Tuesday, December 2, 2008

NASSCOM CEO Summit: 'Beyond Horizon'

The National Association of Software and Services Company (NASSCOM), has organized its 1st. national event, “CEO Summit : Beyond Horizon” in Kolkata on 11th and 12th November 2008. NASSCOM is a global trade body comprising of member companies that includes software development, software services, software products, IT-enabled/BPO services and e-commerce. It has over 1200 members that includes 250 global companies.

The event has focused on the key issues of the industry today.

During the Inaugural Address, Mr. Som Mittal, President , Nasscom pointed out
  • the effective use of tech resources by IT-BPO industry
  • emphasized that its time to make investments with domain expertise
  • that small industries need support for growth and prosperity to become big corporates
Mr. Raj Jain, Chairman and Managing Director , R S Software said that
  • he truly believes Kolkata to deserve the brand for IT in India
  • he recollected the memories of early days of today’s IT hub in Kolkata
  • he admitted that the barren place on 14th Nov. 1991 has emerged a lot
  • SME s being the core of Entrepreneur’s dream
  • he suggested “SME Mantra”, viz., stay focused and stay flexible.

The phases of evolution of Satyam Computer Service Limited as described by Mr. Ramlinga Raju, Chairman, Satyam Computer Service Limited, has encouraged the participants to set new visions for life. Mr. Raju emphasized on the fact

  • that knowledge allows growth
  • that resources to be available globally
  • to mitigate the risk by spreading access to customers beyond U.S
  • focussed on leadership and innovations in offering newer services for customer benefits.

Kolkata has the capability of handling the many fold growth of Nasscom , said Shri Siddharth, Principle Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Govt. of West Bengal. He has the dream

  • to connect the villages with broadband
  • to make the villagers computer literate
  • the children to handle computer like any other acquired reflex like cycling or swimming.

Dr. Debesh Das, Minister-in-Charge, Information Technology Deptt. has

  • encouraged the SME s by revealing their contribution in quantity and quality towards the growth of the economy.
  • described the present recession as a passing phase and addressed all to get ready for the next boom.
  • ensured that Govt. will pay the subsidy for the rigorous training needed by IT companies.
  • discloses that Govt. has taken up projects to support business to be started within 24 hours.

While addressing the session on Leveraging Global Delivery Management Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, Executive Director, PWC, said that

  • services sector has adopted Global Delivery Model model far later in compared to manufacturing.

Mr. Robert Latimore, partner, PWC, depicted the transition from outsourcing to global delivery model. He believes in providing

  • maximum efficient service delivery with right skill, in right place and at right time
  • his views are supported by the drivers of global delivery model
  • drivers comprises of the managing cost, improved services, increase agility and access to high skilled labours.

According to Mr. Sanjiv Puri, Managing Director, ITC Infotech Ltd.,

  • the new forces that drives business are de regularization, digitization and globalization
  • the ongoing trends shows 80% of the world’s GDP will be sold across intrnationl boarders
  • to create shared strategic vision with high degree of collaboration
  • R & D and analytics as the unexplored areas of innovations in I.T.
Mr. Sunil Bhaskaran, Chief, Global Wires Business – TATA STEEL
  • discussed the application of wires in power industry as well as in merchant products.

During the session, The Emerging Entrepreneur, Mr. Avi Basu, CEO, Connectiva Systems, emphasized on

  • the burning zeal to do something on your own
  • discussed the requirement of a strong team which eventually being the DNA of Connectiva, as the investors enquire about that primarily
  • his vision is to prove products not as luxury but as a commodity.
Mr. Sanjay Chakrabarty, Partner, Columbia Capital has shaken the conscious of the audience by saying
  • all business plans are wrong as you cannot predict the future
  • has discussed some major issues like predictability vs. flexilbility which says that whether the cost flexible enough or not relative to the revenue streams
  • coverd the issues regarding scalability and differentiation and approached execution along with vision
  • suggested that to be a successful entrepreneur it is required to be alert at all the times and should have a resilient mindset.
Mr. George Zacharias, CEO, 7 Strata, who have been a very successful professional earlier and now an entrepreneur has shared his valuable experiences and said that
  • passionate people are required
  • the key figure for growth is to identify a strategy and to execute it with right people.

As delivered by Mr. Sashi Reddy, Founder & Chairman, Applabs,

  • it is very important to get the first customer.
  • an entrepreneur must be optimistic and learn to think small initially to get the first customer.
The third session on the 1st. day on Looking at tomorrow : Digital Divide and Digital Union the paradigm of the changing society was explored.

According to Mr. Satish Jha , President & CEO, One Laptop Per Child,

  • it is very important to get acquainted with the technology right from childhood
  • shown a model of a laptop which is shockproof and is meant to be used by the children.
The 2nd day started with the session chaired by Mr. Bikram Dasgupta, Chairman and CEO, Globsyn Group of Companies based on Competency vs. Experience: Is It an HR Issue. Mr. Bikram Dasgupta has
  • entitled this period as the google- facebook era
  • approached the speakers to share their views regarding the fact that whether niche skill set deserve much higher salry than the experienced employees or not.

Based on the above topic Mr. Kiran Karnik, Immediate Past president, NASSCOM, expressed his thoughts by saying that

  • experience is truly required as they have seen the downturns and are aware of the ways to overcome the crisis.
  • may be a competent person who is not experienced enough can get puzzled in such a situation.
  • also narrated the importance of having diversified experience.
Mr. R Sankar, Executive Director, Pricewaterhouse Coopers,
  • defined experience as a competency that is required sometimes.
  • said that seniority is not the necessary tool to measure competency whereas experience can be considered as one.
  • the way of behavior should be rational towards the experienced person showing him respect.
  • encouraged the youngsters to get diversified in terms of their skill sets and to gain the experience based on that diversification.
The vision of Cognizant is to define competency as a combination of skill, knowledge and behavior as per Mr. Bhaskar Das, Vice President- Human Resources. He said
  • experience enables the ability to see a pattern from an emerging trend as per his vision
  • that wisdom really blooms
  • agreed upon the point of necessity of diversified experience as per the version of the previous speakers.
Dr. Gautam Sengupta, Chief Operating Officer, Kitchen Appliances India Ltd. approached to the audience to
  • remove the attitudinal clots.
  • Defined the problem as common for both the experienced as well as the inexperienced persons.
  • suggested to set inspiring goals inside the organization to resolve conflicts and to ensure competency.
  • The organization as a whole should become a learning organization by adapting changes and removing the segregation between the new entrants and the old legacy.
  • showed a new way in exploring the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP market) in our country itself.

Finally Mr. Bikram Dasgupta, Chairman and CEO, Globsyn group of Companies addressed the audiences by

  • thanking NASSCOM for such a wonderful effort
  • added that this knot of NASSCOM which has brought everybody under one roof
  • we should look forward to work together and explore the pool of talents available in our country.
The mega event came to an end with everybody participating there in the summit having new views towards life and with a refreshed mind thinking differently, positioning differently and encompassing differently.

Contributed By:
Rik Das
(Globsyn Business School)

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