SATYAMs SAGA

I had found this on http://cnu.posterous.com/satyam-employees-mail-about-th , al ovely thing to study .please read it below

I got a mail from my friend about some forwarded mail from a Satyam Employee about the recent scam by its Ex-CEO Ramalinga Raju.
I have reproduced the mail as is, followed by the things that I felt immediately on reading it.

Disclaimer: I do not work in Satyam or any of the big IT companies in India. I work for a small startup and these are my own views and not my employers'.

Its written by a Satyam employee:

At a time when almost 90% of my Satyam friends are cribbing about the fraud and betrayal by Ramalinga Raju, I have a slightly different opinion. It's bold of me to write this in black and white but this comes straight from my heart and experience.
Let me start by quoting an example of 2006. Most of my friends were unemployed with 50-60% plus marks in BTech, with a degree from an average University and hunting madly for a job. Whether people accept it today or not but the truth remains that Satyam was the ONLY saviour and the only mass recruiter who was ready to accept students who had back logs but had cleared them and also it did not put a very strict minimum marks criterion. And this was true not only for my small college at Lucknow but also those across India . Satyam is the fourth largest in IT in India. Looking at India's population I really want to thank Raju for giving some 54000 Indians jobs atleast for all these years . He was the reason for the revival of confidence and the reason for the bread and butter for many a families.
Satyam training was renowned all over India. Their STC training centre created numerous love stories and unexpected rekindling of a youthful environment where girls and boys were more indepenent than their college days . I remember most of my Satyam friends felt that they made better friends at Satyam's three to six months training than those in the four years of BTech.
Unfortunately people forget to thank God in sad times . I understand that what Raju did is deplorable and unpardonable. He should have treated business more formally and not dealt with it like a family affair . He should have been strict a couple of months or years before itself. Why did he hire so many non potential candidates and keep them on bench? When were the managers and the team mates last told that if they dont work hard, they will lose their job? Business cannot be run lousily.
I have been staying with some 200 odd girls for the last 2 years and many of them are from Satyam. Moreover I network a lot and I have lots of male friends at Satyam . I have seen how people tail gate to Satyam, how they give their swipe cards to others to swipe it on their behalf , how female employees have gone home sharp at 6am irrespective of when they landed at office, how employees sit at home for months at a stretch, prepare for all kind of post graduate entrance exams and still enjoy a full month's pay, how often they went for movies at local theatres at office hours, how often employees went to office just to sign on registers in the morning and at evening, how often they faked their certificates , how often they put unlimited fake medical and house rental bills.
How can we blame just one man when EACH AND EVERY person was disloyal ? How can we exclude Auditors like PwC ? How can we exclude the Board of Directors who have washed their hands off so clean? How can we exclude banks who gave hefty loans without true verfication? How can we exclude the Chief Minister of AP who allowed leniency for Raju's fellow businessman? How can we exclude managers who were never able to trace which bench employee under him had been away from office for how long ?
Yet how can people forget this is the same man whose ideas and potentials gave them an identity for the past several years? How many couples found the right match at an IT industry , courtesy Satyam and how many Andhra farmers benefited from their crores of investments in Satyam shares .How can people forget that Satyam launched its offices right at the doorsteps of a residential colony, where people can simply walk to work ?
The most gruesome experience that I can recollect was when a Satyam tag wearing person was waiting to attend an interview and I overheard him saying that he was in a business meeting at the My Home Satyam ( Madhapur) office when he was sitting right infront of me at a totally different company. When employees themselves show such a lousy attitude and dont care a damn for the brand that they carry around their neck, how can they expect others to care?
I am not saying that ALL Satyam employees are bad. I have known very dedicated people too, but my point is very clear, before pointing fingers at others, introspect .There are thousands of people who have completed certifications at the cost of Satyam, got trained at Satyam. Satyam made several freshers stand on their feet to get better jobs elsewhere across the globe and attain onsite exposure through Satyam.
What Raju did was to keep the business of Satyam going at any cost. I see a very smart man in him when he understood that he should rather accept his mistake than be caught by the USA laws . I see a selfish father in him too that he put a lot at stake for Maytas. However, he resigned with a lot of dignity and his letter of resignation shows humility. It takes a mammoth amount of courage to accept your mistake in public at a time when the media is ready to blow everything out of proportion. If humans dont make mistakes who else would ?
My last salute to this man is for creating such mass employment in India for 57k employees and 57k families when even opening a beetle(pan) shop in a lane in India is a challenge !! Thanks to him for creating income for all the thousands of families who benefited through food chains, the tiffin wallahs, the transport people and all those who made money by renting their houses.
I read he donated Rs 12000 crores from his personal pocket to give the January salary of his Satyam employees. Today Satyamites call Raju a FRAUD. The true and loyal Satyamites surely have all the reasons to say this word. But all the rest who sucked every rupee out of Satyam without doing any value addition need to understand - who was a bigger fraud.

Total Bull Crap.
First, this person doesn't know about running a services business in India. Having people in bench is very important for such companies(I am not cynical here). They have so many clients and god knows when a group of engineers need to be put into action. It is not wise or possible to go and search/hire people after a client has signed up. I tell this because I know the experience of working at multiple clients deadlines at the same time.
Second, he idolizes Raju. There is a special group inside Satyam who keep supporting Raju for whatever he does. There was even some website which was supporting him (http://www.ramalingaraju.com/ - now down)
Third, he says as if Raju was the key person for giving jobs to the 54000 people, even though they were a failure in college. It is not because he was a very kind person or was the follower of Mother Teresa. It is because, hiring all engineering graduates (whatever their marks were) was the only cost effective way to run the company. If all the IT majors in India say that they will only hire 90% or higher, then their workforce would be only 5000 (all companies together). Population is the major advantage for Indians and these IT companies clearly know how to use it to the advantage.
It can also be reworded as "the work that a 20 member team in India does is equivalent to the work that a 3 member startup in Sillicon Valley will do (in less than half the time)"
And finally, he says that everyone is to be blamed. Especially the engineers who sit around and watch movies during office hour.
Actually, I would blame Raju (and the board/top level management). They should be clear in the rules and company policy. Having a 10 employee company is like a local rowdy gang. No need of any rules. No need to keep track of the employees. But having a 50K personal organisation is like a military. Military should be strict. If it weren't, then the general is only to be blamed. There is no use blaming the freshly recruited soldier.
And about the employee who was lying about a meeting when he was sitting for another interview, this is what happens when you don't run your company properly. If your employees are not satisfied, people will go to greener pastures. It can happen in any company. Small or big.
These are the things I felt and I know that most of you might have some alternative view points which may prove me wrong. Please leave a comment below about what you think of the mail and my reply.

Update: One of my friends pointed out that he probably is a she.

Comments (7)

Satya Story said...

nice reply, why dont you put this in the Speak Up section of SatyaStory.com

Ram said...

since everyone does, a scam can't be treated as a legal plan for making money. End of the day, every thing is a business. If one is leading a company, he should set a good example for every one. The entire letter cant justify wrong things. if we keep on advocating for these, India would never improve. Rules are rules for all.... Dont go to admit all the faults you do, rather it creates a bad opinion on every one(right from the trainee to the Chairman) of SATYAM

fksatyam said...

True! You know what dude, my problem with raju has not been his financial leniency but the favoritism that was prevalent in satyam for years. I mean nobody except telugu speakers can really command any respect from their teams.I've heard even non- telugu managers cribbing about getting telugu engineers to work with them, because whenever they get a chance to move another project under a telugu manager, they always did!
Then why the fuck do you call it a fuking MNC!?? and that my friend is why I am not surprised to see them go down the gutter!

Rajesh.G said...

Satyamites u ill be back with performance All T best

Jan 19, 2009

Srinivasan R said...

@Rajesh.G
Yeah, I too hope they get back. Though I have my own reasons for wanting that.

Ram Mynampati said...

Your letter only proves how mismanaged SATYAM was and how big fraud the company was.The managers hired low potential and fake experienced people taking money, and most of the managers themselves put Fake experience...
The leader (Raju) is fraud, so are the most of the managers n employees...
Satyam is no big GOD Company in India, to be so loyal and proud of... It's one of the world's fake comapnies and mis-managed organisations...
54K employees were fed by duping 5 Crore people money and not from Raju's Pocket!!!!
He is a BULL SHIT.... Loser....

Jan 20, 2009

Srinivasan R said...

Oops. I don't think you read the post properly. The mail wasn't written by me.
It was written by some Satyam Employee to which I have posted a public reply.

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This clearly shows some thing abot satyam scam..