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uh our guest today is
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sergeant pillai ceo of usd global
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and we are planning to speak to him
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about a new social impact initiative
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they are just about to launch called
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step it up
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america sergeant thank you so much for
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joining us today thank you
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uh can you just to start tell us a
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little bit about
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usd global's business operations and
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your social impact philosophy
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thank you uh usd global is an
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information technology services company
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providing high technology information
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services
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for global 1000 companies that's our
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core focus
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we have southern california
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headquartered company we have operations
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in 24
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countries worldwide in uh uh
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north america in latin america western
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europe
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um and in asia now going into africa
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so uh so we're we we provide uh
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information technology
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services with large number of engineers
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in north america
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and in mexico and in india and what's
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your social impact philosophy
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when the company was formed in the late
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90s
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we figured that information technology
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particularly knowledge economy jobs
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are going to compete for talent and this
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talent the new talent the new economy
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knowledge economy talent
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is a little different from the from the
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talent we've had so far and
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this this the folks that join the new
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firms
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they are looking for a cost that's
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beyond
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the p l beyond the quarterly uh pnls and
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financial
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performance so we've we figured that in
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order for a company to be successful for
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the next
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millennium you need to have a purpose
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larger than oneself something beyond
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beyond the traditional
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sense of business operations so the
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whole notion was to create something
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like that
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and um and we also figured that
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in the economy you know while the
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traditional industrial comp
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industrial revolution came brought about
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industrial
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companies which had financial capital as
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a competitive differentiator
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and then it in the last century it gave
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it away for
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intellectual capital companies with
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larger intellectual capital succeeded
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but i think a new type of capital is
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evolving which is social capital
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and we figured that has got to be a
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fundamental fabric of the company
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and what we did right from the get-go
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our motto
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was transforming lives and what it
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really meant is
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using technology we intend to transform
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the lives of community
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our customers and our employees that was
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the original mission we focused on two
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things as a social purpose
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women and children and on health and
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education were two subject areas that we
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focused
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so this philosophy was woven very deeply
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into the fabric of the company
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it's not something you do as a as an
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initiative it's something that is
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inherent in how we do how we promote
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people how we select people
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and i have to tell you that um
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it has become as much a
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social and cultural difference for the
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company as much as our business
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operations and strategy
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great fascinating your latest initiative
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is step it up america
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so tell us a little bit about what your
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vision and objective is for this
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this program well the snippet of america
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my concept was formed because
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um i chair the council for stem for uh
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innovation
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and um i have a science technology
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science technology engineering and math
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council
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um it's a federal council i think the
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whole notion there was to figure out
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the incredible dearth of um
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or gap of talent between uh what is
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required for the country
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and for the whole world in science
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technology engineering and math and
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what's being produced for example
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just in oil and gas energy sector alone
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us
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is trying to be oil independent uh by
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2013
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2030 uh to do and it's possible because
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of natural resources
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but the problem is you the u.s as a
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country has to have two and a half
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million to three million
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stem educated professionals guess what
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we produce about 130 000
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stem students uh graduates every year so
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there's a huge gap in that
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so that's just one example so there's a
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tremendous amount of
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talent gap yet you see in the economy
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a lot of the kids world over are
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graduating into or educated into
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unemployment facing unemployment as they
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come out of college
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so there is huge gap between the kids
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are getting educated
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while the job's going unfulfilled so we
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said there has to be a better way
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to match these two things and we can
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create a social
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socially responsible initiative so we
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said information technology
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is the new oil it's a very fungible kind
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of employment
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uh in a knowledge economy it's not
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really dependent on where you are
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so we said listen um we can take the
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ability to train large amounts of people
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that we already had that we
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did this in mexico and in india and
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other parts of the world
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why not bring into inner cities of
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america
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where we would pick minority women
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who haven't really had the chance to go
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to a university but has had displayed
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have displayed the determination to go
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to a
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community college we will go select them
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train them take the risk on them and
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make them information technologies and
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support them by our global workforce
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and give them an opportunity to be
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participant in the knowledge economy
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we see how societies are transformed
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when we did this in mexico and other
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parts of the world
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we have no doubts that we could do the
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same thing so we are starting this
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program
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in atlanta on the on the 19th our
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objective is to go to 10 cities
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uh in 10 months 100 uh
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women each so a thousand women in 10
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months and then we will scale up from
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there
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so that's the plan so a a quick
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follow-up or maybe
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uh maybe even two um one
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tell us a little bit about how you're
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going to select these women
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and then i wanted just to clarify the
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concept you select
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and train these women and then are they
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employed
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by your company do they go on to
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employment elsewhere what's what's the
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plan um the first first answer to the
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first question is we're looking at
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different ways of selecting um
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these women these candidates can all be
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selected through traditional techniques
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so we are actually using
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civic leaders we're going to the
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churches local churches
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we are looking at local community
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leaders to ask for their inputs in the
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opinion
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and we're then going to use some
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internal testing to see
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but what we're really really looking for
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is the
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fire in the belly is the real driver
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because the whole notion here
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is we have found that in knowledge
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economy
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low income does not equate to low iq and
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that's a big myth
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that many corporations have and that's
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some somewhat embedded in our
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educational system
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and in our cooperation so we know that's
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not true
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uh so we're going to give these women a
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shot um
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yes they're going to be hired and will
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be our employees
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but they will be building these
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technologies as our employees as
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consultants for
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many other corporations because that's
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our core business so
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if i'm in atlanta uh we would be hiring
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them into our atlanta office as
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usd global employees but they will be
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providing services for large
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corporations
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in atlanta region so that's really the
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model so it's a self-sustaining model
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that they don't they shouldn't suffer
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social displacement
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of having to go relocate somewhere and
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leave their kids and their families
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behind
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that's the whole idea
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how will you assess their skills and how
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what's the training
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program going to look like so um the
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training program is somewhat different
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um it's getting customized for
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this type of demographics i think it
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will be
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a combination of critical thinking
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skills social behavior skills and
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fine-tuning of that
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information technology skills of course
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which is a core curriculum
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we have now perfected the technique to
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create
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accelerated human capital development
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because we have had
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uh we figure right now we can take
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somebody who is not an engineering
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graduate and can make them an
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information technologist
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in less than six months of training
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actually give them
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pretty high paying jobs as long as the
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aptitude exists
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we think that that would be the time
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frame for the training
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uh well as the program scales we will
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know if we need to fine-tune or
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recalibrate that
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um the training will have multiple
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components
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uh one is the score training the other
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one is the um
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software skills that we will focus on so
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we they will have
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one of the challenges that many of them
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have is not having a visible role model
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so we are going to bring in women uh
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minority when particularly have
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done exceedingly well in these careers
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as instructors
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uh well-known individuals um so they can
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see role models so role modeling is as
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important as the road curriculum
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so that's a combination of things we're
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planning to do
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now who are your partners in this
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venture have you already signed up a
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group of companies
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who have agreed to employ these women
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once they
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pass through your training process well
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we have uh we have
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uh now in city of atlanta we have
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all the major corporations in atlanta
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are interested in
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helping us they are waiting for this to
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get launched i think about in
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there are about ceos and top executives
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of the top
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10 or 15 companies are showing up uh in
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the launch to participate and once
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we finish the training program many of
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them have expressed
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interest to participate in this already
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there's been tremendo tremendous amount
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of interest
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both from the political leaders
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civic leaders and from corporate leaders
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into this program because
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as you know bringing jobs to inner
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cities and transforming their lives is
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very
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very um important for those companies
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for those leaders but there's never been
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a
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scalable uh you know results driven
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program of the scale and this this
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nature
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so many of them are backing us so we are
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not alone in this we have several
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partners
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who are helping us and and what's the
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start date when do you actually think
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you'll start
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november 19th which is next week yeah
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that's for launch
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atlanta so uh help us uh visualize or
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think about
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the typical candidate or typical
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candidates should i be you know should
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we be thinking about women who are
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unemployed
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who've had a professional career but
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maybe quit who
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you know who are young and just starting
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out what's the what's the view
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i think we're going to initially start
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with
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women who went through the community
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colleges and just starting to enter the
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workforce
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as you know economic situation is not
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great it's not a
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job friendly economy at the moment
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so many of them have gone through but
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they are heavily underemployed
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so we're going to go through that's the
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bulk of the initial selection
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out of the women who have graduated from
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community colleges
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with some uh good core skills but they
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have not been able to find good jobs
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but then we will expand to other
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categories
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such as women in other parts like social
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work etc
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who who cannot take a job by traveling
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because their economic situation do not
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allow them to do that in this kind of
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business in knowledge economy these
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women don't have to travel
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and so they can be more responsible more
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available to their families at the same
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time can work in a
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high-paying job so that's really what
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we're looking for initially but then it
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will scale
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once we reach the 100 number of hundred
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in every city
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then we will scale up to different you
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know different other branches this this
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is this sort of division
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great do you want to take that sure now
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uh
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so so it's a very ambitious program uh
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you
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after atlanta you have said that you
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want to roll it out in 10 other cities
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uh can you give us a sense of how much
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usd
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global plans to invest in step it up
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uh america uh do you have any
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co-investors
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and how will you sustain it uh over time
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well you know the the um
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initial investment uh will be in the
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vicinity of
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20 or 30 million dollars but um but i
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think as we scale
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i want i want this to be a
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self-sustaining program so as the women
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are trained
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and they become employed that becomes a
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revenue that potentially can
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underwrite some of the ongoing costs
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i understand that there is a financial
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risk to the company but we think
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it's worth taking their risk because
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i think every community every society
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all of us in fact uh look for one thing
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that is that is vital and that is to get
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one more shot
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and i think this may give these women
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one more shot at at you know in a career
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that they never had a shot before
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and hopefully can transform those
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communities and their homes
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and my point is that may create a social
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momentum just like what we have seen
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in other parts of the world i'm a big
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believer i'm an optimist
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i think this could turn on a social
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dynamic an economic dynamic that could
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make it sustaining
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um just by the sheer interest of the
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corporations
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that have come already lined up i think
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i think this program
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we won't be limiting to 100 people i
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think we would be expanding far beyond
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that
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so based on the kind of work you've done
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uh in other countries
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can you tell us what you what are the
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success factors what are the key points
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that allow you to train people this
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quickly to
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you know to ensure that they actually
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become skilled employees and effective
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employees
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uh so i i would take a couple of
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examples
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uh when we went to mexico when and when
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we started going into not mexico city or
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guadalajara or monterey but to
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second or third tier cities like in
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lyon or smaller cities like central fox
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and stuff like that so
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when we took the kids from there the
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traditional wisdom
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was that it's got to be a four year or
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five year engineering grad
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and you know they must have this kind of
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qualifications
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since we didn't have those kids in those
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in that area we started looking at other
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uh types of disciplines and we found
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that
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by using a variety of techniques for
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accelerated competency development that
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includes
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the traditional classroom training which
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is sort of an immersion program
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it's an intense program combine that
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with the self-paced
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online virtual education which we have
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the infrastructure and content for
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which is very khan academic typish
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uh information technology training uh so
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it's
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so the pace the whole notion is the
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traditional education
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typically has time fixed competencies
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variant
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right you have four weeks to get this
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done three weeks to get this done so we
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shifted that around
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we said time is variable but the
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competency you have to
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reach a certain level of proficiency
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before you that was the magic sauce
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because different people from different
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background learn the initial
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foundational blocks of knowledge at
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different pace but once they
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get a minimum set of standards they
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accelerated the same place
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that was the shift in the training
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program that we implemented
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and that's the program but it takes some
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customization for the demographics you
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operate it's
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it's finely tuned to succeed in that
00:15:51
environment that's what we're going to
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do
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in atlanta and what are the challenges
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you're facing now as you
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go forward in atlanta and you know to
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begin this program in the united states
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well you know my my sense
00:16:04
of my challenge originally was a lot
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higher than
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uh than what actually turned out and the
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first and foremost
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is to get the right the right
00:16:15
candidates you have to be careful you
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have to attract them
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we are going into a section of the
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society that may not have had
00:16:24
this particular job as a career plan so
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to convince them make them aware make
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them excited make them engaged and make
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them recruit
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and and and and that's one and the
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second thing is preparing these women
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to be corporate citizens so there's a
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lot of things that we take for granted
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that may not be part of their uh
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ecosystem such as dressing for success
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so one of the things that they may have
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a lot of differences about
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if you can if you don't know how to
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dress to go to you're going to very
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large corporations
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some of the largest in the world you
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know they may be very smart but they may
00:17:01
just be hesitant so you got to take them
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over that
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that's that's a little bit of challenge
00:17:05
keeping them in the program sometimes
00:17:06
could be a challenge
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because they have uh they have uh kids
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to take care of for
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uh parents to take care of usually the
00:17:14
women have the responsibility to take
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care of them so we got to balance
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their schedule with with the education
00:17:21
and then finally i think
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finding the
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companies that would on our payroll but
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would employ them
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take a shot give them give them a chance
00:17:32
because it's not a program that
00:17:34
many companies are comfortable with have
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done this they've done it in small scale
00:17:37
in some cases but never have done this
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in big scale
00:17:39
so you need some uh
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some business leaders who want to take
00:17:44
the risk on this program to say you know
00:17:46
what
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do this with us for example one of the
00:17:50
leaders that i was very impressed was
00:17:52
frank blake the ceo and chairman of home
00:17:54
depot i went and met with him
00:17:56
and within a few minutes he said this is
00:17:58
a fantastic program come to atlanta
00:18:01
me i will participate in this my team
00:18:03
will par i'll take the risk with you
00:18:05
that's those those type of leaders are
00:18:07
the ones that we need
00:18:09
so that that initial you know there's
00:18:11
always that initial hesitation to see if
00:18:13
it works
00:18:13
somebody has to take the risk we're
00:18:14
taking the financial risk and others so
00:18:17
we just need those sponsors so that's
00:18:18
the other challenge
00:18:19
we're beginning to find a lot of
00:18:21
companies um
00:18:22
actually lining up to do this so that's
00:18:24
that and hopefully as we grow
00:18:27
the investment that we are making
00:18:29
becomes more manageable so that there is
00:18:31
a it's a sustainable sort of program
00:18:34
that's exactly what i was going to ask
00:18:35
you about next what
00:18:37
value do you see this program creating
00:18:40
for the young women
00:18:41
for the companies companies that employ
00:18:43
them for usd global and for society as a
00:18:46
whole
00:18:47
it's a great question um i think uh the
00:18:50
value
00:18:51
i see it in in those four dimensions
00:18:53
actually um
00:18:54
the first and foremost for the companies
00:18:58
that
00:18:59
employ this government uh many of these
00:19:02
companies have been in those
00:19:04
locations in those cities for decades
00:19:07
you're talking about very large
00:19:08
companies
00:19:10
and it is many of the business leaders
00:19:13
know that they have to make a difference
00:19:15
in the community because
00:19:16
it is the community they operate that
00:19:18
goodwill
00:19:19
and the ability to make a positive
00:19:21
impact in those local communities is
00:19:22
critical for those ceos and the
00:19:24
executives
00:19:25
so it gives them another tool
00:19:28
to be relevant in those communities so
00:19:30
it's important for them
00:19:32
it's important for the women
00:19:36
who are employed in this program because
00:19:38
this is the first time in many cases
00:19:40
in those families have ever had a job in
00:19:43
a knowledge economy and for that matter
00:19:45
white collar jobs um so that's a big
00:19:47
deal it's a transformative deal they
00:19:49
become the role models in the society
00:19:52
it's a high-paying job this jobs
00:19:56
information technology jobs typically as
00:19:58
a start-up job start at about 30 or 35
00:20:00
thousand dollars a year
00:20:02
very quickly you can get up to 70 or 100
00:20:04
000
00:20:05
a year and even higher so this are
00:20:08
uh this this can be quite uh quite a
00:20:10
lucrative and
00:20:11
quite a rewarding career and it's a it's
00:20:14
a career of the future
00:20:15
so that's important for for for those
00:20:18
communities i think for usd global
00:20:21
uh it's significant because first of all
00:20:23
it aligns with our mission of
00:20:26
uh jobs technology training and peace
00:20:28
which is the four pillar stones of what
00:20:29
we stand for
00:20:30
and impacting and transforming lives of
00:20:32
the communities we operate
00:20:34
it brings in a huge amount of diversity
00:20:36
um
00:20:37
and and if you look at it it's
00:20:39
interesting because we are a global
00:20:40
player um
00:20:41
we are an information technology
00:20:43
provider so we use talent from all over
00:20:44
the world
00:20:45
but we what we do think that information
00:20:48
technology the demand is so
00:20:50
high yet almost all this demand
00:20:53
is supplied by a few hot talent hard
00:20:56
locations in the world
00:20:57
and we think information technology is
00:20:59
the new oil of the world it can be
00:21:00
distributed more evenly
00:21:02
so we're trying to sort of make it a
00:21:04
global phenomenon as opposed to being
00:21:06
concentrated on one or two locations
00:21:08
so we think that can be a disruptive
00:21:10
model and can be a competitive
00:21:12
strength for us to say we're going to do
00:21:14
this thing somewhat differently
00:21:15
so we we think that would that would be
00:21:17
that would be significant for us
00:21:19
so we think that it's a win-win win for
00:21:21
all parties and
00:21:22
and i think job creation of course is
00:21:25
the top agenda for the government
00:21:27
um and especially jobs in stem
00:21:30
and what better way to insight that than
00:21:33
running programs that takes decades
00:21:36
to fulfill the promise this we're
00:21:38
talking about giving jobs in a few
00:21:39
months
00:21:40
so the question i have is how have your
00:21:42
employees
00:21:44
responded to this idea you're bringing
00:21:46
in a new group of employees a new set of
00:21:48
trainees
00:21:49
what's the response very very excited
00:21:52
because
00:21:53
many of the leaders stay in our company
00:21:58
it's a knowledge economy company not
00:22:00
because they want to be just successful
00:22:02
because our month race if you want to be
00:22:03
successful there are lots of companies
00:22:05
in the world
00:22:06
and technology companies in the world
00:22:07
that can make you successful because
00:22:10
you have good degrees you're working in
00:22:12
information technology the heart of
00:22:13
sector one of the hardest sectors you're
00:22:15
going to be successful
00:22:16
but if you want to be significant the
00:22:18
distinction between being successful and
00:22:20
significant is different and uh we give
00:22:23
them an opportunity to make a difference
00:22:25
and that's what get the juices going so
00:22:27
a lot of the
00:22:28
existing leaders in the company is
00:22:31
volunteering in large numbers to
00:22:33
participate
00:22:34
in this program but as the new type of
00:22:39
uh as this as this this set of
00:22:42
communities coming come into the company
00:22:44
it definitely will create a more global
00:22:46
more diverse
00:22:47
uh and hopefully more creative and
00:22:50
and and and more uh uh you know
00:22:54
diversity of ideas and perspectives
00:22:56
which we need
00:22:57
to move the company forward so i think
00:22:59
everybody looks at it positively
00:23:02
how will you measure the program's
00:23:04
social impact
00:23:06
um i i'm not a social scientist so i'm
00:23:09
not really sure
00:23:10
uh how we impact i'll tell you um when i
00:23:13
go to mexico now
00:23:15
uh i sit down and talk to the kids who
00:23:18
got the jobs
00:23:20
uh with usd and those kids didn't come
00:23:23
from
00:23:24
the traditional background that you and
00:23:26
i can some
00:23:27
some cases unimaginable background and
00:23:31
their passion and commitment is probably
00:23:34
one of the biggest rewards of being
00:23:36
in the business um and and
00:23:39
clearly um that's what i'm looking for
00:23:43
and this is this is not only
00:23:44
commercially
00:23:45
a you know i hope that would be very
00:23:47
successful but also
00:23:48
it in my view could be extremely
00:23:50
rewarding just to see the impact
00:23:52
that we could we could make i think
00:23:54
creating a thousand
00:23:55
jobs in high tech in 10 months and then
00:23:59
possibly scaling up to several thousands
00:24:01
probably in my view could be one of the
00:24:03
largest job creating initiatives in the
00:24:05
country today
00:24:07
so i'm really hopeful that that creates
00:24:10
the impact that we're hoping for both
00:24:12
from
00:24:13
both not only for for these women in the
00:24:14
communities but also for the
00:24:16
corporations and for usd global so it
00:24:18
becomes a
00:24:19
sustaining and ongoing effort uh do you
00:24:22
see taking
00:24:22
this initiative globally do you think or
00:24:25
have you already in some ways
00:24:26
taken it globally and now you're
00:24:28
bringing it domestically ah
00:24:30
very interesting so we have been
00:24:32
approached by
00:24:34
uh prime minister rahoyam of spain
00:24:37
and i went and met with him a couple
00:24:39
times
00:24:40
he wants to start a program in spain so
00:24:43
we are starting the program
00:24:45
to train 5 000 people in spain you know
00:24:48
spain is now the place with a lot of
00:24:50
employment these days still
00:24:52
so this would be a pretty big impact to
00:24:54
spain i think
00:24:55
it's a terrific location for information
00:24:58
technology so we we're doing something
00:24:59
very similar in spain
00:25:01
we're just initiating another effort to
00:25:02
go to a specific country in africa
00:25:05
so we think this is a true global
00:25:07
phenomenon but
00:25:08
this particular initiative is going to
00:25:10
be focused in the us to create jobs here
00:25:12
where we're going to figure out how to
00:25:14
learn from each other
00:25:15
because we've already done this in
00:25:16
mexico we're doing this now in spain
00:25:18
and um and in africa and and
00:25:21
another initiative that is that is very
00:25:24
much on the cards is to
00:25:25
do a similar program for women in saudi
00:25:28
arabia
00:25:30
one of the challenges there is the women
00:25:32
are highly educated
00:25:34
so it's a little different process
00:25:37
but they just can't drive to work
00:25:40
because of the social system but see
00:25:42
information technology jobs are fungible
00:25:44
and therefore we can give them jobs
00:25:46
which is socially acceptable
00:25:47
but these uh women want to be productive
00:25:51
in society and it's a necessity so
00:25:53
we are initiating a program in the
00:25:56
middle east to do that so
00:25:57
i think this concept is highly scalable
00:26:01
one last question where do you see step
00:26:03
it up program
00:26:04
in five years
00:26:08
if if i were to have my brothers uh
00:26:11
first of all i think we want to be known
00:26:13
for having disrupted the social
00:26:15
ecosystem in some way in positive manner
00:26:18
uh and giving jobs in high-tech making
00:26:20
minority and diversity
00:26:22
uh appear in stem jobs
00:26:27
27 percent of the workforce of minority
00:26:29
and women yet only three percent of stem
00:26:31
jobs
00:26:33
are amongst minorities there's a huge
00:26:34
gap so this is first of all would
00:26:37
reignite
00:26:38
uh that i hope that this effort would do
00:26:40
that this effort hopefully would
00:26:42
hopefully could bring a renaissance in
00:26:45
in in
00:26:45
in having the minorities participate in
00:26:48
the knowledge economy which is
00:26:50
so significant because 75
00:26:53
of the jobs of the next 50 years will be
00:26:55
in the sector
00:26:56
hardly being participated by the diverse
00:26:59
you know minorities so
00:27:00
if we can bring them we will have a
00:27:02
participatory economy
00:27:04
which is healthy for everybody so i
00:27:05
think that would have and the whole
00:27:07
concept of
00:27:08
inner cities in many cases are somewhat
00:27:11
in a vicious cycle
00:27:13
because they don't have certain
00:27:14
conditions uh they don't have enough
00:27:17
role models and therefore they go back
00:27:18
to traditional jobs and you know it's a
00:27:20
sort of a vicious circle hopefully this
00:27:23
can break their chain
00:27:24
and get these companies get these
00:27:27
women and their families look at this
00:27:30
these kind of jobs
00:27:31
as new jobs to aspire for and the kids
00:27:33
could go
00:27:34
and and get those jobs go to community
00:27:36
college go to universities and get those
00:27:38
jobs and thereby changing the societies
00:27:40
so those that's hopefully that's what
00:27:42
it's that's what i want to be known for
00:27:44
the numbers i don't know how many but
00:27:46
i'm certainly looking for you know we
00:27:48
you don't have to
00:27:50
really create the fire all you have to
00:27:52
do is have to have a spark
00:27:53
and hopefully the the the the
00:27:56
winds of change will find it in the
00:27:58
flame of somewhat relevant so that's
00:27:59
what we're looking for
00:28:01
well sergeant thank you so much for
00:28:03
speaking with us today thank you
00:28:04
thank you thank you very much
00:28:29
you
