The puritan ethic of thrift and saving is a virtue to be admired. But in business and industry, if the invisible line between thrift and plain old-fashioned stinginess is crossed and becomes a nostrum of corporate policy, the consequences can be grave. This is a hard reality which the Bangalore-based IT heavyweight Infosys Technologies Ltd — whose equity share was hitherto a highly-fancied bellwether scrip of the stock exchanges — is learning the hard way. Since Infosys announced its fourth quarter performance numbers on April 13, and forecast a mere 8-10 percent growth in fiscal 2012-13, the price of its equity share listed on the NSE (National Stock Exchange) has plunged from a 52-week high of Rs.3,023 to Rs.2,462 currently, with the company’s shareholders having lost $4 billion (Rs.20,400 crore) in the past three weeks. The problem with the company is that during the past three decades that it has been in business, instead of cashing in on its reputation and building great brands, it has remained a cutomised software company. While global leaders Microsoft and Apple have built great brands such as Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and Hotmail, and Apple iPad, iPhone and other branded applications, Infy has failed and neglected to build any branded products or services which would have given the company greater financial stability and a better public image. Driven by a philosophy of extreme thrift — Infy top brass unwisely pride themselves for never advertising — the company has built up huge reserves of $4 billion, but money in the bank can never give the returns it can earn when deployed in business. Now with younger, more energetic companies such as Cognizant and others around the world under-pricing Infosys, the chickens of this prolonged myopia — eulogised as exemplary management in the business media — are coming home to roost. Several decades ago in another avatar, I strongly advised Major Poddar who headed Century Textiles and prided himself on supplying unbranded men’s shirts to iconic retailers such as Harrods, Macy’s and Marks & Spencers, to develop the cash-rich company’s own branded ready-mades. This constructive advice rendered gratis was disregarded. Today the once iconic Century is a shell of a company struggling in shallows and misery. There’s a lesson in this sad story for the self-righteous cabal that runs Infosys whose old-fashioned thrift has antagonised its investors, the media, and NGOs whose good causes they routinely decline to support. White Tiger denouement The resignation in late april of Abhishek Manu Singhvi, from his high-profile post of official spokesman of the ruling Congress party following outing of a compact disc depicting this top Supreme Court counsel engaged in sexual romp in his chambers adjoining the apex court, has blown the lid off an open secret of the legal fraternity — the routine exploitation of women trying to succeed in this overwhelmingly male-dominated profession. Although women’s chances have reportedly improved following the establishment of American-style law firms which pay regular salaries, several decades ago it was routine for…
