Truth behind Satyam
I missed an ‘opportunity’ to see Ramalingaraju in person, when I was in Cisco, last year where he received from John Chambers a ‘package of support worth $100 million’ for EMRI he initiated, I even bought a new blazer to attend the Cisco Campus inauguration, by revered former (my kind of president) Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. But small time employees of my stature were whisked away from attending in person due to ‘security reasons’ and invited to see the event only on homegrown Cisco IPTV. No use of the new blazer.
Despite such parallel processing(scheming) in mind since ‘several years’ the good thing is that he kept (had to, kind of atonement?) the EMRI kept going, the first 911 equivalent. He should be acknowledged to have dared to dream such a project in India.
I was driving past a remote village towards Jiddu Krishnamurthy school 150 miles away from Bangalore, in a rest area, I saw huge ambulance parked and bunch of lads hanging around, we stopped there for tea break. The peasants said there was a ‘snake bite case’ in the fields a farm hand was bit by a cobra, and a ‘Satyam’s’ ambulance 108 that saved the life on board. I felt of proud of Cisco’s commitment for the cause of India. Hope RamalingaRaju will be saved from this self-afflicted lethal 'snake bite' a resultant of fate and greed. The jail (correction center is remedy for this 650 grams of cooked rice 3 times a day and 250 grams of cooked vegetables. Is all one needs to needed to ‘survive’ not private jets, golf course networks). Where reality meets and bites realty (MaytaS) and IT (SatyaM), equally. All the electrostatic charge acquired in the ‘dry runs’ will be grounded.
Everyone is Raju (literal meaning king) in good times (kingfishers tag line…king of good times, no one wants to hear about bad times)…owning responsibility for bad acts and times is real Kingship…leadership. they think its a bad omen and sign of weakness to consider risk...till the black swan hits the cock pit just after take off, life is a fairy flight.
HR talk (rights not resources)
How can 2 top (big cats) CEO and CFO manage to create fraud funds, raise shares, siphon for several years, the big go scott free in India…
the gut wrenching “I subject myself to the law of the land…” is the key here…if a small time offender is caught the police will take him to task, beat him unto death to confess…but if a big fish is caught…law is the safest course for them to get out of the mess…engage nice lawyers who can minimize the offence, setup/liason with judges…etc
Will the lawyers who will now support Ramalingaraju, do it for free? Or any rich offender. How much lawyers were paid ? thanks to the law in India that prevents lawyers from advertising, else it would be, “2nd murder investigation 50% discount…” kind of encouraging Ads.
The auditors’ share
Third party auditors PWC (external) endorsing 2 out of 53,000 claim of pseudo profits…of non existent funds…indeed Price Water house Coopers has to pay the Price for misreading into waters (hindi paani pe likhe likhyaee...)books and thouroughly misleading investors. Irony is it happened for ‘several years’ and until the perpetrator is kind enough to reveal no one comes to know. Thanks to the audit/CA/ CPA community…I am sure banks or bank employees also involved, PCW got direct statements from the 9 banks, after all adding zeros has no value.
The last one to know about any scandal is the ever-gullible some sections of e-media known for its visibly biased (prepaid?) stance, and oft-fallible judgments. Ironically they confer such awards like, excellent corporate governance in 2008 to Satyam and the likes, …'what the heck do such judges know of corporate governance?", it is clearly a family owned businesses that run the show here.
In case of Satyam, a brother is the managing director, what academic competence and work experience does this RLR brother have to sit in that chair, (did they do a background check of this brother) which is ironically done to the grass root level employees and used as pretext to fire when they are no more billable. Clearly shows that awards are like salt-pan auctions whoever bids higher will bag. I always used to wonder whenever a new car is introduced it would invariably be the best car of the year in automobile magazines. (the award is clearly sought and bought to hog lime light and vouch for funds later in case of traded companies.)
Investors’ ‘take away’
But hold on, the investors and employees who are questioning the methods, have no moral right to question now. That means as long as they are well paid they won’t question. Did the question of selection of brother as managing director figure, when things were rosy? Why now? Be equally ‘stoic’/indifferent now, indeed its their call…? According to law of karma they should accept their harvest. The very idea of money makes money(rich grow rich), betting on the winning horse, I will earn in the casino and run the family (company here)…indeed the greed begets grief.
Board of directors' Cup-of-tea (and limited to that)
The board of directors, a pack of irresponsible happy-go-lucky white elephant junks, ex-achievers in disconnected fields, name sake presence we are nothing but ‘honored’ by their presence. “I have a board meeting today," kind of guys. Who are trained like highend-pets to blindly endorse the ‘first family’ decisions…In fact the real board is the first family… brothers, in laws and son, HUF…unfortunately called Hindu United Family. The first family members taking undue advantage of the natural access to ‘spoil’ the mind of promoter. Whereas the true first family is the company that gives the promoter what he is today. The so called ‘social emotional distressing apparatus’(family) of the golf course going C-level executive is the root cause of this joy ride over investor confidence in this case.
Other angle:
At the end of the promoters should win, because it is they who took risk of building the empire, clients trusted them, jobseekers went to them not the other way round, share holders ran after them with money in hands. Morally they were under coercion of showing-numbers, people(markets) judged their abilities by banal, ‘show me the numbers’ they showed this time.
There is great idiom in Telugu (mother tongue, incidentally native language of both Mr. Ramalinga Raju and mine ) kaki pilla kaaki muddu, meaning a crow likes her baby crow (however awkward it may look to the rest of the world). In this case the brain-child was Satyam and biological child(dependents). The former taking a back seat and beating at the hands of latter. In words of my all time favorite role model president of USA, end of the day “its all indeed too human.”
“I put the funds in the other pocket from this pocket, the numbers are still with us”. This (using funds raised for one purpose) happens regularly in many desi companies, but they orchestrate more professionally and hence successfully without being caught. They’ll never let beans spill like this.
Employees of IT firms (&& Slaves of Banks)...a bonus for 'yesbossim'
One can’t believe 53k employees don’t know any thing about the missing $1.5 billion. Some of them know but fail to voice or blow the whistle it fear of loosing job…People are more job fearing rather than ‘god fearing/loving…’ or ‘truth fearing/loving’ …Satyam loving…They fear rajus(bosses) (jobloss fear) rather than God alias Truth/Satyam.
Also utopian real-estate commitments…entering life time bonded labors…20 years of monthly EMI…at all levels in the corporate. The director is buying a villa ( for 4crs. Rs..40 million) the middle manager is buying an off-roader SUV, or a 2nd car to reflect his status…, in addition to sedan and Rs. 5 million luxury flat with club house and gym, swimming pool (that he never uses).
Impending fear of losing job (for blowing whistle), fear of eviction of flat, seize of car to banks all unimaginable by the ‘amateur successful’. Not even with 30% cash but with…20 years commitment. By the way 20 years is life term in Indian penal code.
In India there are no laws to freeze the assets of swindlers…as they are designed by the swindlers for the swindlers…But like elsewhere if an employee fails to pay the EMI monthly Mortgage amount for a flat…the bank will ‘confiscate’….get him evicted.
Bonded labor 'practice' to money lenders has been made illegal long ago in India…where a child would be forced to do labor at the lender’s house hold or farm, for rest of his life for a paltry amount taken by the illiterate father from lender.
How different is that bonded labor from a Sr. Middle Manager who ‘sold himself’ to a bank for a villa which is 50 annual gross salaries (assuming he will be employed)….
A life term in prison is 20 some years…the prisoner is paid cash for his labor in the prison and the employee is ‘given credit’ for his prompt paying of bills. Who has more stress from m-factors, fearing of impending default?
Can he take a decision against the ‘current’ in the company when needed? Will he have the guts to act conscienticiously if required against his boss, except keeping mum to pay the next months bills. This attitude is the root cause of the whole problem, … can he call a spade a spade when situation demands? Negligent inability to bell the cat. On the other hand, had he been commitment free, that is getting decent salary buying with much less what his cash limit can, stress and string pull free mind set. He can take ‘just stances’ in corporate affairs…be it team level or wider impact… he will get the guts to question.. his bosses and heavy weights which is missing now…my subordinates can never question me is the attitude that gives the ‘leader’ a free run to inflate profit figures.
Going by the assumption none of the employees knew of it, it’s a case of 'fence eating the harvest'…the leader who is supposed to defend the interests of the company, damaged it beyond repair. Like reptiles eating their posterity, right after birth, a trend not known to mammals.
No body in ‘my organization’ (my baby, in case of promoters…) will question me. Indeed this has been the case. Our leader(promoter) can never go wrong (even if he goes, what for me in it). I will trust you ‘as long as you pay me’. I don’t care what u do, how u screw, as long as u pay me!!…sounds like parody of back street boys. But its unfortunately ‘original’, life like.
Of nomenclature
Last but not the least, fear of ‘name’ was totally absent: namely Satyam, in Sanskrit, (the world's oldest phonetic language) the in-manipulateable or un-fudgeable Truth, damn it!. That’s the bitter naked truth. Nagna Satyam.
After all in a world of winners only numbers matter, Truth can be ‘dubbed into an apparent perception’ virtualized (or simply lied) and in cheap middle management stale jargon,
‘managing/handling perceptions.’ Not this time. Please.
Where as the Indian scriptures take uncompromising stance on Truth and ordain the following, the enforcement of which is purely voluntary and subject to ‘user’ discretion:
Satyam vada…dharmam chara (most upright code of conduct),
Say truth and walk the righteous path.
While Dharma (Code of conduct) is allowed to mutate depending on times and places. (situational)
Truth is capture of thought, words and deeds (actions translated from words, words sprouting from thoughts.)
Satyameva jayate
Truth alone triumphs….(at the end, however stress and strained and maligned it may be)
Mahabharata, the oldest and biggest political epic has an eternal couplet on this:
satyaM brUyaat priyaM brUyat, na brUyaat satyamapriyam
priyaM cha naanRutaM brUyaat,
eShaH dharmassanaatanaH
meaning:
Reveal truth, ‘present it pleasantly’, (motif clear, noble, but not tweak to make it diabetically sweet)
Don’t reveal truth which is unpleasant,
(just going by the above two lines is dangerous, the line below, draws the clear line)
Even if pleasant, do not tell a lie (this is where the present Satyam fiasco fits the bill)
This is age-old code of conduct.
This is the stor-e behind the etymology of word “Satyam”, despite the holy name and history and power behind it, it is sad that the company could not live up to its literal meaning. Till recent Satyam(Truth) was synonymous with Ramalinga Raju. Now, IT's no more.
© Indee Nemani
Author of Life and Living in USA, ISBN: 0967271177
Despite such parallel processing(scheming) in mind since ‘several years’ the good thing is that he kept (had to, kind of atonement?) the EMRI kept going, the first 911 equivalent. He should be acknowledged to have dared to dream such a project in India.
I was driving past a remote village towards Jiddu Krishnamurthy school 150 miles away from Bangalore, in a rest area, I saw huge ambulance parked and bunch of lads hanging around, we stopped there for tea break. The peasants said there was a ‘snake bite case’ in the fields a farm hand was bit by a cobra, and a ‘Satyam’s’ ambulance 108 that saved the life on board. I felt of proud of Cisco’s commitment for the cause of India. Hope RamalingaRaju will be saved from this self-afflicted lethal 'snake bite' a resultant of fate and greed. The jail (correction center is remedy for this 650 grams of cooked rice 3 times a day and 250 grams of cooked vegetables. Is all one needs to needed to ‘survive’ not private jets, golf course networks). Where reality meets and bites realty (MaytaS) and IT (SatyaM), equally. All the electrostatic charge acquired in the ‘dry runs’ will be grounded.
Everyone is Raju (literal meaning king) in good times (kingfishers tag line…king of good times, no one wants to hear about bad times)…owning responsibility for bad acts and times is real Kingship…leadership. they think its a bad omen and sign of weakness to consider risk...till the black swan hits the cock pit just after take off, life is a fairy flight.
HR talk (rights not resources)
How can 2 top (big cats) CEO and CFO manage to create fraud funds, raise shares, siphon for several years, the big go scott free in India…
the gut wrenching “I subject myself to the law of the land…” is the key here…if a small time offender is caught the police will take him to task, beat him unto death to confess…but if a big fish is caught…law is the safest course for them to get out of the mess…engage nice lawyers who can minimize the offence, setup/liason with judges…etc
Will the lawyers who will now support Ramalingaraju, do it for free? Or any rich offender. How much lawyers were paid ? thanks to the law in India that prevents lawyers from advertising, else it would be, “2nd murder investigation 50% discount…” kind of encouraging Ads.
The auditors’ share
Third party auditors PWC (external) endorsing 2 out of 53,000 claim of pseudo profits…of non existent funds…indeed Price Water house Coopers has to pay the Price for misreading into waters (hindi paani pe likhe likhyaee...)books and thouroughly misleading investors. Irony is it happened for ‘several years’ and until the perpetrator is kind enough to reveal no one comes to know. Thanks to the audit/CA/ CPA community…I am sure banks or bank employees also involved, PCW got direct statements from the 9 banks, after all adding zeros has no value.
The last one to know about any scandal is the ever-gullible some sections of e-media known for its visibly biased (prepaid?) stance, and oft-fallible judgments. Ironically they confer such awards like, excellent corporate governance in 2008 to Satyam and the likes, …'what the heck do such judges know of corporate governance?", it is clearly a family owned businesses that run the show here.
In case of Satyam, a brother is the managing director, what academic competence and work experience does this RLR brother have to sit in that chair, (did they do a background check of this brother) which is ironically done to the grass root level employees and used as pretext to fire when they are no more billable. Clearly shows that awards are like salt-pan auctions whoever bids higher will bag. I always used to wonder whenever a new car is introduced it would invariably be the best car of the year in automobile magazines. (the award is clearly sought and bought to hog lime light and vouch for funds later in case of traded companies.)
Investors’ ‘take away’
But hold on, the investors and employees who are questioning the methods, have no moral right to question now. That means as long as they are well paid they won’t question. Did the question of selection of brother as managing director figure, when things were rosy? Why now? Be equally ‘stoic’/indifferent now, indeed its their call…? According to law of karma they should accept their harvest. The very idea of money makes money(rich grow rich), betting on the winning horse, I will earn in the casino and run the family (company here)…indeed the greed begets grief.
Board of directors' Cup-of-tea (and limited to that)
The board of directors, a pack of irresponsible happy-go-lucky white elephant junks, ex-achievers in disconnected fields, name sake presence we are nothing but ‘honored’ by their presence. “I have a board meeting today," kind of guys. Who are trained like highend-pets to blindly endorse the ‘first family’ decisions…In fact the real board is the first family… brothers, in laws and son, HUF…unfortunately called Hindu United Family. The first family members taking undue advantage of the natural access to ‘spoil’ the mind of promoter. Whereas the true first family is the company that gives the promoter what he is today. The so called ‘social emotional distressing apparatus’(family) of the golf course going C-level executive is the root cause of this joy ride over investor confidence in this case.
Other angle:
At the end of the promoters should win, because it is they who took risk of building the empire, clients trusted them, jobseekers went to them not the other way round, share holders ran after them with money in hands. Morally they were under coercion of showing-numbers, people(markets) judged their abilities by banal, ‘show me the numbers’ they showed this time.
There is great idiom in Telugu (mother tongue, incidentally native language of both Mr. Ramalinga Raju and mine ) kaki pilla kaaki muddu, meaning a crow likes her baby crow (however awkward it may look to the rest of the world). In this case the brain-child was Satyam and biological child(dependents). The former taking a back seat and beating at the hands of latter. In words of my all time favorite role model president of USA, end of the day “its all indeed too human.”
“I put the funds in the other pocket from this pocket, the numbers are still with us”. This (using funds raised for one purpose) happens regularly in many desi companies, but they orchestrate more professionally and hence successfully without being caught. They’ll never let beans spill like this.
Employees of IT firms (&& Slaves of Banks)...a bonus for 'yesbossim'
One can’t believe 53k employees don’t know any thing about the missing $1.5 billion. Some of them know but fail to voice or blow the whistle it fear of loosing job…People are more job fearing rather than ‘god fearing/loving…’ or ‘truth fearing/loving’ …Satyam loving…They fear rajus(bosses) (jobloss fear) rather than God alias Truth/Satyam.
Also utopian real-estate commitments…entering life time bonded labors…20 years of monthly EMI…at all levels in the corporate. The director is buying a villa ( for 4crs. Rs..40 million) the middle manager is buying an off-roader SUV, or a 2nd car to reflect his status…, in addition to sedan and Rs. 5 million luxury flat with club house and gym, swimming pool (that he never uses).
Impending fear of losing job (for blowing whistle), fear of eviction of flat, seize of car to banks all unimaginable by the ‘amateur successful’. Not even with 30% cash but with…20 years commitment. By the way 20 years is life term in Indian penal code.
In India there are no laws to freeze the assets of swindlers…as they are designed by the swindlers for the swindlers…But like elsewhere if an employee fails to pay the EMI monthly Mortgage amount for a flat…the bank will ‘confiscate’….get him evicted.
Bonded labor 'practice' to money lenders has been made illegal long ago in India…where a child would be forced to do labor at the lender’s house hold or farm, for rest of his life for a paltry amount taken by the illiterate father from lender.
How different is that bonded labor from a Sr. Middle Manager who ‘sold himself’ to a bank for a villa which is 50 annual gross salaries (assuming he will be employed)….
A life term in prison is 20 some years…the prisoner is paid cash for his labor in the prison and the employee is ‘given credit’ for his prompt paying of bills. Who has more stress from m-factors, fearing of impending default?
Can he take a decision against the ‘current’ in the company when needed? Will he have the guts to act conscienticiously if required against his boss, except keeping mum to pay the next months bills. This attitude is the root cause of the whole problem, … can he call a spade a spade when situation demands? Negligent inability to bell the cat. On the other hand, had he been commitment free, that is getting decent salary buying with much less what his cash limit can, stress and string pull free mind set. He can take ‘just stances’ in corporate affairs…be it team level or wider impact… he will get the guts to question.. his bosses and heavy weights which is missing now…my subordinates can never question me is the attitude that gives the ‘leader’ a free run to inflate profit figures.
Going by the assumption none of the employees knew of it, it’s a case of 'fence eating the harvest'…the leader who is supposed to defend the interests of the company, damaged it beyond repair. Like reptiles eating their posterity, right after birth, a trend not known to mammals.
No body in ‘my organization’ (my baby, in case of promoters…) will question me. Indeed this has been the case. Our leader(promoter) can never go wrong (even if he goes, what for me in it). I will trust you ‘as long as you pay me’. I don’t care what u do, how u screw, as long as u pay me!!…sounds like parody of back street boys. But its unfortunately ‘original’, life like.
Of nomenclature
Last but not the least, fear of ‘name’ was totally absent: namely Satyam, in Sanskrit, (the world's oldest phonetic language) the in-manipulateable or un-fudgeable Truth, damn it!. That’s the bitter naked truth. Nagna Satyam.
After all in a world of winners only numbers matter, Truth can be ‘dubbed into an apparent perception’ virtualized (or simply lied) and in cheap middle management stale jargon,
‘managing/handling perceptions.’ Not this time. Please.
Where as the Indian scriptures take uncompromising stance on Truth and ordain the following, the enforcement of which is purely voluntary and subject to ‘user’ discretion:
Satyam vada…dharmam chara (most upright code of conduct),
Say truth and walk the righteous path.
While Dharma (Code of conduct) is allowed to mutate depending on times and places. (situational)
Truth is capture of thought, words and deeds (actions translated from words, words sprouting from thoughts.)
Satyameva jayate
Truth alone triumphs….(at the end, however stress and strained and maligned it may be)
Mahabharata, the oldest and biggest political epic has an eternal couplet on this:
satyaM brUyaat priyaM brUyat, na brUyaat satyamapriyam
priyaM cha naanRutaM brUyaat,
eShaH dharmassanaatanaH
meaning:
Reveal truth, ‘present it pleasantly’, (motif clear, noble, but not tweak to make it diabetically sweet)
Don’t reveal truth which is unpleasant,
(just going by the above two lines is dangerous, the line below, draws the clear line)
Even if pleasant, do not tell a lie (this is where the present Satyam fiasco fits the bill)
This is age-old code of conduct.
This is the stor-e behind the etymology of word “Satyam”, despite the holy name and history and power behind it, it is sad that the company could not live up to its literal meaning. Till recent Satyam(Truth) was synonymous with Ramalinga Raju. Now, IT's no more.
© Indee Nemani
Author of Life and Living in USA, ISBN: 0967271177
Comments
EMRI is also a scam.