Rethinking the Indian Strategy

The next generation of companies that are and will be formed, should not focus on the goals of the companies built in the last decade, but focus on the path to lead the industry

Almost a decade ago, the growing Indian population was felt as a burden to a country that was barely getting on the race track of economic development.

And then at the turn of the millennium, the world did not come to an end as many feared—in fact, a new era began. While the outsourcing industry boomed and billion dollar companies were built in India leveraging the carefully crafted decisions in development in years past, a new realization dawned—the knowledge economy was born. But much of that is old history now.

It’s important to understand the background because it ties in an important fact that more or less holds the key to the future of the Indian innovation ecosystem. Product companies, and the next generation of companies that are and will be formed, should not focus on the goals of the companies built in the last decade, but focus on the path to lead the industry.

Redefining Standards:

A lot of technology companies today strive to compete with companies from the west and the Silicon Valley hoping to get a breakthrough in being able to leapfrog through time and catch up. What most companies rarely realize is that unless you are also there, competing on the same grounds, we will forever play the catch-up game. The basis for that technology, the inspiration, the need and everything that surrounds creation of new IP is heavily favored towards the Silicon Valley. If that is the case, what then will our strategy be? There is an easier answer to that.

alt

Vijay Anand

We are a country of a billion in population, and we are five-sixth the world. Our population is our strength. We are in a position today to define new standards that suit our standards, environment, needs and market conditions and given that we are also one of the fastest growing economies, the rest of the world will follow suit. If that sounds like sheer madness, this is exactly the route that China has taken in a lot of sectors, and so did Japan in the telecom space. NTT Docomo today drives the telecom sector in standards that drive high experience mobile communications. If they did it, so can we.

Redefining Technology Lifestyles:

History has shown that in every instance that a developing nation catches up to a developed nation, it leapfrogs in technology, escapes the burden of archaic infrastructure and embraces the new and drives new value creation. India never saw landlines take up as they should have, but we jumped straight to mobile communications and embraced it to the point where we can deliver quality network service at a cost that the world envies us for. This phenomenon will happen time and time again, for most technologies that touch everyday life. We might never see PCs, but with the proliferation of the mobile network it is not hard to imagine that we will leverage that network and hardware architecture. Think ahead - even beyond the SaaS and cloud computing jargons of today.

Redefining the Innovation Pathway:

While the world expects us to build the next Mercedes, we go ahead and innovate on the Nano. And then the same company also buys a brand that is known for luxury. While it is mind-boggling that the same group holds both, the most economical and one of the top lines of luxury vehicles, the vision is clear. The innovation in the economical version—the constraints under which it is built—will give rise to the technology that will power the next generation of luxury vehicles, which, while offering comfort, will also be economical, enjoy high margins, be environment-friendly and leverage alternate fuel systems.

All these are just some of the examples of innovations that have happened around us in the past. While the whole world, including countries such as Israel and Singapore have competed aggressively against developed economies trying to hold the position of being the innovation hub, the inevitablity has been in the high cost of innovation and the lack of focus in the emerging markets, which today form five-sixths of the world population. With the rising middle class, globally, it is this population that will have to be targeted, and India is poised and set in the stage to be able to look at these markets strategically and plot the roadmap. If we ignore this opportunity, who knows when we will get another opportunity as such!

Article by Vijay anand

Rewards waiting for feedback at
E-mail : smarttrainee@gmail.com

www.primeonlinetest.com

Disclaimer: We believe that the information contained in this e-zine is true. If you do not wish to receive Smart Trainee please click here.

Prime Academy - In Pursuit of excellence

Click here to contact us, if you are unable to view the content properly