Potential to Performance in IT and ITes

That was the topic for the panel discussion held at Sui Generis - management event conducted by the Vivekananda School of PG studies, Hyderabad on 14th and 15th Feb '07. The panel consisted of four speakers:
1. Dr. Prasad, Advisor, TCS,
2. Mr. Ratan Tipirneni, CEO and Founder IP Touch, Inc
3. Mrs. Sheela Reddy K, Group Head - HR, Maytas Holdings Pvt. Ltd
4. Mr. Srihari Krishna, Manager - Risk, GE Money Servicing

Dr. Prasad is a Metallurgical Engineer and currently working with TCS as a consultant. He spoke for less then 3 min. Key points that he mentioned were - 1. Sum is more than total of individuals and 2. COmmunication is one of the key skills required.

Mr. Ratan spoke next. He used a ppt and he talked a little bit about web enabled IT and its importance in future, his company is in this area, and then he mentioned about the skills that he would look for in a graduate. He ended with a mention about the potential but also warned about consolidation.

Next it was Mrs. Sheela Reddy. She is an XLRI alumnus and has been in HR from a long time. Her son is currently doing his medicine. In the brief interaction with her, I gatherd that she was at Xl during 87-88. She mainly spoke about how important is attitude and focus on the studies. One main point that I liked was that she stressed on the importance of discipline. She mentioned about the efforts companies make to train the employees.

Lastly it was Mr. Krishna. The day before this event, I tried reaching all the speakers. Mr. Ratan infact called me himself and I called Mrs. Sheela Reddy. When I managed to reach Krishna and spoke to him on phone, I realise he was not clear about his role. I tried to guide him but I don't know what he made out of my call. When his turn to speak to came, he went in a different tangent altogether. He started stating his opinions as statements and even started praising GE on the stage. Here is an event that is supposed to be giving some gyan to the students and you have a speaker who like a first time employee starts praising his company. May be the organization is a great place but is it the right forum, as a speaker don't you have responsibility to control your emotions and be sensible? I was really surprised. So when I had to sum up I said on the valentine's day (the event was on 14th feb) if Mr. Krishna is given a chance he would change the spelling of "Love" with "LoGE."

Now I know why one of my earlier colleague, used to hate GE.

But then Mr.Krishna got it back from Dr. Prasad. Suddenly after some simple questions from the students, Dr. Prasad asked Mr. Krishna a question. He asked Krishna if what he stated about attitude that it depends on how you are bought up and cannot be changed, is based on any survey is it his opinion. Initially Krishna who was still in a trance like mood, didn;t quite get the question, so I had to explain him. And then Mr.Krishna didn't know how to respond, he meekly said that it is based on a survey but he cannot give exact details. I had to intervene and say that as Mr. Krishna couldn't provide a reference we will take it as his opinion only, which he stated as if it is truth. It was really funny to see someone unable to control his tongue and speaks some nonsense on the stage. Why do people forget that they are supposed to prepare and speaking extempore and still making sense is only a gift to few people in the world.

Later Dr. Prasad said if attitude cannot be changed, how could GE train people and other companies recruit people from GE to become CEO's, another statement made by Mr. Krishna. Somewhere I feel that loyalty to an organization is good but you should be loyal to yourself first. According to me the hierarchy of your loyalty should be something like this.

1. Yourself - without you there is no loyalty
2. Your Parents
3. Your immediate family
4. Your society
5. The nature and only then you can consider other things like your organization, your country etc.

May be for some people even before self there can be God.

One important quality I believe one should have is questioning. Question everythingis important, don't accept anything unless you have exhausted all your questions. No need to stop from doing work but even while continuing do question. If at any moment you feel something is wrong don't fear to turn back and admit the mistake.

May be I am becoming very directive but again I recommend you to question before you accept.