Murthy and Son @ Infosys: what’s the big deal?

Everything that the Indian offshoring giant Infosys does comes under intense scrutiny, especially from Indian media that has been enamored with the hi-tech sector for long. Not surprisingly, the return of Infosys’ founder and godfather of Indian offshoring lead to intense analysis in media. Comparisons include to that of Steve Jobs’ return to Apple and Michael Dell’s effort to take charge of Dell’s strategy. If there was any doubt about the move by Infosys to seek the return of its founder, it was reassured by the stock market (re: Infosys Jumps Most Since January as Billionaire MurthyReturns)

Leadership changes are bound to follow major management announcements. Not surprisingly, there has been a barrage of announcements, among which has been an interesting move by Mr. Murthy: recruiting his son to be an executive assistant to the Executive Chairman. Following that announcement are reports of Murthy junior being appointed “Vice-president” at Infosys.

Analysts and the media are torn between two school of thoughts here

• The sour grape school of thought. The thinking goes something like this: most of us have to work extra hard to survive and thrive in a crowded world of  business while a select few who happen to be born into a family with the right last name are automatically admitted to the club.
• Acceptance school of thought. Acceptance of the reality of dynasties in business and politics. The last name Bush (Wikipedia) can get you elected as a President of America, or governor of Florida just like the Gandhi name in India. Same goes for successful business dynasties scions of which have not only proudly carried the family name but also managed to outshine their fathers and forefathers.

Back when I worked for Infosys, the grandiose sounding title of VP was something the company didn't dole out to employees lightly. This said, there were scores of “Associate” VPs, many of them senior engagement and sales managers, consulting partners who were given the title. This was done generally to signal clients and others that the title holder was empowered to negotiate a proposal or sign a SoW on the company’s behalf.

I continue to closely watch the company, wearing my shareholder hat (I still happen to hold a few shares that vested from the options I received when I joined INFY nearly a decade ago). All I see here is a storm in the teacup.  The stock price has bounced nicely since Mr. NR Murthy’s return. The news of Murthy Junior coming aboard and debate over his title has barely caused the stock to budge. There is another key fact to bear in mind: The Murthy family holds nearly a 4.5% stake in the company. And Rohan Murty, himself is a significant share holder with 7,949,782 shares (1.38% stake) has a skin in the game.

As a significant individual shareholder, Rohan's voice of course counts. And if he wants to be at the forefront and ensure ROI of his investment: Sure, by all means!

Musing on Public libraries: Vote yes to support them!

While driving to work the other day, I was listening to the NPR program “For You To Borrow, Some Libraries Have To Go Begging.” It reminded me of the recent survey request from Phoenix public library, a library I haven’t visited since I moved from Arizona a couple of years ago. It got me thinking of the significance of Public libraries, and how public libraries are trying to stay relevant, and thrive, despite the pervasiveness of digital sources of information.

Growing up in India years ago, I used to frequent the state central library in Cubbon park. This was much before the days of pervasive internet, and for me and other locals, an opportunity to read latest magazines and periodicals. Newspapers were laid out on tall tables around which patrons stood and read. Magazines, on the other hand could be enjoyed sitting around a desk and chair. Even in crowded public libraries, there was a social etiquette: it was “okay” ro invade one’s private space to "share" a newspaper but generally not a magazine. And there was a sexist element at play in public libraries too: few members of opposite sex were to be seen at libraries, and fewer still in the male dominated magazine and newspaper reading rooms.

In my travels, especially as my job moved me across countries and provinces for extended periods of time, my relocation or extended stay in a city would typically begin with a stopover at local library. Just a sampling of a few of my favorite haunts over the years

The NPR program agrees with what most of us empirically believe to be true “More than 90 percent of Americans say public libraries are important to their communities, according to the Pew Research Center. But the way that love translates into actual financial support varies hugely from state to state.” Many public libraries across western cities are morphing into community centers, attracting the digital generation with both digital tools (eBooks) and community and after-school events. The library, with story-time for preschoolers in our city has been a boon for parents, a fact my wife appreciates all the more during long days in summer months when the school is out.

A few generations ago, Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie was credited with doling out funds for public libraries across the US. “A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems. 1,689 were built in the United States, 660 in Britain and Ireland, 125 in Canada, and others in Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, the Caribbean, Mauritius and Fiji.” (Wikipedia)

Now that the billionaire and digital entrepreneur, Amazon's Founder Jeff Bezos has staked his claim on marquee print publication The Washington Post, one wonders if he will follow Andrew Carnegie’s footprints with a legacy of re-funding public libraries?

Till a wealthy white knight comes around to rescue, it is for local patrons to voice their support for libraries in their communities. Perhaps take a leaf from the Troy library’s playbook on how to take on Tea Party activists targeting funding for local libraries!

Enterprise Architects and a tip for Entrepreneurs on mobile strategy

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine who is wetting his toes in the mobile app development space, following the time honored startup tradition by hiring a few developers proficient in mobile technologies to dream up the next killer application. The hope is: build it and they will come. Dreams of mobile entrepreneurs are buoyed by stores like “Mobile app growth exploding, and shows no signs of letting up

The conversation reminded me of the NYT article on mobile application boom from a few months ago (“Boom Lures App Creators, Tough Part Is Making a Living”) One could spend time pondering the odds of entrepreneurs beating others in the mobile gold rush, or if we are already at the tail end of one, but that's not the point here.

To seasoned industry watchers, Enterprise Architects, and those in the “buy” side of technology, there is a parallel to the mobile-world crystal-ball-gazing: the dot-com-boom and bust from over a decade ago. We are probably encountering a parallel with a torrent of news and “activity” in the space, ranging from partnerships – Microsoft (MSFT) and Nokia - to stories of market darlings imploding and struggling to survive with a fierce battle for #3 spot  (Interestingly, just this week, Blackberry board announced it is up for sale!). And if one were to draw a few lessons from the “history”

1.    A few persistent – and lucky – entrepreneurs will not only survive and thrive but lead us to game changing innovations well after the bust: Amazon, Priceline, ebay are just a few examples

2.    Capturing hundreds of thousands of eyeballs, and page hits was the currency of dot.com. Parallel to this in mobile space is the quest for cool-app with hundreds of thousands of downloads from an app store

3.    Innovation in the space continues much after the bust - Facebook, twitter, istagram all came much after the dot.com bust

4.    Corporate IT catches up with entrepreneurs. Though much of the tools techniques and technologies of web-enablement are now mainstream, architecting and developing scalable corporate E-commerce portals and integrating web applications with back-end systems continue to be the holy grail of software development. (my earlier blog on the topic). The parallel between eCommerce/dot.com era, circa 2000/2001, and the dynamics of mobile ecosystem is obvious. Corporate IT is getting over the novelty of mobile hype cycle and BYOD. However, most IS shops are just starting on the long journey of mobile enabling corporate applications. 

What does it mean to Enterprise Architects? Taking a Gartner’s PACE model view, organizations without a strong mobile strategy may be considering platforms to support mobility to be a System of Innovation (SOI), at least initially. After pilot and initial rollout, these may move to being yet another System of Differentiation (SOD) and eventually when the usage matures, System of Record (SOR). The implication is on several fronts including guiding investment, need for piloting and lining up architecturally significant use cases for mobility.

My response to my entrepreneur friend? follow the money. Vendors are already converging on platforms with three letter acronyms MDM, MDS, MADP etc etc. Mobile platforms are also converging around iOS, Android, Windows mobile and/or BlackBerry 10... and so is the application ecosystem. Which leads us to the opportunity: mobile enablement of corporate applications using standardized techniques. Entrepreneurs may be able to use the learnings and skills from mobile app development ventures and turn and "sell" those skills to corporate IS departments looking to mobile enable their application ecosystem.  

Larger SI vendors are already positioning practices around “mobile enablement,” while niche players showcase their agility and skills in the space. The opportunity is for System Integrators, large and small that can help seamless transition of corporate applications to mobile devices running on multiple platforms on “any” form factor.

Bottomline: Rewards from working with corporate IT may not be as instantaneous as developing the next-killer-app-netting-million-downloads but will certainly be lucrative, especially for those who can carve a niche in this dynamic space.

Musing on Agribusiness, Modern Agriculture and Enterprise Architecture

Friends, peers and former colleagues occasionally ask me what I do for a living and when I say Enterprise Architect, they raise they eyebrows. And when I say an EA for a multinational agribusiness firm, eyes begin to glaze over.
My journey into the complex and fascinating business of modern agriculture started a little more than a year-and-half ago when I took on a role of Enterprise Architect with a multinational Agribusiness company. In my previous consultant roles, I was well aware of the intricacies of EA, trained and certified in one of the popular methodologies used in the industry (TOGAF). In a sense, I had a broad understanding of the practice and application of EA. I was, however, removed from the intricacies of the business of my employer, agribusiness.

Learning about the “business” is critical for Enterprise Architects given the role we play in bridging the IT-business divide. It also helps that my employer prods employees to gain insights on our business of Modern Agriculture. One such recent program was the campaign to complete the Masters of Modern Agriculture through CLA, which prompted me to reflect on my journey thus far.

As is to be expected, many executives and business and functional leaders here have a farming or agriculture background. One could argue many of us – even urbane city dwellers - are not too far removed from agriculture perhaps with just one or two degrees of separation from agriculture.

Think of farmers and farming and one might visualize the quaint old man in a turban in a paddy field in India or the frail farmer tilling a dry plot of land in sub-Saharan Africa or the tall guy in wrangler jeans and cowboy hat standing next to a lush corn field somewhere in Iowa or Mid-western United States. Though I grew up an urban kid, and mostly lived in larger metros in India, my link to agriculture in childhood began when we would visit my dad’s ancestral town in Tamil Nadu for summer vacations, a trip that would include trek to the lush paddy fields that his brother and extended family managed. Family discussions during such get-together would revolve around vagaries of nature, monsoon, labor shortage and the like, though I recall very little discussions on agronomy or the business of modern agriculture as western farmers know it.

That image of farmer extended to that of a “grower” after I joined my employer. Perhaps because farming and agriculture is a vocation, engaging with Mother Nature. And for most, if not all farmers, even for subsistence farmers, growing is a “business.” Even subsistence farmers aspire to eke out a bit more out of the land that they can barter for other life’s necessities.

Farming: Business, government and society

Policy makers and governments around the globe struggle with “food security” issue, feeding 7-8 billion people with limited resources that Mother Nature provides. Some of the answers lie in the judicious use of science and technology to aid modern agriculture including use of “sustainable agriculture” techniques, chemicals – fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides – and genetically modified and hybrid variety seeds that can ensure greater, consistent crop yields on limited land and resources available for agriculture. And this is where the business of agriculture step in.

Agri-business value chain is complex, and includes “input companies,” like my employer that are engaged in the business of research, manufacture and supply of crop-protection chemicals – pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides - as well as biotechnology products, seeds including genetically modified, specialty breeding etc etc. Though this could be lifted out of a ag-biz promotional brochure, the goal is simple:

• Maximize yield for the grower and minimize risk of loss from pests, weeds etc 
• Enable sustainable farming with minimum resources – land, water, labor etc – at our disposal

All this to what end? Feeding the ever growing human population. And what you won’t always see in agbiz brochures is the increasing theme of enabling sustainable bio energy, ethanol and bio fuels!
Farming and Technologies

Twenty-first century agriculture is much more sophisticated and technology driven than most of us realize. On one hand we have large industrial scale mega-farms that use of GPS, automated Chemigation and irrigation systems, water pivots, genetically modified and hybrid variety seeds, sensors and drones and satellite images to monitor crops. On the other hand, we also have small subsistence farms like those prevalent in much of Asia and Africa where millions of farmers subsist on extremely small land holding. And in between the two extreme, we have all varieties of farmers including Ogranic farms, serving niche markets.

Enterprise Architects multinational agri-business firms, just like our peers in other businesses have to continue to focus on BDAT dimensions with the firm goal of aligning IS investments with business drivers. A sampling of architecturally significant use cases:

• Supply chain: complex forecasting, demand planning manufacture, production, distribution of seeds and chemical products. Of course, some of this has an added business twist. The production of parent seeds is also impacted to a large extent by the issues our growers face: vagaries of Mother Nature. The supply chain of agro-chemicals is highly regulated by federal, state and local authorities, with an increasing focus on security. 
• Partner integration: An agbiz company like most large multinationals has to integrate with partners, suppliers, vendors and others to ensure seamless interchange of data and information. 
• Enabling Research and Development (R&D): In this business, a new product can take nearly 10 years from ideation in research to getting to market with a series of complex steps in between. Emerging technologies including analytics, big data management, high performance compute are increasingly being adopted to enable accurate, faster time to market. 
• Thinking of future of farming includes scanning horizon to bring in newer technologies. This includes enabling complex agronomics enabled by timely information and data. Emerging thinking includes Digital Farming, Precision Agriculture, use of GPS, satellites and drones – enabling “use” of data. All of it targeted to provide actionable insights to end users, (in this case) here the grower.

Just my two cents and by no means a comprehensive list of the critical role of Information Technology plays in managing the complexities of agribusiness. And somewhere there comes to critical task of defining the blueprint for Enterprise Architecture that streamlines the process of bringing new techniques to the vocation of agriculture.

Links of interest

• A good overview on agribusiness “The agricultural and food value chain - Entering a new era of cooperation - KPMG Analysis
• Interesting perspectives on GMO A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA - New York Times
• Debate on Modern Agriculture “Would Americans Be Better Off Eating a Mostly Organic Diet?” - Wall Street Journal
• Tell me more: Overview of modern agriculture from Crop life america
• Farm Forward - Interseting Youtube video from John Deer 
• Syngenta's new greenhouse brings climates of the world to RTP - news and observer
• Case study: Enterprise architecture at Syngenta - Computer Weekly
• How B.I. and Data Make a More Efficient Farm - Slashdot blog
• How Monsanto Is Expanding Its Footprint Through Data Analytics - Slashdot blog 
• Book reviews from my recent reading list  - An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies by Tyler Cowen (My review on Amazon) and Harvest: An Adventure into the Heart of America's Family Farms (P.S.) by Richard Horan (My review on Amazon)

Book Review: Transformational Outsourcing: Maximize Value From IT Outsourcing

Review of Sanjay Chadha's Transformational Outsourcing: Maximize Value From IT Outsourcing :

During a recent scan on the sourcing landscape, I came across Sanjay's book which takes a good view from the buy side of sourcing though it also considers the selling (outsourcing vendor's) perspective too.

The book starts with an overview of outsourcing models and terminology, a good primer for those new to the industry and a handy reference for rest of us. The section on outsourcing strategy has good insights and planning inputs helpful for sourcing managers. Likewise, the outsourcing design section is a primer on key design aspects.

The book made me reflect on the maturing of IT sourcing, especially offshoring. The author continually weaves traditional IT outsourcing best practices - that have been honed by industry experts over the past few decades - with offshore outsourcing techniques that have emerged in the past decade or so. Rightfully so since offshoring is now an integral part of IT sourcing and there is little distinction between the two. Pure play outsourcers who don't offshore some if not much of the work are a really small

Repost from Amazon review Technorati tag : Books

Is my wristwatch destined to go the way of Indian Telegraph?

Last week I had my battery replaced on my 10-year-old Swiss-army wristwatch and within a few days, it stopped working. Since then I have been walking around watchless. I continue to instinctively look at my bare wrist when I have the urge to tell time only to resort to pulling out my smartphone or look around to see if there are wall clocks nearby and sometimes resort to sneaking a peek at a passerby’s wrist watch.

(image: BBC)

I should perhaps take a lesson from the strategists in India who finally decided to pull the plug on Telegraphs (wsj blog). Just a few similarities between wrist-watches and Telegraphs:

• Wrist watches and telegraphs are just things we grew up with, accepting them as an integral part of our lives 
• Both have been subsumed by other technologies. Cellphones/smartphones which we all carry can also tell time. Technologies like SMS, cellphones and ubiquitous emails have long superseded most if not all the need for telegraphs. 
• Just as in case of telegraphs where habits or nostalgia kept the system alive thus far, most (if not all) men who grew up with wrist watches continue to wear one. 
• ROI on watches are not justifiable, just as they aren’t for Telegraphs. For instance, I go through new battery every year or couple of years. A $10/$15 “investment” to keep the lights on for a $200+ technology that has probably depreciated to 0 in the past 10 years since I got it

I have been meaning to go back to the mall and confront guy at the watch repair kiosk, assuming it is just a defective battery not a watch whose time had come. In the meantime, I continue to sit on the fence debating whether to pull the plug on my wrist watch.

Musing on US Citizenship and Edward Snowden saga

Following the Edward Snowden saga made me reflect on the power that governments have over citizen when it comes to asylum and citizenship, a power one cannot take very lightly.

Edward Snowden leaked US Government’s NSA secrets and has reportedly spent the past few weeks in a “transit zone” in Moscow. While there he has continually been in news applying for asylum for a slew of countries. In the meantime, the US government has revoked his passport and continues to pressure countries from granting asylum. (interesting list of countries where Snowden applied)

The saga also reminds one of the plight of Viktor Navorski, a character played by Tom Hanks in the movie “The Terminal.” The film was supposedly based on a real life incident “The most famous transit-zone dweller was Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who stayed in Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport for 17 years, but he moved freely within the terminal. Some have noted that the film appears to be inspired by the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in Terminal One of the Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris from 1988 when his refugee papers were stolen until 2006 when he was hospitalized for unspecified ailments.” (wikipedia)

Play the Snowden saga against the immigration debate in America and one can see two sides of the coin emerge. One side are people like Snowden who willingly risk the privilege of American citizenship to make a point at the world stage. On the other side are millions who continue to make the trek to the land of opportunity, only to find they have to climb huge walls, sometimes literally and mostly walls of bureaucracy before they are granted the privilege Snowden is willingly relinquishing.

Few countries in the world are able and willing to offer asylum to someone wanted by big-brother. If anything, this saga shows the real might of America in the world stage.

Technorati tags: Edward Snowden, Immigration