I recently encountered an article on the Net, through a link someone sent me. It set me thinking.

The article is an excerpt from a book by Subrato Bagchi, one of the founders of MindTree.

We often tend to believe that anyone who is "professionally qualified" and is earning an income by offering his services, is a "professional". Thus, all bank clerks, all accountants, all programmers, all doctors, dentists, journalists, managers, are "professionals".

This is not true. I feel most people, at least in the Indian culture, don't even understand the basics of "professionalism". I see a particularly high density of this in the Indian IT industry, including our beloved company. On some of my particularly bad days, I feel that the entire core of unprofessional culture has come to roost in the Indian IT industry. In fact, the degree of unprofessionalism I see in the IT industry seems much higher than what I see in, say, manufacturing or other older sectors.

I also see spectacular, inspiring examples of true professional grit in our company. Sometimes. It's those good days which keep me going --- they keep me motivated on some of those black days when I ask myself "Why the hell am I running this company?"

This article tries to explain some differences between "a professionally qualified person" and a "professional". I wish each officer of Merce reads it and tries to understand the difference.

After all, there is no harm in fond hopes. :)