Why CDOT was a success and we are unable to repeat the success again?

Now that I interact with more people without any organisation relationships, people are free to talk to me and one frequent question that is put to me by line managers and HR people is how come CDOT could deliver a Digital Telephone exchange with fresh engineers. The intriguing part is why we find it difficult get fresh engineers now for the jobs we need to do. At this point I don't want to get into the state of academics as when I studied engineering we had just 8 engineering colleges in the whole of TN.

Leaving the academics part in my view CDOT had ingredients that enabled the fresh engineers like me to perform well. These top 10 reasons I feel are crucial for CDOT's success. (There could be more but in my view these 10 are the prime factors)

1. Entire organization had one goal which can be explained in 3-4 words "36 Crores 36 Months" the Digital Switch has to be delivered. In fact our first success was 128 Port EPBAX and later128/256 Port RAX (Remote Automatics Exchange). For RAX we had a credo that we should install "RAX a DAY". In fact I was working on the CDOT's main switch (16K lines) called MAX which was put in service some time in 92-93 I think. At that time the joke inside the CDOT used be "RAX a DAY Keeps the MAX AWAY" as most resources used to be focused on RAX at that time. The essence is that everyone knew it is the delivery of switches that matter. Remember all the engineers were on a 3 year contract and we didn't know what will happen after 3 years!
2. Seniors consciously trained their members at least I remember Narasimhaswamy, Venu and maverick of an engineer Castie @ Peter Huber Castellino. To top this we had a father figure T Chandrasekaran (who passed away recently) ensured when we fail they made us realise why we failed. I have seen Mr. Chandrasekaran wire wrapping 6 backplanes (around 6000 connections) in the Space Switch overnight on his own when the technicians left early.
3. Only 3 layers in the organization Member Technical Staff, Group Leader and Officer In Charge. This helped us to focus on the work and no fight for titles
4. Processes were added as we went along so there was no resistance for paper work as we knew out product can be produced only when the Technology is transferred properly. In fact our documentation team was so creative that by looking at the colour of the Bands on the books we can identify which product line it is. We use call this as "CDOT's Band Theory"
5. Every engineer owned his work! May it be a PCB or a SW module or a mechanical item the engineer who worked on it is responsible and he/she has to answer when reached out for help
6. CDOT sent close 30 Engineers to USA (in 1985) to trained in UNIX SVR4.2 and also bought the source code for the same to be used in the switch. The money spent on tools is another big plus that made the difference
7. Empower engineers to take decisions and stand by the engineers. I remember one of the Space Switch boards I had designed, we had made a mistake (no CAD tools in those days only Bishop's Blue Tape & Red Tape) and one IC got inverted. We had already 100 PCB in stock. I just got an adapter PC board done for correcting the mistake and completed the testing. My boss at that time was Leslie Desouza just approved the payment and never once asked me about the mistake. He knew the constraints with which we were working and the problem has been solved so why make a big issue!
8. CDOT got experts from outside (many from USA) where we didn't have skills or the technology is new. Initially we use feel these consultants are having a free run. But I realised the value of at least one consultant "Prakash Kothari" who told us design the rack to withstand 9G strong earthquake. At that time India has never seen beyond 4 or 5 in the Richter scale. He didn't give us any leeway and we ended up designing a heavy rack but when the Gujarat's Buj was struck by the devastating earthquake, I was told CDOT's MAX exchanges were working still!
9. CDOT made all the vendors as partners and spent time and money to come up to speed. This resulted in the best supply chain for electronics in 80s and 90s. A feat which has never happened again
10. Absolute open culture with no Sirs and Saabs (at least in Bangalore CDOT). We can call anyone by their name or nickname which built a fantastic environment which I have never seen in my life again

When I compare this with the scenario I see today it makes me feel sad. Today's organizations have no human values. We call engineers as "Bodies" and Training as an "Expense" and above all incentives and bonuses are part of "Salary". A culture which has destroyed the positive organizations.