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In good times, you will be surprised how quickly you build up overhead. It happens innocently and it crops up all over the place. At the same time, people become soft on performance issues. For example, if a new sales person takes more than six months to bring in the first order, you justify it with a dozen reasons.
If there is another person completely out of synch with the job requirements of her function, you tend to over process the matter at the cost of the organization. We all lose sight of the fact that we are spending investors’ money, and worse, we lose sight of the fact that ultimately, we pass on our inefficiencies to the customer through higher cost.

September 11th was followed by rapid layoffs all around. Though we did not do a layoff, it was as clear as day that we had to let go of people on whom we had been soft on performance issues. We did away with satellite locations in three places where results had not come even after nine to twelve months of operation.

In the U.S., we cut salaries across board by 10%. In India, senior managers volunteered for an additional 2% cut to keep certain people whom they would rather have retrained than let go.

Following September 11, the U.S. bombed Afghanistan. The economic slow down became a full-blown recession and the world scaled back on all fronts. As the drama unfolded, India and Pakistan ended up having a serious border dispute and the world was concerned that the two nuclear rivals would end up going to a full-scale war. The western countries began pulling out citizens from the two countries and there was a travel advisory prohibiting U.S. citizens to go to India.

Back in the U.S., everyday that I went to work, I recognized the invisible layer of anxiety. It was as if the toxicity in the world around us was leaving traces inside and we needed to get the pent-up feelings out of us. It was not unusual - people in the office had neighbors who had lost family. Almost everyone knew industry colleagues who had lost their jobs. There was a pall of gloom, uncertainty and insecurity. In times like these, the workplace becomes an extension of the world outside.

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Subroto Bagchi is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer for MindTree Consulting (P) Ltd. The "Making of the MindTree" is told in the first person by Subroto Bagchi. In condensed form, it was published by Business World, filmed by InfiniTV, and aired on CNBC, IT Hour. Websites: www.mindtree.com & www.mindtree.com/subrotobagchi