Mathur, Microsoft and Me ;)

I like to look at myself as a linux evangelist, though I was at one point in time a full time advocate of M$ and Gates... so much so that I cleaned up all MCSD and MCSE during my college days... then I got employed and started working on Linux... and have been in love with it ever since... today, i love both these guys for different reasons, though linux takes the cake
in my mind...
The meeting with Sanjiv Mathur turned out to be very interesting until I almost turned it into a little disaster for myself... His talk about the change management project, Saratoga, that he carried out in India, as part of a global organizational change aimed at eliminating any signs of bureaucratic attitude that may have set in... was pretty interesting and more importantly candid... Sanjiv is a very candid person by nature... atleast that was the impression we all got... he admitted his failures and is proud of what he and M$ have achieved... His detailed description of how the company is being turned inside out just to ensure that customer focus is given primary importance was very enlightening... the stories of failures were especially very interesting... along with a candid description from Mathur the implementer himself... some gems were, "How a company with one successful product can lose focus of opportunity in selling other products... Even if there are opportunities in getting X $s from another product, it is always equated to a small % increase in market share or margin of the successful product"... "Employees feel secure and are receptive when you tell them what wont change, than what will change, when advocating change!"... "Implementing change in any country, will have to be a mix of standardized processes and appropriate amount of localization. What works for you in your country wont work for me, even if its Bill Gates who is advocating it!"... I could go on...

His candid and frank presentation with the correct dash of humor made him seem a soft person... one must remember that he is in his early 30s... He has 4 years in wipro, one year in oracle and then 7 years in M$... to become the india marketing head in such a short career is phenomenal growth... that too if you are just a BA History graduate... and one could see why... If I have to say just one sentence for it, I will repeat what Huggy said... "Someone who is as candid as this guy, will never deceive himself!"... So true!

Now, coming to the interesting part... after the presentation, I was among a group selected for dinner with him... and i was itching to ask him about the Indian government's policy about linux, how it has released linux in 5 local languages and the move by china, korea and japan to build their own OS using linux as a base... After a first few minutes of introduction and ice breaking, I jumped in...

Mathur is known for his sharp and dismissive view on Linux... A recent ET report in which he had spoken about linux is a case in point... the first link that a google search of his name brings up is line by line rebuttal of his statement in that report by a linux fan in IIT bombay... and that made it so much more spicy... and as expected, the moment I mentioned linux, I had all his attention... or so I felt... he was staring at me, as if boring thru me... I mentioned abt all the government moves and asked him his views... as expected, he simply lined up all his points against linux... like the absence of a single business promoter... lack of a clear agenda... lack of even a few profitable companies based on linux (except red hat)... now I could have argued against his points... but what would bother me, if i were in M$ shoes, is the move by governments and their IT policy... and I asked him exactly that... I dont know if I used the wrong words or the wrong tone but he seemed put off... he simply dismissed me saying, "What govt policy? there is no govt policy!"... I thought I had been a bit too aggresive and had rubbed him the wrong way... anyways, there were others who had so much to talk abt that I could wthdraw then and there... but when it come to policy, Mr Mathur, I am sorry, I dont agree with you... check this out...

Kerala: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2002/05/19/stories/2002051903550400.htm
Govt and open source: http://www.linuxforu.com/editorial/apr2003/MAIT.pdf
Asian policy: http://www.asiaosc.org/topic_9.html
Indian Policy: http://www.asiaosc.org/article_91.html

There need not be a written out policy, but then, there is indeed a clear move by even the MP govt to move to linux... As a M$ guy, I better be worried about the way govts are looking at linux...

anyways, it was indeed a evening to remember for me, Sanjiv and others in the dinner... at the end of the day, he seemed impressed, happy and that is very important for ISB, especially in these formative years...