Takeaways From The Maverick Effect
Words of Appreciation
The Maverick Effect has captured the attention and received acclaim from India's top industry leaders, eminent educationists, poets, diplomats and many more.
Online Reviews
Decoding The Maverick Effect & Mindset
The Maverick Effect, On Tour
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Around 2019, my daughter-in-law Natasha asked me why the Indian IT industry or NASSCOM's contributions weren't recognized as key drivers of the changing fortunes of India. That thought stayed with me and sparked a desire to find out if this was true. The more books I read on the subject even by eminent personalities, and the deeper I looked, the more I realized that it was true – barely anyone had credited them for it. That spark slowly turned into a fiery desire to set the record straight and give credit where it was long due. The only way to do this was to tell the untold story of India's IT revolution.
I documented the facts, retell the anecdotes that remained with me over the years and used my personal notes to fill in the gaps. In the process of writing the book, it struck me that 'The Maverick Effect' was more than just a story of the past. It could also easily serve as a flywheel to all who wish to bring a change in their respective industries and gain value & insights from the blueprints of NASSCOM. It essentially lays out the barebones of a formula that can be replicated across industries, professions, and nations to recreate the success of Indian IT to a large extent.
The USP of the book is that while it tells the story of Indian IT and NASSCOM, that's simply the lens to help understand the larger picture. The model or flywheel that it presents is truly industry agnostic and hence stakeholders across the board can benefit from it.
This flywheel can be picked up by students who can understand it as an industry case-study, by professionals who seek meaning and purpose in their careers, and entrepreneurs & founders who are looking to create or advance niche industries. It can benefit members of industry bodies who are looking to make their associations more effective at parlaying with regulators, legislators and more, and in a similar vein by government representatives and legislators to understand how new and old industries can be nurtured to unlock a nation's potential. I could go on, but in short, anybody who is literate can benefit from reading it.
The core values of NASSCOM presented can and should be customised and personalized to contextualize it for the need at hand. The 'Maverick Effect' is sure to follow.
The riveting tale of how a NASSCOM-led Indian IT Revolution changed a billion fortunes and accelerated India's evolution.
The stalwarts of Indian IT today, were fierce young software entrepreneurs and competitors who came together in an unlikely alliance to form NASSCOM.
Each of the entrepreneurs who first formed NASSCOM were willing to set aside their grandest personal visions, agendas and egos for the greater good of us all. What's most notable perhaps is that irrespective of size, stature and location, each of these co-founders of NASSCOM truly believed in the values we set for ourself and truly believed in our shared vision for the industry – and that's what has made all the difference.
Short answer, NO.
Understanding the timelines and context of NASSCOM is very important. In the 1980s-90s, when NASSCOM was being set up, we had to become evangelists for the software industry not just to bring in friendlier regulatory structures but also to help the bureaucracy understand the nature of software itself. Unlike lobbying that uses a number of opaque means to influencer policy, we did quite the opposite by opening our conference rooms and industry association to bureaucrats to facilitate the understanding of a sunrise industry with immense potential. Now would you be disparaging and call this lobbying?
Building mutual trust and gaining trust has been part of our core values since the inception of NASSCOM. We not only wanted governments & bureaucrats to understand what software was but also to create a consultative environment that was unstained by mistrust, corruption or vested interests. Eventually, this transparent environment was what led to the creation of an ecosystem that was conducive to the growth of the software business and through it of India.
Co-creation was, and will always be the way to go, and I have no qualms in accepting that the successive governments and enlightened bureaucrats have been active partners in building the software industry. Liberalization also came as an added bonus at the right time.
I do believe global outsourcing was just as game-changing as electricity, TV and the internet. The global delivery system pioneered by India is a major process innovation in itself that has made us the global-tech-hub we are today.
Not only that, Indian IT and software companies have changed the landscape of workplaces in India. Be it the work culture, transparency, corporate governance, ESOPs, inclusive HR policies, better pay, equal opportunities, or lower gender bias, and more.
Software services companies have also been reimagining and redesigning the processes of global customers by addressing the inefficiencies in their legacy processes well before anyone else was – that is innovation, isn't it?
There are a number of factors that have been detailed out in the book, especially in Chapter 9 - 'Copyright vs Right To Copy', but here it is in 5 brief points:
- Indians don't like paying intangibles like software. Think about literature, music, or any kind of knowledge-sharing medium, they all suffer the same curse.
- Weak copyright laws and no respect for intellectual property rights devalued software products disincentivizing their creation. Remember how your 'computer-guy' installed MS Office for 'FREE' with your PC / laptop? It definitely wasn't free, but piracy had and continues to have little consequence.
- The Indian judiciary has historically inspired little confidence that IPRs would remain protected. Add to that the RBI caps on commissions for distributors in India early on and there was little incentive left to create or distribute software in India.
- While NASSCOM has vociferously tried to change many things by creating awareness and influencing policy around copyright laws, there's a lot to yet be done. PS: Don't miss the picture and story about how an elephant crushed piracy in Connaught Place.
- Finally, NASSCOM can only do so much, there's also a continued lack of original thinking by entrepreneurs that continues to plague the industry, but things are changing slowly. SaaS (Software as a service) has immense potential and enough budding leaders in India to take us to the top.
- It's available in all major Indian book stores (offline)
- It's available on Amazon (online)
- It's also available for download on Kindle through Amazon
Not just yet officially, but it will soon 😊