EXPERTSPEAK
It's all about basic instincts
Sangita Singh. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar
SANGITA SINGH is Chief Marketing Officer of WiproTechnologies, the Wipro group's flagship IT services company. In a typical day at work, Ms. Singh will challenge her team of MBA degree holders to come up with innovative ways of selling IT outsourcing and offshoring to various clients.
"What I look for, is `Action,' `Urgency' and `Excellence,'" she says. Sounds like managementspeak? Well, Ms. Singh has never been to a B-School, and at 35, she could be among the youngest at her level in the industry. "It's not because I am from Bihar," she jokes, though she was born and brought up in West Bengal and went to the Regional Engineering College in Durgapur.
In recent campus recruitments, Wipro has hired some 140 MBA graduates. Why MBAs? Because "for every situation I put before them, they will come up with three ways in which it could be improved." In addition to being slightly cocky, the good ones will be strongly self-driven. "Fire in the belly may be a cliché, but that's what we are looking for."
But, being opinionated isn't nearly enough. A really important attribute is the ability to follow up a creative idea with disciplined execution. This means, "we look at an individual as much or even more than we look at his or her B-School. There is no way one can generalise that someone from the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad will be better than an MBA graduate from the IIT School of Management."
This doesn't mean Wipro would go to a mediocre management school. But a student, already in one of the top 15 or 20 schools, can count on getting a fair shot at being hired and later promoted based on his or her performance rather than on the name of the B-School he or she went to.
Companies such as Wipro are nursing ambitions of being global companies. Their future would rest on employees who can "quickly figure out what the customer wants." And, increasingly, the customer is asking such companies to go farther than IT maintenance, into technology consulting. Some day, it could even be the coveted "board room" end of the business - hardcore business consulting.
For now, despite a billion dollars in revenues, it is better to bring to a marketing team the attitude of a start-up. So, "act, show urgency and excel" is her advice. Balance this with the risk of burning out. A management career requires the stamina for a marathon, Ms. Singh says.
"Young women especially, who may be contemplating careers in management, must not be deterred by pressures like marriage or childbirth. We wouldn't discount a woman's ability just because she has to take maternity leave. One of my colleagues, who just had a child, is valued here as being good at analyst relations."
In the end, management boils down to your basic instincts and how you manage them. Some might say an MBA degree is necessary to bag that corner office of a Chief Executive Officer.
"What is important for everyone, whether you come here with an MBA or not, is to learn to focus on what you are doing and do it better than anyone else."
HARICHANDAN A.A.
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