Unsung heroes and mavericks who made the Indian IT magic

Hearing the word ‘Maverick’ may remind you of Tom Cruise before you think of the equally adventurous firmament of the Indian software industry. But reading some lines from the book called ‘The Maverick Effect’ will tell you, without doubt, that Harish Mehta has flown into every tricky and exciting corner that the pilots of Indian IT trajectory struggled with, enjoyed and blazed a trail with. Mehta, a prominent angel investor, the founder and executive chairperson of Onward Technologies Ltd. and the founding member and the first elected chairman of NASSCOM, has a lot to recount, and interpret, as he flies back into the memory lane of the last few pivotal decades. Like legends like Dewang Mehta and FC Kohli. Like facing turning points of the scale that the Satyam Crisis or Outsourcing business was. Like the equation between Nasscom and MAIT, work-life balance, IP and much more that adds substance to the gloss of this industry.

Sit back and find out why he says: “Nasscom was like a start-up with nothing much to lose. We were as hungry as we were foolish.” Lean forward and ask why he observes: “Today, an Indian engineer is respected more than an average engineer from the West. Some of us may take glory for granted. But none of it was accidental.” Let’s start that jet-ride with this interview.

What spurred you to write this book—was it always taking shape in your mind or was there a specific trigger or eureka moment?

I am reminded of an African proverb as I respond to this question: “Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.”

In the Indian IT and NASSCOM’s case, there hasn’t been an historian to write about our tales. The trigger was not a singular event, per se. The seed of the book was planted over the years when people asked me how the IT industry came into existence and the role played by NASSCOM in it. People would also wonder how an institution like NASSCOM survived with so many strong personalities at the helm, especially when each of them was a fierce competitor. While answering those questions, I realized that no one has tried to piece together the NASSCOM history. Also, our industry still doesn’t get the long-overdue respect for its contribution to the shaping of the country. I wanted to rectify that and talk about the role played by NASSCOM in the same. Finally, with the book I wanted to shed light on the unsung heroes and mavericks that made this magic happen!

Which is your favourite chapter in this and why?

I think it is difficult to pick one part of the book as favorite. I would rather respond to this question as, “What part of the book would you want the readers to read multiple times and share with others?”

The answer is Chapter 14 (Transformation 2.0) where I try to write about my vision for the India of tomorrow and what it would take to reach there. While India has unique fundamental strengths, we also face unique structural challenge. With the advantage of the learnings that I derived from the creation of NASSCOM, this chapter talks about some approaches that can dramatically contribute to making India a developed nation.

It also talks about how all stakeholders need to work hand in hand, own shared responsibility and co-create the “Sone Ki Chidiya 2.0” with consultative policymaking. I’ve tried to shed light on the importance of the talent–skills–education–training–delivery flywheel to ensure success. I hope that the young and the experienced learn to lean on each other’s strengths and take India ahead by helping create millions of technopreneurs.

Any previous titles that you toyed with before deciding on ‘The Maverick Effect’?

The word Maverick is an interesting one. One of the definitions says that Mavericks are the ones that look at a problem in an unconventional way and come up with unconventional solutions. In the NASSCOM’s journey, each person has been a Maverick and they kept their fiercely competitive instincts on the side to come together under one banner (i.e. NASSCOM), and were driven by consensus to keep India first in their decisions and actions.

So, while we thought of numerous names for the book, we zeroed down on ‘The Maverick Effect’ as it reflected the outcome of the lives of these mavericks that ensured we reached where we are.

You say in the book that your biggest disappointment was the invisibility of software revenues. Can you translate that for the current era?

While researching and writing the book, my team and I struggled to find accurate export data. I personally reached out to many RBI officials, numerous economists and bureaucrats. None of them had reliable data. This is probably due to different accounting standards and business models which vary from country to country and company to company.

To arrive at my numbers, I eventually decided to triangulate data. We also sought the services of an economist and professor at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) for deeper research and validation.

At the time of writing this article, the data is still not available easily. Whatever we have is not directly usable and is not in one place.

It was quite interesting to read about the breakaway struggle from MAIT that led to Nasscom’s genesis? Why was it an important, and healthy, fight to fight back then?

There was never a question of a fight.

MAIT is an association of hardware companies. Back in the day, most pure play software companies were not even members of MAIT. While MAIT was probably the biggest, it kept its focus on hardware. In fact, back in the day many hardware companies gave away software for free. It was thus hard for them to understand our challenges and perspective and it was hard for us to convince them.

On the other hand, we were very sure that we needed to focus on software and specifically on software services. All we wanted was representation for software and we felt that the group at MAIT were unable to understand us. The intangibility of software in general and software services in particular made it tougher. More than just the MAIT, even the officials applied rules of hardware to software exports. Like I have mentioned in the book, one time, a customs official asked us for samples of software services being exported and even stapled a floppy disk to papers!

One of India’s major strengths is its 5 million software engineers trained in multiple areas. The dream could be ‘Let there be Indian software in every product on Earth’. And maybe beyond Earth too, whenever that happens.

So, this was not a fight per se but an attempt to get ourselves a much-needed representation.

STPI strategy, fighting the Satyam crisis, the ‘co-opetition’ model–which one stays top in your memory when you think back about the NASSCOM journey?

The Satyam saga and how we collectively fought and came out of it has to be the finest hour for NASSCOM. It was this incident that validated our collective hard work of so many years.

Can we draw any parallels with India’s software industry’s renaissance and what we are trying with the Make--in-India fillip now? Can we replicate the ‘Come for the cost, Stay for the quality’ formula?

One of India’s major strengths is its 5 million software engineers trained in multiple areas. The dream could be ‘Let there be Indian software in every product on Earth’. And maybe beyond Earth too, whenever that happens :)

“Today, an Indian engineer is respected more than an average engineer from the West. Some of us may take glory for granted. But none of it was accidental.” What can hardware players learn from their software siblings in achieving global competitiveness and putting themselves confidently on the world map?

I’d say they need to start with building trust with policy makers. This can be done through openness, collaboration and presenting a unified voice of industry. Once that trust has been built, the industry and the policy makers need to jointly use proactive consultative models to arrive at the right policies.

Once this base is ready, the players must focus on long term goals that are sustainable. After all, value creation is always bigger and better than valuation! I would like to see the focus on real and unique problems that India is facing and not on merely reverse engineering western models and success stories.

Finally, if competing players came together to collaborate, they could invest in the ecosystem and grow the industry as a whole.

You dedicated a full chapter to the importance of IP with ‘Copyright vs. the Right to Copy. How much does India need to catch up on upstream research strengths, patents etc.? What’s missing?

In my mind, this is more critical than it ever was. It is crucial to build innovation driven companies to solve hundreds of problems that we face in India. Without proper IPR and IP protection, animal spirits of entrepreneurs will not be unleashed.

There is a need to strengthen enforcement and the judiciary. They need to be not only fair but also efficient. And this is the starting point. Unless we fix this, don’t expect innovations to be owned by Indian companies.

What was the toughest day and the biggest day for NAASCOM—while you were there?

The toughest day was when Dewang Mehta, who was president in the 1990s, passed away in 2001 at the age of 39. He had helped make the NASSCOM brand increasingly chic and dramatic but ruffled a number of feathers along the way. That time NASSCOM needed a “peacetime leader with a calmer vision.” Kiran Karnik (ISRO, Disney Channel) joined us and built a strong focus on data and research. He helmed the organization through the 9/11 and financial crises of 2008.

The biggest day was probably the one when FC Kohli (on behalf of TCS) accepted to be a member of NASSCOM. Tata group companies including TCS had 70% of the market share and we had to have them onboard. Otherwise we would have been just one more association with no impact on national policies.

You have beautifully quoted Douglas Adams ‘ Anything invented after you’re 35 is against the natural order of things’. Should that terrify us as we see the world upending every industry and job in the midst of a digital storm? Any advice to Indian entrepreneurs, and hardware players as they prepare to make the most of breakthroughs like AI, Blockchain, Quantum Computing etc.? What mistakes should they be wary of?

For entrepreneurs my advice is to believe in three things: Trust, Spirit of Collaboration, Desire to learn from each other. The one attribute that’s required of all entrepreneurs is to ensure that they have their feet firmly on the ground and head firmly on their shoulders. Failures and successes are part of life. I have succeeded after learning from my failures and failed despite some successes. In today’s era, it is necessary to regroup and figure ways out for every problem out there.

Is India still trying to keep up with the Joneses?

India’s culture and landscape are markedly different from other countries. For example, we might be 3rd on the list of countries with startup unicorns (with 100 of them), but then we are still 144th in the world when it comes to per capita income. So, I don’t think we are in the race per se.

Talking specifically about the IT industry, to be successful like Google or Microsoft, in my view, Indian entrepreneurs need to address these very challenges that are unique to India, i.e. job creation, easy access to citizen services for all, affordability, IP-driven innovation etc.

Did you like Dewang Mehta’s Jekyll’s side or the Hyde side? Any advice on work-life balance, mental health and ‘Arbeit macht frei’ from what you observed in Dewang Mehta’s life?

Work-life balance, while important, is only a part of the puzzle. I believe that a person must have all four facets of life (spiritual, emotional, physical and intellectual) in harmony. All four must be fulfilled to create a balance.

Creating a million technopreneurs—that’s some ambition! Are we MOVE-ing on the right track?

Yes, we are in the right direction in creating a million technopreneurs. I can say this with some certainty as I ensure that I spend time with young entrepreneurs and try to understand from them how they thinkand operate.

I would advise that rather than focusing overtly on “atma nirbharta,” we must encourage “paraspar nirbharta’ or mutual dependence, particularly due to the complex and intertwined nature of technology. The focus should be specifically on encouraging rural entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs.

Harish S. Mehta

Founder and Executive Chairman, Onward Technologies Ltd

By Pratima H

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in