When a customer is not satisfied by the way you work, normally she would withdraw the project, stop paying you and you end up paying from your pocket to your employees. First of all its an embarrassment that a customer leaves. Second, it’s a financial loss. For companies which value the dollar more than the relationship, we would see ethics taking a backseat

1. Professional Ethics
Can upstarts deal with it?
Freedom. Goodness. Growth
Subhendu Pattnaiki

2. Any reader would think that “Ethics” is an oft aspect of corporate ethics which any company
misused word. Another one of the jargons which sending work to India worries about.
corporate houses flaunt in addition to Corporate
I have been in various organisations since the start
Social Responsibility, Green Planet and the like.
of my career. However hard we try, there will
And not all of them are absolutely wrong.
always be 2% people who might compromise on
ethics and no recruitment process can be
perfected to catch this 2%. Notable things which
Infosys does to ensure that they work ethically is
taking tests by means of questionnaires sent to
everyone and making all attend training on ethics
and then appearing the questionnaire. That way,
people become aware of things which they were
unintentionally doing and become aware. However,
when organisations grow large, monitoring might
become an issue.
India was one of the corruption powerhouses
It is amazing how the world perceives India, and
in the 1980s, but then corporate houses made
a sincere attempt in taking ethics seriously.
the perceptions have evolved too. We were called
the corruption powerhouses in 1980s and still
corruption exists, and that is so likely of a
developing nation because suddenly there are A slightly smaller company. An upstart in the field
growth opportunities for few and contenders for of IT. Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. IBM
the same are high. But what is remarkable is how Business partner. Apple Premier Partner. World
the corporate houses started taking in work ethics class infrastructure. You have to be inside a
seriously. But then after 20-30 years, as Mindfire building to feel the ambiance. We have
organisations grew larger in India, we started over 200 software professionals in our
getting complacent. We now know that ethics can Bhubaneswar Advanced Development Center and
range from big things to very small thing as not more than 180 in our Delhi ADC and still we have
sharing a password. I am not talking about not buzzed anyone. We do our work silently. We do
criminals being hired for software development. I CSR. We do angel funding. We do all of it. But we
am also not talking about taking client bank do it silently. But when we talk about ethics, we
account details and running away and the guy brainstorm loudly in our boardrooms to think of
continuing to be on rolls of the offshore company. every possibility where it might be unethical to
What I am talking about is how transparent the behave in a certain manner. That is where we are
dealings are. What I am talking about is finer vocal. Because this related to our customers and
our people.

3. When a customer is not satisfied by the way you each of these developers have done in the day,
work, normally she would withdraw the project, every day, throughout the time scale of the project
stop paying you and you end up paying from your duration. If you liked the work, you pay. If you don’t
pocket to your employees. First of all its like the work, you don’t. 2MV has been such a
an embarrassment that a customer leaves. unique concept, always around us but we are the
Second, it’s a financial loss. For companies which first to implement it and quickly patent it. Learn
value the dollar more than the relationship, we more on how you can leverage 2MV to attain the
would see ethics taking a backseat. That is when perfect outsourcing partner. Learn more how you
offshore companies don’t share the final code, can put an end to the India Ethics chapter which
make the code so cryptic that no new vendor can makes you restless. Talk to one of our people or
take it up. They even use custom API calls which more, in Twitter & Linkedin. I would be more than
are not delivered to the client. For maintenance of glad to be able to take up your questions.
the software, if client wants to have a new vendor
We believe in Ethics not because we have to do
take it up, companies don’t do knowledge sharing.
business. But because we want to partner your
There is no transition of knowledge. Basically, if
growth. Your growth would mean ours too. We are
you are a client and you have been working with
expert software solutions providers in web
this company for over 2-3 years now but don’t want
development, Database and Client Server, Reports,
to continue further, you are stuck! You have
QA, Plugin development, Game development, Open
already pumped in a couple hundred thousand
source development. Feel free to browse
dollars by now, have half baked code, an
our Software Development Skills pages and our
application that does not run and when it runs, it
Software projects pages. And if you have a
creates greater loss than profits. And you want to
question, our dedicated sales team would be glad
get all this mess fixed but now the darn offshore
to take up your question.
company does not cooperate. This is why you shun
offshoring. This is why you shun India. Cheers to Ethics!
Mindfire Solutions.
At Mindfire, we have pledged to bring in customer
delight. That is our sole focus. In spite of all efforts,
if some client decides to end the relationship, we
ensure they have a smooth transition. Hard to
believe? Contact us for our patented 2MV method.
i
2MV helps you to keep track of the project on a Subhendu Pattnaik is working with Mindfire
Solutions as Manager, Marketing. He heads all the e-
daily basis, reporting is easier, log maintenance is business related marketing activities. With an MBA
easier, code tracking is easier. You have the from S P Jain Business School Singapore and a
history of how the project shaped up, starting from Bachelors in engineering from NIT, he has over 6
years of experience in IT & Marketing in
day one, on a developer level. You know if you
international markets.
have a developer team of 10 with Mindfire, what subhendup@mindfiresolutions.com