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The Nasscom Quality summit held in Bangalore threw up inevitable
debates about the definition of quality in the changing world of customer
expectations, and the apparent paradox between innovation and quality. And, for
the many hundreds present there, there was much to ponder over and implement in
their organizations.
Kiran Karnik talked about the slow progress of infrastructure
improvement in most of the cities which is coming in the way of the progress of
the industry, which has to spend more time on managing these issues than on the
core business of delivering quality products and services. This is indeed an
issue which I realized when it took me more time to get the car out of the car
park in Bangalore airport than it took to drive the seventy or so miles from
Shanghai city to the Pudong international airport. And, the joke is that when
the new airport finally arrives, the absence of proper approach roads may well
add a couple of hours more to our plans each waya most unwelcome prospect!
| A proper
process for continuing innovation was more important for an industry than
waiting for one breakthrough innovation |
Lakshminarayanan of Cognizant, who is also the current chairman
of Nasscom, struck an important chord when he suggested that meeting customer
expectations has to be the main definition of good quality. The classical ISO
definition of "fitness for purpose" also suggests clear definition of
purpose, which has to be derived from what the customer expects.
An interesting CEO panel with two multinationals, Motorola and
Phillips Software Center, indulged in an exciting debate on the innovation
imperative. The issue that Kiran raised earlier in the day, that too much
emphasis on process adherence and specification rigidity could come in the way
of true unstructured creativity and innovation came up for much debate what
emerged was that a proper process for continuing innovation was more important
for an industry than waiting for one breakthrough innovation. As one young
entrepreneur returned from Silicon Valley rightly remarked, it would be the
availability of a support system that would enable innovation to receive its
true rewards in the marketplace.
Quality, innovation, and security will continue to be the
dominant themes for both the IT and BPO sectors of this industry and the rising
input costs will put additional pressure on organizations to focus on cost of
poor quality, eliminate rework, and substantially improve productivity of
resources. The capabilities of young graduating engineers and computer
applications graduates continues to be a matter of concern and the need to
replace or supplement high cost manpower with younger talent will actually put
the issue into even sharper focus. There are stirrings of life in the academic
environment in our country with IIT Madras taking the lead with innovative ideas
to build industry-academia partnerships and widen the base of quality student
output. Hitherto localized institutions like Symbiosis are also expanding to an
all India presence. The moves by many of the industry software firms to set up
finishing schools for talent, some in partnership with key clients who provide
the domain expertise, will make graduates ready for immediate deployment.
One remark that came out of the conference, and that the industry may well
consider is reducing salaries a few notches in the coming year to cool down
employment cost that is reaching unmanageable levels. It is interesting to see
the number of solutions that companies are finding to maintain their
profitability in an environment where not just costs but also the rupee value
against all major currencies has been rising sharply. Whether it is salary
reduction or wage freezes or strong utilization and performance focus as many of
us have done, this is a difficult phase for the sector as it focuses on
maintaining profitability levels. The volume demand continues to be strong and
customers are obliging with better rates, so the growth story should continue!
The author is deputy chairman & MD of
Zensar Technologies and an Executive Council member of NASSCOM for 2007-09.
He can be reached at ganesh@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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