A memorial event was organised by Fortess in memory of Mr. Jack Schmid, TKS-Teknosoft on the 4th of February at Chennai. Mr Pierre Page, a dear friend and close associate of Mr Schmid graced the occasion.
It was indeed a very poignant occasion when close to 50 former and current employees of TCS and other IT leaders had gathered in IIT Research Park in Chennai on a sunny Sunday afternoon, the 4th of February, to reminisce and honour the memory of Mr. Jakob Schmid of TKS-Teknosoft . We also had another 50+ people who had joined online including former Vice Chairman and CEO of TCS, Mr. S Ramadorai .
It was only appropriate that we decided to use Fortess as the platform under which we assembled for this wonderful event with some of the erstwhile leaders of TCS including Mr. Mahalingam, Dr. Nirmal Jain, K Ananthkrishnan, Ajoy Mukherjee , S Padmanabhan, Ravi Shah , Mr. Page and many more who had joined in person, recounting the wonderful experiences they had with the great man and their admiration of Mr. Schmid’s leadership , professionalism and more than anything else, the warmth and love he showed to the TCS ers who were part of his projects and market.
While Sega was a key building block to transform TCS into a truly mature software services company, and Schmid played a very critical role in its success, the event was celebrated more towards Schmid, the thorough professional, the perfect gentleman and a true human being who had caught everyone’s imagination for his warm heartedness and humane outlook.
There were many anecdotes and examples quoted by the leaders present on their experience with Mr. Schmid, that it left many in the room with moist eyes.
Role model for a business partnership
TCS had its first interaction with Mr. Schmid in 1977 when he was the General Manager for Switzerland for the computer company, Burroughs Corporation. As Dr. Jain reminisced, Mr. Schmid came out as a tough negotiator. After a gap of nearly 13 years when Mr. Schmid joined TKS-Teknosoft, he saw a different Mr. Schmid who supported TCS, and talked about how he always backed TCS in front of the customer as a true partner should, which was how Mr. Page and Mr. Schmid had built TKS-Teknosoft. They created an environment where both companies could be successful at the same time, while fully meeting the requirements of the customers. Mr. Ramadorai recalled how he came to appreciate the effectiveness of the relationship and its impact on business when he took over as the CEO of TCS in 1996.
Mr. Schmid spent time in mentoring our teams in marketing and client relationships. There were other projects like Swiss Bank Corporation, which wanted TCS to build a system for the future. As Ajoy Mukherjee recalled, Mr. Schmid’s relationship with the customer and the positive environment this created, contributed a great deal to an effective design document. While the project itself was shelved due to different strategic moves of the customer, Ajoy felt that the 3-year period he spent on that assignment in Zurich was professionally very satisfying. These types of relationships with major organisations helped TCS to expand its business in Switzerland. Mr. Mahalingam set the context of that time to illustrate how TCS had built up an organisation with talented people, supplemented by a powerful computing and communication environment at Cathedral Road and Lloyds Road offices in Chennai. This enabled TCS to meet the challenges of these large projects from Switzerland and equally these projects ended up developing the capabilities of TCS even further. Mr. Page and Mr. Schmid elevated customer relationship to a different level.
Some of the key initiatives he took with the Swiss government in getting our people to Switzerland to execute Sega project, was a good preamble for a great Indo Swiss relationship. It is no wonder that the early projects executed with him is even today a folk lore in TCS’s narrative to their existing clients. Mr. Page recalled that the customers became great friends of TCS and India, and were willing to extend their cooperation. This kind of cooperation enabled TCS to handle projects like National Security Depository project and for a few depositories in other countries.
The perfectionist and a strict disciplinarian
Mr. Schmid was a perfectionist and a strict disciplinarian with an eye for detail. Mr. Schmid’s meticulousness of documentation, change management process, need for the minutes of a meeting from us to reach the client before theirs come to us – these lessons learned from him had kept us in good stead for a long period of time beyond just the Sega project. The successful execution of Sega, one of the largest projects for TCS in Europe at that time, laid the foundation for TCS and in a larger context for the Indian IT industry to flourish in Europe and grow multi-fold.
Mr. Schmid, the Mountain Man
Mr. Schmid was born and brought up in the tough terrain of the Swiss mountains which made him rugged, resilient and very disciplined, with a never say die attitude. Added to this was the warmth and kindness of his heart which he brought into play in dealing with people around him and the energy and love he spread across the teams. The early part of his life defined him in the later days in his role of guiding TCS as a partner. The fact that he joined TKS-Teknosoft at the important time of Sega was a necessary condition for the success of both TKS-Teknosoft and TCS. His younger years in the mountains resulted in his being tough as well as exuding warmth.
The man with a heart and a man with warmth and care for his people
His personal involvement with people, as recounted by all the speakers showcased his true character. S Padmanabhan recalled the numerous marketing trips he would take with him and how Mr. Schmid ensured that it was not always work. Ravi Shah gave an example of Mr.Schmid’s support as well as his presence of mind when Ravi misplaced his housekey in a security conscious Switzerland, Kamesh fondly recalled how Wendy, the activist wife of Mr.Schmid, was a gracious hostess to TCS families at the Schmid residence, and her British humour that she always deployed.
One particular incident narrated by Paddy really stole the heart of all the people present there. It was about when he and his family were planning for a mountain trek along with Mr. Schmid. After reaching the location, Paddy realized that his daughter, a 3 year old then, could not be expected to go through a long trek on a mountainous terrain and it was Mr. Schmid who carried the little one during the trek on his shoulders. Ananth, who effectively compered the session said that the relationship with a few of the TCSers became so deep that they continued to interact with him even after retirement. He talked about his few visits to meet the increasingly frail Mr. Schmid and his wife Wendy in those last few years.
In summary, all of us left the event with a sense of overwhelming emotions and trying to understand how someone with whom we do business can shape relationships with customers and shower so much love and affection on our people. We also learned how he supported charitable activities in India through ASRA, an organisation he chaired after his retirement from business. It truly was a very memorable evening for all of us, including the folks who did not belong to that era.
