This was a symposium of great minds at work. The various activities entitled to be included in this year’s event were e-discussion, panel discussion, quizzes, et cetera. The guests of honor were Commodore Dilip Kumar Mohapatra (TCS), Mr. Vijay Narsapur (Transworks), Mr. John Mathews (HDFC Asset Management) and Mr. Samson David (Infosys). Needless to say, this list itself shows how the best firms in the services sector lent their voices to help the young minds at one of India’s leading B-Schools, XIMB, get this valuable insight into the inner workings of that sector.
Commodore Dilip K. Mohapatra of TCS said that India’s emergence as a top global player in the service sector is rather paradoxical. He went on to add that post independence, the country embarked on a journey of establishing democracy, society building and economic development. While it generates only 2% of global GDP, despite having 17% of the world’s population, and the country’s per capita income standing at 3000 USD per year, one of the worlds lowest, the country has been recognized as the world’s 12th largest economy. In recent years, the main economic driver for the country has been the wide availability of human capital rather than the limited, financial capital. Sustaining India’s competitive advantage on an even-playing field in a flat world would not be an easy task. In order to beat the emerging competition from close competitors like China, Mexico, Ireland, Poland, Canada and South Africa, the country must embark up on seamless strategies to leverage comparative advantages of its lead players through value creation and innovations, global mergers and acquisitions, through concentration of related industry, increase productivity through massive infrastructure development. A balanced growth of its agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors would be needed to sustain each other.
Mr. John Mathews of HDFC Asset Management was the next to speak. According to him, fast and cut throat competition is what keeps us on the edge. Customer expectations have to be met at all times and in a consistent manner and if one can achieve this, it is a testimony to all the levels of delivery in the entire value chain. He pointed out to the audience that while stepping out from the virtual world to the real world, one must remember that the customer is always the king and there is no place in the market for a business that does not have a cutting edge service component. An able entrepreneur must always strive to build businesses that are truly world class. These businesses should be points of constant discovery and surprises for the customer. Brands that have generation value should be the focus of every businessman. For maintaining operational excellence one must thus have a combination of true leadership, state of the art systems, highly trained and motivated staff, a participatory process of management, and an extremely efficient organizational network. He went on to add that there are no road maps for organizational success. It is experience, awareness and learning that define what an organization grows to become. In his opinion, in the future it will be the ability to manage change that will determine a particular business’ operational excellence. He concluded by saying that India is recognized today for a variety of reasons and this race will be complete only through the empowerment of its people, possible by intellectual enquiry and relentless pursuit of excellence.
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Mr. Vijay Narsapur, VP Operations at Transworks, who was the penultimate speaker, highlighted the lack of operational excellence in the IT services sector in India and how this could be brought about. He focused on the service sector in the Indian IT Industry and proposed a model to reach excellence in operations as opposed to mere management, which is the current scenario. He mentioned how the services sector was rapidly gaining importance in different economies around the world and then went on to talk about how excellence was imperative in this industry. Customer experience and reliable delivery continue to be key areas among service providers and they are the areas requiring reliable models delivering excellence. Traditional Operations management as followed in the manufacturing sector has very well defined parameters of quality and established systems to maintain the required standards. The IT industry too has deterministic processes and quality models stress on the right process to attain high standards. The ITES sector on the other hand is totally different because quality here would be more probabilistic, since human beings cannot be made to behave in a consistent or repeatable manner. He then pointed out the characteristics of various excellence models for the ITES industry in India which included world class training, development of specific expertise, compensation as a function of results and behavior, more transparency in goal setting and much more. He concluded by mentioning the various reasons as to why organizations stray away from excellence.
Samson David associate VP & Head of delivery, Infosys Technologies ltd., the final speaker of the evening, brought home the hot issue of ‘Operationalizing innovation in a flat world’. He highlighted the point as to how a business can improve upon its odds and achieve operational excellence by providing goods & services to the customers at a price which is competitive. He said that any innovation that brings in some new technology operates on the basis of product life cycle which needs to be renewed once the elastic maturity phase is reached or else it reaches its end as the technology becomes obsolete. Operationalizing innovation can help a company harvest the benefits of innovation and separate it from the herd. This kind of innovation which is based on the market forces, leads to a new growth phase and creates the vector of differentiation. A product or a service which is an innovation today is a commodity for future and this makes innovation and change even more crucial for survival-though not mandatory because survival in itself is not necessary. He concluded by emphasizing on the fact that technology and software have become ubiquitous to an extent that any difference sought will depend largely on the nucleus of creativity and innovation.
The symposium was indeed a success as it provided a platform for the young innovators and managers-in-the-making at XIMB to feel the shade of stalwarts of the thriving service sector. The question-answer session that followed the primary discussions were a testimony the level of understanding gained by all those lucky enough to have been a part of the audience. In the end, it can definitely be said that this confluence of expertise, matched with the brilliance of the speakers was mesmerizing enough to have suitably enlightened all those involved with this great event called Ashwamedh.