IT has changed India's image: Infosys CEO

MUMBAI, INDIA: According to Infosys' CEO S Gopalakrishnan, during the last 15-20 years, the IT services industry in India has really took off to become a world-class industry.

“India was, and is, still a developing country and we were not known like Japanese automotive industry for world-class products and quality. But today the IT industry has earned world-class label for India as it employs more than two million people and created about 10 million jobs in the related industries,” Gopalakrishnan told CyberMedia on the sidelines of a conference organized by CII here on Wednesday.

“Today, the IT industry has got recognition and has changed the image of India,” he stated. Giving the example of Japan's automotive industry, which has adopted high quality standards, Gopalakrishnan explained that most Indian IT companies have adopted such high quality standards and best practices, got listed and adopted the US GAAP norms.

“Such adoption of high standards and best practices has helped the Indian IT industry to become world class,” Gopalakrishnan noted. The global IT industry is worth $50-60 billion; however, India's share is just five per cent in the overall IT business, he pointed out.

About how the change has come in India's image and world's perception about the country, Kris explained that as most IT companies adopted high standards and best practices, it created a movement within the IT industry and was largely followed and practiced.

“Many large IT companies created brand for themselves through high quality standards in their work and services to customers, which in turn changed India's image,” he said. Sharing personal experiences, Kris Gopalakrishnan added that whenever he goes abroad, whenever there's something about outsourcing or business processing, people point at India.

Though large IT firms like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro Technologies and Infosys have created global brand names and values for themselves, interestingly Gopalakrishnan confessed it is a big challenge to sustain such high standards as every year large number of people from various backgrounds join the company.

“Bringing the set of new people and molding them according to the vision of the top management remains a big task,” he said.

According to Gopalakrishnan, the solution to such challenge is to provide training, conducting value workshops and walk the talk with new employees in order to transfer and integrate top management's vision and ethos with new staffs.

During the recent financial slowdown, Infosys doubled its employees' training program as the utilization rate was down by about 10 per cent. Further Gopalakrishnan commented that most companies in terms of training their staffs reckon that training the employees doesn't assure their retention with the company.

“Actually training the employees helps to develop better skills and abilities, whether they are retained by the firm or not. And, at large, training the staff benefits the overall industry and helps to create a pool of talent,” he observed.