How to shoot yourself...??

"Chop shop"- Is what US Senator Charles Schumer calls Infosys on 9th August. A term used to describe the business involves selling of stolen goods. Anyone who know about the origin of the company would be furious at the Senator. What was impressive was the way in which Infosys decided to respond. In a typical Gandhi style, Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan said that his company would work towards changing the perception.

The crux of the matter was the discussion on border security bill which would increase the H1B Visa by 200% i.e by $2000. This statement was given on the heel of the increase in the unemployment rate in US. Infosys alone employees over 12000 people in US. After the statement, I wondered what are they trying to do? The reason given was increase the number of jobs in US. But would increasing the visa fee work, I ask my self?

Once bitten, twice shy.. they say but it never applies for USA. During the 1980's depression it was the Japanese who were pointed fingers at. In those days Automobile industries faced a tough competition from the Japanese manufactures. Ford, GM and Chrysler (the big 3) were up in arms with the Government asking them to increase the import duties for Toyota so that pricing of the car could be in line with the Big 3. What is amazing is that, Americans taught Japanese how to make car. And Japanese went on to beat them in their own game (with operation techniques like Just in time, Kaizen etc). If Japanese had not shocked the Americans, I think Americans would have been very much happy with the way the things were done and would not like to change. (More in terms of.. "What works don't change")

Now its China and India who are being pointed at. Mr.Obama has been vociferous about saving jobs in US and stopping the job flow to India and China. But would increasing the Visa fee help in that cause?

The CEO of Infosys went on to say that when a developing countries like India and China are moving more towards open door policy, it was sad to see US moving in the opposite direction towards socialism.

The day when Italians will loss their holidays.

In Italy, during the month of August most of the people take holidays. and its not just a day or two.. the holiday period varies between 2-4 weeks. Majority of Italians take the whole month off. Hence Milan feels like a ghost town in this month.

Having worked in various part of EU, I have never seen something like this before. The question that pops into my mind is.. how can the company be shutdown for couple of weeks ? what about the revenue lost due to the reduction in number of man hour?

If I try to analyse from the economic point of view, I find that most of the Italian companies have either not ventured out of Italy or majority of their client bases are Italian companies. The reason for this I would say.. is also that Italian companies don't want to move out of their comfort zone. They are not big on productivity, hence not so into multi location operations. Now, I'm not trying to be rude to Italians but i'm basing my theory on the fact that the in the last 10 years, productivity of the Italy when compared to the developing countries in Asia or developed countries like US, Germany or UK, has been pathetic.

Also if I try to see from the social factor point of view, it has been a custom for employees to take long break in summer for a long time now, so its difficult to change the practice. Its easy for an employee to take long break in Aug then say, in any other month of the year. It reminds of.... "herd of sheep", which without thinking just follows the one in front of it.

I'm not sure if the book " World is Flat" has been translated in Italian. Anyone getting their hands on it and also having a company to run will thinking twice to grant the whole work force to take off during the same period.

There is the saying.. Italians can never part with their holidays.. Okey.. but for how long will this statement be true..?