The Indian Ego: Narayana Murthy is right, but only about a particular kind of Indian

[V.Balasubramani]

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Finally, someone with a loud voice said it. It isn’t easy for image-conscious public figures to berate the Indian people collectively, and for Infosys founder Narayana Murthy to step out and say, “The biggest challenge for all of us, not just politicians or bureaucrats, is that we, Indians, have the highest ego per unit of achievement. I would humbly request, we be open-minded to those who have performed better than us.”

Even the most unabashed supporter of everything Indian would have to agree that our ego is not something we can be proud of. Across the country, from the Indian capital where every guy in an SUV would ask “Tu jaanta hai main kaun hoon?” to the villages where community leaders’ lord over law, the Indian ego is invincible.

Ego always justifies, and we like justifying our failures. Economy is bad? It is because the world economy is in the pits. The government isn’t performing well? Well that’s because the previous government messed it up.

People with ego live in the past. We love the Indian civilization from 5000 years ago. India was great when it was Hindu, ruled by the Vedas and people followed the rules unflinchingly.

Even our kids have ego, and our politicians are the best examples of it. Take for instance how a self-respecting, young and idealistic woman police officer in Karnataka was shunted out of her post only because she dared to hang up the phone on him. “Don't you have the patience to hold the District Minister's call?” the minister asked the cop, while she was busy with a live crime scene.

Read more at: http://www.thenewsminute.com/articl...right-only-about-particular-kind-indian-48378

 

[prasad1]

Beautiful article, To the point. Having been on this site I see example of this behaviour. Sorry to see that.

 

[V.Balasubramani]

Having been on this site, such article may remind one member’s behavior of generalizing all (iike Narayanamurthy generalizing all the INDIANS) TBs which is definitely unjust. Sorry to see that.

 

[krish44]

Narayanamurthys' idols are Azim premji and the like.

Both are ' adhey kuttayil uriya mattai'.

They only lived off arbitrage in exchange rates of indian and foreign wages in IT sector.

They grossly underpaid indians and collected their crores.

Naturally they admire each other.

Their contemporaries in IT sector do not love them much.

 

[Janaki Jambunathan]

.

They grossly underpaid indians and collected their crores.

.

True They were really Cyber Coolies and were exploited!

 

[krish44]

True They were really Cyber Coolies and were exploited!

Hey you are back.

How was the hotel experience?

IT is anyway going bust according to madhavan nair ex chief of space agency.

Even a kid is cyber savvy due to exposure to modern gadgets.

Who cares for IT professionals.?

They are poor paid and over worked .

Most end up boozing and partying weekends with broken affairs or divorce cases with no future to look forward to.

They are not allowed to have any unions and no labour law protects them.

There is a huge turn over.

Older high paid ones are fired to be replaced by two younger ones at half pay.

Orders are drying up from abroad due to protectionism everywhere.

Infosys ,TCS are taking a beating in share market due to dismal results.

 

[Janaki Jambunathan]

Hey you are back.

How was the hotel experience?.

It is all there in the thread - "Spiritual" Pondi

 

[vgane]

TCS, Infosys and Wipro were the domestic IT companies that gave a face to Indians who were languishing at the bottom of the pile due to merit being compromised in admissions in Professional courses, heavy reservations in Government jobs and low growth in manufacturing sector....Not sure if you know that the IT-BPO sector provides direct employment to 2.2. million & indirect employment of 8 million....It had given additional money to the aspiring middle class..Let us wholeheartedly compliment NRN, Premji, Ratan Tata -Ramadurai combination for their stellar achievements! These are the real Desh Premis!!

 

[krish44]

Sorry, I do not admire these who lived off the indian youth compromising their lives for a few dollars.

Indian engineers would not have died of starvation if IT jobs were not available.

They would have moved to some other field to make a living.

These exploited the down turn in engg and manufacturing to misuse engrs..

 

[[email protected]]

True. Strangely our country has also another major problem apart from Narayana Murthy new found "EGO THEORY"" !! we manufacture "heroes" and one of them is Narayamurthy... Of course his company provided/ produced jobs, youngsters got to see places like america or africa. But Infosys, Wipro, HCL or TCS - none of them worked towards empowering our guys. Did they ever set up or spent money on R&D, inventions, produce products which are patentable / copyright protection... Even for setting up our own GSTN, Indian government is looking for companies in the USA who can set up the backborn system/ network... Eventually, those american companies will be hiring our youngsters to maintain GSTN... TCS was given passport project, Ministry of Corporate affairs.. TCS miserably failed to build a platform for MCA - passport seva project they couldn't do... What none of these guys could develop an application based taxi service (UBER/ OLA minting millions despite we indians having lakhs of software/ hardware engineers). I don't think Narayanamurthy can speak on any subject in India which pertain to "pride" and "moral".

 

[tbs]

hi

we are best DUPLICATE MAKERS OR COPY CAT.....everything we can make duplicate easily..but its hard to

original product which can be patended....

 

[mskmoorthy]

If I say that zero was "invented" in India, you may say it is an old news.

However the discovery of "missed calls" to transmit information is a noteworthy invention in India (could only be discovered by people who invented zero) !

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-26028381

 

[prasad1]

OK NarayanMoorti did not make any earthshaking invention. In 1981, Narayana Murthy founded Infosys, a global software consulting company headquartered in Bangalore, He served as the CEO of Infosys during 1981 – 2002, as the Chairman and Chief Mentor during 1981 – 2011, and as the Chairman Emeritus during August 2011 – May 2013. Under his leadership, Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999.

Mr. Murthy is ranked among the top 10 of the Financial Times’ list of “Business pioneers in technology”, published in March 2015. In 2014, he was ranked 13[SUP]th[/SUP] among CNBC’s 25 global business leaders who have made maximum impact on society during the last 25 years. He was listed among the ‘12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time’, by the Fortune magazine in 2012. The Economist ranked him among the 10 most-admired global business leaders in 2005. He has been awarded the Legion d’honneur by the Government of France, the CBE by the British government and the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India.

His company has active 1,94,044 employees. These people would not have found such lucrative jobs.

People disparaging him, think about it. We too had the same opportunity, What did we do?

 

[vgane]

OK NarayanMoorti did not make any earthshaking invention. In 1981, Narayana Murthy founded Infosys, a global software consulting company headquartered in Bangalore, He served as the CEO of Infosys during 1981 – 2002, as the Chairman and Chief Mentor during 1981 – 2011, and as the Chairman Emeritus during August 2011 – May 2013. Under his leadership, Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999.

Mr. Murthy is ranked among the top 10 of the Financial Times’ list of “Business pioneers in technology”, published in March 2015. In 2014, he was ranked 13[SUP]th[/SUP] among CNBC’s 25 global business leaders who have made maximum impact on society during the last 25 years. He was listed among the ‘12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time’, by the Fortune magazine in 2012. The Economist ranked him among the 10 most-admired global business leaders in 2005. He has been awarded the Legion d’honneur by the Government of France, the CBE by the British government and the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India.

His company has active 1,94,044 employees. These people would not have found such lucrative jobs.

People disparaging him, think about it. We too had the same opportunity, What did we do?

I agree 100%

 

[V.Balasubramani]

One of the responses to the news item reads like this….. and I would like share that here…

Was it not his own EGO he chose to come back to Infosys and cause commotion…….??

Was it not his own EGO to bring his own son into Infosys as an Executive to the CEO with no prior experience….???

So … please don’t talk about EGO… bcos everyone has it…and .. even children has it… and so it is not unique to Indians.

Excerpts of news item whch is self-explanatory..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Except for one detail.

For as far as anyone can remember, Murthy has held that no family member of a founder can ever come to work at Infosys. It is a rule he set himself and all these years he has taken great pride in living by it.

The whole magic about Infosys was that when it gave its word it knew how to keep it. If it made offers to employees and the market tanked, it honored them no matter what. If it made a promise to shareholders about meeting its revenue and profit guidance, it kept it, quarter after quarter. If it said founders would retire at 65, it made sure they were gone by that time. If it said founder’s family members would not join the company, it enforced the rule strictly. Some time back, in an interview with me, Rohan had said that what he most admired about his father was that Murthy never went back on his word. He had said that he would often ask his father jokingly whether he could join Infosys. And Murthy’s answer would always be the same. No. Once a promise has been made, it had to be honored no matter what.

For a while now, Infosys hasn’t been able to keep up with its promised guidance to shareholders.

Today one more promise was broken.

In the press conference today Murthy labored on that Rohan was only coming into help him. Rohan has not been given any leadership role at Infosys and he is not even going to draw a salary. As his executive assistant, his job is merely to make Murthy work more efficiently and effectively.

The question is, could Infosys find no one of Rohan’s caliber either inside or from outside the company? Does this mean that other founders can now send their children to work at Infosys?


Read more: http://forbesindia.com/blog/business-strategy/why-did-narayana-murthy-come-back-to-infosys/