Author, entrepreneur and co-founder of Mindtree, Subroto Bagchi warns against underestimating the power of the IT company as an institution
Q. Is Vishal Sikka indeed the “much needed agent of change” for Infosys, as some analysts are pointing out?
Many analysts tend to oversimplify things; many succumb to herd mentality. And, quite a few speak like sports commentators who forget that they are not the ones playing the sport. While a commentator has privileges, he must be respectful of the player and not trivialise things. I read the phrase “much needed agent of change”, with despair. By saying such things, we underestimate the complexity of large systems. We coin intelligent sounding verbiage that is problematic from two angles.
One, we succumb to the Indian psyche of what is called the “deliverer syndrome”. For all problems, there is only one solution: Wait for the deliverer. Once the deliverer arrives, problems will just evaporate, things will turn around and life will be beautiful once again. We need to grow out of this mindset. The second problematic aspect of the “agent of change” idea is that we falsely believe that there is only one variable. In reality, there are a massive number of variables.
Therefore, we have to drop this fixation with the deliverer idea and seek a deeper understanding of the complex and sometimes long-acting transformative process that large institutions (and not just businesses) go through.
(This story appears in the 07 August, 2015 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)