CSC boss on wealth destroyer list
By Sumir Singh

Tech giant Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) had revenue of $7.9 Billion for the first 6 months of this fiscal year.  But its revenue of $4 Billion in the second quarter of this year was the same as the previous year. CSC India is one of the jewels in the crown of this tech behemoth. Earlier in 2010, Techgoss had exclusively reported on how CSC India has banned a blog criticizing it.

In May, 2007, CSC announced that it had appointed Michael Laphen as its new CEO Laphen, then 56, succeeded Van B. Honeycutt to the top operational role.

This week, the third annual rankings of the Chief Executive magazine / Applied Finance Group wealth creators - and destroyers – has listed the CSC CEO as one of the top wealth destroyers in USA.  This list is based on the true economic value of a CEO as opposed to mere accounting value.

 
(Techgoss had published the following on April 8, 2010)

Tech major CSC blocks Indian blog
By Sumir Singh

International technology giant Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) had revenue of $3.95 Billion in the last quarter.  CSC also told analysts that it had won $6.8 Billion of new business in the last few months – much of which will be managed from India. CSC India is one of the jewels in the crown of this tech behemoth.

On March 22, 2010, Techgoss had exclusively reported on the unhappiness of many CSC India Graduate Engineer Trainees (GET) who were locked into boring, dead end jobs. Most could not leave as they had signed bonds under which they would have to pay CSC Rs. 1 Lakh if they left before their 2 year tenure.  Such bonds are illegal in USA and Europe.

On March 29, India’s largest English newspaper Times of India published allegations that CSC India was exploiting its techies sent to work in Denmark.  According to Times of India, CSC was paying its Indian techies in Denmark a paltry sum of Rs. 8,000 a month, while under Danish laws they were to get a minimum of 31,250 Danish Kroners a month.

More bad publicity followed. 

On March 30, Indian blog Mohalla Live reported how CSC was paying salaries as low as Rs 7,000 per month despite making healthy profits,  including employee contribution of PF in pay packages,  not giving salary rises to most employees, revoking lunch subsidies and even stopping employees from buying out their 2 month notice period.

And what was Computer Sciences Corp (CSC) India’s response to this article in Indian blog Mohalla Live?  A tipster rang Techgoss on April 1 to say CSC has blocked access to blog Mohalla Live for its employees.

The same tipster tells us that CSC India is poised to increase its notice period from the current 2 months to 3 months in an attempt to halt spiraling attrition.

(Techgoss had published the following article on March 22, 2010)

MNCs: Financial Bonds trap trainees
By ITiot

For most engineering graduates in India, a job with a reputed IT MNC is the only natural progression after graduation. To them, a chance to be part of a multi-billion dollar MNC represents an opportunity to work in the most challenging projects using their technical skills, onsite opportunities and association with prestigious IT companies.

However,  after going through  the same  phase and  working a for a few years with  one of  the IT biggies Computer Sciences Corp (C.S.C) , I understand and feel the plight of  Graduate Engineer Trainees (GETs) after they join  a big  brand like CSC. The reality is far removed from the rosy picture presented during recruitment.

In Feb, 2010, Computer Sciences Corp reported revenue of $3.95 Billion for quarter ending Jan 1.  CSC also won new business worth $6.8 Billion during the last 3 months. By any measure, it is hugely successfully in India.

Below are a couple of examples from a large number of IT professionals who have been disillusioned with the glamour of brand names. Names and locations have been changed to maintain anonymity.
                          
Atul did his B.Tech from HBTI, Kanpur (one of the oldest and reputed colleges in India). When he was placed in C.S.C; he was very excited about working in the hi-tech sector. However he was randomly put into a first level support team and for the last 2 years all he had been doing is pushing incident tickets to different support teams in the organization. When asked how he felt about his job, he told Techgoss: “After wasting 2 years in a brain-dead job, I feel its better to take up a Government job. At least it would be more stable “. Why did he stay in the job if he feels this way? “ On joining,  the GETs are required to sign a service agreement to serve the company  for 2 years excluding training period  failing which  they would be penalized financially  “ – a thing which he could not afford .  Atul has now moved on from CSC.

CSC signs an agreement with all such trainees that if they leave before 2 years they will have to pay a penalty of Rs. 1 Lakh.

Rahul did his B.Tech from a premier engineering institute and after joining CSC he was put into a monitoring team. His team works 24/7 to monitor the status of the client systems and raise alarms in case of failures .In effect, he has to watch a console for flashing red lights.  After working for more than 2 years in this profile he feels demoralized and  feels his engineering degree has been grossly undervalued .He says “After working in such low-tech profile , I am desperately looking for a job that does justice to my degree , but the industry looks for experience  rather than aptitude and I am only being offered similar positions. My own company is apathetic towards my career aspirations .I regret the decision to sign the job agreement. May be doing an MBA is the only recourse left. “

These may be a couple of people,  but I am increasingly coming across such stories where there have been gross  “role-qualification “ mismatch in a number of IT big brands like CSC and IBM. A couple of questions pop-up in my mind which may be the reader can answer from their experience e.g –Are the large foreign MNC’s more interested in outsourcing the low-tech jobs and reserve  more technical profiles to on-shore ? How ethical are job agreements for freshers who have no idea of the kind of role they would be playing in the organization? Are the young graduates better-off joining smaller organization which may offer less pay but more challenging roles?