This article, which has been doing the rounds on the Internet, has been written by an unnamed Satyam employee. Though the writer tries to make a saint out of Ramalingam Raju by throwing mud on others, what he does unwittingly is to bring out the companys culture in its true colours. And he forgets the basic fact that it is the Founder and the CEO who actually decides what culture to have in his company. His lack of focus in this area has led to the employees behaving unethically. The article is reproduced in italics and my thoughts are in brackets in bold
At a time when almost 90 per cent of my Satyam friends are cribbing about the fraud and betrayal by (former Satyam chairman) B Ramalinga Raju, I have a slightly different opinion.
I know it is bold of me to write this in black and white, but this comes straight from my heart, and experience.
Let me start by quoting an example from 2006. Most of my friends were unemployed, with 50-60 per cent plus marks, with a B.Tech degree from an average university, and madly hunting for a job. Whether people accept it today or not, the truth is that Satyam was the ONLY saviour and the only mass recruiter who was ready to accept students who had backlog. It also did not put a very strict 'minimum-marks' criterion. (Here the writer is proudly hailing the fact that Satyam was the ONLY company to mass recruit very average and poor students. A student who has a backlog in his Engineering degree has to be a 'genius' for the only objective of all these Universities is to make as many students graduate as possible. One has to be downright dumb to fail in an Indian University Examination. The fact that Satyam was taking in students who had failed or has arrears reflects the poor benchmark set by Satyam in recruiting staff. No wonder, the company has some poor employees as will be revealed in the article later. Never ever compromise on quality while recruiting people. Also, did Satyam recruit these below average students so that they will demand less? Poor raw material results in poor quality finished products.)
And this was true not only for my small college in Lucknow, but also many such colleges across India.
Satyam is the fourth-largest IT company in India. Looking at India's population and the rising unemployment, I really want to thank Raju for giving some 54,000 Indians jobs at least for all these years. ( How many of them were productive?)
He was the reason for the revival of confidence and the reason for the bread-and-butter for many a family. ( If this logic is to be applied, then Dawood Ibrahim should be a God. Many families survive because of him. The fact that the heads of these families are pimps and murderers is an incosequential side issue)
Also, Satyam training was renowned all over India. The STC (Satyam Training Centre) created numerous love stories and unexpected rekindling of a youthful environment where girls and boys were more independent than in their colleges. (The writer doesnt write about the Quality of the training. It is revealing that the highlight is the 'free' and 'liberal' atmosphere in teh training centre. Was that the objective of having a STC?)
I remember most of my Satyam friends felt that they made better friends during Satyam's three-to-six month training than they did in the four years of studying B.Tech. (Again, making what comes out is Employees making friends!) .Unfortunately people forget to thank God in sad times. I know what Raju did is deplorable, and unpardonable. He should have treated the business more formally, and not dealt with it like it was his family affair.
He should have straightened up at least a couple of years ago. Why did he hire so many non-potential candidates and keep them on the bench? When were the managers last told that if they don't work hard, they will lose their job? (Note! There is no focus on performance and productivity). Business cannot be run in such a lousy fashion.I have a lot of friends at Satyam, both male and female. Moreover I network a lot and thus am fairly well clued into what is happening at the company.
I have seen how people tailgate to Satyam, how they give their cards to others to be swiped on their behalf, how female employees have gone home sharp at 6 p.m., irrespective of when they landed at the office. . ., how employees sit at home for months at a stretch, prepare for all kind of post-graduate entrance exams and still enjoy a full month's pay, how often they went for movies at local theatres at office hours, how often employees went to office just to sign on registers in the mornings and the evenings, how often they faked their health certificates, how often they put unlimited fake medical and house rental bills. . . (All the above shows total lack of moral values, ethics, professionalism and a laizzez faire culture where anything goes. If I were an investor in the Company, I would have been really worried with such indiscipline)
How can we blame just one man when EACH AND EVERY person was disloyal? (But who is responsible for creating such a culture. Definitely the founder. The wrong signals were sent out or at least the right signals were not sent out from the top. If I come late to the class, my students will walk in much later than that. And I wont have the moral right to question them. But when I start the class on time every day at 6.30 pm come what may, my students fall in line. It is as simple as that).How can we exclude the auditors like PricewaterhouseCoopers? (Who appointed them in the first place?. Mr.Raju). How can we exclude the then board of directors who tried to wash their hands off of the whole affair? (Who identified the Directors? Again Raju. AGM's are big hoaxes) . How can we exclude banks who gave hefty loans without true verification? How can we exclude the Andhra Pradesh chief minister who was lenient towards Raju ahd his fellow businessmen? How can we exclude the managers who were never able to trace which bench employee under him had been away from office and for how long? (Who recruited and trained these Managers? And why were there no system to measure accountability? Again Top Management led by Raju). Yet, how can people forget this is the same man whose ideas and potentials gave them an identity for the past several years? How many couples found the right match (was the corporate objective of Satyam making matches between employees?) at an IT industry, courtesy Satyam, and how many Andhra farmers benefited from their huge investments in Satyam shares. (And how many lost everything when the crash came?)
How can people forget that Satyam launched its offices right at the doorsteps of a residential colony, where people could simply walk to work?
The most gruesome experience that I had was when a Satyam tag wearing person was waiting to attend an interview and I overheard him saying that he was in a business meeting at the MyHome Satyam office when he was sitting right in front of me in a totally different company (little knowing that I too was a Satyam employee). (Again this reflects the culture of the company). When employees themselves show such a lousy attitude and don't care a damn for the brand they carry around their neck, how can they expect others to care? (But who encouraged this lousy attitude and lack of pride in the brand?).I am not saying that ALL Satyam employees are bad. I have known very dedicated people too, but my point is simple: before pointing fingers at others, introspect a bit. There are thousands of people who have completed certifications at the cost of Satyam, got trained at Satyam, got better jobs because of Satyam. . .
What Raju did was to keep the business of Satyam going at any cost. I see a smart man in him when he realised that it would be better to accept his mistake than be caught and tried under American laws.(This shows he has no remorse. He surrendered because the Indian laws are much more lax, not because he felt he was in the wrong. What a scum!) .I see a selfish father in him too that he put a lot at stake for Maytas. However, he resigned with dignity: it does take courage to accept your mistake in public. (Oh! Crap. Resigned with dignity? Did he have any other option. If he had not done it, the public would have slippered him)
But one cannot deny that he did create employment, which led to many others benefiting too: the tiffinwallahs, the transport people, those who rented their houses, etc. Today Satyamites call Raju a fraud. Well, the true and loyal Satyamites surely have all the reasons to call him a fraud. But the rest, who sucked every rupee out of Satyam without doing any value-addition, need to ask themselves: who is the bigger fraud?
Sad to note that even scums like Ramalingam Raju has apologists defending him.
(P.S: This post is for the benefit of my MBA students who has to learn about ethics, moral values, organization culture, personal responsibilities etc.)
