A client of mine runs a 40-person IT services company in Pune. They landed a contract with a European bank last year. Dream deal. 18-month engagement. Everyone celebrated.
3 months in, the bank's project manager asked for "a small addition." Then another. Then a full module that was never in the original scope.
My client said yes to everything. No pushback. No documentation. Just delivered. Worked weekends. Put his best people on it.
He thought if we go above and beyond, they will renew. They will refer us to other departments. This is how you build trust with large corporates.
Invoice time came. The bank's procurement team pulled out the MSA.
"We only owe you what is in the signed scope."
40% of the invoice. Rejected. Rs 1.2 crore in delivered work. Zero recovery.
The project manager who asked for all those extras? He shrugged. "That was informal. You should have raised a change request."
This is not a one-off. I see this pattern with Indian service providers exporting to large corporates every single month.
They come from a culture where over-delivery builds relationships. Where the client remembers your extra effort. Where trust is earned by going beyond.
That works with Indian SMEs. It is disastrous with multinational corporates.
Here is what Indian service exporters do not understand about how large corporates work.
The person pressuring you to deliver fast is measured on project delivery. Not your invoice.
The person who pays you has never heard your name. They only read the MSA.
The legal counsel reviews every line item against the signed scope. Your hustle is invisible to them.
The procurement team pays against signed documents. Not verbal promises. Not emails. Not WhatsApp messages from the project manager saying "please add this urgently."
These are three different people in three different departments with three different incentives. The person who asks for the work has no power over the person who pays for it.
Every single change in scope needs a written request, a documented approval, and a signed amendment. Before you write a single line of code. Before you assign a single developer.
No paper trail means no payment. No exceptions. Not even if the client's own team asked for the change.
India has over 50,000 IT services companies exporting to global corporates. Most of them are run by brilliant technologists who have never read their own MSA. Who treat the change request procedure as bureaucracy. Something that slows things down. Something to skip when the client is in a hurry.
It is not bureaucracy. It is your invoice protection system.
The MSA protects them. The change request procedure protects you.
The vendor who over-delivers without documentation is not being generous. They are doing free work and calling it strategy.
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