance for ambiguity that you have specified as a cultural enabler, I believe this gain flows from our Ancestors. This comes from the quality of Simplicity. This one quality is fast eroding in Organizations as people begin to live false lives and develop ego ,amidst their peers at work and Siblings in their family. The ordeal of simplicity and down to earth thinking must be imbibed into minds to nurture this rare quality of tolerance to ambiguity.

With regard to Quality, I have always found that quality comes with age. The quality that we believe we have gained before age is later realised to be just a mirage. As we grow we understand the efficiencies of people around us and start to re-engineer ourselves continuously until we become benchmarks for others to follow and this seamlessly improves this world.

Before I close I would like to thank you for the patience you have shown to read this amateur’s writing and I hope I get a feedback for my efforts as you did from me.

Finally on your optimism of India becoming a superpower I believe we should be maturely aiming for it by 2050, to escape from being another Dewang Mehta. :)

Best regards

Your Proud Employee,

Jayaram Mahalingam