IT or a time to get LIT?

Romair,

Being a South Indian, I enjoyed your complimentary remarks, though I think it is too much of a generalisation. Still, among the top Indian IT companies, Wipro, Infosys, Satyam are all South based and run by South Indians (most of Premji`s staff is South Indian even though he is not), so maybe you have hit upon something ;-)

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Romair #12 you write ``South Indian mind, a Sikh sense of humor, Afghani looks and Pakistani leadership skills ``

I assume you mean:

- a South Indian mind: like that of Jay Thakeray;

- a Sikh sense of humor: like that of the Vancouver Sikhs who blew up an Air-India flight a few years ago;

- Afghani looks: like that of Mullah Omar; and

- Pakistani leadership skills: like that of Nawaz Sharif, Benazir, Zia, ``Taegoor`` Niazi...

Do you really know where the thugs & terrorists are?--Are you sure you are not under a Satanic spell?---Are you really putting your use of english to free your colonised minds,or--?Is your soul really yours,or--?---when was the last time you checked?

______________________________________________

Coca-Karma: The Very Secret Battle of Bob Kolody vs. Coca-Cola (KO)

Prologue: April 18, 2001

When the shareholders of Coca-Cola filed into the Playhouse Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware on the morning of April 18 for their annual meeting, you can bet that the last name they had on their minds was that of Bob Kolody. What with the recent resignation of President and COO Jack Stahl, Chairman Doug Daft’s failed attempt to buy Quaker Oats, and the Atlanta court ruling that awarded close to $200 million dollars in damages to Johnny Cochran’s racial discrimination suit, they had enough names to worry about. Not to mention the fact that their stock was selling for $45, thirty percent off the 52 week high of $64. Right about where it was 5 years ago.

But if some of those shareholders had known the story that you are about to read, they would have had good reason to question Coca-Cola Chairman Doug Daft about Bob Kolody. They would have been fascinated to know that for the past four years Coke has employed one of the country’s top intellectual property lawyers to defend a case that it has never identified in its annual SEC filings. What’s more, the $4 billion lawsuit has gone totally unreported by a national media that has, of late, reveled in the prospect of major U.S. corporations involved in trials that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Over the next ten installments of an exclusive Special Report, GNN breaks wide open one of the most intriguing cases in corporate legal history. The story begins with a major advertising agency stealing an independent consultant`s story-boards and culminates with allegations that Coke filed fraudulent copyright applications and enacted a high-level form of espionage against their legal opponent. What`s more, the federal judge in the case has been accused of having links to organized crime. Tantalizing? You bet. And we’re only getting started…

Coca-Karma: The Very Secret Battle of Bob Kolody vs. Coca-Cola

Introduction: Short Synopsis

Part One: Classic Coke, Classic Cars

Part Two: The Plot Thickens

Part Three: David and Goliath

Part Four: Alice in Wonderland

Part Five: The Beginning of the End

Part Six: Enter Skolnick...

Part Seven: The Bravest Lawyer (I)

Part Eight: The Bravest Lawyer (II)

Part Nine: Battle Scars

Part Ten: Final Jeopardy

Epilogue: The Fire This Time

Updates

Breaking News: August 2, 2001

Update: December 22, 2001

Send this Page | About GNN | Subscribe

FOR COMPLETE ACCESS:www.guerillanews.com/cocakarma

Re: Shankar

``...After a few years, she refused to go to any of their functions. So, by & large, we socialise primarily with Americans...``

Capitulating to your better half is one of the cardinal rules for happiness in life.

``...Sindhis & Gujjus have colonised the whole world & made millions...``

I have run into Sindhi/Gujju traders in East Africa (where they practically run the economy), and in (of all places) US Virgin Islands. I was stunned to see the entire market for duty free shopping for passenger cruiseliners taken over by Sindhis. One Sindhi businessman told me how he had relocated from Karachi, Bombay, Nigeria to US VI (all in a lifetime)! It was amazing. The crew for cruiseliners were also mostly S. Asian.

Re Romair

The General of Generalizations goes off again.

``The ideal South Asian CEO would have a South Indian mind, a Sikh sense of humor, Afghani looks and Pakistani leadership skills (haven`t met enough Indians in IT from other parts of India to form any opinion about them yet).``

What Pakistani leadership skills, sir, are you inferring? Rather than get into the usual body count of leadership, I am going to refute both. Leadership is not a regional or ethnic thing. It is personal and individual-oriented. Just because you haven`t met in your travail a single southie with the charisma doesn`t mean they all are alike. OK, there is one dynamic CEO who`s paki, but he`s not in IT and you guys will ignore him--Fred Hassan of Pharmacia. Other than that, it`s a mixed bag, right? and what are the leaders of Mckinsey, United, or the Hartford companies. Chopped liver or Indians?

``Why shouldn`t South Indians play sports?``

Another gross generalization. Rather, the question is why don`t most subcontinentals play sports? The answer is poverty and the need to find a job. Sports is a luxury in most cases. But here are a few counterpoints:

Tennis: Amritraj brothers, Bhupathi. Weightlifting: Malleswari, the only person from the blasted subcontinent who won a goddam medal in the last olympics.

Cricket: at least a third of the current Indian team

Track and Field: the whole subcontinent stinks here

Archery and shooting: Oh no, not the Ak-47 shoot people up type, but the sport versions: the whole subcontinent stinks

Shakir:

An entrepreneur faces different problems depending upon the part of the world he lives in. And these different parts of the world also provide competitive advantages. Silicon valley has better infrastructure and access to talent and capital but many of the emerging IT economies have cost advantages that are difficult to come by in the developed world.

I agree with your assessment that the government can do jack about ushering in a IT `revolution`. Unlike most I am no fan of the science and technology minister. His micromanagement has already saddled Pakistan with a bunch of white elephants in the form of IT universities and various regulatory bodies. I have a feeling that pretty soon the requirement for running for parliament in Pakistan would not be a mere BA but a BCS(Bachelor of computer science)!! Even some of the peons in the government departments proudly display this qualification..............

India has done relatively better than other countries in the IT sphere because unlike Pakistan and others it has indigenous uses for IT resources developed within the country. It has also coped well with the brain drain that has afflicted the industry. In Pakistan the best and brightest have left not only the engineering but also the beauracratic and junior military cadres. Its the brave few like you that have ventured back. Pakistani software houses are on a decline unmatched across the border. Cressoft once the premier software house has pretty much gone under. Same thing with Netsol. It went from 4 floors in a swanky building to just one in a matter of weeks. But then these are trying times.

Shankar:

Sikhs and Sindhis are the two groups amongst Indians guaranteed to have a good time with. The rest are too busy counting their pennies :)

The ambitious immigrant needs communities because unlike the high-flying natives he or she cannot draw upon networks from prep schools and colleges.

later

-sac

shankar #16: I cannot give you the answer to the joke. All this time, I thought you were from South India. I am not sure where the dividing line is between North, South and Central India, but I assume it cannot be higher than Hyderabad. Which would make you a non-South Indian. In which case, it becomes politically incorrect to make South Indian jokes. So I take back my somewhat racist attempts at describing the faults and virtues of South Indians. I hope I didn`t offend anyone.

Jinnah and Gandhi were both from Gujrat, I believe. Jinnah from Bombay. There is a city named Gujrat in Pakistan, also; not a province. It is between Pindi and Jehlum. There are many Pakistanis who have migrated from Bombay. Their families have been very successful in Pakistan. Memons dominate the business circles in Karachi.

Your comments about Indian Sindhis is interesting. In Pakistan, you will hear exactly the opposite about Pakistani Sindhis. Rural Sind is the most backward part of Pakistan. Completely feudal, with extremely low literacy rates. Unfortunately, it only produces potential Prime Ministers and MNAs. Due to this everyday rural Sindhis, I am afraid, haven`t had chances to move ahead in any field. Added to this is the fact, that they face competition from urban Sindhis. Urban Sindhis (Muhajirs), by a huge margin, are the most educated, progressive and wealthy group in Pakistan. They have also been very successful at the officer level in the beaurecracy and military. So rural Sindhis are completely out of the loop. Due to this, there exists a great deal of animosity between urban Sindhis and rural Sindhis. Two ethnic minorities, one at the top of the ladder, the other at the bottom.

I am assisting a friend with a story on Chowk. Chapter 3 introduces a shipping tycoon from Bombay.

You lost a bid at SBP... big deal.

Next time, know the decision maker in advance and send him a suitcase of Jinnah`s pictures... the ones printed on the Rs. 1000 bills, and you`ll be ok.

Re Rdesikan

{{and what are the leaders of Mckinsey, United, or the Hartford companies. Chopped liver or Indians?}}

considering their immigrant status and the small % of the US population they make-up, Indians have no match for corporate leadership success...in McKinsey, aside from the CEO, a disproportionate number of other Partners are Indian...these are not entry-level drones, but senior Partners of the firm...the place is full of Jews and Indians...although to a lesser extent, this is true for every leading management consulting firm and investment bank...

and i need not rattle off a list of indian leaders in industry...

Romair,

Shankar is a South Indian all right. He may have lived in Bombay but is a Tamilian.

On Sindhis in Bombay, anyone remember products with the tag ``Made by USA``? These did well till someone discovered that USA stood for Ulhasnagar Sindhi Association!

The author`s complaint is not peculiar to Pakistan. In India, Maruti Udyog uses Oracle`s ERP system and Bajaj uses SAP. Goes to show how much reliance all these guys place on Indian software engineers. There hasn`t been any software package to come out of India. It is all code coolies working for daily wages in far away places and congregating in desi ghettoes like NJ or Sunnyvale, CA.

As a friend in the business put it, ``A hundred years ago, I would have been sitting on my haunches smoking a beedi in some village trying to recruit laborers to go to Malaya for tapping rubber trees, to Fiji for cutting sugarcane or to Ceylon for plucking tea leaves. Today I sit in an airconditioned ffice and recruit people to go to Canada, USA, UK, Germany or Australia. The difference is in degree not in substance.``

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Layman,

{{Shankar is a South Indian all right. He may have lived in Bombay but is a Tamilian.}}

Actually I`m a Saraswat Brahmin. My mother-tongue is konkani. It is such a small community that even most Indians arent aware of our existence:)

Acc to my grandparents, our ancestors migrated from Kashmir to the Konkan area--mainly around Mangalore & Goa. Then, in order to escape conversions by the Portugese, they fled to Bombay & a few to Bangalore. My great-grandparents onwards were all Bombayites. Our ancestral temples are in Kashmir & Goa.

Some well known ``aamchis`` (thats what we call our folks) are Shyam Benegal, Guru Dutt, Prakash Padukone & Girish Karnad...

{{On Sindhis in Bombay, anyone remember products with the tag ``Made by USA``? These did well till someone discovered that USA stood for Ulhasnagar Sindhi Association!}}

Yes, that was famous in Bombay:) Most Sindhi refugees from Pakistan settled in Ulhasnagar & Kalyan (suburbs of Bombay). Hey..talk about Sindhi ingenuity..gotta hand it to them.. they can sell a freezer to an Eskimo:)

ref ali1 - ali my company never bid for the SBP contract. i was merely using it to highlight how the government doesnt seem to have much confidence in the pakistani software sector. confidence is measured in dollars not press releases.

shakir