Cunning, over hyped Infosys and its trickery

Infosys likes to be in the news always, don’t they? They have an uncanny ability to make the most mundane of events appear game-changing. They keep on talking about how they have the best management team in the world and the best people working for them but still they are not considered in the big league. That league is still dominated by the likes of Accenture, IBM, CSC, etc.

With 100,000 employees, Infosys is surely a very big company but my point is that they are not as great as they proclaim themselves to be. The only great Indian software services company that I respect is Tata Consultancy Services. Compared to TCS, Infosys still has a lot to achieve. I know that the Infosys or rather “Infy” zealots would be abusing me after reading this but hey, truth is always bitter. Wipro is another biggie, but ever since they mulled increasing work hours due to the slowdown, they lost it.  Come on now, when the going was good Wipro did not think of reducing the number of hours per week, did they?

Anyway, recently Infosys made headlines by announcing that they are offering their employees an option of going on sabbatical to pursue “philanthropic” ambitions. During this period Infosys is going to pay their employees 50% of their salaries. A BIG BAG OF BULLSHIT. That’s what it is. The truth is, like most of the companies, Infosys is also feeling the pinch of a declining global economy. These are just steps to stem the rot. The over hyped Infosys management is at it once more. During the lull periods of 2001-2002, Infosys made offers to candidates, then deferred those and finally took the offers back!!! This from a company that prides itself for its management. The fact is Infosys is also in trouble but they cannot admit it without having their stock prices decline steeply.

Many Indian software professionals consider Infosys to be better than TCS. I never understood in what way. Compensation wise they are comparable. TCS generates more profit per quarter than Infosys. TCS has a larger global presence compared to Infosys. TCS has a wider service portfolio compared to Infosys. The most important thing of all, TCS has more projects than Infosys.

Personally, I feel Infosys should be investigated by regulators. Why  would a company that announces huge profits every quarter have to resort to cheap tactics liked forced sabbaticals? There is definitely something not right there. And yes, believe me, this so called optional sabbatical is going to be forced down the throats of many pretty soon. Can we consider this forced sabbatical as an innovative management strategy?