IT Services - Management Myopia

I am no management guru. Like the trillion managers around the world I have my views based on entirely my experiences on “effective management”. Sometimes, I think that this one word “management” (like “Economy” and “Strategy”) is the most abused term in any industry. There are truckloads of books and blogs and articles written on “how to manage” and “how not to manage”. Here I’m, adding a leaf, to that clutter of rich repository.

Those businesses and brands that have stood the test of times, that have been in existence for decades, that have replaced the “purpose” with their own brand names (Xerox) - there is something that these organizations have done right to get to stay and that too on top for ages. What could be the reason?

Enough is talked about customer-centricity and employee-first. Having been in the IT services industry for over two decades, what I have come across is, in the rush to be the first, companies forget that they have lost sight of the larger goal or purpose of their existence. They start living by quarters. All that seem to matter to them is if they are better performers than the previous quarter. They keep checking themselves on a relative and an absolute scale all the time. Trying to scrutinize every move in the pretext of “healthy competition”, have we lost the forest for the tree? Looks like! In midst of this melee, once in a while, one management expert in the leadership team wakes up and proclaims, “Hey! It’s time to redefine ourselves. Let us see what we want to be doing?” Dude, you’re late.  There is already a lot of water that has gone under the bridge.

Agreed, we need short term focus, growth and results. But most importantly, we need a vision which is not myopic, a strategy which is not short-sighted. It is rather easy for anyone to show growth by cutting costs and saving by penny pinching. It is catastrophic when large businesses fail to think beyond margins and do not indulge in strategic games. Continuous strategic investments and calculated risks are a must to survive, compete and grow.  Corner kirana shops can excel by cutting costs but when large businesses do that, they will eventually become an object of ridicule by employees, customers and competitors.

So who is that spoil sport? Greed for bettering margins is definitely on top of the list.  But you need revenue in the first place. You need customers. What is the point making lofty margins this year but the very next year, your survival itself is at stake?!!

Indian IT companies should stop competing with each other. Instead, truly focus on quality work, long term customer retention, word-of-mouth PR, decent margins, happy employees and wise investments. They must put their country first before their business because there are other countries fast catching up. In a land of abundant talent, what is the point in appointing IIT and IIM products just to do some mean low-hanging jobs?  But until companies get assertive about things that matter to be in successful existence, we are only losing out slowly, to smaller sharks on the other side of the ocean, quarter-on-quarter.