Question and Answers:
a) Which is/are your favorite theories? What are their major advantages or benefits? Why
is that?
Majid favorite management culture is structuralist. He said that a structuralist approach
ensures quality in services offered by their enterprise. Being in consulting business it is
very important to embrace best practices and industry standards. Due to Structuralist
approach all his employees had a clear understanding of their roles, they had in-depth
knowledge of their domain of expertise and were forced to follow the best practices, as
laid down by the standards and procedures of Satyam, Inc.
b) Could you give me some examples of your favorite structuralist theory in action?
Majid answered that Satyam consulting services itself is a living proof of structuralist
theory in action. Satyam is divided into multiple functional units. Each functional unit
offers a different domain of consulting services, such as his functional unit is Information
Management and offers services in the area of Data warehousing, Business Intelligence,
Knowledge Management and Data mining. All functional units control the standards and
best practices through strict procedures and processes. He also said that since Satyam was
in consulting business it was very important that they hire people who are best in their
areas of expertise and have well defined roles. Therefore, they had a detailed selection
process and had a setup of account managers, engagements managers to monitor the
performance of the consultants and ensure client satisfaction.
c) What skills and abilities are key for structuralist theory? Why is that?
Majid answered that people who are organized in nature, who like policies and procedures,
understand the importance of hierarchy and control, and who are highly skilled in their job
function will perform very well in structuralist environment.
d) What obstacles are there to you being your favorite type of manager?
According to Majid, controls and procedures constrain out of the box thinking. They make
a consulting firm less flexible to change and provide custom solutions to their clients in
less cost or within aggressive deadlines. Implementing a solid hierarchy, standards,
procedures, and controls adds cost & time to every project. At times when creative
thinking is required for a unique problem, they procedures dont allow thinking beyond the
scope of the project, or beyond the area of expertise.
e) How has your approach changed? Why is that?
Majid answered that couple of years ago he was a Solutions Architect in Satyam
Computers Ltd. As an architect he believed in creative thinking, and out of the box
