Indian tech companies are spawning an ‘ambitionless’ generation

“In an environment where companies’ risk appetite is reducing dramatically, my generation has no right to ask about peoples’ ambition—as ambition only comes from opportunity,” said 63-year-old Vineet Nayar,
the former CEO of HCL Technologies, now on the board of the National Stock Exchange.

When ambition is a middling 6/10 The ambitionless’ primary motivator at work is to survive, not thrive—largely because those companies themselves are trying to hang on.

Naturally, that has a certain trickle-down effect on employees. Even at so-called disruptive workplaces like startups where one could possibly find more ambitious people, companies are being built not to last but to be sold, said Nayar, who also advises early-stage startups.

So, when people are not totally locked in, they’re not punching as hard as they used to.

In The Ken’s survey, only 21% said their teams are very ambitious, while over half of them said their teams are only somewhat ambitious. Also, 39% said they don’t take on tasks that are not their core responsibility.

“People on my team only want to work on big, shiny bets,” said a financial-services executive. Alternatively, routine tasks need constant follow-up. “Whatsapp is the new workplace demon. I have to be in multiple
groups and push people even on daily tasks. That much push was not needed earlier,” he added.

It’s something the consumer-tech company executive has noticed too. He leads a team of 200 people and the ambition level in his team is about 6/10. According to him, it should be 8/10. “I’m looking for some emotion in people. All of them are intelligent. But an intelligent person, if not emotionally engaged, is not good enough for me,” he said.