Nandan Nilekani: The project manager and his problematic client

What JoH admires about the promoters of Infosys is their PR and positioning skills.

Sometime back, Mohandas Pai, the HR Director of Infosys in a televised chat with Vikram Chandra of NDTV had said that “…some top managers of Infosys have expressed their desire to take sabbatical for sometime and work in the social sector. Infosys will however pay them fifty percent of their salaries…” And last Thursday, the news came that Nandan Nilekani has resigned from Infosys to take up a government sponsored social assignment… and now he will build his own team for this job. The following articles/stories were built around the “huge social responsibility plank” Had Mohandas given a hint then? Could Vilram Chandra have broken the news then? Can we expect to see more senior level managers from Infosys to join Nandan?

Anyway…sincere congratulations to Nandan for being offered the responsibility and having accepted it (As if Nandan personally knows JoH and will be very happyJ). Without exaggerations, this news in effect means that Nandan has been appointed as “The Project manager” by the government of India or GoI (In industry lingo “by the client”.) and now he has to deliver on the job. In the process, the GoI (or the client) has allocated a budget using which Nandan will hire his team and resources for the job. He will also have to float tenders by which some of his competitors till now will be able to participate in the job.

This should not be new for Nandan as he must have handled several business-critical projects for clients of Infosys and must have had varied client-experiences. In this case, he has embarked on a socio-political project where he is sure to face political music. By virtue of our country’s diverse demography and political mix, he sure cannot expect a smooth ride. The biggest challenge will come from the GoI (or his client) itself depending on their understanding, seriousness and resilience to opposition political pressure…nonetheless, all the best to Nandan for his huge “social-project.”

While the world will scan Nandan in his new role…JoH will wait to see his move on completion of this project…