Wednesday, January 07, 2009

I S o B

A few months ago, I posted on what I believed to be India's proudest moment-- the establishment of Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad. Over the last few days, I am shocked to learn that the institution responsible for churning out strong, ethical and socially aware managers might have been led by a Dean guilty of greed, corruption and mismanagement. It's again a case of Who guards the Guardians...

Satyam's chairman resigned about an hour ago. He admitted to large scale (to the tune of $1.04 Billion) fraud in Satyam accounts over the last several years. The company looks set to disappear and reappear in a new avatar, a la Arthur Andersen & Co. I pray for the well-being and security of those trusting employees at Satyam who gave their everything to be left with nothing.

What were the Auditors doing?
What was the Board doing?
What was the SEBI doing?

The fact that a Chairman has confessed that it was going on for years, makes the accountability swamp across the spectrum of regulators and guardians of policy. This will also be its shield. I am guessing the story will end with many lay-offs and exile in Mauritius for the Raju's and Rao's. Beyond that would be like expecting surgeons to amputate their own arms!

I am sure industry leaders are learning from the fiasco. They are asking their managers: "How the hell did Satyam manage to do it? What were you guys doing?". All they need to do is avoid Raju's last mistake and the secret of Satyam can take them all the way to Swiss banks. Maybe even help them become PM.

Once again, my heart bleeds for those thousands of trusting employees hoodwinked by the system. SoB.

5 comments:

Toonfactory said...

Dude I think most of them are already doing such things it's just jo pakda gaya woh Chor...Satyam means the Truth...what an irony...This Satyam is neither Shivam nor Sundaram...Bitter Satyam...

Angel's Flight said...

We read the Satyam news today! still waiting to see the impact on the US side

Monika said...

i am shocked and surprised at the way things have turned out at satyam... hubby used to somehow always say thats a company he cant trust but this is too much

Mama - Mia said...

its just crazy that such things can happen when there are allegedly so many people checking everything!

and the board memebers not being aware of the fraud sounds a shade truer than Goyal man saying he didnt know so many JET employees were fired! geez!

hope things work out OK eventually!

cheers!

abha

BabaJain said...

Your post had an impact. Dean has resigned from his post as per Business Standard dated 9th Jan 2009