LOOK AT OUR LOGO,” INVITES THIS QUIET-SPOKEN Ramalinga Raju, Chairman of Satyam Computers Limited. “ The fractels are identical to the whole logo. This is exactly what we are building in Satyam—a culture where there is total synergy and harmony at any level, and every level.” Companies these days are undergoing enormous transformation, says the head of the 6500-strong team; the models of management, the internal structures, and so on are all undergoing a change. “Every enterprise focuses on three things—are we delighting our associates, are we creating wealth for our investors, and are we delivering lasting value to our customers?” opines Raju. “Satyam is committed to these three deliverables. In this, every Satyam employee is a leader.”

Raju outweighs the importance of synergies over everything else. “In the past, industry leveraged labor, material and facilities to control or grow in markets. This brought in a distinct sense of hierarchy, and there were leaders and followers. The IT industry has broken this mold. Knowledge is the key lever here, and it does not contain itself within hierarchy,” says Raju. “When knowledge is the single largest influence, synergy between various knowledge bodies—people, systems, markets—becomes critically important.”

Hobby Turns Hardcore Business
From a family that has been involved in the traditional business models in south India, Raju has taken his company far. “We were in many tradtional businesses in India—whenever there was a license, or an avenue to access capital, or a potential opportunity, we would explore it carefully and then take it up seriously. When I returned from the U.S., a friend told me about this new potential in IT. I took it up as a hobby, and before I knew it, the hobby became a full-fledged business,” says the chairman. “In the traditional businesses, knowledge was relegated to the background, but this new possibility showed that knowledge could aid revenues.”

Thus began the Satyam story. One of the big things working in his favor, according to Raju, was the fact that he wasn’t dependent on the commercial success of the company. He could take risks, do things unconventionally, and still move on. He did. Satyam was one of the first Indian companies—if not the first—to experiment with outsourcing in 1991. The client—John Deere & Co—was extremely apprehensive about the whole idea of outsourcing to begin with, as were the U.S. authorities. So Satyam ran the gauntlet of various government agencies for permission and clearances, hired a building on the outskirts of Molin, IL where Deere was located, put up a 64-Kbps connection between the two buildings, and forbade its 50-odd engineers from ever physically going to the client’s premises. It was an unusual beginning—but it worked.

The Network of Circles
In the fast-paced growth that Satyam has experienced, Raju and his team have derived the key strategy to be a network of circles. “In this business, there are numerous value creating entities, which need to be integrated with each other,” says Raju. “In this model of network of circles, we have a core at the centre—what we call the corporate—which is involved in policy-making, strategizing and such other direction-setting value-defining roles. Around it we have support units and around those we have the business units.” The numerous circles that lap and network with each other, reveals Raju, have brought forth leaders—unit heads who could lead the grand vision within the circle, and keep in line with the corporate circle. “A circle can have many smaller circles; the process could be endless. This rich network percolates the big idea to the last man in the company.”

The Hindu scriptures have put it very beautifully, says Raju. “If a man can possess the ability to develop the right thought, followed by the right word and deed, there is value creation in life. Manasa (thought), Vartha (word), and Karmana (actions)—are so important in life. As a head of the organization, am constantly seeking paths that would lead Satyam to offer the right thought, word and action to the world,” says Raju.

Satyam has learnt that value creation is something decided by the stakeholders, remarks the chairman, and in the process has always been trying to build teams that would deliver enhanced value creation entities. “When we recruit, we see if people can DO things. Execution, completion, crossing hurdles and finally winning is critical,” says the Satyam founder. “Winning is important, not for the company alone, but more for the individual himself.” He stresses on the right balance between thinking, doing, and communicating.


Knowledge Is Strategic
“Domain expertise, technical expertise are all given. Anybody can possess it. What we have learnt is that unless we use our knowledge and learning in practical adoption, there is no strategic strength,” says Raju. With knowledge, one must be able to scan the changes in the environment and market, and use the learning from past to adopt a suitable tactic to confront the market.

“In an agrarian society, when there was a given knowledge on how you can farm and the best practice was known to the grandfather, father and the son, it was all about implementing and maintaining,” refers Raju to his family background. “Now most of the work belongs in the conceptual domain. Therefore knowledge has come to the forefront and has become a factor of business.”

In the manufacturing age, where things changed slowly, knowledge was not that significant. One just needed people to replace those who retired. “But now you have to look back to check whether you have done better than what you did yesterday. There is so much to do because we are nowhere near exploiting and harnessing the technology potential,” says Raju, showing a glimmer of the deep passion hidden within him.

In IT services cost-competitiveness is only one of the various factors that influence buying decisions, explains Raju. There are other equally important factors such as quality process maturity, domain expertise, technological capabilities, offshore delivery capability, language skills, and quality of delivery. “We think that countries like China are far behind us on these factors and they will take a lot of time to catch up to our present levels,” says Raju. “This is how we view knowledge and learning to be our strategic strength.”

There were instances where “time to market” criteria was being replaced by alternative approaches such as “return on investments (ROI)” to evaluate IT projects. The company sees this as one more challenge to meet, with innovative ideas that could be converted into possible business opportunity, he says. “To be very honest, I understand the computer industry as a businessman, not as an engineer,” smiles the low-key chairman.

Competition Is Within
The Satyam head believes in building a culture, where every employee’s competition is from within. “Can you compete with yourself and win? Then you truly win,” says Raju. It is very important to rever the quality of thought, he stresses. In a virtual world that is wide spread today, geographies and social backgrounds matter less, and what matters is the quality of the mind. “The challenge is benchmark every service we provide against the world’s best. It does not happen overnight. We all have a long way to go,” says Raju.This, he says, is what motivates him and his team. “Technology can break down barriers of the past. We are just beginning towards that barrier-less future,” says Raju.