Reports are flowing in about the firestorm being generated in American tech circles by the alleged comments of the CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar. Please note: I don’t have a source for the exact comments, hence “alleged”. [InformationWeek]

Stereotypes go both ways, apparently. Vineet Nayar, the highly respected CEO of India-based IT services provider HCL Technologies, recently told a New York City audience of about 50 customers and partners that most American tech grads are “unemployable.” Why’s that? Americans looking to enter the tech field are preoccupied with conceiving the next big thing and getting rich, Nayar maintains. They’re far less willing than students from developing economies like India, China, and Brazil to master the “boring” details of tech process and methodology–ITIL, Six Sigma, and the like. As a result, the HCL chief says, most Americans are just too expensive to train, despite the Indian IT industry’s reputation for running the most exhaustive training programs in the world.

As a techie, these remarks present an interesting view point for me. From my purely anecdotal perspective and experience with both, the Indian education system is largely geared to churning out grads who excel in process-oriented solutions while the American education system encourages applying creative thinking to existing solutions. And of course, there are plenty on either side, who don’t fit this stereotype.

Going back to Nayar’s alleged comments, working in a outsourcing shop like his, requires a certain mind set, which a grad from the Indian education system is more likely to be prepared for. So perhaps, what Nayar meant to say was that grads from the American education system and workforce are less likely to possess the mind set to work in his company. If Nayar sets the requirements of who his company will employ, that is his decision and prerogative as the CEO of that company.

Assuming Nayar made those comments, to paint all individuals who work in the tech industry as employable or unemployable, because they come from a certain nation and/or education system, in a public forum no less, is just plain wrong and unbecoming of someone in his position.

As Rob Preston of the InformationWeek article puts it:

Imagine if the CEO of a U.S.-based tech company marched into Mumbai seeking a bigger share of the country’s multibillion-dollar market and declared the locals to be unemployable and untrainable.

He is correct. Such a comment from an American CEO would’ve set the desi media and blogosphere ablaze. It is only right that when an Indian CEO does the same, we debate it in a similar passionate manner.

Predictably, this alleged comment by the CEO of a major Indian tech company has generated conversation in tech circles and the comments in some message boards would put Rediff comments to shame. And also, above all, such language plays into the hands of demagogues like Lou Dobbs, who indulge in stereotyping the other way round.

So what do you think? Is Vineet Nayar correct or is his alleged comment an unfair stereotype of American grads? Personally, I vote for the latter.

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