Satyam Clients (but not employees) can approach us
Well, my earlier post (Infy not to hire Satyam Employees) created major debate on few issues – and those who disagreed with us made couple of points which can be summarized as follows:
“You (i.e. pluGGd.in) are making correlation between facts that’s not right – Infy’s statement about not entertaining Satyam was a decision to save Satyam (and doesn’t mean anything beyond this)”.
Well, here is a recent statement from Infy as well and other biggies:
- “We have already made the announcement that we will not poach any Satyam employee. We will not proactively approach their clients and customers either… but clients have to decide for themselves and they have the right to choose their partner at work,” Infosys HR Director, Mr MohanDas Pai
- Analysts has said that over half a dozen rivals of the tainted IT firm Satyam Computer have started exploring ways to take over the business from its various clients..
More than half a dozen providers have already called Forrester to discuss competitive strategies for taking over business in joint units – Forrester Research – source
What about Satyam Clients?
- GE, the largest client for Satyam, is learnt to be evaluating options of inducting the Satyam team working on its IT project or convincing other IT vendors to merge this team with their resources to ensure continuity of work
- Nestle, the world’s largest food company, has been a Satyam client since 2004. In 2007, it extended its engagement with the Indian IT firm for another three years, landing it a new multi-million dollar contract.
”Alternative solutions are being considered and no disruption of Nestlé’s IT operations is expected,” a Nestle spokesman said - British Petroleum has sought assurance from the Indian IT firm that their work will not be impacted.
”We will also prudently consider what other actions may be needed in order to best safeguard our systems,” BP group media director David Nicholas” – source
Where does that leaves us? First and foremost – let’s accept that there is a serious issue here – clients are worried about business continuity and so are employees.
Satyam's Raju
Clients are looking out – and so are employees (while the new board and NASSCOM tries to get things in place, there will be some pilferage).
Infy and others are fine with clients approaching them, but have a moral issue if employees approach them? How fair is that?
The question here is : everybody wants Satyam clients, but not employees? Well, if you take the head out, tail will follow – if Satyam clients move away, employees will ( have to) quit – and thanks to all these ‘we won’t take you’ slogans, these employees will be available for cheap.
Where is the fairness?
When a company says ‘clients have to decide their partners’ – they get the sales machinery in place – get them dig old contacts (if you don’t think so, better talk to a sales guy).
This is where one has to respect a company like Wipro, which made it clear that they will treat Satyam employees as any other candidate and will evaluate them on same scale – i.e. be fair to clients as well as employees.
Each company to itself.
We applaud govt. for taking quick action in setting up the board (and restoring confidence on Indian IT industry) – now its time to ask Satyam competitors to go easy on their mouth.
And as I said earlier, Respect Talent – that’s what grows an industry, especially in these times when one is looking forward to mature action from the industry.
About the author - Ashish Sinha is a Startup Mentor/Product Strategy Coach, and the founder/chief editor of pluGGd.in.
He has launched/managed couple of products (consumer as well as enterprise) in US and India, and now consults with startups/small businesses on their product/media strategy. He can be reached at: ashish (at) pluGGd.in [+91 98452 06443]
There is a diff between hireing and poaching. Infy said they wont poach employees and not necessarly hire if some one applied in Infy. Dont u think Infy or for that matter any comp can hire satyam emp at present situation with no hike in salary??
Ashish have a chill pill
@Anoop, dude – there is just a thin line diff. btn hiring and poaching..
hike or no hike is dependent on employees talent.
Regd. the chill pill, – stand up for something in life. Take some stand – I appreciate that this blog is bringing that. I see lot of ex-satyamites and current employees talkng abt satyam – somebody needs to do this (instead of sitting up on their a**es/and commenting like an industry pundit)
I agree, I am an ex employee and have learnt and shaped my career at satyam…the company is great…
I have decided to provide all help to the employees to take their views and BELIEF in brand satyam to the world and WIN over their customers by expressing their collective.
http://www.kreeo.com/forum/satyam
http://www.kreeo.com/concept/satyam
Contribute your stories and views to extend a hand of help rather than just exchanging opinions.
Appreciate the good someone is trying to do by bringing out facts, they are not baseless, anyone with little bit common sense can understand the reality.
I spoke to my friends in satyam and they say their customers are very supportive and are equally confident that it will prevail because an organization is about its people and over 80% satyamites have a strong belief in their company’s fundamentals and their collective capability.
“Respect Talent – that’s what grows an industry”
Wishing for a new kind of capitalism to emerge in 21st century? Because the capitalism as we know it did not think that way. Lets wind a few years back and see how floor-workers were perceived at factories in post-Industrial revolution.
- Talent was as a commodity
- Processes took care of variations in Talent
- Machines got sophisticated and efficient
- Individual workers were replaceable entities
- The reqd. Talent could be trained with ease.
As much as we like to think IT services is different, it has the same characteristics. NO?
-Mahesh
Celebrating Life…
@Mahesh T – No, unless and until you would like to believe that we have the same characteristics.
Havent heard of knowledge workers?
@Ashish,
Its not about we believing if the same characteristics exist. That is what we see for real. NO?
There were floor-workers, technicians, engineers, designers, contractors, management, share holders. Each segment was treated differently. Well, There is a similar pecking order in IT too right? The same pyramid structure manifests with different labels to each layer.
Any thoughts or pointers to how knowledge economy behaves differently from industrial economy? Because…We cannot do the same things and expect different results.
-Mahesh
Celebrating Life…
@Mahesh T,
“Any thoughts or pointers to how knowledge economy behaves differently from industrial economy? ” – dude, you need to understand the diff btn knowledge workers (white vs. blue collar jobs).
What makes you think that we are also doing the same things? We have moved away from Y2K days
@arnav,
Hunters thought Farming is big deal
Farmers thought Factory is big deal
Workers thought Computer is big deal
Programmers will think AI is big deal
and it goes on…..
Does it matter if I have a white collar job when there are a million other ppl who can also do the same job? For some reason, we rely too much on demand-supply economics. “Respect for Talent” is a phrase that gets reserved for a very few people and “Dignity of Labor” for the rest….
-Mahesh
Celebrating Life…
@Mahesh T, your basic assumption of talent as a commodity is not 100% correct.
Well, you need mediocre resources for mediocre jobs – but that doesn’t mean that one shouldn’t respect (just because demand-supply eqn isnt on their side, at this point) resources.
definition of talent varies from each inidividual – but there are some minimal definition that we all have agreed upon. I urge Infy and others to just follow that.
The situation is in a terrible mess. The time is not right for knee jerk reactions from all concerned-competition, clients,employees. The government has taken the right first step. Lets give them time to analyse the situation. Those who want to take advantage of the situation-No one can really stop them but that will show their true colours-Won’ t it. My suggestion would be to sit tight for a month-give all responsible peole to play their part and than evaluate what needs to be done….