Tags:
Journalism of Courage
If you have ever been curious about the inside workings of a big IT company,or have wished for an orderly overview of Indias journey to becoming an IT powerhouse,or have wondered about the magic ingredients that made ordinary Indians with homegrown degrees overcome the developed worlds scepticism about Indias capabilities,or are looking for a practical understanding of what it takes to build serious scale or manage HR or quality in a mega service business in chaotic India,or are a business analyst or an industry watcher,then read S. Ramadorais book,The TCS Story.
Conventional wisdom alerts us that such a title from an IT CEO is likely to contain a dull collection of bits and bytes of information,or an endless chronicle of business conquests,or an annoyingly smug-and-slick show and tell of their near perfect insides. The book has none of this. It is an utterly honest story,devoid of spin doctoring. It makes confessions like,The irony was that while we were building extremely sophisticated integrated systems for our clients including stock exchanges and banks,our own internal systems were both archaic and non-integrated,and how when TCS won the NSE project,it was the first time that we tackled a trading platform. Not having the requisite domain knowledge,they found someone from the RBI who knew about electronic trading,and taught 30 TCS rookies enough to get them started to learn further! Sparkling with simplicity,it appeals to both the heart and the head through anecdotes and analysis. Ratan Tatas description at the books launch,of how TCS was built quietly,with no muss,no fuss,applies to the book too. This does not put a dazzling halo around TCS,nor does this proclaim it as the messiah of Indian business or even suggest that it has revolutionised the world of service delivery. This just has lots of hmm,thats interesting insights and lessons on lots of issues,plenty of self-deprecating humour that is familiar to those who know Ramdorai well and an unexpected amount of charm in the way the story is told.
There is no revisionist history here,just honest reflection. TCSs pioneering spirit was,of course,due to the extraordinary person that F.C. Kohli was but also due to the magic of a group of Indias brightest people with no dictated agenda and because we were a division of Tata Sons,there was no requirement to produce a balance sheet. Ironically,it was the licence raj days that forced the birth of a global business: This is how the Indian software industry was born,not by any grand design but by an accident of history because India was short on foreign exchange to pay for the importation of a new Burroughs mainframe. TCS was told to earn twice the cost of the machine imported at 101 per cent duty! in foreign exchange,as the governments foreign exchange was reserved exclusively for defence and other government projects. Also,the need to save precious forex made the early teams at TCS do things like fixing machines in the field using plaster,tape,screwdrivers no less! rather than buying new ones. Self reliance cost and capability perspective is still the hallmark of Indian IT. We are able to learn,unlearn and relearn quickly. Despite the imperative,and presumably the profit,of serving global markets,TCS leadership,according to the book,always had a deep motivation to make a difference to India,in India. Even through the dark ages of IT in India,TCSs fundamental approach to India was always to ensure that the domestic market got as much attention,if not more,than our overseas operations. For us,it was only a matter of time before IT became as critical for Indias development we felt it was important for TCS to prepare for that time.
Most of all,it is an uplifting human story of honge kamyaab of country bumpkins negotiating Manhattan with a cheeky sense of overconfidence,wearing oversized suits bought at sales,and extending sleeves,not hands,for handshakes! Behind this lack of apparent sophistication lay real talent our tag line beyond the obvious apparently described the TCSer as well. And,we daresay,describes this author and his tale as well!
