The New Imperative for the IT Industry

Communications starts in the mind where hypotheses can be evaluated and a
point of view formulated and articulated with confidence

Zensar’s COO Anil Kekre, with his rich background in IBM and Satyam, has
this pet theory that the major difference between Indian consultants and their
colleagues from the global firms is that the Indian teams are unwilling to
engage in discussions with senior client representatives and tend to agree with
everything, while global professionals are ready to argue a point, offer
opinions and bring more real and perceived value to the table in all
interactions.

Whether it is casual conversation or a conceptual debate on the rights and
wrongs of different approaches, the area of business communications is one area
where we very often fail to make the grade.

Ganesh Natarajan Good story telling skills are essential to put a readable document together that is concise and avoids repetition of facts or arguments

Does all this point to a lack of capability in the Indian Software industry—far
from it! Most Indian consultants have tremendous depth of knowledge and ability
to find innovative solutions to problems, but where they fall short as
individuals and teams is the reluctance to communicate, which is where their
Western counterparts score heavily. And in case anybody feels it is a shortage
of English vocabulary, that’s hardly true since most well educated Indian
professionals have a significantly higher vocabulary than their English or
American brethren!

Communications starts in the mind where hypotheses can be evaluated and a
point of view formulated and this view is then articulated with confidence using
the right phrases and grammar to make the right impression.

Communications is also all about presenting documents in a concise and well
presented manner. Where Indian companies often fall short is right at the RFI
and RFP stage where the meat of the proposition is lost in average preambles and
poor aesthetics in the presentation of the company and its capabilities. Good
story telling skills are essential to put a readable document together that is
concise and avoids repetition of facts or arguments. Interim project documents
also need to have the same attention to good communications and presentations
made to the client to carry forward the quality of the work done through good
planning and excellence in presentation content and aesthetics.

Usability engineering is an art that is today as important as the science of
software engineering itself. One of the country’s best professionals in this
area, Gaurav Jaswal of Synapse in Goa speaks at seminars about how some of the
country’s best corporations make fundamental errors of color, clutter and
cognitive dissonance in their web sites, brochures and many other forms of media
interaction with their prospects and customers.

Good usability engineers provide tips that the standard techie would ignore
and makes the company’s work easy to comprehend, visually appealing and
finally very appealing to the left and right brain of the customer.

Verbal and written communication as well as the overall design of the
communication itself, irrespective of the media, are probably the most important
aspects of success for the software industry today, once the basic milestones of
software project management skills and quality certifications are achieved. But
another aspect of communications that is often ignored is physical presentation
of people on projects. The best intentions and the best capabilities can be
destroyed by a presenter who wears brown shoes with a black pair of trousers,
who struggles to carry off a tie that floats six inches above the belt.

Finally, there is a famous story in the US that talks about the popular
stereotype that most Asians drink only orange juice or coke on board an
aircraft. The reality is that when the stewardess wheels the drinks cart down
the aisle, most Asians have diffidence in engaging her in conversation and
questions and either point to the most visible carton which is orange juice or
ask for what is always available and easiest to articulate—Coke !

At least, the Software professionals need to be wary of taking such easy
routes; else all the champagne will flow in the glasses at the victory
celebrations of their competitors!

The author is deputy chairman & managing director of Zensar Technologies
and chairman of Nasscom’s SME Forum for Western India ganesh@dqindia.com