"Satyam is like a product assembly unit"

This farmer's son, who initially kicked off his business with a spinning

mill before turning into a real estate baron, is now a truly global

entrepreneur. From a humble beginning in 1987 as a small software house, today,

his company-Satyam Computer Services-provides services in over 45 countries

across six continents and in verticals as diverse as the BFSI, telecom,

manufacturing, healthcare, transportation and retail sectors. While the year

2003-04 saw the company grow 26% to Rs 2,542 crore, it also saw it enter the

league of extraordinary recruiters, increasing headcount by 45%. Interestingly,

the man-B Ramalinga Raju-still considers himself to be a learner. In a

tête-à-tête with Shubhendu Parth and Sunitha Natti of CyberMedia News, the

founder and chairman of the company talked about how Satyam actually evolved and

the strategies that helped shape it. Excerpts:

What is the philosophy that has been fuelling Satyam's growth?



Since its inception in the late 1980s, we were very clear about one thing-that

knowledge and technology drive this industry. We took every possible step to

ensure growth as an organization in knowledge and still remain on the cutting

edge of technology. One of the don'ts we had agreed upon quite early was not

to operate in the Indian markets and so lost some business to competition. Also,

we chose not to invest in buildings or mainframes. Instead, we focused on

investing in communication, to gain an understanding of the market. We were the

first to have 64 Kbps link in India in 1991-that was a significant milestone

for the industry as well. Thus we could prove to our customers that remote

delivery of services was possible only because of the availability of such

bandwidth.

How has Satyam evolved over time?



We follow a five-orbit process. The late 1980s and early 1990s was the

period of first orbit, where we garnered global market understanding, besides

identifying growth opportunities and the importance of communication. The second

orbit was about perfecting the offshore model, which has to be reliable in its

virtual form and capable of delivery similar to the onsite model. The third

orbit saw Satyam bring in lot of quality focus. 

The phase saw Satyam become the first company in the world to get ISO 9000

certification. It also saw us achieve SEI CMM Level 5. We have taken the quality

initiative by collaborating with the Carnegie Mellon University for development

of the eSCM standard for the BPO sector that was announced recently. The fourth

orbit was all about globalization. We not only reached out to the world by

establishing development centers abroad, but also decided to move beyond

offshoring and outsourcing to the "RightSourcing Model". Finally, the

present fifth orbit saw us focus more on industry-wise sectors. This enabled us

in understanding customers' business better and hence we are now able to add

value and do what it takes to delight them. That's also precisely the reason

why we changed our slogan from "Our people make difference" to the

current "What business demands".

Can you elaborate on the "RightSourcing Model"?



Satyam was one of the first companies to have adopted an offshoring model, back
in 1991, wherein we shifted from providing onsite services to providing services

from a remote environment. Depending upon the clients' need we can serve them

either onsite or from an offshore location-within India or in China. We can

deliver offsite services through our development centers located in the same

country. Besides, we can also take the near-shore delivery route through our

development centers across the world, e.g., serving the US-based clients from

Canada or meeting Japanese clients' needs from China. This model not only

gives a cost-effective access to services but also competencies that are

otherwise difficult for customers to access.

Though TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Satyam are talked about in almost equal

terms when referring to the Indian IT industry, Satyam still seems to be

relatively smaller amongst them all. How well has the corporate strategy worked?



Our strategies have paid off very well and it has really helped us in

aligning whatever we do with global players. Today, we are no longer competing

with any Indian companies. Our strategy helped us emerge as a global player

where not only our services are at par with the global players, we also

benchmark each and every process against the best of the players in that

category. Today we have 80 processes and 250 service offerings, both external

and internal services. For example, if it's about our HR and recruitment

process, we benchmark it against the best HR consultancy and recruitment firms

and not against the practices of an IT company.

How has it benefited Satyam?



Our business framework and strategies revolve around the customer-internal

or external. By benchmarking ourselves against the global players, not only have

we been able to understand customers' needs better, we have also been able to

demonstrate capabilities to marry business with technology. One cannot be inward

looking and hence we put ourselves in the customers' shoes to anticipate

things. Benchmarking our internal processes, HR, for example, has helped us

access the supply of talents, thereby reducing time to fill the gap. Thanks to

our processes, we have been proactive in identifying the business needs as well

as the knowledge component and management strengths required to achieve these.

With time we have developed a framework of mature leadership to create value for

customers. Another simple way of judging the benefits we have availed is through

our big-ticket clients. Our strategy has helped us establish relationship with

105 Fortune 500 companies, whose collective revenue is around $4 trillion.

Today, delivering complex projects in an assured manner is what makes the

difference. Our model makes sure that the entire lifecycle of a product or the

service is owned by a leader who can work across verticals and departments to

ensure proper delivery. We follow a system that further disintegrates the

processes of creativity and delivery, and then benchmarks them. To accomplish

this, we follow what we call a TDC model-thinking, doing and communicating.

From orbit one to orbit five, Satyam seems to have undergone a

metamorphosis. Where does the company stand now?



The principle of business has undergone a sea change with our becoming big-the

transition is essential for a healthy growth. As one grows in numbers and size,

all processes including communication have to be institutionalized. A big

company like ours is like a product assembly unit, where different components

should combine to work collectively and at the end the clock should tick. While

each process was a complete circle with the corporate in the center, today the

corporate is a support function while the entire processes revolve around the

customer in the center.