This started as generic discussion on a recent article published in The Economic Times regarding relevance of Bangalore as the IT Hub in the future but very soon we were discussing relevance of innovation for Indian IT companies.
Me: Here is something that you might find interesting :)
@Varun: I beg to disagree partially with Mr. Debashish Roy.. I believe he is misled by what he has been watching on television in last 3-4months, and if I am not mistaken he would have been one of the first few to sell Infy shares after last quarter results were declared.. :) But everyone is entitled to his/her opinion.. So no further comments on his blog!! :)
Me: I don't agree with the entire piece either but I do agree with concentrating on Product versus the services part :)
@Varun: Yeah... That’s true.. But can we really change the mindset which has been morphed into its current state after the inglorious history that India has?? Mughal rulers followed by British an then the great Nehru..and now capitalism at its peak.. Indians have been programmed to take orders/instructions..
And those who dare to think beyond obvious are tagged mad scientists.. remember "EkDoctor Ki Maut" , Pankaj Kapoor classic :)
Indians can optimize things, but can’t create great products.. Not applicable always though.. There can and have been exceptions.. But this is the trend since medieval times :)
Me: That is exactly what he talked about in the article, that this may work in the short run..but if we have to survive in the long run..we have to innovate. The initial advantage of 'English speaking Graduates for Cheap' which got us a lot of service industry and BPO work is not going to last long. There are other economies like China, Brazil etc which are fast catching up on that. (According to a recent survey I read somewhere China today has the same number of English speaking people as India).
As for “Indians have been programmed to take orders/instructions.. ", I would tend to partially agree with you because honestly I have felt so in my experience. I have often felt that we are good at executing the jobs but poor at throwing ideas at the table but I think that is changing rapidly with growing globalization and exposure to new ideas/cultures.
The key to innovation success is 'absence of fear of failure' which is still difficult in India as the first expectation once you move out of college is getting a good job and stable income. But we are great at Jugaads which is infact a form of innovation. Also I believe we are slowly and steadily moving towards social and financial security which should help us absorb failures and thus fuel small business success based out of innovations. And then there would be no stopping us. Successful American startups like Foursquare have Indians as their founders, many CEO of Fortune 500s are now Indians...
As for “Indians have been programmed to take orders/instructions.. ", I would tend to partially agree with you because honestly I have felt so in my experience. I have often felt that we are good at executing the jobs but poor at throwing ideas at the table but I think that is changing rapidly with growing globalization and exposure to new ideas/cultures.
The key to innovation success is 'absence of fear of failure' which is still difficult in India as the first expectation once you move out of college is getting a good job and stable income. But we are great at Jugaads which is infact a form of innovation. Also I believe we are slowly and steadily moving towards social and financial security which should help us absorb failures and thus fuel small business success based out of innovations. And then there would be no stopping us. Successful American startups like Foursquare have Indians as their founders, many CEO of Fortune 500s are now Indians...
@Varun: I think we both are driving to the same point from 2 different angles... India needs to make changes at root level.. changes in education system, changes in society, corporate level changes in employer's perspective and expectations.. and much more!!
Well.. this is a misconception that India has been driving a wave of success due to English speaking graduates.. we are ourselves undermining our achievements.. India is driving lot of things in lot of areas... I was going through shareholder's guide of RIL for this quarter and I was pleasantly surprised.. :)
absence of fear of failure... great point.. totally agree.. but then how many Foursquare's do you see??...it all started with Hotmail, then Sun Microsystems... and today Indians are running the pharma, FMCG and tech giants of the worlds.. so the bottom line is, when entrusted with authority Indians are no different from any other person across the globe..
about the article.. the wise guy is forgetting that Infy and Wipros are profit driven organizations... its like you asking a provision store owner to open a shopping malls or a Wal-Mart.. its unreasonable and unwise. we all know that "In IT industry no one can do everything"... that is why MS doesn't make processors and used Intel's/AMDs of the world... that is why Apple uses Samsung LCD screens for their devices and that is why McDonalds uses potatoes from Bhuj Gujarat for making their world famous fries. If history tells us anything see what happened to Daewoo, Mitsubishi and even TATA and Reliance groups...
so I think the msg for Mr. Roy is - "Ignorance is bliss" =)
Me: I think the point that he is trying to make is companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS focus more on quarterly results rather than on innovation and gaining specialization. Just being able to provide IT support is not enough to sustain profitability and growth in the future.
Check another news item published today. This is going to happen more and more if we stick to just the offshore(global) service model without really being specialized in something:
Airbus deal: Small rivals beat Infy, MSatyam
The days of generic IT support are over - you need to provide solutions in terms of not just what was asked of you but above and beyond that :)
Check another news item published today. This is going to happen more and more if we stick to just the offshore(global) service model without really being specialized in something:
Airbus deal: Small rivals beat Infy, MSatyam
The days of generic IT support are over - you need to provide solutions in terms of not just what was asked of you but above and beyond that :)
We wanted the discussion to be thrown out to everyone. Do let us know your thoughts on the topic...
The whole idea of Indian IT industry is - SERVICES. This industry does not claim to be product innovators - but how can we forget the success of products like Finnacle and Quartz - globally. So it s a matter of "right idea at the right time" - there are many takers of innovation ... Not to forget, the "innovation" in services industry from the likes of Kohli and Murthy!
ReplyDeleteIn my view, we are in the era of Gen 3.0 - where Gen 1 was for the Deloitte and IBM started outsourcing, then Gen2.0 - ruled by IOP and now Gen 3.0 - where again IOPs are giving other global players run for their money both in transformation/innovative services and "productization" of services.