Replace an Architect with Interns ?

This incident happened a few years ago. My organization (part of Indian IT service industry) as usual was looking at ways to increase margins. The consultant firm which they were working with came up with few charts. One of the chart showed the billing rate vs. employee cost (as per years of experience). 

Their conclusion - Bring down the average years of experience in each and every project (irrespective of the size / type / nature of the project). This way the cost will go down, and since the billing rate remains the same it automatically leads to an increased margin.

The rumor going around those days was that Senior managers were given margin targets and promised a hefty bonus in return.

Mails started floating around. Every project manager was called for a discussion with Senior leaders. Before the discussion, the PM had to collate the designation, years of experience and the salary band of the members in their projects. Here is a sample of how the data was supposed to look like:

Designation         |   Years of experience  |    Salary band

Tech. Architect    |   11 years                    |     Level 4

Jr. Engineer         |    2 years                     |     Level 1

They did not care about the member names, Technology, number of years spent in the project, the nature of the project.

I remember the day very clearly when I had collected the required information about my projects. I was patiently waiting for my turn of discussion with the panel. I presented the details and in less than 5 minutes came the unanimous verdict. You need to replace your Technical Architect with an Intern, mentioned the HR (Riya) who was a part of the panel. I protested.

Me: I cannot replace an Architect with an Intern. The role needs experience and knowledge.

Riya: Arrange a knowledge transfer session for 4 weeks. I hope you have the documentation ready.

Me: The knowledge about architecture cannot be transferred to an Intern in 4 weeks.

Riya: Ok make it 8 weeks then

Me: 8 weeks is not enough either.

Riya: Ok, how many weeks do you propose ?

Me: I cannot replace and Architect with an Intern.

Riya: Ok, we will give you 2 Interns.

Me: I am not against Interns, but you are comparing Apples and Oranges. 

Riya: Ok, we will give you 4 Interns and that is the maximum we can offer now.

Me: I do not need Interns, and note that I am not against Interns. I just need an Architect as a replacement for an Architect. Else I run a risk of project going into red. I am fine to replace the Jr. Engineer with Intern(s) and groom them but not the Architect.

Riya: Are you telling me that when people leave a project all projects go into red.

Me: I never said that. When an Architect is replaced by Interns, that's when a project goes into red.

Riya: You are unnecessarily complicating matters by being so difficult.

Me: Please give me in writing that you will take the responsibility with any project delivery issue if the Architect is replaced by Interns.

Riya: You are a difficult person who does not want to understand. You can leave now, but we want you to think about this and we will have this discussion again after 2 weeks.

I did not budge from my demand, not after 2 weeks or 4 weeks or ever. Although, I did pay the price by getting into their bad books. A few project managers did agree to their demands. The data about the impact of their actions started coming in immediately within 2-3 months - projects in red, client escalations. To tackle these escalations, the panel recommended !!! Fire fighting !!!. Add more members, add a new Architect.

Finally after 6 months this initiative of replacing senior technical members with Interns died down. I met Riya after 6 months. She was still adamant that I did not consider her suggestion and I was not a good PM. I realized it was futile to argue with such a person.

There is a post from Osman Polat on linked in, which I can relate to, do have a look:

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6998570292293812224/