Mr. Raju: I stand by you !

While typing these words, i am not sure about my job. Not sure, when I have to pack the bags and leave States on a day or two notice. Further, i have never been proud to be working in Satyam or happy being a Satyamite, infact got sorry after getting placed in Satyam during institute placement time, as big bankers like Citi or consulting firms like PwC, KPMG have always fascinated me. But, at this juncture of time, Mr. Raju, i stand by you.

I understand with whole gravity the situation, Satyam fraternity and India Inc is in, but like as i have mentioned in the last post, Media frenziness is in no way accepted. Raju is projected as historysheeter who should be caught and put behind the bars. Obviously, World is not of failed ones but Raju has been a big man and one of the Indian icons. Things went wrong, terribly wrong, but where in the whole world, things are always perfect.

The main and only fault of Raju has been the inflatory books; From compliance perspective, it’s a big crime but from common man’s perspective, it’s something which we encounter every now and then. Right from IPL teams to fairness creams, everyone is selling themselves as the best. This media who has gone crazy while covering this event, has atleast 10 news papers which are most read in India. Satyam cashbooks have no debts, Raju has arranged some 1200 crores and put them without any trace in cash-books. He was running a company at 3% margin and still talking of acquiring, thinking big and deals all across the world. Don’t you see a man of big heart.

Indian IT companies are known for their bench stregnth. Infy, the most reputed corporate governors has been asking its employees to go on forced vacations or take a year of half salary leave or join some NGO. An engineer or MBA has not joined Infy to work in Infy foundation, nor is everyone shares the same philanthropic thinking like Mr. Murthy. Satyam has not laid off its employees instead of such turbulent time. If anyone is going to give example of sacking of some couple of hundred of associates, i am going to blast him.

Raju might not be cruel perfect corporate Business person, but he was trying to deal with situation with a bit of passion, a sense of hope and lot of patience; the indian way. He didn’t order sacking of 20K employees on a single day, nor did he sell any of the acquired companies. He didn’t close any of the philanthropic activities of EMRI or Satyam foundation. He was literally riding a tiger and trying to control that tiger so that 50K Satyam associates are not biten, alas, he could not let it happen !

More than Satyam, it’s the regulators who are at fault. PwC should be banned worldwide. Remember, it was not only Enron which got bankrupt in 2001, Arthur Enderson was also doomed. How can auditors sign the balance sheets?  Why would i not brand myself and my company as a successful, charismatic, Indian fastest growing, if noone is checking over me. It’s helping me to get good deals and client trust. Why for then all these auditors and consulting firms are paid the hefty checks ?

Further, i see the news that Satyam episode might give a jolt to Indian Industry. Why ? Because, US companies would not believe us anymore. I am not happy. Why the Indian mammoths have to look after those US companies which don’t have any money with them, which are asking loans of billions of dollars from government every month. We say that this is failure of Indian leadership, comeon, this is just one company getting failed, half of the US is failed at this point. And plus, what are the charges.. inflatory books? Raju has not bribed anyone (WB is altogther separate issue, don’t try to mix and match the things!), nor has taken billions of dollars of loans from anyone and nor is the company running in debt. Satyam is still profitable venture with no debts in account. According to some of these reckless auditor’s surveys, 70% of CFOs goof up their books on the order of CEOs, this is in US which boast of regulatory norms. When such is the culture of a nation, how can they distrust an Indian counterpart.

Raju has been trying to buy Maytas so that he can show transfer of funds and can then pay later but investors didn’t approve it. Don’t you see that as an honest attempt now?

I see that he has not done correct. Many of the shareholders, satyam associates sentiments have been hurt and he would be punished by the law of the land, but why is he being shown as another Harshad Mehta? What has Harshad Mehta given to us, he has given 50K jobs, a name to Indian IT, was the first to vision outsourcing model and made Americans fear on their land for their jobs, associated FIFA for branding to a country where football is nowhere except schools. He has been a gentleman throughout his 21 careers in Satyam except since last 20 days when Media started seeing a scamster in him. I still feel that he had been a great leader and a good human being, who had gone wrong somewhere in the things.

Satyam fiasco

Just done with the reading of headlines at Economictimes and there was something which has compelled me to write this blog. ‘Satyam Fiasco’ was the heading given, and there were couple of articles right from corporate governance to company’s investment strategy to company’s board members and prmotoers outlook. It was good read, though i would not agree to many of the points, or say that i have a different outlook.

Honestly, the recent turn of events have not been good; be it getting banned from World Bank or buy-back plans of sister concerns, Maytas Properties or Maytas Infra and then its abortion, and then resignation of one or as people say first board members. Satyam has already been in trouble over a leagal case with UK based UPaid and as reported, if the case does go against Satyam then it would be in deep trouble.

Being a Satyam employee, these news obviously interest me more than usual items and i am also concerned but definitely not very happy, the way Media has put reported the case. Guess, things have been made hyper and are presented in more bad shape then they really are.

Coming to Maytas deal and then the decision to take that back. Raju, one of the biggest industrialist of the nation is trying to promote his other family venture, put this forward as part of diversification strategy to all the employees and shareholders. Where’s the wrong in it? I understand that in this time of recession, putting this big cash deal might deprive Satyam from it’s huge built up cash pile and company can’t afford this. The same thing has been told by the promoters and company, respecting their views have taken back the decision. Why is this all the fuss and post-mortem of the things.

Journalists say after their analysis that it was plain case of family promotion. I say there is no analysis needed for this. It was. The recent events in Real Estate have been much worse than IT and Maytas shares have suffered around 50% fallback since a year time. But was it the first time in Indian history when such attempt has been made? Our whole india is a family run country. Check from 10, Janpath to your neighbourhood, every father is trying to promote his son with all his worth. Our politicians, our  Businessmen, our spoprts person, it’s like family affair. From Nehru to Rahul’s sons, they would be in Congress and would in Politics. From Jamsetji to Ratan Tata, Tatas have been doing great to serve the country. There are thousands of family lineages who have been serving in Indian army and are proud of that.  India is developing big but is still developing and it might take long time to have professional setup built in the country. Unlike Steve Jobs case, you can’t move the founder out of the company here.

Enough of examples! Its plain affair that Maytas need funds for its grand metro project in Hyderabad and which is very difficult to have in this bad time for real estate. Between, Maytas in well established name in Indian real-estate after giants like DLF and Unitech. Almost all the rocky area os Hyderabad, perhaps the future-biggest city of India is occupied by it and they are ambitious to acquire more which sometimes is seen as hungry corporate India to win over the world. Raju has his vision of promoting the project of Maytas which further de-risk the IT business of the the firm and after it has not gone well with the promoters, has taken it back. Media is proposing hostile take-over (not sure, how reliable the news is !) and such other stupid stuff.  Raju has been a responsible entrepreneur, have been several NGOs which are doing great job in serving the society. He is not the one seen on television channels everyday and providing his opinion on all the national aspects right from terrorism to politics like other Comapny’s top notch management. He knows to do Business and there are couple of things which go wrong but how do you present it to the world and to the common person that rests with Media. This time, we need more responsible media who should be involved into serious journalism and stop finding sensation on every action of corporates. Don’t forget that these are the few coporates who have made India what it is ? You can say that india confidence and IT uprising coming hand in hand have been a coincidence, i don’t think so !