NASSCOM EMERGE Community Catalyst for Growth of Emerging & Start-Up companies

Nari, here's an article that identifies some areas/functions that could continue to grow.

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3775031/Theres+Hope+for+the+IT+Industry.htm

Nari:

Recession is a pain caused by greediness and over-growth. Difficult to resist unless otherwise we (or the company) is prepared for the recession during the growth-phase itself.

When we make more money we are busy in making more money! When we can't make more money we have less or no money to spend on anything that brings long-term benefits!

We must take this pain deep into our heart and mind so that we don't "conveniently" forget this during the next growth phase to "conveniently blame" others during the next recession.

 

Lakshman:

My post was much more simplistic. IT budgets are usually slashed during recessions but when there are competing things in the IT budgets, some line items don't get slashed whether the Recession happens in the U.S. U.K. Europe or in India. When SMEs have only so many resources at their disposal, especially during bad times, it is better to pursue actively those items hat have a chance in hell of geting the money.

Regarding preparing for bad times while good times are on, we get so drunk that bad times are the farthest from our minds. Even the largest coporations don't think they are fallible. During the 80's IBM projected a million employees. I was at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1986 when they projected a million employees. The minute this happens, you know you are at the peak of the good times. That's the only thing that is guaranteed, unfortunately!

Nari:

I got your point. . Unfortunately, there is no better place to hide until we make all the places safe.

Companies might have searched for hiding place (focusing on the low-hanging fruits again) during late 80s, early 2000 and so on. Were they right? If so, we need to simply follow the history. If not, we need to think differently!

While looking for the obvious answers and searching for the solution for survival, my mind goes one step forward. It may be a wishful thinking until we follow this thought process and show results.

During the great times, companies liked some innovative ideas but they were wondering how to stop or slow down the running train to make the necessary change. Here is the situation where the trains are crashing, slowing down and some wondering about the direction.

During this bad time, companies can manage to focus on innovation, new product development and new initiatives while they continue to do what they do but more efficiently. It will introduce new jobs and ignite the change agents to ultimately prepare for the organizations' longevity.

Focusing on the short-term & survival strategy, will kill more jobs than what is necessary. We don't need to break our head for this. We can't go a long way by walking on the dead bodies.

Obama talks about next revolutionary innovations when close to 3 lakhs people have lost their job in the US. In 1996 most countries in Asia stopped all the infrastructure projects but Singapore was busy building thousands of apartments saving the lives of many contract workers while saving cost. It is definitely a win-win situation.

Ganesh Natarajan suggested in one of the posts recently that it is a good time to build new products. We (Lpcube) started building our product & methodology during the down time (2001). It took around 4 years to successfully complete the first version. We are happy with the outcome. Product development is a good idea for people with good ideas.

Lpcube need to focus on marketing (+best pricing) and enhancing (new features, performance improvements & bug fixing) our knowledge management solution to help companies learn and work better.

If companies can manage to cut salaries but not cut jobs, they can do wonders. It is only a question of motivating their employees by creating awareness on trimming the cost without firing. As much as possible, Organizations need to keep the workforce across the function busy (sensibly).

Let's take a short-term salary cut and remain busy not only doing the obvious things but also fundamental things (training, learning, changing, innovating, etc.,) necessary for the longevity. Let's kill our greediness but not the lives of people.

My simple answer to your simplistic question is let's focus on saving cost while saving the workforces. If you want me to suggest few jobs as a hiding place at the cost of many other jobs, sorry for my inability to give direct answer.

Nari: There can be bias in the responses. If am running an IT training center, I will say that this is the best time to train the workforce on new technologies. Knowledge Management consultants might say that this is the best time to kick-start the KM initiatives. If we are into testing services, we might say that it is a great time for making sure that there are no bugs in the software products.

Persons deciding on the IT budget will have entirely different answers depending upon their perception, expertise and short-term vs long-term thought processes. Smart IT head might trim the cost without trimming the jobs (deleting the line items).