The Power Of Collaboration

During the recent 'hair raising' cricketing controversy, Asian countries
lobbied against Umpire Darrell Hair. Former Sri Lankan captain, Arjuna Ranatunga
even suggested his removal from the ICC Umpires' panel. He went further,
saying he should be treated before he is allowed to preside over any game. Is it
an indication of the rising Asian power that the countries of the sub-continent,
each having been mauled by the apparently racist judgments of this umpire, are
standing up to be counted in support of their neighbor?

It is heartening to see that in spite of political differences India, Sri
Lanka and Pakistan have developed the maturity to fight together against common
threats. The industry can learn a few lessons from the incident.

It is a little surprising to note that there are still a few truly symbiotic
arrangements, either between companies or even between corporates and academic
institutions in the industry. Sure, there are students in second tier
engineering colleges with three software job offers in their pockets as they
enter the final year of college. But the outcry against outdated curriculum and
substandard faculty continues and the propensity to set up training colleges
internally rather then help upgrade the capabilities of the academic fraternity
is a trend that continues unabated.

In a recent issue of Industrial Management, David Antonioni writes on the
need for leaders who are in the achiever category to move to truly altruistic
behavior to sustain their organizations. The three characteristics of achiever
leaders; the need to dominate relationships, the propensity to look out for
oneself and the tendency to control any information that is shared, are seen
even in some industry leaders of today. Continuing the rather unfair comparison
of individual traits with those of leading firms in the context of an industry,
one could argue that altruistic firms would retain a high sense of self-worth,
but be willing to share relevant information and methods democratically and
shift the emphasis to serve the community rather than just serve their own
company's needs.

The smaller firms in the industry who may not even fit into the DQ Top 100
would be truly served by these collaborations and the development of
industry-academia partnerships and even public-private partnerships. This would
build an innovation eco-system that enables the industry to flourish and
increase the entry barriers for other countries. This in turn will lead to build
comparable industry capabilities in the near future.

It is heartening that in the context of corporate social responsibility most
firms are already showing a high level of altruism. Satyam's EMRI (Emergency
Management and Research Institute) in Hyderabad is a good example of this. We
were amazed at the vision and scale of the initiative which makes an emergency
response service available in 50 towns in Andhra Pradesh with population
coverage of over 22 mn citizens, saving thousands of lives just in the first
half of this year. When industry leaders like EMRI's CEO, Venkat Changavalli,
and Ramalinga Raju can show such compassion for the underprivileged in the
country, will other CEOs, strategy planners and human resource chiefs also
extend a similar hand of collaboration to less fortunate members of the vast IT
fraternity in the country to share some of the fruits of IT success?

Getting back to the cricket controversy. While the Aussies stood firmly
behind their countryman, many in the UK-ranging from David Gower to Nasser
Hussain to the legendary Dicky Bird-have voiced concern over the extreme
stance taken by Hair. And the rather ponderous action of Pakistan captain
Inzamam, waiting till tea before deciding to protest and then continuing to be
undecided on the way forward, could well have cost him his job and his
reputation if the letter from Hair had not made its way into the public. There
is no substitute for clarity of objectives and actions to avoid getting into
such a mess. Something for our young professionals in a still young industry to
think about!