And Vijay Says…

A big luxury during this time of the year is that I can have a siesta free of guilt . As I came down the stairs and turned right to the kitchen nook – I saw my little Golden puppy Ollie at his favorite. “Thinking spot” in the back lawn , acting as if he is figuring out the meaning of Christmas 🙂

And that set me thinking – what is the meaning of Christmas ? And then on to – does Christmas mean anything to the world of Enterprise Software ? I think it does mean something .

To me, Christmas is all about giving , exchanging and sharing . These are not the first three words that normally come to mind when we think of enterprise software world . These things , barring a handful of cases, are (at best ) after thoughts.

Enterprise software world is mostly a place where every company is out to go all the way alone . Partnerships do exist – but usually in a very tactical sense. Just like in politics – there are no permanent friends and enemies in enterprise land either . Those that partnered in the past would go at each other’s throats , and sworn enemies will make bed fellows . I readily admit that I have taken it for granted too for the most part that this is how things ought to be done.

Every vendor in enterprise space swears they will do what is good for the customer – and sadly, it generally translates to doing what THEY think is right for the customer .

This year – I have no direct sales responsibility . Otherwise , Q4 is the time when I get told repeatedly that every deal in progress needs to be made into a bigger deal . Many careers have been made and lost in this annual quest. As I look back in time – the best “deals that were made bigger” were the ones where one vendor gave up some short term business to another one (or a few others ) and went to the customer with a “deal you can’t refuse”. In the very best category are the ones where the customer is part of the deal making process throughout . Customers buy on price when the value cannot be expressed clearly and quantitatively in a way they trust . Trust is the operative word here . When customer and vendor trust each other – deals become boring and routine, and usually bigger . There is nothing I love more than routine and boring deals 🙂

No one software vendor has a portfolio to solve all requirements of a customer – yet, inexplicably it is only an absolute minority of cases where a vendor proposal includes products and services that are from someone else . That happens only when sales leaders of multiple vendors know and trust each other well , or when customers ask vendors to work together explicitly . Nether scenario is anywhere close to common .

Same is true for services . Everyone takes potshots at everyone else at the drop of the hat . Independents will say big SIs are out to get customers , who in turn will do every thing to keep independents away from projects , unless they are subcontracted through the SI itself . Product people will readily point a finger at services people – and vice versa – for every problem irrespective of merit . I have seen it from both sides – and it is exasperating , and funny too occasionally .

I have had this conversation with several software and services leaders over the years . The most common answer I get is “Power” – as in, the company with the most power (most marketing $$, best relations with customers etc) twists the situation to their sole advantage , and won’t share the “spoils”.

In my mind, nothing demonstrates true power like generosity . The ability to be generous – to give away for the greater good – is the ultimate power . This is true in the society we live in – and I strongly believe it should be true in the world of software too . The entire industry can grow by leaps and bounds if companies are a bit more generous with their products and services .

This is not to say competition should be eliminated , or that software should be open sourced all the time , or that profit making is a bad thing . Absolutely not – those are all fine and ok. My wish is only for some peaceful co-existence in the world of enterprise software .

Wouldn’t it be great if a good chunk of the vast marketing budgets of software companies are repurposed to product development , education , customer support etc ? Wouldn’t it be great to focus a little more on making ten things 90% right and resist the temptation of doing 20 things 70% right ? And how refreshing would it be to see messaging that “together we solve the world’s problems” than “my horse runs better/faster/cheaper than your donkey” ?

Will 2014 be the year when enterprise software companies get their Christmas spirit ? I will eat and drink to that .

Merry Christmas to everyone . Have a great holiday season . And more power to the ones amongst you who choose to be generous .

Compared to the time between 2008 to 2012, when I was fast tracking through an IBM career in management – I had a pretty relaxing year at SAP in 2013 on many fronts . Mostly, I have been in a learning mode – and I did learn a lot about how this great company works .

IBM was rather command and control driven to some extent – someone up top decided what needed to be done . I had the freedom to figure out how to do it – assuming I met the goal ethically . Well, meeting the goal didn’t count for much there – you had to exceed the goal by a long margin to be seen as a leader . Every goal we had to hit had to tie back to corporate goals set by CEO – very little vagueness prevailed . Not that all employees liked or agreed with what the goals were – but everyone knew what hills were marked for them to capture .

SAP works very differently – here we like to build consensus for all decisions . People a few levels down from the board members can still define “what” and not just “how” . And I love that balance of top down and bottoms up decision making .

Both companies are rather heavy on process – SAP is smaller in size compared to IBM. But there isn’t much of a relief on process – everything has a process , and it takes whatever time it is supposed to take . I guess that is the price to pay when any company gets to a certain size and scale – from that point , process doesn’t get better or worse . One might learn over time to optimize the constraints or you might just get used to the process and it becomes second nature . I haven’t done either yet – still figuring that one out .

I know IBM occasionally gets flak in the press for not pleasing some customer or other . But having worked there for a long time (actually pretty short time by big blue norms) – I know those are exceptions to the rule . I grew up in IBM with “when in doubt – do right by the customer” drilled into my head . That is thankfully the general policy at SAP too – everyone jumps in to solve Customer issues irrespective of their day job or title . Again – something I absolutely love . In IBM , I had to stay back and deliver what I sold to a customer. In SAP – I don’t have to sell anything , just focus on engineering and related topics . I miss a bit of the adrenalin rush that sales comes with – but I think I am a better techie than a seller . I can live this way for a while .

My motto on team work is simple – success of a team is determined by whether the members of that team watch out for each other even after the people no longer work together . Not everyone works well with my style of leadership. I am fairly hands off – and I hold people responsible for an outcome. There are no marks given for steps – and neither does my team ever get a goal that I am not directly measured on . We succeed or fail together . That is not everyone’s cup of tea – which is why I said people still watching out for each other years after going through a hard project is how I determine true success. At SAP I think I have successfully talked many people out of joining my team full time 🙂

With most people I have worked with in past – I have the faith that I can call them at any time of the day and they will not only pick up the phone , but will also do their best to help me with my request the best they can . And they know they can expect the same of me . Just two weeks ago in India – two of my team mates (Nitish and Anupama) from 2008 came to my hotel late in the evening just to say hi to me and chat . I can’t express how happy that makes me feel . Not everything in corporate life is enjoyable – but this , building a team and seeing them grow , never ceases to be a fulfilling activity .

Compared to my time at IBM , my direct team at SAP is minuscule in size . But I have nothing but utmost satisfaction working with them – if you see us debating you might think we are eleven year olds arguing in a playground 🙂 . We challenge every idea – especially the ones that originate from me . But then we get things done . Our little skunkworks project to offer a free BW on Hana trial on AWS ( http://saphana.com/bwonhanatrial ) is a perfect example . With no formal project – not even a cool code name – we managed to get it done , and in a couple of months this trial has had more than thousand sign ups and more than 50000 hours logged . It was not just our little team – we got full commitment from everyone we requested across the company .

This was a complete déjà vu for me – when the SAP innovation center was formed at IBM, this is exactly how we did it . A small team of volunteers from across the globe who believed in the cause came together and we got it done – without formal budget , headcount and so on . That team is now a big part of IBM – ably led by Gagan Reen, my most trusted wing man those days . I am happy beyond words that this model worked just as well in SAP with Ingo, Rohit and other colleagues . It also reaffirms my belief that good things get done at great speed when small ad hoc teams get formed on the fly .

When it comes to my reputation(?) – majority of people in IBM knew me mostly as a solid technologist in the first part of my career and then as a consulting leader with good abilities in both sales and delivery . In SAP , I am most commonly introduced to other colleagues as a blogger that Vishal hired . It still amuses me to no end – but it has happened at least a hundred times . This leads to people asking me occasionally if I can blog about their product or retweet something they have tweeted . I am honored that some colleagues think I have enough clout in social media to positively amplify their work . However , this is not something I like doing – as an employee , I have very little credibility if I pimp something about SAP . That is best left to the ecosystem – if they see value, they will promote . If they don’t – they will criticize or ignore . While I continue to blog whenever I feel like it – it is rather rare these days that I blog about SAP like I used to before . If 2014 continues in this way – I guess I should interview with Jonathan Becher for a job in social media marketing 🙂

Perhaps the biggest difference between a software job and a consulting job is the org structure . In consulting teams are formed according to project needs – otherwise skilled people form part of a resource pool (I hate the use of the term resource to refer to human beings). In software , there seems to be more of a rigid structure of a team assigned to a manager for a very long time . Neither model is completely inflexible – some part of the team is always made up of people assigned from other parts of the organization . Having been used to working with the flexible resource pool for a long time , it is a bit hard for me to get used to the seemingly more rigid structure at SAP . It is most probably a factor of time – and I am sure I will get there at some point , hopefully soon. Or die trying 🙂

People have asked me many times this year on what is the one thing I miss the least from IBM days – and My answer has not changed . I am happy that I don’t have to deal with lotus notes any more . I never liked it – and I really hope I don’t have to use it again . I don’t ever want to choose between “do you want to delete ? Or do you want to remove” when I try to delete an email .I know there are many IBMers who love notes – more power to them . For me – no thank you !

No idea what 2014 has in store for me – but not going to worry about that . I could use the vacation time to train my dogs , and spend some much needed time with my family away from airports and planes .

Happy holidays everyone !

Devyani Khobragade, and officer of the Indian Foreign Service, got arrested in US ,handcuffed in public before her children, taken into custody, stripped and cavity searched like a criminal drug dealer, and then let off on a $250K bail. Her alleged offence – paying less than minimum wages to her maid, while having documented a higher wage on visa filings for the maid.

I am dumbfounded that this issue was so carelessly handled by both US and India. The word I am looking for is UNDIPLOMATIC.

1. No one is above the law of the land : There is no excuse to pay below minimum wages to anyone. If visa filings for the maid had a higher wage than what was actually paid, then it is clearly wrong and such practices should stop. Why not send the diplomat back to India if that is an option , and never allow her back into US ?

2. Will US government arrest everyone paying less than minimum wages?: Clearly there are a lot of illegal immigrants in this country who don’t make minimum wages. They are allegedly mostly employed by US citizens and US incorporated companies. Will US now go all out and arrest everyone it suspects in that category ?

3. Why would US Marshall do a cavity search in this case ? Diplomat or not – what was the point of cavity search in this case other than to humiliate the woman? The alleged crime was not about dealing with drugs or something like that. Is this appropriate for law enforcement in a civilized country ? Standard Operating Procedure is a poor excuse for what happened.

4. US cannot have it both ways : When Raymond Davis, the CIA contractor , killed 2 people in Pakistan – US demanded diplomatic immunity. Even the Preident of US demanded Pakistan to provide immunity to Davis.  Eventually US paid millions of dollars to get him back into the country.  Here is the wikipedia link with the details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Allen_Davis_incident With that background , is it fair to now take a stance that the Indian diplomat (a REAL diplomat, unlike Davis who was a contractor)  does not have immunity ?

5. Why does an Indian diplomat need a maid in the first place ? : I am sure she is a busy woman. But then there are plenty of busy women (and men) who work in the US who are not diplomats and they don’t have a maid. Most mid-level people cannot even afford a full time maid. So why do Indian diplomats get maids on official passports? That seems like a remnant of colonial rule and I really wish the Indian government stopped this practice. If there is a lack of will to stop the practice, can’t the government at least pay its diplomats enough to cover the expense of having a maid service?

6. Retaliation to undiplomatic moves from one side is NOT more undiplomatic moves from the other : I am not a diplomat – literally or figuratively. But my impression about diplomats in general is that the one thing they are good at is to keep talking in good times and bad times, and not act in a rash way. Yet – India’s response was rather childish. Rather than keep communication open – they did pretty childish things like removing barricades near US embassy in New Delhi. I also read that Indian government officials stripped US diplomats of special ID cards etc. And Indian ministers and officials refused to meet with congressional delegations from US.

7. Diplomats will kiss and make up quickly, common man in both countries will need more time : It was with utter dismay that I read the comments to articles in the press that reported on this situation. Some accused Indians of being caste crazy and caste system as being the reason for paying the maid below minimum wages. Some also suggested sending back all Indians in US back home and stop outsourcing. The response from Indians accused US of racial discrimination, and ill treating immigrants and so on. The diplomats on both sides will forgive and forget quickly (at least I hope so)- but the longer this stays unresolved – it will divide and polarize the common folk on both sides. Common folk have to work closely with each other tomorrow – and every time these things happen, it takes time to start respecting each other again

8. Is there more than what meets the eye ? :  If this article states the facts right, then I am perplexed with the US actions. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Timeline-of-Devyani-Khobragade-case/articleshow/27601818.cms

9. It is in everyone’s best interest to not forget the big picture.:The political balance in South Asia is delicate, and India is by far the best buddy US has in that region compared to China, Afghanistan and Pakistan. It would be incredibly silly for US to have a less friendly India . India is friendly with Afghanistan – but have tense relations with Pakistan, and a somewhat tense relationship with China.  Similarly India relies on US for a lot of its business in IT and IT enabled services, and other trade. And US does not have a good short to medium term solution if they decide to take away business from Indian IT companies.

10. US should be happy that BJP is not the ruling party in India now: Sadly, same sex relationships are criminal in India. BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has taken a position that US diplomats in India that have same sex partners should be arrested . I hope no one listens to him – but as the time taken to resolve this issue increases, this is the type of rhetoric that will come up, and it just makes it miserable for people who have nothing to do with this issue directly.

My wish list on resolution is pretty straightforward

1. US approves the move of the diplomat to UN , and drops the charges against the diplomat. I don’t think US should apologize to India if the visa filings were false. Future issues of this nature needs to be handled more diplomatically.

2. India stops allowing its diplomats to have maids, or at least pay for the maids and not break the laws of the countries they are posted. India should restore all privileges it allowed US diplomats a week ago, and make sure their safety is well taken care of.

3. We all move on with our lives – and not let this incident create any bad side effects
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Added around 7.30 PM AZ time :

4. Give a work visa to the maid , and help her get a real job.

I should add that there is a net positive in this situation . The US Attorney has effectively given a much needed warning to people who bring servants on visas . These folks should get every protection mandated by the law – whether employed by diplomats or not .