What are your thoughts on the leadership in India? During a recent visit, I found their performance to be somewhat mediocre. They don’t seem to be actively involved in teams or delivery. What purpose do they serve i?
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Missing visiting delegates
Noted
Vivek might have a point, but mediocrity seems more prominent in India’s leadership. They lack both business acumen and technical expertise. During my direct interactions with Wealth leadership, I found them to be friendly and approachable but not particularly skilled. This issue appears to be widespread across the BU. Leadership tends to promote individuals who participate in India-based local events, with little recognition given to delivery excellence. They also seem disconnected from the firm’s overarching goals
Vivek Ramaswamy points his finger back at you Americans, where we have “venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
A rather important project. Indian support said they would be on it.
Nothing.
Unreliable. And, the quality is not good.
Data is bad all over Fidelity. The common denominator is always India.
Post from TheLayoff.com
Getting a promotion in India is quite easy. Just cater to your manager, who might not understand the work, by preparing pointless presentations and praising their non-existent abilities. Feed their ego, and voilà, you're promoted. I've used this method many times, and it works. But after moving here, I actually have to work. I need to go back to India to get a promotion. I love Indian managers—they just need some attention and praise and aren't concerned about delivery or the company's success.
During my stint in PI i interacted with India and Dalian teams regularly .While china is known for its world class delivery the Indian leadership is all about pomp and show without substance .
Many mid/senior leaders in India lack a deep understanding of the actual work and often come from non-technical backgrounds. This makes it challenging to have effective conversations with many of these 'leaders'.
The leadership at Amtech in India is significantly better than other BUs.
So true
Are these the same white male brains that believe giving Trump a second try is a good idea? Then, god help us.
I really have no idea why we have so many Indians working in IT and programming.
I’ve never had one impress me all that much at Fidelity.
I remember when data centers were run by white men 25 years ago, and they ran like a top. Now, everything is a clown show. Nothing works.
hey @9iaw+1vx2ifby
India is in the dark with no design input like many other groups regardless of their Geographic location.....
Architects, Architects, Architects not talking to the Developers, Developers, Developers
who will be the ones implementing the solution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fcSviC7cRM
Thats was the obvious problem when I left
I have experienced cases where onshore is kept in the dark (even when they ask questions and want to be included in design, etc).
Once the deliverable is made public, offshore team cries that it’s too late for feedback or changes and we have to live with the design issues and work around them.
Once the issues reach a critical level, the original offshore team is off onto something else and refuses to address the issues or help in resolving them.
This is a leadership issue.
If you are a caucasian male, they will sandbag your access to critical systems. Act like they don’t have all the details necessary to give you access.
This is not uncommon.
As noted by many, there is a significant gap in senior leadership across the company. The situation in India is slightly different, as there are too many leaders and tech heads with zero responsibilities beyond assigning ratings and handling recruitment.
Sometimes, India leaders schedule meetings without much substance to discuss. They often rely on buzzwords like "strategy" "one team," and "core and common", making the conversations feel forced and artificial.
There are some exceptional individual contributors in India, but the leadership tends to focus more on appearances and showmanship
Agreed, Most tech VPs and above contribute little value. They often appear busy by scheduling numerous meetings to create an impression of importance
There are Indian VPs and directors (located in USA) that do absolutely nothing.
I mean, for real, absolutely nothing.
There was a time when Indians were just contract workers. It was a mistake making them full-time EEs.
They have already removed the country head, and similarly, they could remove business unit heads, tech heads, or GCLs as well. These roles don't contribute much to delivery and are often focused on irrelevant tech initiatives. The teams could instead report directly to the US managers
Majority of the deliverables are carried out by US! India leadership is all about creating impressive charts and PPTs, and pet projects. No technical deliverables, no accountability!
I visited India a couple of years ago, and much of what is mentioned in the comments resonates with my observations. There appears to be a noticeable lack of accountability at various levels, particularly within the G8+ group. The focus often seems to be on organizing "events" and "days" to impress managers, rather than delivering meaningful outcomes. Many of these activities add little tangible value, with much of the effort directed toward hiring, performance management, and HR-related tasks.
Moreover, the presence of non-technical managers in technology roles often leads to bottlenecks in project delivery, making it challenging for high-performing contributors to thrive. I also heard that significant time is spent perfecting presentations for partner visits, often stretching into weeks. Many teams could directly report to the US, streamlining operations and eliminating unnecessary layers.
Fidelity shifts work to India
Work doesn't get done
Leadership babysits India
Work shifts back to US
The cycle continues
the non-market hours shift plays a role. EST time zone is where the action is.
thats the reality in third world/ developing countries. Managers do nothing and are paid well and has so many benefits that includes holidays, tuition fees for kids, company card etc. Subordinates are paid nothing. Salary can be as little as less than $5 per day
@pjc+1vx2ifby
Spot on!
This has been my experience as well.
Nothing wrong with it and we should all learn from this as Fidelity is merely a means to an end.
Part of it being off-shore, part of it being Indian, their interests are not vested in Fidelity's successes. Personal upward mobility trumps everything else: show over actual work, short over long term, redundant personal pet projects to learn hyped technology over vale-add and common-core. But what do you expect from what you deem cheap labors?
From top leadership, there's a tendency to favor and promote individuals within their inner circle. This leads to a lack of diversity of thought and hinders innovation.
Chapter/Team Leaders, on the other hand, often find themselves with minimal workload and no meaningful work. Their role seems to primarily involve receiving updates from team members only. There's a noticeable lack of accountability for CLs. Onshore leadership, while providing inputs, often focuses more on micromanaging resources and processes than on driving strategic initiatives. This is leading to a culture where these leaders acting busy with no actual productivity. Many leaders are merely going through the motions, lacking the substance to drive real change.