A part of my work profile is to meet with executives from small to medium sized software companies which are into providing software services to companies in the US, Europe and other developed nations. It is a joy to say that I have learnt a lot in this process - about running these companies, their positives and the problems faced by the respective management teams. Since my company Tekriti also has a profitable software services arm, I could connect even more with these positives and the problems. Without going into the listing of the above mentioned positives / problems in this post, I will first talk about my classification of these software services companies and their characteristics and touch upon the problems in a later post. It is important to understand the various tiers to be able to create different solutions for IT industry.

Tier 1 IT Outsourcing company - These are the big guys of IT outsourcing in India and responsible for putting India on the map when it comes to IT outsourcing. Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Polaris, Cognizant are a few and notable examples. But, overall, any IT outsourcing company which typically has more than 2500 people on their rolls is classified under this category. These guys have very strong processes, from generating and capturing sales leads to closing of leads, delivery and employee training and performance appraisals. From a client’s perspective, these companies make a very strong fit for somebody who needs process excellence more than the product excellence. Testing and maintenance projects are the best fit here.

Tier 2 IT Outsourcing company - These are typically the companies who have focused on 1-2 verticals and have developed strong expertise in these domains. They thrive mostly on the testing and maintenance projects from companies who find Tier 1 companies too big for their comfort and budget. Obviously, if your contribution to a company’s top-line is very insignificant, there are chances that you will not get the necessary attention that is required. Most of these companies will have some certification, whether it is in the CMM series or ISO series. These will typically be between 350 - 4000 people strong. They will also be interested in taking development work, as long as it is not too small.

Tier 3 IT Outsourcing company: This is where the companies really starts becoming a company. The size typically range from 75 to 500 and they rely on the individual brilliance of a handful of people rather than the processes. The company has figured out that to move to Tier 2, they need to have stronger processes. These companies thrive on the new product development projects and most OPD (outsourced product development) companies define their strategy when they were still in the Tier 3 classification. In the Indian market, there is a lot of technology talent in the companies in this tier - what they lack is the expertise in sales and marketing and bandwidth for project management. Only those companies who are operating in certain niche segments here (instead of doing everything), move from Tier 3 to Tier 2.

Tier 4 outsourcing company: These are either the entry level startups or your mom-and-pop shops. More than a company, this acts more as a partnership firm. Every founding member will be involved in active project delivery and the company has not even gotten a chance to think about the processes. They are struggling to find people, retain people and unless they move fast and reach a critical mass - they will either cease to exist or convert themselves to a mom-and-pop shop. They are good for projects where the client need certain number of people on retainer for some time.

A small graph representing the classification is shown below (you will notice that the membership of these tiered companies is fuzzy instead of being discrete).

Next on, I want to talk about where Tekriti currently is and also a few possible business opportunities in this sector.

I didn’t believe too much in the “special days” including Father’s day that we all are celebrating today, until I met my wife Paavani. I never thought that I had to wait for a day to express my gratitude to my father, and have probably never expressed it very explicitly to my dad (he always understood, I guess). But today, I wanted to express my love and respect for my dad - the other one (in-law), and wish to make his profile known to few more people than the family members.

Not only is Mr. Bajrang Bishnoi my father-in-law, he was also a noted poet, painter and a very creative person before deciding to spend his life establishing a Handmade paper factory. He has invented a lot of things in handmade paper creation and I got a chance to look at his factory a couple of weeks back - but I think that his other creative skills could have fetched him far more adulance and wealth. After all, not many people get a chance to be profiled in “Reference Asia” amongst “Who’s who of Asia” when he was still in his late 20s. Click on the photo below to see the larger image.

Long live Dad - it’s a privilege knowing you.

My last post was written on August 31st, 2007 and it’s April 10th today - so it’s been almost 7.5 months since I blogged. I did contribute a few articles in the press / magazines in the meanwhile but didn’t write here and I honestly don’t know if I have readers left (I haven’t checked the web stats in over 6 months).

So, what really happened? Did I get too busy? Did I get bored of blogging? Did I find some other way to unwind and share my thoughts? The answer is a combination of all this, however the real fact is that too many things happened in my life in these last few months - both professionally and personally. The words may not do justice to all that happened, so I will take the help of pictures in the interest of writing less.

Tekriti has a new website and now we do talk publicly about the different businesses we are in and different things we have been building over the last few years. We also moved into a new office where the entire building is occupied by us - it’s a good feeling to have a personal cabin which is bigger than our entire first office meant for 7 of the initial Tekriti employees.

It’s worth a look if you haven’t visited the site in a while.

The 2nd update is much bigger, actually much much bigger. I GOT MARRIED. Paavani and I, after a courtship of almost 3 years, finally got married on 13th March and had a good vacation after that. I came back to work only late last week and, I guess, still am not very attentive at work. Life is good, so far  

I am not somebody who is into books and can really count how many books have I read. So, I am not really an authority on providing recommendations for the books but a few people sent me the books they authored over the last few months and I wanted to explicitly mention 2 of them here.

Book 1 - Give me back my Guitar

The author is Ravindra Potharaju, who is the founder and CEO of Bangalore-based PEM Training Solutions. It’s written in a very simple and sweet language and is a collection of age-old stories in a new light where Ravi has emphasized that managing the personal energy is what defines the quality of life and success associated with it. If you are like me who doesn’t exactly read a book only for its literary values, you will like this book. It makes for a good and light bed-time reading material. The Hindu has a 1-page write up on the same. For more details, go to the book website at http://www.givemebackmyguitar.com/

Book 2 - How Innovators Connect

Rohit Agarwal from TechTribe is one of the 2 authors of this book and is about the entrepreneurial experiences of several innovators in Silicon Valley and India. It attempts to showcase innovation through experiences of more than 40 successful innovators in the 2 geographies. This is a nice book to keep as a reference and not necessarily finish reading in its entirety. If you are in a similar space, it always is useful to learn from the experiences of somebody who has ‘done that, been there’. Go to http://www.howinnovatorsconnect.com/ for more details.

Do let me know if you decide to follow my recommendation and read these.

Okay - so I did make it to the Barcamp Delhi this time around - just before lunch. I have not been a big fan of ‘un-conferences’ and the only other Barcamp that I have attended was at the Silicon Valley in the US few months back. I was not even present at the last Delhi Barcamp, even though Tekriti was a co-sponsor then - because of time constraint. The Bay-Area one was a big disappointment; Delhi is marginally better - by virtue of being little more organized.

From what I have come to know from people during lunch - Marc’s presentation has been one of the best so far. Somebody from TCS is speaking currently and the conversation had to move towards the classical debate of “Which is more innovative: Services or Products?”. I will say “amen… Let’s start comparing oranges with apples and decide which is tastier.”

Anyways, I am looking forward to the Daler Mehndi show tonight at Mittal Gardens. I got 4 tickets to the show, courtesy my dad and we are taking Marc there too. Marc was at the cinema day before yesterday watching the bollywood hit Dhoom-2 and he could not sit through the movie. I am definitely hoping the result to be better this time.

The interviews at Tekriti never ceases to stop. We keep having at least a few interviews every day. I will not mince words in saying that most of the candidates need to work on the way they present themselves during the interview process. And I am quite serious about it. In fact, to put it mildly, I will say that some of them are absolutely funny. Here is a compilation of things that one should keep in mind while appearing for an interview and, not suprisingly, most of them are common sense. I have also included some excuses / comments that I have heard in these interviews, which are worth mentioning in this post.

• First impression is important: So, you made it past the resume screening, initial telephonic conversation and the written test (if applicable) and are waiting in the conference room for the interviewer. Great! Know that you have a very strong chance of making it through and the least you can do is to treat the interviewer with respect. Simple things like greeting the interviewer nicely is much more important than you would imagine. I have seen a few people who don’t even stand up when the interviewer walks in the conference room. This is so basic and is not unique for interviews. If you are shaking hands with somebody who is standing, it is the general etiquette that you will also stand up. You are only giving the respect that is due to the person - no more and that doesn’t make you look desperate, if that is the concern.
• Do the homework on the company you are interviewing for: “Oh, I don’t know much about the company. I was so busy and so could not go through the company website” - is, surprisingly, yet another common statement that I have come across. Damn - doesn’t that show how interested are you in the company or anything that you aspire for? It doesn’t take more than 15-20 minutes to go through the first few pages of any company website and know about the stuff that they focus on. Almost all good companies are particular about why you want to work for them and are not particularly impressed with people who want just another job. And, it’s anyways a good idea to know about the organization to be able to ask relevant and interesting questions back to the interviewer. But, yes, don’t expect the interviewer to tell you about the company if you haven’t put any effort to know about it yourself.
• Think aloud / Make it interactive: An interview is not a one-way question / answer session. And, it’s certainly not about getting the right answer figured out. The idea is to let the interviewer know about your approach, thought process and analytical abilities. “Thinking aloud”, even though you are not able to nail down the exact answer is a much better approach than keeping quiet for few minutes and then telling the answer. The interviewer need to know your approach - it’s very unlikely that you will get the solutions to all the real-life business problems in few minutes but a right approach is very important to get to that eventually. If you are not used to it, practice it.
• Switch off the cell-phone: Oh, please! The last thing I want is somebody to answer his / her phone call during the interview. There are very few calls that you can’t avoid during the time and everybody knows it. This is just another common meeting etiquette and there is a reason behind it. If you absolutely must take some phone call during the interview, inform the interviewer in the beginning that you are expecting an important phone call and will need to take it, if that comes. Otherwise, it’s a big put-off.
• I know this problem but I can’t do this now: Another common excuse. Fine - I get it. We all forget things and you are just being human when you do that. Have I emphasized enough on the importance of ’thinking aloud’? You can forget the solution but you don’t forget the concepts and approach, if you ever understood it. You might have been very genuine when you make that statement but, more than often, it comes across as an excuse - which can be avoided if you put in a little bit of effort in solving the problem rather than saying that you can’t do it then.
• I had a fight with my management / seniors: If you are quitting your previous company because you had a fight with your management / seniors, it will flag a red alarm in any potential employer’s mind. Solution - don’t get into a situation where you need to fight with your management - most of the times it can be avoided or tackled in a better way. If you absolutely had valid reasons and want to mention it - then tell the true and complete story to the interviewer. Bits-n-pieces of information will only cause mis-understanding and portray you in a bad light.
• Oh, this is so trivial but I haven’t done this since my pre-final year of school: Yes, I know that the problem is trivial. But, again, the interviewer is not just interested to know the solution. They want to know how did you derive that solution and why do you think it’s the best solution? Some questions look trivial but there are many questions around that which can only be asked after you solve the trivial question. Got it? Go back to point number 1 - show some respect.
• The pressure is on the interviewer to select and not reject: Always know that every organization is in desperate need of a good talent. So, when an interviewer is talking to you, he / she really wants to recruit you unless you give reasons not to do so. So, be confident, cheerful and relaxed. There is no need to oversell yourself - any decently experienced interviewer will find out if you do so. But at the same time, don’t be arrogant. There are times when you will be interviewed by your potential boss and times when you will be interviewed by your potential direct reports and everybody wants to work with somebody they like as person. It’s much easier to talk to somebody you know wants to help you - most of us think otherwise and make mistakes. 

The points above, by no means, form an exhaustive list but it should take care of the most obvious ‘mistakes’ that I have seen people making. And, not, it’s not true just for my company. It’s true for all the companies - irrespective of who they are or what their geographical location is. Please feel free to add your points in the comments and I will update this post with those, if I see sufficient response.

Summary: The interview process is not about showing who is smarter - the interviewer or the interviewee. It’s about the genuine need for exploring if the company is fit for the candidate AND if the candiate is fit for the organization. Be honest. Apart from the fact that it shows up if you are not, it helps both the parties eventually. Both need each other equally. Nobody is doing any favor on the other - so don’t seek one AND don’t do one.

Oh no! I was a bit under the weather and didn’t stay awake to catch the match live in the night. The first thing I did after waking up was to look for the result of the match and found that WI clinched the recent Cricket One Day International Series against India, with a match to go.

Having said that - WI deserved it totally. The Indian team was never in the game, nor in the series. Hope to see a better peformance from them in the Test matches and the last One day.

Full report at: http://in.rediff.com/cricket/2006/may/26india.htm

Blogging has been such an addiction that it hurts to know that the last post that I made was almost 2 weeks back (except that ‘Thought of the day’ post, but I won’t count that one). But, without exaggerating this time, I neither had the time nor the energy to write. A lot of things happened - I changed my residence, have started to look for apartments to buy in Gurgaon (the property prices in Gurgaon have sky-rocketed - I could have gotten a much better deal in Seattle!!), fell sick (thanks God that my Mom was here then), witnessed a few internal and external projects at Tekriti having their interim releases.

Few of the interesting things that either happened in the last couple of weeks or is going to happen in the next couple of weeks and worth mentioning here are:

PeopleAggregator Release: The PeopleAggregator team had a good closed alpha release of the PeopleAggregator platform. We will have a public release coming up in the next few months and the entire team is excited for the same.

Upcoming Beta release of GoingOn: We got some very good feedback on the GoingOn alpha release and that has helped us immensely with planning for the Beta. We are very near doing the Beta 1 release of the product at the real domain. There are a few more things happening in the next few days there - more thoughts on this later, in another post.

Opening for Technical Architects and Senior Engineers: Manish tells me that we have requirements for senior people who are “hands on” to help us in the existing and new projects. Preference will be given to people experienced in building highly scalable systems using LAMP (PHP, MySql) and / or Microsoft platforms (.NET, C#, ASP.NET). If you are the one who is looking to join an exciting new business where you can make impact and, potentially, change the way online businesses happen - get in touch and I will provide more information and / or put you in touch with the right person for the same. I have got some good resumes from people, particularly fresh graduates, through my blog. Keep that coming too - I make sure that I go through each one of them and forward the ones, I think might be good matches, to our Hiring Department. We need to get started on it soon - the sooner you join, more are the benefits

I wonder how high will the property prices go in Gurgaon: This warrants an independent post, that I will do in the next few days, but I am just wondering how high will the property prices go in Gurgaon. And how do people afford to buy houses here - I have already revised my budget twice and think that I need to do it one more time before I can even start liking any place.

Biking time is here: Now that winters are over and the weather isn’t changing much that frequently, it’s time that I start driving my motor-bike again. It’s been more than a couple of months when I was regular with my bike.

Noticed the ‘Profile Views’ feature in Orkut: I logged in to my Orkut account a few days back and noticed that they added the ‘Profile Views’ feature, which shows the last 5 visitors to one’s account. Now, I have had this discussion with my clients a few times before also - that it makes sense to give an option to turn this feature off to the users. I think it’s too creepy to let people find out that I visited their profile. I am not in the favor of automatic recording of my views in others’ profile - at least there should be an option to mark it as ‘anonymous visit’. For a social networking site like LinkedIn, it will make sense but for a general purpose site like Orkut, there has to be an option.

Anyways - I gotta go back to work but I will write a few more posts this week.

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing.
Motivation determines what you do.
Attitude determines how well you do it.”

I got this in my Inbox today and I liked it. Also, there is a wonderful discussion in the comments section of my last post.

Urmi Goswami has an article at the Economic Times about the potential impact of the Quota systems in the IITs and IIMs entrance examinations.

From the article:

Competition to secure admission to the IITs and IIMs is set to hot up, as reservation in these institutions is likely to increase from the current level of 22.5% to a maximum of 49.5%.

The reservation cap in central government jobs stands at 49.5% in the post-Mandal era and this could act as a ceiling for reservations in these educational institutions as well.

I try not to sound too cynical about these things but I can’t explain the real need of quota systems in the higher educations. I am regularly watching my cousin, who did his coaching for the IIT entrance from Kota and has come to stay with me while he is writing various exams, and can see the effort he is putting in the preparations by burning the midnight oil. That only reminds me of the days when I also used to do the same and can understand the frustrations in the students who are on the receiving end of this rule, if it ever bcomes one.

22.5% reservations, as it is exists, itself is too high a number for the institues of the stature of IITs and IIMs (I have every reason to believe that India has gained tremendeously because of these insitutes). Why does one need to have reservations in professional degrees? If one really needs to support the under-privileged people, why will you not do it at the primary school level? In my opinion, the idea of any quota / rservations should be to make a person ‘capable’. What these are doing instead is telling the beneficiaries “Hey, I know that it’s difficult for you to compete fairly, so I am giving you an extra push.” - I personally find it little too demeaning. And this is not to say that people who make use of this system are not good - I have personally seen many really smart people who have benefitted because of it but at the same time I have seen many people who don’t deserve to be getting those seats.

Fortunately for me, I wasn’t affected because of the reservation when I appeared in these exams but I will feel for the deserving people who will miss on the coveted seats because of the ugly reservation system. And I can only tell people like my cousin - “Work that extra hard, you just don’t have to crack a tough question paper but you also need to compete against people who have an undue advantage over you.” And on the top of that - I read that this time, there are over 300,000 students appearing for an entrance that has little over 4500 seats. That makes it a little over 65 students appearing for 1 seat - I am so glad that I was born a little earlier than those who are appearing in the exam now

Update: My friend Sarsij has created an online petition at PetitionOnline for “Saying No to Quota systems”. If you want, you can go and sign it here.