The funniest thing about this whole transaction is that Neville Roy Singham always talked a big game about socialism, Hugo Chavez, central planning, etc.
He's all about the government redistributing wealth. But when it comes to his own wealth, instead of gifting the company to the workers who built it, he has all kinds of excuses for why it needed to be sold to a private equity company.
It doesn't surprise me one bit. What individuals won't do voluntarily themselves, they want the state to force others to do.
Neville isn't offering to give a dividend distributing the sales profit to all his workers. No no no ... he's going to use it himself for his charitable works. Much like Hugo Chavez's succesor in Venezuela, Maduro, takes all the resources of the country on the "behalf of the people" and distributes it himself. I'm sure the prestige and power associated with being the distributor is not a motivating factor at all.
This is so true. I worked at TW, and I believe the only thing that made it awesome was the people who worked there and the culture. Working there is a career-changing experience and definitely improves you as a developer. But, there was one thing that always stuck out to me. The 'false' reputation that Roy built of himself as a socialist. Roy was never the socialist he claims to be. As far as the 'social impact' projects are concerned, TW used to provide discounted rates for most of these projects. But, given the premium rate, I wouldn't call it social. It was just a sham to make the employees buy into this social stuff. And, a lot of people did buy into it. Except those who carefully heard Roy at the 'Away Days' and realized that he is just trying to make more money by getting the government contracts (which have big money even in India). All these social projects were a way to make money (very few 'social' projects were pro-bono). There's only one big 'social' pro-bono project I know of. I think a big reason TW contributed to OpenMRS, was to get big medical contracts from UNICEF, other charities and the governments.
Regarding the management, there is no doubt the company had a great management, but this changed for the worse somewhere around 2011-14 at least for India. The management at that time was the reason that the attrition rates for TW spiked in India (and possibly in other regions as well). Otherwise, people hardly used to ever leave TW, as it really was a great place to work at. Not anymore and that's exactly because of the management, which decided to kill the culture for profits. Regarding Roy, he is a guy who is pretty much as socialist as the "socialist" dictators we have had - socialist as long as I get to keep all the profits. TW never allotted any stock to the employees, and Roy is a guy who built a totally private company in a capitalist country. And, he thinks governments in South America are doing better. There is a good way to implement socialist policies like some of the European countries have done, and then there is all the crap that people in South America and Cuba have to put up with in the name of socialism. As long as your socialism involves a dictator and no checks, you can be sure it's going to be a hellish experience.
> There's only one big 'social' pro-bono project I know of. I think a big reason TW contributed to OpenMRS, was to get big medical contracts from UNICEF, other charities and the governments.
Strange, I ran this program (for the first two years) and there was no such intention, at least when I was working on it. It was goodwill.
I don't know of the guy, or his politics, or even your politics. But, I thought the outrage in your comment was interesting.
Is it really all that inconsistent for a person to be a participant in something while also wanting to see it change to be more just and fair? Don't pretty much all people behave like that?
Most people that I know wouldn't voluntarily self-limit themselves unless they knew that most others around them were also planning to do the same. Not all people are meant to be brave and heroic. But, that doesn't mean that those people won't accept the change when the change comes.
Your argument resonates with me, but at the same time this is a classical case of judging someone for trying, but not hard enough.
Not trying to help eg the homeless is ok, nobody helps the homeless. Trying to help some of them but not all will yield huge public outcry. Unfair! Hypocritical! Still, it's better than not trying at all.
It's very well possible that Roy really has been trying to make the world a little bit better - much more than most consultancy CEOs to be sure. But not hard enough and so people write comments like yours.
(Due Disclosure: Ex Thoughtworker) Yes the leftist ideology could be laid on pretty thick at times. Yes it always had many "all animals are equal, but some are more equal" incidents, typical of organazations that harp on "socialism" etc.
OTOH, there were some very talented people I got to work with, and as long as one didn't upset any of the "social and economic justice" con games, it was a great place to work in, for devs at a certain point in their career. No idea if or how that will change under new management.
Overall TW had more good than bad parts. And that is as good as companies get.
This whole social, happy family thing seems to be used by many companies to basically con the workers into dedicating themselves. Other favourites are "looks good on your CV", and "latest buzzword technology".
The bottom line is, well, the bottom line; whether you actually own a meaningful stake or not. The rest is often BS.
ThoughtWorker here (since Jan 2006). Please re-read Martin's post. There have been genuine tax-related challenges toward going employee-owned. From what we've all seen about Roy, he enjoys activism, and all signs point toward him engaging in that even more.
ThoughtWorks has been a privately held company since the beginning. I personally believe that it is a private business owner to decide how he chooses to apply the proceeds from selling his business (including giving post-tax money to otherS).
He's all about the government redistributing wealth. But when it comes to his own wealth, instead of gifting the company to the workers who built it, he has all kinds of excuses for why it needed to be sold to a private equity company.
It doesn't surprise me one bit. What individuals won't do voluntarily themselves, they want the state to force others to do.
Neville isn't offering to give a dividend distributing the sales profit to all his workers. No no no ... he's going to use it himself for his charitable works. Much like Hugo Chavez's succesor in Venezuela, Maduro, takes all the resources of the country on the "behalf of the people" and distributes it himself. I'm sure the prestige and power associated with being the distributor is not a motivating factor at all.