Hi! In the Indian Information Technology (IT) industry, somehow, marketing is not given the highest priority. Atleast, the Indian IT majors don't give Marketing its due attention.
So you guys may also comment as to how can the Indian IT companies market themselves better. Your IT Marketing experience, if any, is welcome to be shared.... :-)
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- Utsav
- Simple things please me and big dreams drive me. I believe in having low expectations and high hopes. A pragmatic optimist?
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Hi friends! Here's an article I wrote on Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)...
The Invisible Giant
Many of us come to Initial Learning Programme (ILP) as freshers. So, if you are a fresher, have you joined TCS due to the BRAND alone? If yes, you are in the minority. Most of the freshers have joined TCS due to varied reasons – “TCS being the first company on campus”, lack of alternatives on campus etc. For some others it was Brand Tata (not TCS). However, ask a school kid about IBM, Microsoft and the likes and they immediately start at it. Why not TCS?
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google say that the best of ideas come from the most “uneducated” of brains. That’s probably because education conditions our mind to behave in a predefined “tried-and-tested” pattern, nipping creativity and potential ideas in the bud. So let us look at TCS through “amateur eyes” and “externally”.
A Brand is ‘felt’. Consumers generally associate the Brand with its product(s) and they sense the product through “touch and feel”. So you can “feel” a Rolex, a Gucci or a Porsche. So does it mean that a service company like us can’t attain the same brand recognition as a Coke or a Mercedes? Many IT people tell me that, us being in Services, it is difficult to enjoy the same brand equity as any ‘touch-n-feel’ brand. Then what have Microsoft or Google done to enjoy brand equity on par with Pepsi or Nike? In the modern war to win “mindspace”, the belief that service companies can’t be stand-alone brands is a myth.
I accept that the international media has given attention to the Indian IT players. But should we be satisfied with just that occasional mention in the international media? We deserve more. Even in the domestic media, there is greater hype when IBM invests $6 billion or Google and Accenture plan to set/expand shop in India, as compared to great investments and efforts by TCS, Infosys et al. We, the Indian players, suffer from the brand deficiency syndrome. This very disease plagues us at the customer level when large chunks of high-value work is outsourced to IBMs and the Accentures instead of TCS and co. This happens primarily due to two reasons. One, India over the years has earned the ‘low cost’ tag. The customer, somewhere in his mind, associates inferior quality with lower price. So the work at the higher levels of the technology pyramid is bagged by established brands and (with due regards!) the ‘remains’ are distributed amongst the Indian IT companies. The second reason is somewhat an offshoot of the first: Brand Perception. Indian IT companies are internationally considered to be “back-office” masters. So many MNCs perceive us as being incapable of handling high-end work (although, I may add, that this perception is changing, albeit at snail’s pace, with the advent of KPO). TCS, Infosys et al comes up in the board meetings only as back-ups options to IBM, Accenture, EDS et al. Lack of faith in Indian IT or plain ignorance may be the reasons of sub-optimal brand perception.
A quick SWOT reveals that our USP – low costs – is under attack from these very MNCs as they’ve tapped the ‘Indiadvantage’ in a big way. So we can’t hide behind the fortress of low costs for long. The only way to survive is to thrive. And we can thrive only by climbing up the value ladder to attain the peak of the tech-work pyramid. Besides, we seem to have been ignoring the most prominent of the emerging markets – India itself. As most of our revenues come from America and Europe, we seem to be giving step-motherly treatment to Asia in general and India and China in particular. We must realize that India has some fairly big companies with relatively primitive information management systems. So India ought to be a mouth-watering prospect as a market, coupled with the ubiquitous China.
Is TCS on the path to conquer? Yes. But I fear we are a trifle slower than what the environment demands.
The international media is agog with speculation that close to $100 billion (high and low end work) will be up for outsourcing in the next 2 years. If these reports are to be believed, we must appreciate the leads that the more established brands enjoy. They Big Brothers are working overtime by being “On Demand” and “People Ready”. Closer home, Infosys plans to launch a marketing blitzkrieg at the international level to ‘nitro-boost’ its brand equity.
Are we going to be passive observers? Not in our nature!! We must come out of our conservative mind frames to aggressively market Brand TCS. We must heavily invest in every form of advertising and brand communication to reach not just our potentially direct customers, but the end consumers as well. We must market ourselves to see the day when a SBI customer walks in a branch and suggests the manager to use TCS services. We being the best option shouldn’t be the only reason why a SBI should opt for our services. Instead they should be compelled to come to us due to THEIR customers’ demand. It’s all about mindspace!
Somehow, we must increase our brand visibility and brand recall, not just in the mind of our existing and potential customers, but also amongst the people you see on the streets, corridors and everywhere else. Because, it boils down to the end-user, who is one amongst those people surrounding you. And goodwill, unlike liquid, can flow from bottom to top. In fact it is effusive. So we must also strike at “the bottom of the pyramid”, as noted international economist C K Prahlad would like to put it. Such advertisement may not necessarily involve huge investments as is amply demonstrated by Google. Innovation and effective PR too can fetch us those coveted points in the minds of the customers.
We know that we’re not as big as some other companies. But then that is why “we work harder”. And we must market this fact. We all would want to make TCS as the preferred one over the IBMs and not just their alternative.
As of now, TCS is the invisible giant. We must show it to the world in a big way to harness its potential fully.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are personal and doesn't carry any official relevance. Any (unintentional) offence caused is highly regretted.
Well well well.... i dont completely agree with you..!!
Lets start with brand value of Indian companies wrt international companies... Let me give a small example.. amdocs and TCS/Infy... both have revenues up 2billion$ but TCS/Infy on other hand employ arnd 70-80k+ against amdocs employing less 15k globally. See the difference urself... and still Infy is seen globally as a greater brand than amdocs! And y? -> coz Infy is a hightech company coming from a 3rd world country... Hence the attention! Moral being, international companies run on a completely diff scale than indian companies...!!!
Now, we Indians being in the back office operations infact make us the underdogs.. and it is because of this that we are infact at a greater advantage in the long run than the other companies..!! How? IBM takes an order and Infy executes it... but see it from another prespective... slowly steadily Infy and all are proving themselves... that they can handle work on there own. Its better to be the invisile giant than the visible giant...!!!
IT as a brand
IT is service sector.. and in service sector the brand gets created - the more u are visible. Visibility defines the brand. Visibilty in the stock markets, social causes, advertisements, employment agencies... etc etc.. and for companies tht directly flirt with the users... like google and microsoft - the more number of users who use it.
Shoot back if u agree or disagree...
Hey Ritu, I had typed a good "reply-article" from my phone web browser, but it has just DISAPPEARED!!!
Anyways, a bit of correction to the figures: TCS will cross $4 billion revenues by March '07. Infy will be a shade behind.
I perceive the real difference to be the efficiency in man-power utilisation... The MNCs utilise their resources better then the Indian IT companies.
But I firmly believe that you can't be "invisible" in this fiercely competitive global market.
A Possible Catastrophe
Sample this report in The Economic Times dated April 23, 2007:
TARGETED NEW JOBS IN 2007-08
TCS: 32000; Infosys: 24500; Wipro: 14000; Satyam: 15000; HCL: 15000
And this doesn’t include the countless number of small IT companies and the big MNCs.
We may immerse ourselves in the short-term bliss of increased employment. But aren’t we being myopic when we do the breast-beating about Indian IT taking over the World? I hope not.
India, as a third-world nation, has long suffered the pain of unemployment for its highly educated and skilled youth. Hence India can’t resist letting its hair down at the sudden emergence of “infinite” number of jobs. Suddenly there’s a prospect of everybody getting employed. Suddenly there’s this concept of Youth Power, which is driving this consumption driven Indian Economy, as today’s youth earn in multiples of their fathers’ income.
But is this model sustainable? From my limited economic knowledge, I understand that commerce always moves to the most “juicy” territory, sucks the ‘juice’, grows stronger and trains its sight on the next “juicy” territory. Today, India and the other BRIC countries are the “juicy” territories. Who has seen tomorrow?
As to our topic of discussion – HR – let us ask ourselves, why is there an influx of jobs to India? That’s because work gets done in India at the same (high) quality and at a fraction of the original outsourcer’s cost; because India has the numbers to take on the entire office work of the World. The IT India was not there 15 years ago. It has emerged. Can’t a second India emerge somewhere else in the World? Of course, yes! After all, India has just 1 billion of the total World population of close to 7 billion! Even if we ignore the humungous threat called China, the possibilities are really alarming for India.
What happens if a second India rises? (Already the seeds of a second India have been sown in Brazil, Vietnam, East Europe etc.). Will the millions of jobs, IT and otherwise, still stay back in India? Economics knows no emotions. It will ruthlessly move over to the cheapest (read “juiciest”) territory, as and when one emerges and grows more attractive then India.
Well, acres of newsprint have been devoted to the above discussion. So we leave that discussion to the more knowledgeable hounds.
For the moment, lets consider that this job explosion is indeed sustainable over the long term. This means that the Indian companies will continue to hire in such ridiculous numbers or in case there’s saturation after some more years of recruitment, they’ll continue to have the recruits on their pay-rolls. For some more clarity of my theory, lets consider TCS, which has a employee strength of 90,000 at the end of fiscal 2006-07. Lets say, they’ll recruit to a (huge) number like 2, 00,000 (or perhaps more) by 2012. Now, however flat a organization is, there’s always a “Pyramid of Power” as far as the designation-hierarchy is concerned. In flat organizations, only the pyramid’s height is shorter. As per Maslow’s theory, a professional will always look forward to a hike in his designation as soon as possible. A higher designation makes one feel, important and wanted. And who doesn’t want to feel powerful, important and wanted? Now, TCS is a “flat” organization. As a result, the height of its “Pyramid of Power” is less. Now, by recruiting in such ridiculous numbers, they are broadening the base of this pyramid at a very fast clip. All this while, the height of the pyramid remains the same. Now, remember that the recruits are not illiterate blue-collars. They are literate and skilled white-collars. And they are today’s ambitious youth. So a good pay-packet isn’t sufficient to satiate them – they need more (read power & responsibility and, to an extent, “indispensability”). Now since there is “less room at the top” of this short pyramid, designation hikes have to be rare. The inflow is way greater then the exodus from the company. As a result, “bottle-neck” appears at the middle of that short pyramid. These recruits will have their pay hiked year after year, without their designation hiked and will be performing the same task which gets mundane after years of repetition. (I wouldn’t be commenting on the abysmal quality of the IT work that gets offshored to India, which further inflames the frustration of the educated work-force.) So the thousands, are stuck at the same designation and the person in the adjacent cubicle also earns as much as you and is at the same designation as yours – forever! All this makes one feel like “just another brick in the wall”. And this is a case across all the Indian IT companies and not just TCS.
Intelligent HR management is as much about “ego-massaging” the existing employee base as about getting additional “resources” to get the job done. With these numbers, it is almost impossible to take care of frustrated egos.
As of now, things are hunky dory as the average IT workers age is around 27. As he grows older, the long hours of physical inactivity in front of his desktop will kill him. If he manages to survive, then his bruised ego won’t let him live. And we’re taking about millionss of IT professionals a decade down the line!
Can’t you still see the HR catastrophe waiting to happen? A catastrophe which will make each of the millions feel like “another brick in the wall”. The talent of India is threatened to strangulation due to absence of room to grow. And then there won’t be a Wall!
All of us have this tendency to come out with problems, but no solution. But the current problem is beyond my intellect’s solutions. I don’t know what can be done to avert this disaster. We can’t possibly say to the World: Don’t give us business! Perhaps, we have to innovate a revolutionary HR structure to sustain these millions and their happiness.
How?
Think…
(Disclaimer: Views expressed here are personal and have no legal validity)
TCS coming of age
Finally, TCS is realizing the importance of Brand building and their Experience Certainty campaign is in the right direction, as i had pointed it out in my earlier article The Invisible Giant.
Kudos to TCS!
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