Company Culture is Something You Need to Consciously Create, 74-Yr Old Indian Entrepreneur Says The industry will find a way around and we will convert that threat into an opportunity, like we did previously - Ashok Soota on Trump-Visa issue

Startups today are witnessing the storm of workspace culture mishaps, funding crunch and controversial shutdowns. Entrepreneur decided to go back and check basics of these aspects from someone who had co-founded a technology company at a time when the term "startups' did not exist.

Ashok Soota is the founding chairman of Happiest Minds Technologies and was the founding chairman of Mind Tree. Prior to Mind Tree, he led Wipro's IT business for fifteen years. In an interview with the portal, Soota openly gave his opinion on a number of things that are surfacing the ecosystem today.

The relevance of company culture

Speaking on prioritizing company culture at workspaces Soota said, "The IT industry had by in-large created a wonderful company culture set up, whether it was Infosys or Wipro. …If you see culture, to my mind it is something you need to consciously have to create. It's not like a box, where you put some input and you will get some output. In my view, it begins with the mission, vision and values. Once you outline them, then highlight what are the things which are important for the company and what are the things we value."

By merely articulating them and leaving them at that stage without people being aware of them, how it will influence employee behavior, he said.

Trump's Impact on India's IT Game

Talking about the impact of new visa regulations under the administration of newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump, Soota said that his firm belief is that any drastic change made by the U.S. government in visa regulation would only end up hurting their economy and not that of India. "The industry will find a way around and we will convert that threat into an opportunity, like we did previously," he said.

Today the demand for IT driven business is increasing enormously due to the digital driven business models and hence the U.S. also has a requirement for executives at various levels. Therefore the professionals who go from here are only multipliers of the economy and not a drag on the economy, he adds.

Venture funding

At a time wherein the industry has its eyes and ears fixed on funding announcement from startup cheerleader Flipkart, Soota said that the great thing about about raising money is that it helps you expand much faster because money is your fuel for growth. "VCs, angels and other networks help you validate your idea," he said.

Soota has also written his first book with S.R. Gopalan on Entrepreneurship, sharing with his readers the tricks of his trade and delving into the art of being successful entrepreneur. The book titled "Entrepreneurship Simplified' was released recently for the general public.