The Hindu Business Line : Taking staff along, Flextronics way

The name is the game. Nearly 6,000 geeks from across the world will be toying with various permutations and combinations of key `IT words' to win themselves a great honour: of coming up with a new name for Flextronics Software Systems, which was recently acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) in a leveraged buyout deal valued at $900 million.

In an unprecedented experiment, Flextronics Software Systems has informally asked its employees (over 5,000 of whom are in India) to come up with an identity for the new entity. Flextronics Software expects to don the new identity with the name change expected by the end of this year.

The global IT landscape is dotted with hundreds of thousands of firms, with most of them getting their names from either the promoters or the founding team members. Even in M&As, the larger companies tend to lend their names and brands to the acquired entities. This is perhaps the first case where such a large number of employees will be involved in an exercise of this kind.

Confirming such an exercise, Mr Ash Bharadwaj, Chief Executive Officer, Flextronics Software Systems, said: "It is always good to involve lot of people to come up with the right things. It's a people-based industry and we are coming up with a format to have contest to come up with a name".

The name change would be subject to the availability of the domain in that name and its meaning, among other things, he added.

Sources at Flextronics said the company was in the process of finalising some "big prizes" for the contest. The company expects to roll out a campaign at all its development centres, both in India and abroad, to involve all its employees.

Branding starts with the name. With thousands of employees, a catchy name becomes a definite advantage to the firm, say industry experts. The employees, in a sense, become indirect promoters of the brand and what it stands for, they said.

Flextronics Software has development centres in New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. The company expects to add about 3,000 employees this year, of which 80 per cent would be added at its development centres in India, Mr Bharadwaj said.

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