Looking back at 2011 from a software lens, is like trying to look at a 1980s-type Bollywood drama.
The year was an emotionally drenched one, with some of the key personalities in the sector triggering a huge transformation for themselves?either personally or professionally.
The year began with Ashok Soota quitting his own baby MindTree, to eventually float another services firm stunning analysts and industry watchers alike. On January 28, he requested the Board of Directors to release him as an employee and also as executive-chairman, putting the company?s future in doubt.
MindTree was co-founded by Soota in August 1999 with nine others Ironically, his exit e-mail came through a direct mail from Soota himself and not through the firm, triggering rumours whether or not he was leaving the company on a good note. Today, he is busy with his new venture?Happiest Minds Technologies. And looks quite happy doing it.
MindTree was one of the poster-boys of Indian IT, at one point, with Soota and Subroto Bagchi leading the management team. It was supposed to be the next big thing after Infosys and Wipro. The company had a blistering start, crossing $100 million in revenues in six years. Its IPO in 2007 was oversubscribed 103 times. On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, Soota announced an ambitious target of $1 billion in revenue by 2014. To cut a long story short, the company entered the mobile handsets business, burned its fingers and is now quite a distance from being a billion dollar firm.
Its CEO Krishnakumar Natarajan is a very hardworking gentleman, and MindTree still has some hope.
The other big splash was made by none other than Infosys board member TV Mohandas Pai who left Infosys to eventually join the Manipal Group. Tongues wagged that he quit because he was not offered the CEO?s post (it went to SD Shibulal), a charge that Pai has always denied. ?I never wanted to be CEO,? Pai had said, trying to clear the cobwebs. The event created quite a storm in the market and probably for the first time, industry watchers started talking about differences of opinion among Infosys? top management. But all of this blew over, though it took a month or so for normalcy to return. For a decade and more, Pai was Infosys? loudest voice and his forthrightness was always a delight. He is missed at Infosys.
In August, the doyen of Indian IT, NR Narayana Murthy logged out of Infosys, after a stellar stint as founder chairman. The 30 years of Infosys, in a way, reflected what could be done right in India, if one had the right talent, attitude and integrity. NRN showed that a simple middle class person with lofty ideals and high ambition could achieve glory in this country, without having to compromise on principles. So when he left the Infosys campus, it was a very sad day for Indian IT as a whole. A lot of the positive branding that the country?s software sector enjoys abroad, is clearly on account of the work put in by this extra-ordinary man.
The early part of the year also saw TK Kurien taking over as CEO at Wipro Technologies, after chairman Azim Premji decided to rip apart its joint CEO model. Its joint CEOs Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani were seemingly doing a good job at Wipro, so it was a surprise when Premji pulled the trigger. Kurien has since then simplified the organisational structure and the results are slowly beginning to bear fruit.
Whatever happens in 2012, it will be quite difficult for it to top this year in terms of dramatic developments. 2011 was a quite a unique year with emotions running high and it may be difficult to see another year like it in the near future.