Sunday, March 09, 2008

India’s Best Managed Companies.

This week’s Business Today has a survey, ‘India’s best managed companies’. There are some parameters with which these companies are surveyed, like HR policies, Innovation, Customer focus and community services etc.

My biggest surprise after reading this is, there is no IT company appearing in this list. This led to so many questions in my mind.

  • Is IT industry HR policies are not in par with other industries?
  • The common perception is, IT Company’s talent management is of global standard, is that not true?
  • IT service companies, to my knowledge at least, are best known for its service to customers and this industry is highly influenced by western culture in terms of service.
  • Innovation: - I have a big question mark on this as well. Some companies have really innovative products and business models.

My intention is not really questioning the survey and its credibility; rather I am looking at software industry and trying to answer these questions to my self.

First thing comes to my mind is, is software industry is forgetting the common and basic rules of business? I can claim, for sure not. You can’t be in business without following the basic rules of the game.

So, next question mark I have is on HR. I personally feel, we, as an industry, needs to improve in this field. We need to be more innovative in terms of talent management, building the common feeling of team. Given the industry we are in to, what ever we have done in this area is very less. We all need better working place, better balance between work and life.

And, more importantly, we need to build the culture of innovation within the company. Apple and Google are true example of how innovation can be taken in to new height. Have you seen a screw fitted in to an iPod?

I can go on listing the things, which I feel we are missing. But, I would like to hear from you all. I would like to see a discussion on this.

Ideas? Suggestions? Feedback? Inputs?