Irresponsible media reports - Infosys comment on Satyam

This is one other example of ridiculous reporting by media on Infosys' comments on Satyam, which caused outrage by Satyam employees and readers against Infosys. Read the actual statements and the media's version:

Below are the actual statements in quotes:

Mohandas Pai, HR, Infosys: “We have asked our recruitment staff not to poach anybody from Satyam. The company is in the middle of a crisis and people will jump ship”.
Narayana Murthy, Infosys: "We will not touch such a tainted company" - on Satyam's takeover.

With these statements, the shameless media in an attempt to display a sensational headline, reported their own version. The websites and television ran headline that "Infosys will not hire Satyam employees" , "We will not hire anybody from Satyam -Infosys", which is not the actual case. Also, a media cited an unidentified source saying ".....a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named, said that Infosys would refrain from even hiring domain experts or project managers from Satyam"

All these modified versions caused an outrage form Satyam employees, blogs and other readers. The reporting was altered to the extent that the readers thought, Murthy referred the employees as tainted. (Evident from the article comments)

If you read Pai's statement, even a sporadic reader will understand that, Pai asked his staffs to avoid Poaching (which is the practice of recruiting people from other companies by offering inducements) .
This is something every other IT company should follow for Satyam to recover from this mess, with the help of a new management. Infosys can easily offer employment/higher salaries for client managers, project managers ( especially the skilled SAP developers/consultants, the area where Satyam has its strong hold and the same area where Infy is aspiring to outgrow).

But,employees holding these responsible positions, engages with the customer directly/indirectly. Only these people could convince their customer that, Satyam will bounce back from its current situation. Poaching these employees would easily result in losing the customers, which will directly affect the jobs of many Satyam employees who are engaged under a client.

In this scenario, Infosys and other companies can easily employ few hundreds/close to few thousands, but no one can absorb 53,000 employees. Only if the clients remain engaged, Satyam can ensure the jobs for its employees. Best anyone IT company should do is, to help satyam by not disturbing their next strategy. Having understood this, any responsible company would not poach at this juncture. Infosys had made a responsible statement and media in its desire to make a sensational news, intentionally misconstrued the statement.

Now, coming to Murthy's statement, any businessman will hesitate to takeover a company whose value is unlnown even to its top management. Infosys being a prudent company in takeover and mergers, have so far acquired only one company as a whole, in its 27 years of operation.In this economic scenario, most of the companies have either deferred/canceled their acquisition. How would anyone can expect to acquire a scandalous company completely?. In this recession period, it would be difficult for any management to stabilize and run a loss making company.

But there are very likely hood of satyam's industry verticals to be acquired by different companies. This would be the best option for the innocent employees who were brought down to this situation.

Update: Murthy clarifies his statement

Tags: Satyam, Infosys,Infosys comments, Satyam jobs, Satyam update, Satyam fraud