Stanford-educated entrepreneur condemns Indian employees with ‘unreliable work ethic’: ’10x less efficient’

US-based entrepreneur Hari Raghavan recently said in a social media post that Indian workers have an unreliable work ethic and need to be tracked constantly. Raghavan is the co-founder and CEO of Autograph and a Stanford University alumnus. 

Through his long post, he implied that Indian employees are lazy and don’t like to work. Raghavan defended the AI startup Optifye, built by Indian-origin Vivaan Baid and  Kushal Mohta to monitor factory workers.

The startup monitors workers on assembly lines and provide factory managers with productivity data. The startup was widely derided in the US following its now-viral product demo for Y Combinator. 

“I think their biggest mistake was not realising that it would be seen as tone deaf when marketed to a US audience on X or LinkedIn. But… If you show that video to literally anyone, in almost any walk of life in India, they will nod furiously and say ‘yes this is what we need’,” the US-based entrepreneur said. 

Raghavan also commented that a manager in India would have to breathe down every person’s neck every 10 minutes to get the work done and would get around half as much as done as an average American worker if they’re lucky. 

He further said that he has interned at several companies across India and the US.

“I interned at a bunch of companies across India and the US… The same exact work would take: – 2 months at BNP Paribas Chennai – 1 month at Citi Bombay – 2 weeks at SAP Palo Alto – 3 days at BCG Chicago Not kidding. Literally 10x less efficient.”

He stated that the lazy work ethic of Indians is apparent not only in knowledge work but also in physical work. To substantiate his point further, the Autograph CEO recounted his parents’ experience of building their house in Chennai. 

He said that his parents told him how there were weeks of delays in the work simply because the workers wouldn’t show up.

“They’d just go on a drinking binge for a week straight (without even pretending to call in sick). Or they’d just leave for their hometown somewhere in rural India with no notice, completely foregoing pay — even if that meant they’d get fired. People just don’t care.”

In his post, he also emphatically said that he might never go back to India again because he can’t deal with the unprofessional attitude and incompetence of Indian workers. 

“This is also why Indian manufacturing (in many cases) still doesn’t measure up to Japanese, Taiwanese, Swiss, Italian, Turkish or even Chinese products. There’s a lot of catching up to do.”

Finally, he gave a three-point summary to end his rant. Firstly, a country with a weak work ethic needs better accountability tools.

Secondly, monitoring factory capacities isn’t “exploitative” and is necessary. Lastly, he underlined that a performance-driven culture is needed to develop India’s economy.