Walking the Talk: Why Values are Very Important Now Than Ever Before

Mr Narayanamurthy, the Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies, which is the best Indian and most respected global IT organization — and also globally very competitive –flies economy class, lives in a middle-class locality in the South Indian metropolis of Bangalore, and has literally re-written the ways of doing business in India.  Infosys Technologies is such an emerging global giant, that even  Prime Ministers and Presidents of various countries never miss to visit when they come to India.

Mr Narayanamurthy is widely respected as a highly ethical person, and is now in the forefront of evolving a model for Corporate Social Responsibility in India. 

Ditto for another excellent leader of another globally competitive Indian IT organization called WIPRO — Mr Azim Premji. 

Mr Azim Premji has often stressed the importance of ethics in business, and has never compromised on his ethics, even once in his lifetime.  He had to tackle this tricky issue of a strike that broke out on the issue of re-instating an employee who faked a travel bill.  This employee was also the trade union leader.  Mr. Premji did not buckle under pressure, but stayed firm.  The strike went on for a long period, but in the end, the workmen had to return to work.  He was on record as having said that he would rather come out of the entire business and close down the factory, than take back to work, a corrupt trade union leader, who was expected to set an example to others. 

Though the political class in India, is very corrupted and is one among the most corrupted in the entire world, there is always a silver lining to every dark cloud.  Mr Buddadeb Bhattacharya, the present Chief Minister of West Bengal is one honest politician in India, who is doing excellent work for his State.  In fact, Mr. Jothi Basu, the most senior politician in India today, was earlier Chief of the same State for two decades and brought about radical reforms in agriculture, and changed the entire structure of economic activity in the villages, by improving infrastructure  — so much so, that this State has always remained a communist bastion.  However, it is a communist State within a semi-capitalist country like India, where the economic benefits are still not uniformly distributed.

Values like honesty and integrity need to be practised with more vigour today, than ever before.  Even one hears about the dangers of global warming, for example, we hear about mindless industrialisation that destroys the very fabric of nature.  In India, in the name of Special Economic Zones, hundreds of thousands of fertile land have been grabbed by the Central and State Governments and handed over to the private capitalists for development.  However, this lopsided development, leads to a viscious cycle of poverty, as the farmers are not adequately compensated for their land, and since they do not know any another skill to earn a living, are left with nothing to fall back on, for most of their lives.