The Biz of Coding

Infosys Technologies’s Global Plans

by Ujwal Tickoo on May 16th, 2006

Rated amongst world’s Top 3 most valued IT suppliers in 2005 (behind IBM and Accenture), Bangalore headquartered Infosys Technologies (INFY) is expressing its Global Plans even more openly.

Infosys has unveiled plans to hire 300 fresh graduates in US and UK. This is a first from an Indian Company.

According to a report in Red Herring:

The first batch of 100 recruits will be brought to India, undergo training at the company’s development centers across India for six months before returning to work for Infosys in the U.S.

No Indian company has hired foreigners in such large numbers at one time.
“We firmly believe that the future success of Infosys lies in its ability to create an environment that is open to people from different nationalities and ethnicities,” said Infosys Chairman Narayana Murthy, the company’s chief mentor….

As Indian software services companies innovate and move up the value chain in their offerings to customers, they need to have a deep understanding of the local markets.

Infosys Technologies is giving a visible demonstration of the aspiration of Indian Companies to be finally recognized as value-adders to the Globalized world rather than as low-cost software development centers. By hiring foreign students Infosys will not only develop stronger roots in its Global offices but also help build a bridge of cultural understanding. Hopefully Infosys will set up new best-practices that can be emulated by US based MNCsOften US based MNCs set up office in India and their satellite office run into various difficulties. In my previous WordPress blog Tech Strategist I had written about these issues in my post Shattered Dreams of Globalization:

One common thing is work “dumping”. What is not-interesting, not-challenging gets pushed to folks working in satellite offices.

The second common observation is the sad “prove yourself to me before I give you a challenging assignment” call — even for experienced folks with several successful years in the industry either in home country or abroad. 

The third common problem is the dreaded “conference calls daily in the dead of night” according to headquarter time-zone schedules. For Indians it is a full 8-12 hour difference! What happens to your health, family, personal time is not that important for several folks working in a different time zone. 

To Continue… InStep: Infosys’s program for building a Vibrant Global workforce

POSTED IN: Globalization, India, Information Economy, Infosys