Calsoft boss talks tough in face of recession

Sam Santhosh, CEO of Calsoft, Inatech’s parent company, comes across as a intelligent realist in his latest interview with Rediff.com.

Santhosh, who set up Calsoft in 1992 in Silicon Valey, spoke to Rediff about the recession, outsourcing, entrepreneurs and business in India.

Santhosh appears as a man who understands the seriousness of the credit crunch, but refuses to panic as some businessmen have.

“The mood is pretty gloomy,” He readily admits, “the situation is bad; in fact worse than the dotcom bust. But today, the economy is global. So much wealth was created, and when it just goes away, or even a part of it goes away, the impact is more widespread. When salaries are down and you are out of a job, the situation becomes very, very serious. I can see tension among my friends. People are all worried.”

That said, Santhosh said it has not been so bad for Calsoft and its subsidiaries as it could have been. The onset of the crunch was late for the company: Staff in India are not at as great a risk of finding themselves unemployed as those in Silicon Valley. “Here in India,” Santhosh said, “we have not done any lay-offs but we are in the process of trimming a little bit. But the net numbers are not different as we are still hiring. We have to hire few people with specialised skills.”

Santhosh doesn’t try to hide the fact that outsourcing business, as with everything, has reduced by 10-15% since the recession hit. Despite this, he refuses to join the chorus of scaremongerers and doom-sayers. “I don’t think it is gloom for India, but it will be a tough time for India,” he said, and went on to explain that he did not expect India to lose its dominance in global IT markets.

In fact, he believes that with some hard work and creativity, Indian outsourcing for Calsoft and Inatech could even increase: “It is not going to go [down]. If we play our cards well, like innovating and finding out the gaps, it may go up. If we innovate, we can get more work even in the mature areas.”

“I think it’s a very good time to start an enterprise,” he said, “This is the time people will be receptive to new ideas, cost savings and cost cutting. Secondly, the time is good now for an entrepreneur to attract people. “