Every industry has its run. The big machines of the past gave way to smaller electronics and then computers of recent times, and now autonomous devices and embedded intelligence, not just in machines but also in living organisms, of course beyond humans. The Indian IT industry, which is close to 40-year-old, has had its time. In terms of employment generation, forex reserves and soaring aspiration levels, the industry contributed to more than its share of bargain. It pushed a wide cross-section of Indians westwards and upwards, made Indian cities accrue respect and, sometimes, dislike in most of the developed world, and made thousands of Indian millionaires fuelling their own dreams and that of the Indian startup ecosystem.
Full marks to the IT services industry for its contribution to the economic, cultural, social and demographic dividends, so much that the counterfactual is hard to imagine on any of these dimensions. Our government would have struggled to employ those many skilled, semiskilled and un-skilled Indians, maintain a healthy foreign reserve, and get a respectable audience but for this over $140 billion industry. But with this growth and proliferation came the misery of the management class, especially the middle management which grew amid a make-believe reality and now faces a harsher one. One which is threatening not only the fate of their beloved industry but also of their careers and expansive lifestyles. This piece is on the current predicament of the middle managers in most large and mid-sized IT firms in India and how they can save themselves from the misery.
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