It hurts.
After being celebrated as a czar of India software, today Ramalinga Raju is the most shamed corporate king in India Inc. Incident of this sort is unprecedented in India. It is not to say that there have been no frauds of this magnitude, but they have all been dealt with either secretly or somehow. And today, the media has a field day with reporters from CNBC, NDTV Profit shouting a the top of their voices 24x7 on the Satyam fiasco.
How is it possible that a company survived a lie of this sort so long? How is it possible that of all people, Ramalinga Raju - a supposedly perfect gentleman, a top philanthropist of India could have done this? How could any of them involved sleep peacefully for years trying to stuff this cash vacuum into their pillowcases? All invetigations, media rumors will fetch the truth slowly. The role of auditors, bankers, government will come out along with erstwhile management of the company.
But it is not about the company and its financials. An IT company is about people. It is about talent that is accumulated. And Satyam undoubtedly has some of the best talents of this country. What is to become to all of them? It is important for the Satyam staff to stay united. All the leadership principles that have been fed in the past years have to swing into action now. This is the time of real crisis - something which no one has imagined would happen, leave alone experiencing it in the past. All the emotional guns have to be fired now. For at the middle of it, there is a strong company, supported by strong people and servicing strong clients. 80% of the company's revenues come from 20% of the customers. It is important for the current leadership to connect with that 20% and retain business.
What Satyam needs to provide now is a swift, dramatic response. It is important for the company to prove that "Not everyone in Satyam is like Raju and Raju alone does not make Satyam".
The employees have to stop panicking. Trying to jump ship blindly is useless at this time. It is recession and no one is hiring. Jumping ship now is like jumping into the ocean leaving a current ship, which can still be made workable and move ahead. It is important for all employees to stay united, reassure clients, and try to salvage what is left. This is easier said than done - but definitely is the better course. Any mass resignations will only start a downward spiral.
Finally the media. All I have to write is a rhetoric. As it is, the big financial institutional investors are just gamblers who do nothing worthwhile on their own, but bet money on horses and try to make massive profits out of the winning horse. And financial analysts are even worse - all they do it just give some random running commentary of the horse race and make money of it. The media analysts are the most horrible - With no real talent to make a product or sale or run a business and generate money on their own, they just try to make profits by advising people on who runs better business. These are a bunch of jokers who have no idea of what is smoking under their pants until there is fire in entire building. I havent seen anything predictive out of the so called smart analysts. All they have done is more damage by pressurising people who do real work to manipulate financial records like backdating stock options or cooking books or bloating profits.
But who wants to hear? If the media can mess up something sensitive as Mumbai terror attack with utmost disregard for human lives and national security, will they ever find out that they are the ones who are putting unnecessary pressures on people who run real businesses? Will media ever understand that 50000 employees of Satyam are wondering about their livelihood and will need support at this point of time? Well, for those who copy titles like India's 9/11 and India's Enron and India's Obama, am sure they will not have any brains to think along these lines.
Until the next fraud happens, life will go on for media/analysts/investors. This episode will become a reference case for media and B-school case in Strategy (mis)mangement. But for current Satyamites, this is a struggle, a challenge and a war - one which they never wanted or imagined to be part of.
However the IT folks are much much better than analysts, investors and media. The IT engineers to do real operational work and make real money out of their work - than by betting and commenting and advising. That is why I still feel all the associates of Satyam will ensure that they can bounce back.
There are not just few good (wo)men in Satyam, there are lots of them.
After being celebrated as a czar of India software, today Ramalinga Raju is the most shamed corporate king in India Inc. Incident of this sort is unprecedented in India. It is not to say that there have been no frauds of this magnitude, but they have all been dealt with either secretly or somehow. And today, the media has a field day with reporters from CNBC, NDTV Profit shouting a the top of their voices 24x7 on the Satyam fiasco.
How is it possible that a company survived a lie of this sort so long? How is it possible that of all people, Ramalinga Raju - a supposedly perfect gentleman, a top philanthropist of India could have done this? How could any of them involved sleep peacefully for years trying to stuff this cash vacuum into their pillowcases? All invetigations, media rumors will fetch the truth slowly. The role of auditors, bankers, government will come out along with erstwhile management of the company.
But it is not about the company and its financials. An IT company is about people. It is about talent that is accumulated. And Satyam undoubtedly has some of the best talents of this country. What is to become to all of them? It is important for the Satyam staff to stay united. All the leadership principles that have been fed in the past years have to swing into action now. This is the time of real crisis - something which no one has imagined would happen, leave alone experiencing it in the past. All the emotional guns have to be fired now. For at the middle of it, there is a strong company, supported by strong people and servicing strong clients. 80% of the company's revenues come from 20% of the customers. It is important for the current leadership to connect with that 20% and retain business.
What Satyam needs to provide now is a swift, dramatic response. It is important for the company to prove that "Not everyone in Satyam is like Raju and Raju alone does not make Satyam".
The employees have to stop panicking. Trying to jump ship blindly is useless at this time. It is recession and no one is hiring. Jumping ship now is like jumping into the ocean leaving a current ship, which can still be made workable and move ahead. It is important for all employees to stay united, reassure clients, and try to salvage what is left. This is easier said than done - but definitely is the better course. Any mass resignations will only start a downward spiral.
Finally the media. All I have to write is a rhetoric. As it is, the big financial institutional investors are just gamblers who do nothing worthwhile on their own, but bet money on horses and try to make massive profits out of the winning horse. And financial analysts are even worse - all they do it just give some random running commentary of the horse race and make money of it. The media analysts are the most horrible - With no real talent to make a product or sale or run a business and generate money on their own, they just try to make profits by advising people on who runs better business. These are a bunch of jokers who have no idea of what is smoking under their pants until there is fire in entire building. I havent seen anything predictive out of the so called smart analysts. All they have done is more damage by pressurising people who do real work to manipulate financial records like backdating stock options or cooking books or bloating profits.
But who wants to hear? If the media can mess up something sensitive as Mumbai terror attack with utmost disregard for human lives and national security, will they ever find out that they are the ones who are putting unnecessary pressures on people who run real businesses? Will media ever understand that 50000 employees of Satyam are wondering about their livelihood and will need support at this point of time? Well, for those who copy titles like India's 9/11 and India's Enron and India's Obama, am sure they will not have any brains to think along these lines.
Until the next fraud happens, life will go on for media/analysts/investors. This episode will become a reference case for media and B-school case in Strategy (mis)mangement. But for current Satyamites, this is a struggle, a challenge and a war - one which they never wanted or imagined to be part of.
However the IT folks are much much better than analysts, investors and media. The IT engineers to do real operational work and make real money out of their work - than by betting and commenting and advising. That is why I still feel all the associates of Satyam will ensure that they can bounce back.
There are not just few good (wo)men in Satyam, there are lots of them.
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