Organizations in India from time immemorial have been very hierarchical and bureaucratic. Designations and titles carried a lot of weight. Promotions were strictly based on seniority and rarely on merit. However the west followed a different model in the 80’s where the organizations had a flat structure. A Technical Manager generally managed several highly qualified technical people. Designations and titles lost their significance and the culture moved towards meritocracy.
As many IT MNCs setup shop in India in the late 90’s, the organizational mentality also had to undergo a change. As the MNCs moved some of very key technical areas for development /maintenance by their Indian counterparts, there was a need for more qualified senior technical people. Soon many Indian IT organizations started to have two streams, one for those interested in a pure management role and another for those interested in a technical career.
However the only catch was that the technical ladder, like the great Indian rope trick, would disappear after a few levels into thin air. A technically qualified person could virtually disappear into thin air as he rose up or be stuck at the level at which the rope disappeared. However the Management ladder was and is truly the “stairway to heaven” to more weighty roles like VP, SVP, and EVP and so on.
This is really a malaise typical of the Indian IT industry which is very knowledge intensive. In India, a senior technologist is considered to be a nerd. The general perception among senior management in India, about qualified technical people, is that they are only good with computers and are incapable of handling people. Technical professionals are stereotyped into being only good with their machines and with little or no idea about people dynamics.
What is generally not understood is that the Senior Technical experts have to interact with everybody from senior management, sales people, developers and misbehaving programs. Many technical experts who have been in the industry for a couple of decades should be able to juggle programs and manage people with equal ease.
Unless India gives more importance to the highly qualified experts in the organization and has levels in the technical ladder, which are on par with the VPs and SVPs, there is a little chance of the country producing the kind of breakthroughs that a Google, Microsoft or Facebook does. There is no dearth of good software talent in India. What is truly lacking in our system is an environment where expertise and knowledge are given real recognition. . In fact this has been the primary reason that Indian IT has been playing catch up to the western counterparts for a long time. In Indian IT organizations people switch to project and people management early in their career and those who on the technical ladder lose the steam to learn new technologies because of the indifferent treatment meted to them. The organizational culture should be based on meritocracy and technical talent should be allowed to grow and mature. Organizations should create a climate of sheer technical excellence where top technical talent is given due recognition and respect. This is extremely critical in this age of increasing technical complexity where there is a need for people with deep understanding and knowledge to move the edge of progress further.
Clearly, any technologist who can comprehend complex algorithms and identify the root cause of a system crash/outage will surely be able to understand the company’s balance sheet or the organizational cash flow situation with some effort. Besides, as these technologists move up the hierarchy they can be given roles where they decide the business strategy based on technological trends. They can provide major inputs into the technological roadmap of the organization.
In order for India to increase its clout internationally in this knowledge era, it is very essential that the Indian IT organization nurture bright talent and provide them a clear path into the upper strata of management. The technical ladder should extend all the way to the very top. If this is done it will herald a new era in Indian IT and India will be software force to reckon with in future.
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