It Just Could Be …

It just could be … WORLD’S COOLEST COMPANY. Full disclosure: They paid my way to Japan. But I am not, by nature, an endorser of my speaking Clients. As one colleague, Nancy Austin (co-author of A Passion for Excellence), said in print, “Tom almost takes pains to trash those who pay him, so acute is his sense of integrity.” Thanks, Nancy! So when I say I’m besmitten with Infosys, I’ll promise you it ain’t no paid endorsement. I guess you could call them exhibit #1, pro or con, of off-shoring.

Infosys is Bangalore-based, and do quite a bit of their work near home port. But make no mistake, they’re winning top-of-the-market work because they are good and aim stratospherically high, not because they are cheap! In fact, the hook for me is their audacious vision for leading the revolution in IS/IT—and the Talent they’re amassing from around the world to pull it off.

Infosys aims to do no less than generate revolutionary approaches that turn whole industries upside down. They are not only not limiting themselves to mundane IS chores, they are not limiting themselves at all—they are ready, willing, and able to take on an IBM or Accenture as strategic enterprise masterminds, as well as effective implementers of complex enterprise-system activities.

They have won every international quality award you can name, and I am eagerly looking forward to visiting their Bangalore campus next month (on my own dime) when I accompany my wife, Susan Sargent, on her semi-annual sourcing trip to India. (She’ll do textiles; I’ll play at bits and bytes.) Wherever they operate, Infosys is accumulating a talent pool to die for. For example, droves of U.S. and European top-school grads, including MBAs, are signing up to do a tour in Bangalore for a quarter or less of what they could earn elsewhere.

If the firm can contend for “best there is,” and I believe it can, a lot of the reason is Chairman Narayana Murthy. The softspoken but far-seeing boss, like his company, has won every conceivable Best Boss/Entrepreneur/Businessman in Asia award. Why not “Best in World,” I’d ask. He is a true business visionary—both in terms of the impact he insists Infosys can have on the world and the humanity of the enterprise he has created. It takes but a few minutes in his presence for even an old (!) and well-traveled (!) hand like me to feel I’ve had a near once-in-a-lifetime exposure to a special person. And to the amazement of an/this American, his humility runs as deep as his accomplishments run tall.

Hey, check Infosys out! (Start with the annual report, available at Infosys.com.)

Not Your Ordinary Vision

Consider this extract from the chairman’s letter in the Infosys annual report, describing the company’s Global Delivery Model, these days featuring strategic consulting: “By making the Global Delivery Model both legitimate and mainstream, we have brought the battle to our territory. That, after all, is the purpose of strategy. We have become the leaders and the incumbents [IBM, Accenture, etc.—TP] are followers, forever playing catch up. Every company now needs to articulate an India strategy. … However, creating a new business innovation is not enough for rules to be changed. The innovation must impact clients, competitors, investors and society. We have seen all that in spades. Clients have embraced the model and are demanding it in even greater measure. The acuteness of their own circumstance, coupled with the capability and value of our solution, has made the choice not a choice. Competitors have been dragged kicking and screaming to replicate what we do. They face trauma and disruption, but the game has changed forever. Investors have grasped that this is not a passing fancy, but a potential restructuring of the way the world operates and how value will be created in future. …”

Brash? Absolutely! But oh so much better than 100 … or 1,000 … corporate value statements that begin, “We aim to create value for our stakeholders …” Infosys does aim to enrich its stakeholders, but to do so not by pocketing the leavings from a few efficiency improvements, rather from Changing the World! Amen … for the audacity. (Hint: I’d not bet against them! See you in Bangalore!)

Progress

I rail … and rail and rail … about our inattention to the Women’s market and the Boomer/Geezer market. Upon arriving in the U.S. (O’Hare, it of the endless delays in The Summer of Late), I grabbed the most recent BusinessWeek, and was treated to the following headline: “BABY-BOOMER, COME HOME: Gap Hopes a New Chain Will Bring Back Women Who Once Bought Its Jeans.” Yes, Gap plans to give The Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy a full-scale new sibling, aimed directly at boomer women, a group correctly (in my view) called “marketing’s sweetest of sweet spots” by the author of the marvelous book, Ageless Marketing. There’s hope. Perhaps.

WIRED

WIRED is, as usual, wired this month. Read the August issue lead story on former Celera Genomics boss Craig Venter. In his latest venture, he aims to learn everything about everything, when it comes to life on the planet. Oh how I love such boldness! Ego the size of Mount Rushmore? Sure. And why not! Timid souls leave me cold, in August or any other month.

Women’s Rights Pay Off

For those of you who share my passion for the “women’s thing,” purchase a copy of the May/June 2004 issue of Foreign Affairs. Then read the awesome piece by Isobel Coleman titled “The Payoff From Women’s Rights”(free preview). She argues persuasively that the issue is not merely about the right thing to do, but it also helps curb extremism, spurs democracy, and is … The BEST Way … to spur Economic Development. As women become fully educated and engaged economically, incomes rise, birth rates fall, agricultural productivity improves, more emphasis is placed on educating one’s kids, etc, etc, etc. Also included is a strong pitch for micro-financing, of which I’ve been a raving fan for years. The article quotes economist, Harvard president, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as saying that “girls’ education may be the investment that yields the highest returns in the developing world.”

Good stuff! (Awesome stuff!)

Photo Op

Tom got a chance to rub shoulders with Bill Clinton at the infoUSA event in Aspen, Colorado, on 16 July 2004. Tom was honored to meet him … to say the least.

dym.com

Meaning: Destroy Your Music.com.

I went to see Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan Friday night—two American legends on one bill! Catch this tour if you get a chance! Willie did all his old favorites. His set felt comfy, as familiar as an old friend—fantastic. A surprise: His son Lucas did Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Texas Flood.” Lucas didn’t try to duplicate Stevie; he made the song uniquely his own.

Bob Dylan, too, did all his old favorites. But … he hacked ’em up, rasped ’em out, rocked ’em hard … and generally tore them to pieces. Only to put them back together in new and exciting ways. With every note he was saying—shouting—the Dylan you remember is no more, he’s gone. This is Dylan here, this is Dylan now. Embrace it. Love it—or not.

Lesson: Reinvention is a wonderful thing. It’s possible in any life, at any age, in any enterprise. Of course, Dylan has done it before. How about you? When was the last time you re-imagined yourself?

Merging Resurging

In this week’s USNews.com article on the current resurgence of the corporate merger, Jodie T. Allen quotes Tom as the “naysayer.” Tom’s reaction to last fall’s merger and acquisition fever was a warning that merger is too often “what you do when you run out of other ideas … At best, 50 percent work, and the pessimists say 20 percent.” Tom does praise the “carefully built conglomerates” that benefit both stockholders and consumers, but cites the motivation for agglomeration in one word: “Ego.”

Event Slides

Tom speaks to the Infosys Leadership Forum 2004 in Nagano, Japan, 6 August 2004. Get the slides here.

Having a Ball!

Delays in Albany. Delays in O’Hare. (No surprise.) Twelve hour+ flight to Narita/Japan. Meaning: Blog time! I’m having a ball with this! As you saw we finally added “Comment” capability last week. Thanks for taking advantage of it so quickly! I promise to respond to some of the Comments as soon as my jet lag recedes. What day is it, anyway? Virtual Tom sends regards to one and all from Nagano. (Where I am ruefully preparing my first seminar ever to tippy-top Japanese management. Ye gads! How do you think “China Roars” will go over as a headline?)