PlanetHolt.com

The Satyam Computer Services scandal has been quite interesting to follow from within India. The local papers have considerable coverage dedicated to the events surrounding the company, including the actions of the government and the company’s executives.

Satyam has been described as “India’s Enron” by some commentators and is exposing gaps in not only Indian corporate governance, but also in the processes and reliability of major accounting firms and America's Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (which itself was created in response to the Enron meltdown).

The New York Times published an article describing Satyam’s early start, mentioning that the company’s earliest “large” client was none other than Deere & Company of Moline, Illinois. (Deere veterans tell me that the story’s claim that Satyam’s success with Deere “helped give birth to [India]’s outsourcing industry” might be a bit overblown, as G.E. and others were apparently already well down that road by that time.) It’s crazy to think that in 1991, the ground work for my assignment to India was being laid in Moline while I was learning state capitals and long division.

Of course, I’m sure that my stellar long division skills helped, too…