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Bangalore Businesses Broadsided By Response To Actor's Death
[April 17, 2006]

Bangalore Businesses Broadsided By Response To Actor's Death


Editorial Director,
Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine
 
When it comes to Bangalore, the heart of India's Silicon Valley, visitors are often struck by the city's high-tech and slick infrastructure, modern buildings and golf courses, not to mention the glowing logos of many of the world's most successful high-tech companies. At first glance, many visitors say, it's easy to forget that you are in what is still a developing nation.


 
For many in the IT world, the events of last week, however, drove that point home with abandon. The death of 77-year-old actor Rajkumar, who was very beloved in his home state of Karnataka (in which Bangalore is located), led to an enormous turnout of fans and mourners. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets, and in some stray incidents, crowd activities turned ugly. Eight people, including a policeman who was beaten by mobs, were killed in the sporadic rioting that resulted from grief and anger. (Some mourners were angry they were not able to get closer to the funeral cortege.)

 
The actor's son, Raghvendra, spoke to the crowds at one point and appealed for calm. "I appeal with folded hands to all of you to maintain peace," he said.
 
Bangalore remained essentially shut for two days, putting a stop to most business in the city, including commercial entities such as banks, movie theaters, shops and hotels. All transportation, including public modes such as buses and taxis, was forbidden on city roadways as authorities made arrangements for the actor's state funeral. It was reported that cable television companies in the city blocked entertainment channels to mark the actor's passing.
 
The event proved to be a major hiccup for many information technology organizations operating in the area. According to the BBC, more than 1,000 IT firms and other businesses were closed before the situation was brought under control on Friday. The shutdowns were prompted by a mix of factors and for a variety of reasons: voluntarily out of respect for the late actor; practicality in that many workers could not get to work because of the dearth of public transportation; and involuntarily out of safety fears for workers and company property.
 
Many IT companies and outsourced call center services providers shut their offices down for the duration of the official two-day mourning period. According to one blogger, this was not out of choice, but because of fear that company facilities would be damaged by angry crowds if they did not shut down. The Bangalore office of Microsoft (News - Alert) (Microsoft Research Lab India Pvt.), which is located near the late actor's house, was stoned by angry mourners. Companies, including many outsourcers, declared Thursday April 13th a holiday, and were forced to inform their rather perplexed clients (many U.S.- and UK-based companies) of the closures.
 
The rioting will have cost the technology hub of Bangalore approximately $160 million, with software firms losing $40 million in revenue, according to the finance chief at one of India's largest outsourcers. T.V. Mohandas Pai, CFO at Infosys Technologies Ltd., told Reuters his company lost $4 million last Thursday, when angry mobs shut down business in Bangalore. "We will make up by working one extra day," said Pai.
 
Bangalore outsourcer iGate Global Solutions Ltd. closed its offices on Thursday, April 13th for fear its facilities would be damaged by mourners.
 
One Bangalore-based IT blog saw a comment posted to it Friday from an individual who works in the city's IT industry:
 
"I was really horrified yesterday. I began work early and hoped that sanity would prevail. But at around noon, our HR guys told us to pack up and leave immediately. The mob fury was uncontrollable. I think it is something else other than just Rajkumar's demise. Something to do with unemployment and the growing divide between the techies (and allied industries) and the non techies."
 
Among Bangalore-based IT workers, the opinion seems to be that the city of Bangalore should have anticipated and dealt with the situation better. They appear to be very conscious of the fact that the photos of the rioting and news that businesses were shut down were being broadcast around the world, potentially giving a black mark to Bangalore as an outsourcing destination.
 
There is no doubt that this incident has been noted and digested by many companies seeking to outsource to the area. Bangalore has been the subject of several unflattering news incidents recently, including a successful attempt by a British tabloid to buy confidential customer information from one call center worker, plus a terrorist shooting at a Bangalore University campus.
 
In the "always up, always on" world of IT and call centers, anything less than 99.999 percent uptime makes companies and investors nervous. The cultural disconnect may be a strong factor: it's hard for American or British workers to imagine that an entire city could be brought to a stand-still in the event of a death of an actor or pop star, no matter how beloved. Many companies considering investing in Bangalore or India as a whole may be thinking, "What other unanticipated surprises might be waiting for me should I invest in the area?" Businesses are hard enough to run when you anticipate the problems…when they broadside you out of the realm of cultural differences, they are all the more shocking and disruptive.
 
You can bet that many of the largest companies invested in the area will pay close attention from now on to the age and state of health of any other popular Bangalore icons.
 
 

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