An IT solution for mid-life crisis-hit local arm of MNCs

Call it the Satya Nadella effect, Microsoft India has taken a unique initiative to create a community of multinationals across sectors working in India to tide over their mid-life crises. The IT major would be sharing its experiences and internal best practices to help other companies uplift the profile of work that they are doing for their parents, move up the value chain and better leverage their presence in India.

"When we see the progress we have done in India, the thing that come to our mind is that how can we share it with other multinationals, and what can we do to make the multinationals in India a stronger community to raise the overall profile of the work being done by them in India," Raj Biyani, head of India operations for Microsoft IT and CIO of Product Group Strategic Initiatives organisation said.

The mid-life crisis is turning into an existential question for majority of the domestic arms of multinational corporations, who, despite being biologically attached to their parents are going through a sense of missing out on big things that their global headquarters would be proud of, feels Biyani.

Many of them have now reached a mid point where they have started facing the existential questions. They are now restless and start saying, "Hey, I need to do more and not just low-end work!" That's the challenge any multinational company is facing today," Biyani said on the sidelines of an event of Bengal Chamber of Commerce.

But would that mean Microsoft would be sharing its best practices with, say, offices of Yahoo! and Google in India?

Unlikely, as collaborations would be done with companies only in non-competing areas.

It wouldn't be just IT, but companies across sectors who would come together and share. "We will not only be addressing the multinationals in the IT sector, as there are only a handful of us in India, but corporations across sectors who have set up significant centres in India be it in banking, automotive and others."

"You have about 1,000 multinationals which have all reached these mid points. While about, say, 2000 people might be working, on an average in each of these multinationals in India, cumulatively it's a large number, close to 4,60,000 people. If a multinational is doing great work here at an optimised level then it means more meaningful career path for their employees and also satisfied and productive employees," Biyani said.

The most profound impact of this exercise, however, would be on how India is being looked as a destination.

''It would also raise the brand profile of India. Historically the value proposition about India was that it was a great place to source cheap talents. The opportunity for us now is to move from that level to where it is accepted that quality of output coming from India is better," he said.

And, this need some urgent work if Edelman's 2013 Trust Barometer report is to be taken seriously.

''The report throws light on the challenges faced by technology brands in Asia Pacific with ambitions of growing their footprints beyond domestic shores. Data shows that companies headquartered in emerging markets like China and India face an uphill task in overcoming trust deficit specially as they enter developed markets,"' the report said.