Symphony Services — Playing a Different Tune

The morning of 17 September 2009 dawned bright and sunny in Bangalore, a city widely regarded as India’s Information Technology (IT) capital. Amitava (Amit) Roy, COO of the Indian operations of Symphony Services Corporation (Symphony), a provider of outsourced product development solutions in the software sector, was in his office poring over Zinnov’s (a leading management consulting company) latest R&D Service Providers Rating. Alongside him was C. Mahalingam (known to all as ‘Mali’), the chief people officer and head of human resources. Zinnov’s report was indeed gratifying. This survey was conducted in 100 companies in India, China, Russia, the Ukraine, and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and Symphony Services emerged as the top-ranked player in its chosen vertical, software product development. Amit considered the result a vindication of the organisational structural changes he had initiated in 2007, which had enabled Symphony to respond faster and better to changing customer expectations. Nevertheless, Amit wondered whether he had done all that was required to position Symphony appropriately for the challenges ahead.