Brand Value

In the all-hands meeting, there was a discussion on how to develop the brand value of a company in India. My thoughts on it:

When I joined my first company in 2000, I did not have an idea about the professional world. I knew all the tid-bits like C, Networking, OS fundamentals and stuff you can think off, but I did not know how to apply it. I still remember the first assignment I was given in Wipro was to find out the changes in code that would be required if we make a variable from 16 bit to 32 bit. I spent days to figure that out, but the days I spent figuring that out, I had mentors beside me who spent minutes everyday to help me figure that out. Those minutes were PRECIOUS for them on that day and for me today. But the reason they had those minutes for me was that Wipro culture was built that way. You help young people out and mentor them towards the right path. It was what I wanted as a fresher and it was what they gave me. That was the BRAND VALUE any fresher willing to learn should be looking out for.

When I joined my current company in 2002, I wanted to break the boundaries I had started to feel in my first company. My first company, being a big company, had a little buerocratic culture built in. Moreover, being a services company, it had the dis-advantages of not focusing on innovation and products. I had always wanted to get the system perspective and see products taking shape. It was something that would have been difficult to materialize there, and so I came to my current company. A small company focused on product development was the BRAND VALUE a two year experience guy was looking at.

When I had five years experience, I suddenly started thinking about my long term goals. A great amount of debate focused on what I wanted to be – An architect or a manager. A parallel ladder (with equal opportunities to grow in both ladders) was the BRAND VALUE a five year experience guy was looking at.

When I will have eight years experience, I think forming a world class team would be my prime goal. A team which works like a team, is devoid of politics, is ready to be there for others, does not think about boundaries (definitely not the yeh tera kaam tha kinds). A company which gives me the liberty to do this is the BRAND VALUE I would be looking at.

Beyond that, I think its too early to talk. But if we come back to the topic of the debate, I think a single company can very well provide the BRAND VALUES which people look for at different point of their careers. Mentoring the freshers was something that was missing in my current organization till now. I would not have recommended it to a fresher when I joined here in 2002, but with the effort being spent on the topic (freshers training) over the last year, it is one of the better companies to be at this moment of time. It is a product company and if you are the kind of person who wants to learn everything, it is encouraged here. With the All-Hands, I think there would (should) be focus on getting equality between the two ladders. It is certainly the BRAND VALUE all techies want in their company and I hope we get it in my current organization.