Social Capital A Must For Indian IT Companies To Move Into IT Consulting, Says Professor From George Mason University

Since the mid 1980s, several Indian firms have gainedof Management & Thiagarajar Polytechnic at Salem)
significant market share in the U.S. in softwarewhere over 5000 students study on campus.
services, IT outsourcing and IT consulting. Prof. TojoSIAS has tied up with George Mason University (GMU)
Thatchenkery, Professor of Organizational Learning &to offer Masters program in Organizational Learning &
Knowledge Management at George Mason University,Change Management at Bangalore. The students of
has coined a term Indian Social Capital to describe thethis program will have full access to GMU faculty,
positive characteristics and competencies attributed toplacement services and its online content. The
the Indian software professionals operating overseas.students will not have to incur enormous costs of
He has done extensive research to use this concepttravel and stay abroad far away from their families.
of Indian social capital to explain how the Indian firms,C. Valliappa, Chairman of Sona Valliappa group said,
initially branded as utilitarian body shops" have quicklywith the problem of getting US visas becoming more
climbed up the value chain from subcontractors to fulland more difficult, the SIAS offering would be an ideal
contractors and then to something close to consultingsolution.
firms.In his welcome speech, Chocko Valliappa, Founder
Based on research on several firms in this domain, heTrustee of SIAS said that Change Management is
has proposed that transitioning to the next value chainbecoming more and more important as companies
of consulting status requires a different set ofmove up the value chain from off shoring to
competencies and mindset. Further, the sameoutsourcing. Globalization, reengineering and outsourcing
organizational mobility and glass-ceiling issues the Indianare all propounding the need for change management.
Americans in the U.S. face as they try to move up theProf. JL Gandhi, Dean of SIAS mentioned that the
corporate hierarchy are likely to adversely impact theprogram would start on the 27th of September and
Indian firms efforts to move up the value chain. Hewould be structured over 5 semesters. Since it is
presented research to show that the value migrationtargeted for working professionals, classes will be held
trajectory that the Indian ITES firms have worked veryaround weekends. Students successfully completing
hard to set in motion is unlikely to launch them onto thethe program will be awarded Masters Degree exactly
IT consulting arena. Instead, a different trajectorythe same as the one given in the USA. The students
based on a new appreciation regarding how socialwill benefit financially as the cost of doing the program
capital shapes business decision at the highest level willin India will be less than one third of doing the same
need to be set in motion, therefore IT firms will have toprogram in the USA.
actively manage this process of social capitalThe program is open for corporate sponsorship by
formation to overcome the entry barriers.companies who wish to depute their key employees.
The talk organized by Sona Institute of AdvancedCompanies that sponsor more than 5 students in a
Studies (SIAS) was well attended by a large numbersingle batch will be eligible to receive specialized
of senior executives from leading IT and BPOconsultancy services from George Mason faculty.
organizations. SIAS is a part of the Sona ValliappaFor further details please contact:
Educational Group, which owns and runs EducationalProf. J.L.
Institutions (Sona College of Technology, Sona School