The IT revolution has brought India fame and prosperity. But A K Pathak feels that if we are to sustain our success in this dynamic and fast-paced field, we have no option but to develop principle-centred IT leaders, which will bring prosperity and also improve the quality of life of the common man

In India, the IT revolution has not only transformed the fiscal reserves and the economy but has also created job opportunities and assured worldwide recognition of Indian talent. It has happened slowly—but not by accident. In earlier revolutions, we missed the bus and become followers, but in this IT revolution, we have taken the lead and demonstrated our capabilities in the software services sector to the world. This has attracted the attention of many developing countries and they would like to follow Indian pattern of development in IT. We are earning revenues worth $8 billion annually and aspire to touch revenues of $87 billion by 2008. The IT sector propels India to the centrestage of the world and is making significant contribution to economic growth. It has provided job opportunities to millions of young and talented IT professionals in India and abroad. A few decades ago, we were discussing the threat of unemployment due to computers in India. Prosperity ushered in by the IT revolution has made the highest impact on the quality of the common man.

In the era of liberalisation and globalisation, market forces are increasingly governing the industries. The efficiency, productivity and competitiveness are pre-requisite for survival in a free market economy. IT is no longer a resource, but it is an enabler. Now it is expected that IT enabled services will open up more job opportunities in India. India has demonstrated to the world its leadership in IT services.

We have witnessed the rise of many IT organisations like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL, etc, in the last decade. These new economy IT organisations have changed the pace of growth and value. The success in the field of IT is attributed to many factors, some of which are:

• Talented, educated people in India
• Educational reforms and spread
• Presence of renowned educational institutions such as IITs, IIMs, IISCs and engineering colleges
• Proficiency in English
• Vision to set up infrastructure such as power, communication facilities, research laboratories, etc
• Growth in science and technology
• Y2K issue
• Cheap manpower
• Principle-centred leadership

Change is constant
IT professionals need to learn new technologies constantly. IT professionals do change jobs very often either for high salaries or for grabbing opportunities to work on state-of-the-art technology. IT professionals need to have different skills, such as communication, technical skills, ability to work hard, logical mind, teamwork, imagination, understanding customer requirements and quality consciousness, apart from an intellectual mind. These professionals have to work with new environment very often. The languages, cultures, religions and processes are different in the international scenario. IT professionals need to learn and understand different cultures for effective communication. These professionals have to remain away from their families for a long time. They need to work beyond office hours to suit international timings. Understanding and listening to customers is the key factor for success. They are successful only if teamwork and a win-win attitude are demonstrated.

The quick pace of change in IT business demands fast and flexible responses throughout the organisation. There is no time to wait for directives from the top. And highly skilled IT professionals, who are so vital to the organisation, want to learn at a faster rate. The IT organisation also wants to preserve the knowledge within the organisation. Old-fashioned command and control leadership is too slow and is not effective. To be a highly effective leader in today’s IT business world, one should lead others to lead themselves. IT leaders have ensured that every person of the organisation can lead himself/herself by tapping and unleashing the innate leadership potential that lies within every employee.

Most of the leading IT organisations work remotely and independently by using IT. This adds complexities in working styles. One needs to adapt to frequent changes in technology, exposure to different cultures, languages, styles of management and ways of working (different regional and local laws and statutory requirements) and still be globally integrated not only for success, but for survival. Due to this peculiar situation, a new kind of leadership has emerged behind every successful project. It is interesting to articulate specific behaviours and strategies these leaders have used to bring out excellence in others. These leadership qualities have become critical key factors in success and failure in IT organisations.

Characteristics
The characteristics of principle-centred leaderships are continually learning; service orientation; positive attitude; trust; balancing the physical, mental, social and spiritual life; and, following a self-renewal process. These leaders work on the basis of natural principles and build their competence. They are mission driven. They work with trust at personal and interpersonal level, as trust is the root of success or failure in relationships and in business, industry, education and government. In India these qualities have been demonstrated by IT leaders such as F C Kohli, N R Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji and the late Dewang Mehta, among others.

India is a country with a rich cultural heritage. Over the years, we have built up our value system. This has resulted in development of dedicated manpower in very large numbers at relatively cheaper cost. With westernisation, greed for money has motivated these people to work hard and to seek job opportunities abroad. We are also losing our value system very fast, because of western ‘Eat, Drink & Enjoy’ culture. This is a serious threat for our growth prospects in IT. As such we need to act on this issue on an urgent basis. We have no option but to develop principle-centred IT leaders for further growth of IT in India, which will bring not only prosperity but also improve the quality of life of the common man by providing solutions to the problems of our country.

A K Pathak is the president of the Computer Society of India