Tag Archives: tcs

The Social Capital: Malcolm Lane – Tata Consultancy Services

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This interview was first featured on www.indiaincorporated.com, where I write a column called The Social Capital

The Social Capital with Vikas Pota – What giving really means?

Vikas Pota speaks to Malcolm Lane from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Malcolm Lane has over 35 years’ management experience within the IT and telecommunications industries. He joined Tata Consultancy Services in 2001 where he is Director Corporate Affairs. He also leads the European Tata Corporate Sustainability Group, which encourages synergy across the Tata Group companies.

1. Is giving important? Why?

Yes, when we see others in need around us, I fail to see how we can close our eyes and ignore. Clearly it is not possible to support all in need locally or around the globe so we need to identify the areas close to our hearts where we feel we can have maximum impact.

2. What charities do you personally support?

Some of the groups overseas and locally in the UK that do marvellous work like Compassion, Tear Fund, British Asian Trust and Cell Barnes Residents Association, St Albans.

Health is another area close to my heart and support includes The Institute of Cancer Research, Myeloma UK, Grove House hospice, Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, Anthony Nolan Trust and Indian Cancer Society.

Through the online Just Giving channel I like to encourage people in their fundraising, especially employees of Tata Consultancy Services.

Education charities are another priority area for me. I admire and support groups like the Mumbai Mobile Crèche, Loomba Trust, African Children’s Choir (orphans in Africa), Cunningham Hill School UK – where I have been a school governor for 24 years, Bread Tin – teaching young City professionals philanthropy and Stepney Football club education projects.

A truly inspirational project is the Sevalaya School [www.sevalaya.org] project in India, built by a former TCS employee over a 20-year period. The idea is to help any child who cannot afford to pay to go to school. The school has an orphanage for boys and girls as well as an old people’s home, a library and medical centre and a sanctuary for cows. I have been associated with Sevalaya School for many years. It has succeeded in eradicating child labour in a number of villages in the area.

Some faith-based charities I support include Prospects UK – supporting adults with learning disabilities, Thirlmere Church, and students at All Nations Christian College addressing needs in society.

3. What was your first ever donation to a charity?

To my local church as a child in Sunday school.

4. Which individuals stand out for their support to charitable causes?

Eric Low, the CEO of Myeloma UK, and V. Muralidharan, founder and managing trustee of the Chennai-based Sevalaya School.

5. What percentage of our income should we give to good causes?

A minimum of 10 per cent is a good starting point. But for those who have more, I believe more is expected. Consider, if a person receiving a ridiculously high income of £1 million and then gives away 90 per cent they are still left with £100,000 which is four times the national average income. So, 10 per cent for high earners (however you define high earners) would seem inadequate.

6. What do you, personally, gain from contributing?

I believe we should give expecting nothing in return. However, sometimes we are pleasantly surprised with gifts that money cannot buy, such as a get well card signed individually by 750 children from Sevalaya School, Chennai, and subsequently a thank you card signed by 900 children a few years later on my 60th birthday.

7. Do administrative charges by charities determine your decisions?

I used to judge a charity as being good if it had a very low administration charge, however we need to be more sophisticated in our approach. Different charities include different activities in their administration charges. Whilst I would still want to see low administrative charges, the administrative activities can be the engine and powerhouse of a charity.

8. When was the last time you volunteered for a cause?

On June 27, 2011, I spoke in the House of Parliament at the launch of Myeloma UK’s latest initiative to improve information to Health Care Professionals (HCPs) of the latest treatment and care options via the Myeloma Academy training facility. The aim was for the HCPs to be equipped to inform patients of the best treatments and latest options available in terms of emotional and financial support.

9. Should charitable donations be private?

We need to look from the perspective of those in need and if making our giving visible encourages others to give we should swallow our humility or pride to remain humble. However, neither should we be proud and shout ‘look at me, how good am I for giving so much’ or use our giving as a means of buying favour or recognition. In addition to financial donations, we should donate our time and skills which might be visible and as a result have a positive impact on those the charity is seeking to support.

10. Does your faith play a role in the charities you support?

A strong driver in life is my Christian faith, but not just faith for faith’s sake. Faith without deeds is dead and that action should be to meet the needs of those of all faiths and those of none. Faith might be our driver but not to just meet the needs of those aligned to our own faith. Unless faith brings about action with compassion for those in need, we had better confine the promotion of our faith to those well off and comfortable, which would be to my mind a wrong understanding of faith. I would summarise my Christian faith as ‘love God and love your neighbour’. Who is my neighbour? All those in need!

Through these in-depth interviews with industry leaders, Vikas Pota asks charity-related questions that unearth the driving force behind their philanthropy and social responsibility.

Succession planning in Indian companies – the TCS way

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In an interview I conducted for my forthcoming book on Indian entrepreneurs going global. I asked Mr Ramadorai, when he was the CEO of India’s largest IT firm – TCS, as to who he thought would succeed him, what became quite clear from his and those I asked this question to, was that a pattern was emerging within the boardrooms of Indian companies.

Two issues emerge – (a) whether in their succession planning, they’d consider external candidates and (b) whether they’d consider non-Indian candidates.

On the first issue, it seems clear to me that Indian firms prefer recruiting for top jobs from within their organisation. In the TCS example, Ramadorai’s successor – Chandra has long been seen as the heir apparant. In other similar situations, take Infosys as another example where the baton has been passed from Murthy, Nilekani and now to Krish Gopalakrishnan.

With respects to having a non-Indian at the helm, there aren’t many examples but the two obvious ones that come to mind concern Brian Tempest’s appointment at Ranbaxy, where after a brief stint, he was shifted by Malvinder Singh to a more supportive role, and the other being Alan Rosling, who Ratan Tata appointed to coordinate strategy at Bombay House, the TATA HQ in India. I recollect the look of horror on other industry veterans, when Rosling was appointed and had to represent TATA in global industry platforms.

The other notable example is that of Suzlon, which made the conscious decision to move their HQ to Europe and in tandem appointed a non-Indian as CEO, who has recently moved on, one suspects due to the move back to India for their global HQ.

India has a long way to go in its journey to become a economic super-power, and I believe that a healthy debate has begun in the boardrooms of these companies on issues such as this. In my view, I don’t think we’re too far off from seeing an external, non-Indian heading up a major Indian conglomerate.

Gazing into my crystal ball – I reckon the mother of all succession headaches surrounds Ratan Tata. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tata Sons opted for a (a) external person (b) of non-Indian origin (despite the prominence provided to Naval Tata as heir apparant as a result of his surname),  after Ratan Tata.

Watch this space…

David Cameron meets Indian CEOs

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I’d organised a meeting yesterday between David Cameron, Leader of the Opposition, and a client of ours called ‘The India Group’, which is an alliance of the European based CEOs of large Indian private sector firms. Not only did we meet someone who’s described as our next Prime Minister, he also made sure that William Hague, Shadow Foreign Minister, and Ken Clarke, Shadow Business Minister, both of whom are considered ‘heavyweights’ in the Conservative Party, and should retain their high profile portfolios if they form the next government, attended this meeting.

Cameron was relaxed despite having to respond to the Prime Minister’s Iraq Inquiry statement later in the day. He appeared knowledgable and personable and had, what seemed obvious to me, been briefed appropriately in advance on the key issues that may arise.

So, it’s no surprise that business immigration featured highly with the IT companies leading the charge on labour mobility within the UK in the context of TUPE legislation. He spoke about Ken Clarke leading a review on Whitehall red tape that will help form their policies in advance of the next general election.

On trade promotion in India, Cameron suggested that some of the Regional Development Agencies across England would be put on notice. He recognised that trade promotion in India may also need looking at and the India Group recommended that just as Indian SMEs seemed to be embracing opportunities in the UK, the Government really needed to push British SMEs to do more with India. Banks like ICICI had tried linking up with counterparts in the UK to provide trade finance for their clients interested in India, with not much success, which seems a shame given the scale of the opportunity.

Hague spoke about a better relationship on foreign policy, which all India watcher’s will agree about, especially as Miliband’s visit to India was seen as an unmitigated disaster. Hague spoke of their support for India and Japan for permanent seats on the UN Security Council, which we know China has a different view on.

The Conservative team were interested in the pace of market reforms the new Congress lead coalition would take, to which the India Group agreed that the Insurance sector would probably be the first to have FDI levels increased. What was interesting was that the CEO’s, all, were united in conveying that despite the shortcomings in some industry sectors, India was open for business. It just so happens that the two big sectors that the UK has particular competence in – financial services and retail – are the one’s that have yet to be liberalised. Fair point.

Closer to the hearts of some of those was the issue of personal taxation and non-dom, to which Cameron was quick off the blocks to suggest that had the government adopted the plans they’d suggested, those around the table would have the certainty they desired.

I’ll conclude with sharing how they started as it’s an important point. Cameron emphasised that both – the Labour Party & the Conservatives (a) didn’t really differ on issues concerning India – whether this was trade or foreign policy and (b) that both parties shared the view that Britain was a better place as an open globalised economy, one which market protectionism and restrictive practices were unwelcome.

Jaguar / Land Rover & Tata

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I’m writing this post in the context of hearing on the news that Lord Mandelson has placed a call, this morning, to  Bombay House, the Tata HQ in India.

I was speaking with a senior government figure, who’s involved in this matter, two evenings ago at a Whitehall pub in which he began enquiring as to what the Tatas would do if the UK Government refused to lend them the £1bn bailout they’ve requested for Jaguar / Land Rover.

To say that the Tatas have no other options would be misleading, as it wasn’t so long ago that the media reported that they had deep pockets and more importantly the intent on making the new venture a success. Let’s also not forget that within the Tata Group, there are a couple of companies which can only be described as ‘cash cows’, such as TCS, the IT firm from which they can divert resources to the benefit of Jaguar / Land Rover.

However, what I found interesting was his take on the cultural differences between the parent and child. He suggested that the Tata’s weren’t used to a culture where their plans would be stress tested and scrutinised as, in their opinion, their track record, trust, and their brand should prove to be enough of a guarantee for the UK taxpayer.

I disagree with the suggestion that the Tatas are naive and culturally backward. The Tata’s have been in the UK for more than a century and employ almost 50,000 people here in some of the most intensive and unloved sectors of the economy. As a result of their experiences here, they would understand the nervousness of the Government and therefore not take it as an affront to their heritage if certain questions were asked. After all, they understand that government money, ultimately is raised through taxation – our money.

With that comes responsibility. The Tata’s understand that, all too well.

Outsourcing – Indian BPO firms & public sector procurement

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I was invited to be a panellist for a Question Time session at the National Outsourcing Association’s ‘Global Sourcing’ conference that took place today. Around 100 leading practitioners and experts discussed the challenges that the outsourcing sector faces in today’s credit crunch era.

The conference was Chaired by a friend of mine – Mark Kobayashi Hillary – who can only be described as a ‘genius’, who’s authored several books on subjects related to technology outsourcing. As was evident in today’s conference, unlike other “experts”, Mark really does know what he’s talking about. Judging by the quality of the attendee list, he also possesses a fantastic book of contacts.

Back to the conference – which was a new experience for me – I found that everytime someone spoke about off-shoring destinations, everyone really meant ‘India’, despite the fact that companies from other emerging and established economies were present.

I had to field questions on a variety of subjects ranging from labour arbitrage to China but the one that’s still on my mind concerns the monopoly of an established group of vendors who continue to win business in the public sector despite their public failings. Unconventionally, Mark allowed me to ask a question to the audience asking why Indian firms simple don’t factor in public sector procurement. The likes of TCS, Infosys, Wipro are great at what they do, but why haven’t they made inroads into a space that is as lucrative?

I was involved in Government discussions around 2003 when the then Secretary of State famously made a speech saying “A job gained in India does not mean a job is lost in Britain”. Such statements helped in creating an atmosphere in which Indian firms could continue what they did best – unlike what was happening in the US. For this reason, I was surprised to hear that some members of the audience actually thought that the “negative atmosphere” in the UK resulted in procurement officers and decision makers taking a dim view of Indian firms.

Even if you give them the benefit of the doubt, that may have been the case five years ago, but this doesn’t explain why Indian firms (still) haven’t made inroads into the public sector.

I’m keen to learn your views on why companies which are increasingly toe-to-toe against the big boys in the global bazaar, still aren’t getting a look in. Is there a prejudice?, is it because of cultural missundertandings?, are they simply not up to the task? Please leave your comments as I’m interested in improving my understanding.