Wipro CFO is wrong

Raju, a small boy from Satyam never paid attention to the blogs to which he was subscribed to. I know he had read a few stories of ethics in the recent past. Not sure what made him open up for his misdeeds early this year. But, I am sure it's not my case studies that made his conscience take this call. I know many big leaders who are subscribed to my case studies never read it or if they read, they never give it a thought and if they do so, it's too late.

Raju is now arrested by Andhra Pradesh police on charges of criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy, cheating, falsification of records and forgery and faces a long imprisonment if convicted of misleading investors.

Dr. Byrraju Ramalinga Raju, the founder and Chairman of Satyam Computers, did his B.Com from Andhra Loyola College at Vijayawada prior to receiving an MBA degree from Ohio University. He has attended the Owner/President course at Harvard. For his achievements and contribution to society, he has been awarded Doctorate by Anna University Chennai on 14 Dec 2007 a year back. He had been awarded with Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Services Award 1999 and E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007. He has also been held Dataquest IT Man of the Year Award 2000 and Asia Business Leader Award 2002 says wikipedia. (When & where Raju went wrong?)

This icon of leadership for India has now indicated that Satyam's accounts had been falsified over a number of years. He admitted to an accounting fraud to the tune of some 7000 crores rupees. He successfully covered-up this one for long. And surely, he deserves his award for the creative accounting and window dressing.

I was reading to transcript of a speech by Mr. Suresh Senapathi from Wipro on Corporate Governance and I want to quote him for his idea about corporate governance with entrepreneurial vision. He says that we have to create a framework and fabric of strong corporate governance for company's longevity. He emphasized on a strong entrepreneurial spirit known to churn out best professional managers marked to global benchmark of excellence for continued and sustained excellent results. Agree.

Now think about brands which gives you mark of the excellence for e.g. E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Mr. Senapati says Satyam is one of case. I really don't agree with him here. We all need to take responsibility for the Raju's failure. It's also not enough if we call it a third party system failure. It's like Pakistan claiming that it's not our mistake and its India's own weak security and its own internal political issues which remains the root cause of attacks on Taj & Trident.

PWC was auditor so they are under scanner. Other big fours see a business opportunity with this latest happening. Some are coming out with new solutions in areas of fraud and forensic investigation and others are coming out with new corporate governance regime and some are coming out with a new survey. Just to remind you, please fill the survey by KPMG, if you have received it. God Knows but that might help us find out the root cause of such problems which remain hidden for long enough and then to find out a solution which can create revenue generating opportunities for the big accounting firms and that might also bring back the lost confidence of inventors as a byproduct.

It can't be one of case for sure. There are many that remain to be unearthed and that's why the opportunity is. Current change in economic as well as political scenario will bring out some more misdeeds. Capital market and money market failures too will bring out many more. It's the time when conscience of many more will wake up. So wait and watch.

And the reality is, the corporate world has really failed to find the root cause for such sudden shocks. Satyam is no exception. Wipro CFO is wrong.

See this small video and draw correct analogies.



Forward or comment upon this article using below links.