Changing Corporate

For last few years there have too many changes in Indian Corporate Culture. In the corporate now there in only one agenda for the top bosses of the management, and that is what is the bottom line of  annual report. It means that how much profit you are making and what is the dividend you are paying to the share holders. For achieving that all the ethics , human relations/emotions, loyalty and even prevailing corporate culture takes back seat. With the advent of Multi Nationals  now operating in India this new corporate culture is taking  a concrete steps in the Indian system.

There are few incidents which are worth pondering:

1. You all are aware how big is Tata group in India and abroad. Earlier Tata group was operating like a big family and contributing to nation’s economy. Its name was associated with quality product and it had a very excellent corporate culture and they were  treating their employees very well. The group was making enough profits and part of profits are also diverted to their charitable trusts from where they were helping poor, needy and affected persons. The classical example is Terrorist attack in Mumbai in 2008, and how Tata group treated their employees who were affected when terrorists attack their hotel Taj Mahal in Mumbai. They not only helped their employees but also outsiders who were affected by these attacks. After Ratan Tata  attaining the age of 75 retired as Chairman of Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry took over, people found there is sudden change in culture of Tata group. There was en mass termination of employees’ services in some group companies and reason given was they have become surplus, this had never happened earlier in Tata’s history. So many other things also happened which Ratan Tata  found were going against the culture and guide lines set by earlier management. So in the end Cyrus Mistry was sacked  and MD of Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS ) was appointed as Chairman, who for last many decades is working with Tata Group and well versed with Tata Culture.
2. Second company which comes to mind is Infosys- this  case is also similar to Tata group. After the founding Chairman Narayanmurthy retired as Charman and CEO of  the group, there have been CEOs in the company but they have to go, latest being Sikka, who made a statement that there was too much criticism of him in media including social media by the founding members of the company who hold major chunk of shares as a single entity. In this case also the major complained by founding members were  the company is going against the guide lines and culture set up by the founding members and now company is working only worrying about market capitalisation and profits.
3. One more case which has come in the open is case of Vijaypat Singhania, the ex chairman of Raymonds group. His mistake is that  he assigned all his holdings in the group companies to his son Gautam Singhania, who is present chairman. As a ex Chairman what ever was agreed as his separation package was not given to him including the accommodation. There was news in the media recently that Vijaypat is finding difficult  to meet  his day to day expenses , and what was Gautam’s statement that shareholders did not approve the accommodation which was to be transferred in Vijaypat’s name. What a irony of modern corporate world.
4. Next example I am quoting from my personal experience. I retired from my profession in 2016, and till mid 2014 I was working in corporate company. When I joined that organisation in 2004, it was a medium size Technical consulting organisation which was slowly developing  and by 2008 there were almost 500 people working in that organisation. By the end of 2008 the global recession hit the organisation and its business suffered, although it had many projects but most of them came to stand still. As this organisation was owned by a family , the Chairman  announced that service of no employee will be terminated but he requested all the employees whose salary was more than a specific amount to take cut in the salary and this cut in next 4 months went up to 25%. After 2 years when the situation improved the salaries were brought back to original level. Then in 2011 this organisation was taken over by a Multi National Company, even after the initial assurance by the out going Chairman that no employee will be sacked, but with in one year new management started sacking the employees en mass and working culture which was earlier like a well knit family company slowly started changing to MNC  corporate culture, where bottom line was how much profit is being contributed by your project .

So this is the present scenario of India corporate system, where bottom line is the only criteria, all other things do not matter. Whether this type of corporate culture and system will give fruit in the Indian economy and market and how Indian executives will survive in this atmosphere, only time will tell.

So what you say my friends.

Awaiting your feed back and comments.