Blind Men and the Elephant
Demystifying the Global IT Services Industry
- Was Rahman - Dolphin Advisory, London
- Priya Kurien - Dolphin Advisory, Bengaluru
This book explains what consultants and IT Services firms do. It examines the industry’s surprisingly captivating history, and in doing so, explains why the industry does things the way it does and what motivates the different players within it. The book tries to answer some basic questions like:
- Why do those fundamentally affected by this industry have such little idea about how it has managed to have such a hard-hitting impact globally?
- How has this industry managed to reach the unique status it enjoys around the world today, with literally millions from all corners of the world aspiring to enter it?
- What is it about this industry that has caused it to evolve so differently as compared to other fields?
- Perhaps most importantly, where could it, and the rest of us, go next?
`The book is easy to read, entertaining and informative. A useful, easy to read book, for people looking to move from working in the IT Services industry to working on the industry. As your role moves from providing the service to managing those that provide the service, this book challenges you think about where you want to guide those teams to' - Maria DiGregorio, General Manager, Telstra Corporation Limited
`The subject is very interesting and you use some great examples to illustrate your points' - Morgan Hurwitz, Global IT Manager, Shell International
`A one-of-a-kind book that demystifies a 'common' industry for just about anyone in, outside or influenced by IT. An IT encyclopedia that is a must-have at least for its sheer wealth of trivia. For those people that feel they have lost time by being away from the industry on a sabbatical of any sort, this book can be the key to making a strong and confident comeback' - Nivedita Chandrasekhar, Application and Architecture Developer, Credit Suisse Readership
Was Rahman and Priya Kurien, try to piece together all the slices of the "least understood industry" in their book Blind Men and the Elephant....Refuting Thomas Friedman's theory of a "flat world", they insist, "the last set of people who thought the world was flat thought Columbus was a fool".
Blind Men and the Elephant is the ideal handbook for the average IT professional, and a collectable for those outside the industry.
Blind Men and the Elephant takes seriously the job of "demystifying the global IT services industry". The authors themselves IT and management professionals, promise to provide a "non-technical and jargon-free view of the IT services industry" and they deliver.
Highly relevant read, especially because the book is boldly irreverent of the industry.
A first step in understanding IT services.
The merit of this highly reflective book lies in its focus on the weaknesses of a phenomenon that has rewritten the modern way of life. The authors’ insistence that the IT industry should wasteless and think more debunks the myth of its unstoppable “ rise and rise”.
The authors] write with authority, backed by deep personal knowledge, about the global IT services industry, tearing away some of the veils of misconception and adding layers of new understanding. The title, which recalls the fable of the six blind men stumbling upon an elephant and coming to vastly different conclusions, is apt… The emergence of India as a formidable outsourcing destination is traced – but the book, unlike so many on this subject in recent years, takes a more international view of the industry…. Most usefully, the book suggests how potential players could do a bit of second guessing, anticipating future trends and challenges, before they overwhelm them… Blind Men and the Elephant is an easy, refreshingly jargon-free read, and unlike those Six Men of Indostan in the John Saxe poem, the reader can expect to achieve useful understanding of this important subject without any preliminary groping.