M&A in technology services?

M&A activity in and out of India is on the rise. Business journals are predicting that Indian companies will be in action this year in the M&A seen. TATA Corus, Possible Vodafone-Hutch, Ranbaxy-Merck Generics and now an India conglomarte wanting to buy Novelis, the fingers in thew two hands are going to be limited to count o of mergers with for the first time ever.

Surprising India’s core offering sector has not seen a lot of action yet. Yes I’m talking about Technology services. This industry has not seen that much of action yet…

What’s going on? Don’t they have resources and/or will to buy-merge and consolidate, of course answer is NO that is not the case. Wipro has shown that. But nothing big is seen in this arena. What’s going on?

So what is it that’s stopping IBM to buy HCL or Infosys to go merge with EDS, CSC. It sounds like a naturalistic synergy in terms of client acquisition, skill acquisition and moving down or up the value chain.

While there are few buyouts EDS-Mphesis and Canbay buy out, there are reasons the less M&A is seen in this industry.

My hypothesis for the reasons …

1. cultural (people) integration issue
2. No tangible assets
3. people can leave and not be owned
4. low entry barrier to the industry (build / buy )
5. innovations driven industry
6. too many cash rich competitors may want same target (if not friendly) – prisoner’s dilemma

While these issues exists, they may not exist for long time. It may not be too long before we see action in India technology services industry.

The learning continues : BOP is it a myth?

We at IIMA can say learning never stops and student sleep seldom. This term is called PTM, Preparing for top management. So far the learning has been on matching and above IIMA quality. We have subjects such as SCG, TOP and M&A each at the core of a top manager’s day to day job.

Take instance SCG, Strategies for corporate growth, a course by prof. Kale from Umich also an iima alumni and a visiting faculty at Wharton has changed the thought process for growth strategies. One such class had a topic at core of my heart. BOP, bottom of the pyramid.

The class debate was geared toward is BOP an opportunity and is the hype overcreated. I had read the book as a product design for BOP and not as strategy, but the whole world has taken the book as BOP strategy. I think that’s where the problem with BOP is. Taking it on face value. Simillar thing came out from or debate

I have written the praises of BOP, Some of the –ves of BOP are

1. Is the market as large as it’s claimed to be (also questioned by CKP’s colleague at umich)

2. Are MNE geared to implement BOP or is it more an agile organization’s forte

3. Is the experience/value lesson transferable to upstream market (CKP may say he does not claim that)

4. Is it a strategy or just product design framework? (my own opinion)

Another thhought provoking article (from a PGPX friend

Many years back when Morarji Desai was the PM (and I was a school kid in Pune), Desai and his son escaped an aircrash by jumping out of the airplane near Pune. The aircraft had developed problems, was going to crash and was kept in the air long enough for the two to escape. The Wing Commander and his two air force assistants died as there was then no time left for them to escape. These airforce personnel were based in Pune. I recall that they were given a hero's farewell in Pune and traffic was diverted for their funeral procession as a large number of people attended. I was young, but my older brother and his friends also attended. Our school had a 10 minute special item in the morning assembly when a student spoke on what happened.

I do not recall maj. Pitambare being covered by major media (my IIP is in India). Something has changed in our society since the incident above. It cannot be materialism - in the US fallen soldiers even in unpopular wars (Iraq, Panama) are eulogized - even a policeman killed in duty is remembered. Even in such a materialistic society Gary Hart is not spared for his friendship with Donna Rice and Bill Clinton almost impeached for Monica Lewinsky.

Today, Navjot Singh Sidhu is felicitated more by the media and people on the street after his sentence on homicide than for any century he may scored. Salman Khan became an even bigger hero after his car had trampled some street dwellers to death in Mumbai. Sanjay Dutt's career hit a peak well after his jail sentence. Shibhu Soren is guaranteed reelection (if he is able to stand for election) after his conviction and sentence as he now becomes a martyr. Lallu Yadav, convicted and jailed for corruption, is felicitated by the leading management institute in the country and lauded by a student community which wants to be recognized as the best (including me).

As a society, we seem to have lost all standards for right vs. wrong.