Why women flee IT

The work culture is excruciatingly macho. The work hours are relentlessly long. Between 1997 and 2005, there was a 6% drop in the number of women employed in the IT industry, reports Deepak Mankar.

The September 3 edition of QuiteATake.com had drawn your attention to the special McKinsey coverage of the contemporary Indian scene. (Remember 'INDIA UNBOUND? Special coverage by McKinsey.') hindustantimes.com. The good news is that the special coverage continues apace. Now you can read 'Ensuring India's offshore future'. The basic premise of this article is that India took a lead in offshoring thanks to the availability of her readymade pool of well-trained but relatively lowly paid IT engineers. However, that pool is not as fathomless as it appears. There's a risk that it may run dry in the most preferred offshoring locations, mostly metropolitan. India's weak infrastructure is her least attractive feature for offshoring clients. For India's policy makers, it's imperative to improve the quantity and quality of her graduates, strengthen the infrastructure and disperse offshore demand for talent to second-tier cities and services other than IT.

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The second article offered for perusal is 'Winning the Indian consumer'. The article argues its case as follows. Retail sales in India's consumer goods may mushroom to $400 billion by 2010. This will make her one of the world's five biggest markets. India's emerging middle class is driving this rapid growth. Companies must target that segment if they aspire to make the country a key market. To win these customers, multinationals must adapt their products, prices and manufacturing processes to households with limited budgets and local tastes. Companies also must find ways to distribute their goods to customers across a vast nation with a retail sector dominated by mom-and-pop stores. mckinseyquarterly.com and mckinseyquarterly.com.

Debby Shorley, Librarian at the University of Sussex, a Fellow of CILIP and its 2005-06 President, is quite optimistic about the future of the information profession. This is how she concludes her thought-provoking Freepint tips article ('The Future of the Information Profession — No Time for Introspection'): "Despite all the challenges this profession faces, I'm convinced that it will thrive and grow. As information professionals we hold the key to so much that's globally important today. But we must work at it. We must continue to seek and develop partnerships; we must be flexible in our approach to our role; and we must get out of our silos. Achieve that, and there's everything to play for." Recommended as a must-read. freepint.com.

INFO BIZ. Trends to watch.

Here's another Freepint article ('Trends in business information, provision and use') I suggest you read. It deals with the global information business scene giving you an insight into which way the wind is blowing. Pam Foster, Editor of VIP and VIP Eye, is the author. The six noteworthy trends she's identified from an analysis of the 2005 Q2 content of the VIP publications, VIP and VIP Eye, which are concerned with the business information industry (products, providers and users) are the following: (1) Info providers are offering free content increasingly. (2) Search engines are offering single search access to premium content, e.g., personal subscription content search like Yahoo! Search Subscriptions (business information and news) and Google Scholar (for academic content). (3) New product development is focused on the Asia-Pacific markets. (4) Search engines are diverting revenue from information companies. (Google and Yahoo! earned as much revenue as the 10 largest information companies in 2004.) (5) The European online market is slowing down. (6) The US SMEs (small and medium-sized companies) are bypassing subscription services in favour of the Web. freepint.com.

NEW AT GOOGLE. Internet's 'founding father'.

Vinton Cerf, who co-designed with Robert Kahn the TCP/IP protocols, the very architecture of the Internet and who is consequently acknowledged as a 'founding father', will soon be joining Google as the chief Internet evangelist. "Cerf's vision for technology helped create entire industries that have transformed many parts of our lives," said Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO. Cerf will continue working in two roles outside Google, including the chairmanship of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Internet's domain oversight group, and as a visiting scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where he is reportedly working on a way to connect the Internet to outer space, according to Reuters. theregister.co.uk. Also have a look at the 8 September post ('This is going to be Big') at Bear Droppings. blogware.com.

'6 FIGURE BLOGGING.' An innovative 'how-to' teleconferencing course.

"I expect that this year my blogging will generate a six-figure income." Who said it? Melbourne, Australia-based Darren Rowse, a celebrity of sorts in the blogosphere earlier this year thanks to that comment. problogger.net. Now, Darren is trying to generate even more money with a 'how-to' series of weekly hour-long telephone conferences on the theme of, you guessed it, 'Six Figure Blogging'. Rowse's collaborator for this venture is Andy Wibbels, the creator of the Easy Bake Weblogs seminar series. The curriculum will cover how to choose a niche topic, tweak Google's AdSense service for maximum revenue and write well. "It's a lot of work," Rowse said. "I love the fact I can be writing about a topic I'm passionate about and I can earn a really decent income from it." As many as 800 people signed up for a preview course call. The 'early bird' course fee is $270. blogherald.com. Read his interview. buzzmarketingwithblogs.com

This column's last coverage of blogging ('DODGE THE CENSORS. Use blogs.') is at hindustantimes.com.

WHY WOMEN FLEE IT. UK study spills the beans.

The work culture is excruciatingly macho. The work hours are relentlessly long. Between 1997 and 2005, there was a six per cent drop in the number of women employed in the IT industry, according to the Office of National Statistics. This sad news comes in the wake of a research study from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) ('Women in IT industry') and IT trade body Intellect. More than half of the 42 women surveyed, mainly over 45-years-old and in senior positions (software developers, programmers, analysts, IT consultants, managers and directors) had already left the IT industry while another 13 were thinking of leaving. They all blamed the work-life balance, 'old-boys' male-dominated environment and industry culture for the exodus. Part-time work is not a workable alternative in IT apparently. Many of the women complained that they "had to work harder than male colleagues to achieve success and break through the glass ceiling". John Higgins, Director General, Intellect, said in a statement: "The UK IT industry is world leading but it won't stay that way for long if we continue to haemorrhage valuable, skilled women professionals from the sector. We must take action to ensure that we are doing all that we can to recruit, motivate and retain women within our industry." Amen. silicon.com.

Finally, if you're interested in Indian cuisine, take a look at gourmetindia.com.

That's all for now though there's plenty more out there. Join me again next week, same place.

Copyright (c) 2001- 2005 by Deepak Mankar. All rights reserved. Deepak Mankar, an advertising practitioner on the creative side since 1965, is also intensely passionate about the web and web content creation. Read his online articles athttp://www.asiaondemand.com/. Website:http://www.addgandhi.com/original/. You may e-mail him atdmankar@bom8.vsnl.net.in.