The Power Of Positive Propaganda

Ten days in three countries of the Asia Pacific is a pretty commonplace tour

for IT CEOs these days, but on a recent tour (where we decided to focus on the

next tier consumers and non-consumers of IT and BPO services), a number of

revelations struck us squarely in the face. The first is that the

Nasscom-Mckinsey survey was right in pointing out the 10 X opportunity that

exists in spite of the $25 bn export levels that are being touched by our

buoyant industry. The second is that while everybody is lining up at the door of

the Citibanks and Ciscos and Credit Suisses who are experienced users of

offshore services, the market opportunity that lies in the next layer of

companies and countries, who are either just sampling or staying away from

offshore outsourcing-is at least four times the dollar spend of the large

consumers. And last, but possibly the most telling, is the lack of offshore

capability awareness that persists even amongst the most erudite and well

educated managers.

There is probably a need to work on this segment as an industry. An unlikely

person who can educate us on this art is probably the much reviled Adolph

Hitler. In the story of his struggle Mein Kampf, in a brilliantly argued essay

on propaganda, Hitler argues, “The art of propaganda consists in putting the

matter so clearly and forcibly before the minds of the people as to create a

general conviction regarding the reality of a certain fact” and then comes the

gem of wisdom when he suggests that “it must appeal to the feelings of the

public rather than to their reasoning powers.”

A trend that Hitler believes worked against the Germans because, while the

Germans used comics to belittle their enemies causing their armies to be taken

by surprise by the resolve of their opponents, the Allied forces prepared their

own soldiers for the horrors of war by magnifying the negative intent of the

Germans. While Hitler haters may justifiably take this with liberal pinches of

salt, the message is certainly worth remembering-something that our business

papers with their penchant for negative news understand perfectly well these

days!

An entirely different perspective on the use of propaganda came up in two

panel discussions-the first was at the inaugural Times Ascent HR summit and

the second at the SAP India subcontinent summit. Manish, CIO of Pepsi made some

interesting points about the need for IS Chiefs' to understand the interest

and IT motivation of their peers and bosses, and ensure that they work on

building a positive and strategic view of IT. At the HR panel that discussed the

war for talent across all industry sectors there was consensus that in a country

with over a billion people, industry leaders have to find ways to look laterally

for their manpower needs instead of everybody chasing the same talent pool. More

importantly, the ability to retain people in organizations by focusing on

forgotten values such as mutual respect and large scale propagation of values

and culture is more useful to counter the growing cynicism among professionals

than just attempting to throw more and more money at the problem.

But, perhaps, the last word on the topic of using positive actions to counter

both the employee burn out in IT and the unemployment problem in the country

came from the irrepressible guru Dr Phatak of IIT-Bombay at the Nasscom Product

Forum seminar in Pune. He argued that instead of overpaying people and killing

them with seventy hour work week, it may be worth paying less and letting people

enjoy a nine to five work schedule.

Any takers?

The author is deputy chairman & MD of Zensar and is chairman of the

Nasscom Innovation Forum for 2005—07.



He can be reached at ganesh@cybermedia.co.in