Here’s an attempt to look at the darkside of the much hyped IT Services company which the other reviews have conveniently chosen to Ignore!
What’s wrong with Infosys?
What’s not?
1) Number of patents obtained in last 10 years - ZERO
2) Tax paid as a company - ZERO( under the benefits of Tax holidays enjoyed as a member of so-called IT park)
3) Biggest Land grabber of prime Real-estate - Gets the government to grab land from poor farmers at below market-rates.( and then Mr. Murthy gives speech on’Market Economy’!). Most of the land wasted on Golf clubs, Auditorium, Coaching class buildings etc. **WHY DO THEY NEED SO MUCH LAND which they aren’t fully utilizing? Raincheck for the post-outsourcing-bubble days?
4) Employees treated as’Resources’(commodities) instead of Individuals - Infy for all the hype doesn’t pay it’s employees commensurate compensation per their capability. It’s like any other government office where they pay you based on your ranking and years of experience( only difference is Infy pays more, but not as much as other companies).
5) They crib about lack of infrastructure and when it comes to surplus profit, they decide to disburse millions to their employees. It’s a total lack of vision from a company that wastes no time boasting about it’s visionary founder Mr. Murthy.
a) It could have been donated to improve Infrastructure like say build more roads and/or broaden existing ones. Generations would remember such generosity. A true visionary would have definitely done that. Even if Infy lacked such an anthropological streak and soceital obligations, which they claim, it would have definitely helped the business.
b) Any sensible company would have invested the money in starting new ventures, may be on the next agressive marketing campaign to better the business. But, no sire, Infy management came bankrupt(for ideas) here
c) Share of the bounty is based on years of work and position at Infosys. Needless to say founders(like Mr. Murthy) have the highest years of experince, and at highest position get to keep the lion’s share!
d) Employees are now wary of leaving the company for more lucrative offers, lest they lose on the next such bounty. The REAL PURPOSE of such magnanimity( btw. company won’t be paying taxes on the money so disbursed which would get shown as Employee bonus)
6) For a so-called IT behe-moth, it’s employees lack internet connections on their PCs. There are dedicated PCs to access internet here(and only for Company purposes). So cheap!
7) Employees are underpaid(compared to those working at MNCs), overworked and mostly working on maintainance jobs and/or in outdated technlogies like COBOL, C, Mainframes etc. And to think Infy boasts of such a high-percentage of IIT recruits(who btw leave it in a year’s time!), isn’t it a terrible wastage of some of the most brilliant young minds?
India’s already debilitated due to’Brain Drain’. Do we need to endure such massive’Brain Damage’ too?
8) Little real contribution to the society - For a company earning billions, the amount they spend back on the society is pitifully scant - a few public toilets and few schools for slum dwellers. The stuff that provides disproportionately high Press coverage(compared to contribution) and endless Photo-opportunities.
They could have done more. They didn’t.
*Need to look beyond Infosys
After all Infy and others are services companies that charge hourly rates. Plus considering the socialistic inner-working, very little innovation can come from them. If we are dreaming of becoming an IT super power based on IT services, we are definitely day-dreaming. We need companies that can compete with Microsoft, Oracle, Google etc. to reach that position.(No 1 in IT)
Laluji once said of his contribution to backward communities -’Abhivraddi nahin lekin Awaaz diya hain’ [ If not development, I have given them the voice]. Same’s the Infy story. Infy, no doubt, put India on the World IT map in the Y2K days. Just like Bihar voters preferred Development over mere voice, it’s time Indian IT world started looking beyond Infosys.