Riding The Tiger

Congratulations to Mahindra Satyam for being able to wade through the mess and get the numbers for 2009 and 2010 released.  This is a great step forward for a wounded company that has worked hard to rebuild itself.  We feature many of the leadership practices implemented to get Satyam through the turbulent times in Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times.

See Economic Times New video:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/videoshow/6652902.cms

We are happy for their ability to pull through, and especially believe the way the people reacted, responded and courageously led through those darkest of times was inspriring.  However, we are concerned about the message delisting from the NYSE sends to investors and customers in the US in particular because such a large amount of their revenue comes from there.  What is Mahindra Satyam’s plan for the U.S. investors who are now let in limbo?

Read more at:

Wall Street Journal – FY 10 Satyam Not out of the Woods Yet
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100929-710574.html

Economic Times –Mahindra Satyam Should be Higher in next 12-18 months
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/views/recommendations/Mahindra-Satyam-should-be-higher-in-12-18-months-Satish-Betadpur-Independent-International-Investment-Research-PLC/articleshow/6651290.cms

India’s fraud-hit Satyam posts loss but is on the mend
http://www.physorg.com/news204955945.html

Business Week — Fraud-Hit Satyam Narrows Loss After Mahindra Purchase 
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-29/fraud-hit-satyam-narrows-loss-after-mahindra-purchase.html

Economic Times — Mahindra Satyam Board approves delisting from NYSE
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/software/Mahindra-Satyam-board-approves-delisting-from-NYSE/articleshow/6653226.cms

Dear Ed & Priscilla,

I do not know whether you recall me as VP-Finance at Satyam (now Mahindra Satyam). Prior to Satyam, I was Director Finance / CFO for Canon India for 5+ years, all the buzz about a growing IT services organisation , prestigious awards, elite board of directors, Corporate governance awards everything lured me into this organisation, 3.5 years prior to the break out of  “Riding the tiger” news. Until the news broke out we had no inkling of any of these. Each one of us in business finance where I belong to stretched all out for excellence to win many deals and kept on innovating. It was like our career was soaring quite high when in mid-air the career exploded to pieces and we come crashing down.

There were so many well wishers saying do you need any help, some were advising us make the career moves immediately. Each one of us did not know what to do since we had been saddled with loan of housing, we had to put a confident face hiding our personal emotions and run for finding the money in the bank (driving collection) to pay the first month Salary. Personally would say we four of us (Ramesh, Murali, VVK and Self) came together and steered it with support of other leaders. Thanks to government which stepped in. Believe me we had the land and property we wanted to pledge and take loan for Satyam- no banker or financier were willing to provide the same in the first 2 days, rather bankers starting lining up to protect their interest.

The entry of Government directors and their swift action helped us to ensure that we had the audience of the banks and we were able to gradually steer things together. As finance team we were sandwiched from multiple angles, we had to handle agencies – multiple, new board, bankers and operations to protect the interest in addition to our team motivation – many of the team members stood together to play the support role. Believe me from nowhere we required to don the hat of compliance and treasury role which we had not handled before in Satyam , build the basic data which we did not have access to and built all data metrics to enable the sale of Satyam.

When the rechristened “Mahindra Satyam” was born again then before the new employer we needed to prove ourselves to be pure, trust worthy and of integrity and were only innocent fools. Now is almost a year and half if we look back we have waded through the woods but in the journey one thing is coming out clear personally when I speak to many of my colleagues which really hurts as a professional but the learning experience of continuous adaptation handling crisis by the minute has certainly made me more confident to face anything worst.

The world finds it hard to believe – you are a senior finance professional, you may say you were part of business finance and how come you were not aware of it. Be it a consultant or new employer who wants to hire or anyone finds it difficult to believe it, this incident has surely tarnished professional image in one’s CV and left a hurt feeling. While one would feel confident in one’s inner soul that am right and have strong values and beliefs but public perception of Satyam Finance team is a “Big?” We had 50-60% attrition despite all these in Finance function, the middle layer is completed wiped out, we have been handling reskilling and re-training all junior most resources who are graduates and still surviving. I do not know what will change this and we are patiently waiting for it to dawn. But personally and professionally I feel I had been able to stay on to save those 50000+ employees to anchor somehow in their lives…….. Subbu

Throughout an organization’s life, additional norms, behaviors, and practices creep in. This reality is even more pronounced during turbulent times. Positive behaviors may include greater pride, fierce loyalty to the organization, a stronger work ethic, broader collaboration, and boosted collegiality. Negative behaviors may include fear, distrust, and anger that results in hoarding of information and unhealthy internal competition. Together, both positive and negative behaviors change the organizational culture.

Charles Hill and Gareth Jones (2001, 396) define organizational culture as the “beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines, or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in particular situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another.” Unfortunately, countless leaders do not recognize the influence that organizational culture has on the past, present, and future accomplishments of their enterprise. Even more important is their lack of understanding about how they influence the culture.

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The canvas we were painting was a collaborative effort, a true partnership. We were partners in developing world-class leaders. Our inter- and intra-team diversity made us stronger with team members from Nigeria, Germany, Greece, Columbia, Sweden, the United States, and of course India. We had measured significant business impact and won numerous international recognitions.

We created best practices and next practices that were being proliferated to diverse industries all over the world, and were the masterminds of a new model to build global leaders faster. We were the first organization outside of the United States to receive top honors in ASTD’s BEST Award; and we had journal articles, numerous interviews, and keynote presentations and requests to add to our beautiful canvas of success.

Then, without warning our canvas was taken from us. We watched as our Taj Mahal of learning began to crumble. On January 7, 2009, Ramalinga Raju, the founder and chairman of Satyam Computer Services, told his board of directors that he had inflated the amount of cash on the balance sheet by nearly $1 billion, incurred a liability of $253 million on funds arranged by him personally, and overstated Satyam’s September 2008 quarterly revenues by 76 percent and profits by 97 percent. There we were, close to 50 of us huddled in this small conference room, watching the television, shocked beyond belief…

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