I was at Landmark a few weeks ago looking for a good book to read during the year-end holidays and came across “Bal Thackeray” by Vaibhav Purandare in the Top 10 bestseller list. The only two people on whom he has written a book are Sachin Tendulkar and Bal Thackeray. He could not have chosen a more diverse pair of individuals. One stayed away from any kind of controversy while the other reveled in it, one showed his violent streak only on a cricket ball while the other glorified it as a political instrument. The book is a simple chronological account of the Sena from the time it was formed. The author offers no opinions or perspectives. What miffed me more on reading the book was the opportunistic behaviour of successive Congress governments in Maharashtra. As long as the Sena was fighting the Communists and the trade unions, they let it run amok. By the time they woke up, they had helped create a party that could get away with anything in the city of Mumbai. The only positive with BalT and the Sena is that they are, to use a software term, WYSIWYG. Which brings me to what I wanted to discuss....
In the Indian IT services industry the biggest issue is the "war for talent". There are at least 20 companies running after the same set of individuals, often creating a merry-go-round. The problem is more pronounced in newer areas like Cloud computing, Analytics and Mobility. It then occurred to me that here is a completely untapped talent pool that the industry has ignored – our political classes.
Imagine a leading consumer company faced with falling sales of its shampoo brand Silky. It has gathered reams of data but is struggling to draw any conclusions or find any patterns to explain the fall in sales. IT Company X brings in its crack Analytics team consisting of our political stalwarts and here are the solutions they provide in a matter of minutes
- Mohan Bhagwatji: Sales are falling in India, not in Bharat so you need not take any action. Women in India are influenced by western culture and cutting their hair short thus using less shampoo
- MNS: Sales must be falling in urban India due to all the immigration. Give us 6 months, we will fix it
- Renuka Chowdhury: Ha ha ha ha (unable to stop)
- Mulayam/ Mayawati: You have ignored the backward classes. Going forward, please reserve 22% of your output for them and see your sales grow
- BS Yeddyurappa: We need to mine the data further. I have a couple of good contractors who are reddy and could do it for you
- Abhijit Mukherjee: These dented and painted women are busy protesting on the streets instead of washing their hair
- Shiv Sena: We will change the data for you and show high sales. No one can challenge us
Amazed by the quick insights provided, the company calls the whole team into the Times Now studio to arrive at a common conclusion and the rest is history. NASSCOM – are you listening?
