Dear Patni, Good Bye

Dear Patni,

We fondly remember you as one of the pioneers of information technology when information was still consumed through newspapers or magazines, whose sole connection with technology was the humble printing press.

Born on February 10, 1978 in Mumbai, when many of us were tiny tots, you went about renting imported computers, reselling hardware and software to over 360 Fortune 1000 companies for decades and established over 23 international offices across the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

You combined technology skills, superior domain experience and commitment to client relationship to offer quality service made you the most valued company in the '90s. It was your farsightedness and confidence to travel that extra mile to capture the world gave rise to a new business model which came to be called 'offshoring'.

Harnessing your well established and structured techniques, you set up a BPO unit in 2002 to provide avant-garde BPO services to global firms in insurance, financial services, finance and accounting, and technical help desk.

When you employed N R Narayana Murthy, you seem to have seen the right potential in the young man from Bangalore who would eventually put India on the IT map of the world. What's appreciable is the way you groomed and nurtured Murthy and his other colleagues Kris Gopalakrishnan and Nandan Nilekani, by encouraging them to freely innovate and experiment. That, precisely, made them emerge the greatest business leaders of our time. It was that quality earned you the Golden Peacock Award for Training Excellence in 2007.

It took you 30 years to reach $700 million (Rs.3,340 crore), but unfortunately after that the graph went on a downward journey and your net profit slipped 13.57 pc in the March 2012 quarter.

When iGate acquired you in January 2011 you gave yourself up for $1.2 billion (Rs. 6,400 crore) and by then you were the sixth largest IT company of India. Though you didn't really agree with iGate's culture, business models and market approach, you never let that affect the venture, instead you capitalized on the combined strength and core capabilities and created a new brand called iGate Patni.

We understand how you must be feeling now as your CEO Phaneesh Murthy wants to drop your name from iGate Patni because it is the family name of your founder Narendra Patni. Phaneesh says since it is a family name, the Indian government allows anyone with the same family name to use it.

On May 11 at 3.45 pm, you were treading at Rs 512.15 on BSE. It's sad to know that you will not be listed on stock exchange from May 28. We miss you, but remember you live in our memory as the pioneer of information technology.