Today in Tech: Narayana Murthy on Nasscom; Marissa Mayer's Yahoo; Charlie Munger & More

A panel formed under NR Narayana Murthy has suggested that Nasscom expand its focus areas to seven segments from the four that it’s focusing on today, and also form councils and centres of excellence to better focus on areas that are becoming big in their own right. Much has changed in the industry since Nasscom was formed 25 years ago. The industry size was just $10 million in 1988, now it's over $100 billion. There are several new markets - most noticeably India itself, and several new technologies.

Nasscom, which has promised to work on these recommendations, hopes these will help the industry grow three fold in the next 7 years. That would mean a CAGR of 15%. It’s possible that the industry will achieve that target - given the talent in the country, and the energy one notices among the entrepreneurs today.

The bigger question though is whether Nasscom will remain relevant. To that end, the committee hasn't suggested anything radical. Some of players - whom I spoke to when my colleague and I reported on a story on iSpirt, an association set up by product firms - were hoping that Nasscom will turn itself into an association of associations, to give enough space to small, but emerging segments today, those that can overtake TCS, Infosys and Wipro down the line, even while offering them the resources and the network of Nasscom. (For, what’s good for big companies, need not be good for the smaller ones.) A radical change in the structure might have distributed power in proportion to the potential, rather than in proportion to how big a company is today. That was not to be.

Now, much depends on people who head these new focus areas - namely, software products, domestic market and internet & mobile. The companies in these new segments cannot get its bargaining power within Nasscom by the strength of its membership or by its revenues. They will have to depend on the charisma and reputation of the person who heads them. That will decide whether Nasscom will remain relevant in 2020.

When Marissa Mayer made it mandatory for remote employees to attend office at Yahoo! the move was mostly met with criticism. After all, several studies point out that a flexible work arrangement is good both for the employee in terms of a more balanced life and for the company in terms of higher productivity.

However, over the last few days, there has been more support for Mayer's move. Broadly, two principles seem to be at work.

One, all innovative companies encourage people to come to office, even if they spend most of their time glued on to the computers. The random interactions with colleagues help a lot. Google does it. We have all drooled over its amazing facilities - free food, free laundry services, high-tech shuttles, the collegiate atmosphere on campus and so on. The point: please come to office.

Two, while some democratic principles - such as being transparent, being open to   wisdom of crowds - work, you can’t run an organisation as if its a democracy, especially when the times are tough, and its undergoing a transformation. Rules need to be imposed, even if they piss some people off.

I don’t know enough to say if it will work to Yahoo's benefit. But, no amount of research that support work-at-home will actually prove Mayer wrong. As a Fast Company piece says: Let Marissa Mayer do her job

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While we are on the subject of Yahoo, it should come neither as surprise nor as news, that Mayer admires Steve Jobs. Jobs turned around Apple not only by launching some hugely successful products like iPod, iPhone and iPad, but also by killing off a number of products in which he saw no potential. What you decide not to do is as important as what you decide to do. (The Economist Obit puts it thus: Another striking—and often underappreciated—aspect of Mr Jobs's success was his ability to say no. At a company like Apple, thousands of ideas bubble up each year for new products and services that it could launch. The hardest thing for its leader is to decide which ones merit attention. Mr Jobs had an uncanny knack of winnowing out the wheat from the mountains of chaff.) Google, from where she moved to Yahoo, has been pretty ruthless about saying 'no more'. So, this comes as no suprise either: Yahoo to shut down seven products, including Blackberry app

Here’s a long speech by Warren Buffet’s partner Charlie Munger on the psychology of human misjudgement. It’s old - he gave this speech at Harvard University back in 1995. Its transcript must be among the most widely distributed among Buffet fans. Still, in the age of big data, its relevance has only grown.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqzcCfUglws[/youtube]

If you have less time to spare, check out this 10 year old piece from McKinsey Quarterly: Hidden Flaws in Strategy