Chance Favors The Prepared Mind..
Product Engineering Services will be worth over $40 billion dollars for India by the year 2020, says a leading industry body. It goes on to say that the growth rate of outsourced product engineering and R&D services was among the highest before a dip caused by the global recession. Any surprises? None, absolutely. Just take a look around. Tier 1 outsourcing service providers, mid-sized specialized companies, and an increasing number of small and savvy start-ups; all providing a varied mix of services and/or intellectual property to global product companies. Now include the captive development centers, and India is already an important part of the global Product Engineering Ecosystem.
The opportunity is there and the projected numbers are achievable. Especially if we fast forward to a time, hopefully not too distant, when discretionary spend is available in plenty and new products are frequently launched across the world. Indian IT industry has a real “chance” to turn the $40 billion dollar opportunity into reality. Louis Pasteur, chemist and microbiologist, once famously said that “Chance favors the prepared mind”. Are we prepared for the chance?
The short and simple answer is, YES! Just look at the large and growing talent pool of engineers in the Product Engineering area. Just consider the fact that everyone, from the wireless start-up in Israel to the numero uno in handsets, is using Indian talent already. Just feel the buzz when you walk into any of the relevant exhibitions/conferences that are happening more frequently nowadays. Product engineering talent and experience is becoming available, and the industry is showing a hunger and the desire to build world-class products.
But when and how will it happen? It will happen when it happens! The Indian “elephant” will trudge along picking up whatever is necessary along the way. Can things be speeded up? Can the Indian elephant move more like the Indian Tiger?
Yes it can! But it will need some departure from the old and acceptance of a new way of doing things. Product Engineering is essentially driven by Intellectual Property (IP), the IP being created under a services model for the customer or developed independently and licensed to the customer. This in turn places a a different emphasis on aspects such as innovation, strategy, marketing, product/portfolio management, investment models, intellectual property management, and commercial models. Companies that aspire to become strategic partners of high value to their customers will need to devote attention and resources to the above and understand not just their customer but also the customers market and the ecosystem it operates in.
It is time to wrap up with a quote from another French gentleman. “Nothing can stop an idea whose time has come”, said Victor Hugo. The circumstances are conspiring. The next big thing, the next “ipod” like success, can emerge entirely from India. Let us be prepared for the chance.
What does it take to get the change in mindset?
Over the years, with our focus on providing service, which did make business sense at that time, we have conditioned our engineering prowess in converting a design in to a product. Being efficient and technically competent implementers!!
The key shift for product engineering services could be from being developers to architects and designers. Being able to visualize business and user needs. Map and adapt relevant technology know how to the need. Make design choices. being an architect.
I heard in a recent conversation with a very talented group of senior architects (the designation) in a services company that they are not involved in choosing hardware, software and tools and hence questioned the need for understanding what are the various design considerations.
For us to really tap this latent business possibility, we may need to address this conditioning and nurture holistic thinking. I do believe we have the necessary ability.
Ram,
It takes much more to achieve this – companies need to have will to take ownership and risk in this case. It is not just services that matter; the ownership is the key. This brings a lot more of managment maturity, technical maturity to handle rather than the masses we get from college and I guess Indian IT companies are not good when it comes to this level of ownership, risk sharing with their customers.
Regards
Kichu
Check out the article by Mohandas Pai (Infosys) in the latest India Today, 14 December issue. The last section describes his views on the next phase for Indian industry ; product engineering, innovation, intellectual property, products from India are some of the terms used to describe what he calls the “Knowledge Capital Phase” starting 2010. Good to know key decision makers in the industry are thinking on the same lines. Of course, my post came first!!
I agree. Ownership and risk taking is key. In parallel, there is a need to focus on certain aspects that have been overlooked because of the emphasis on services. If the same companies invest resources into understanding the end-user / consumer market better and strengthen focus on innovation, strategy, marketing, product/portfolio management, intellectual property management etc., I do believe world class products will come out of India. The Indian market itself is a great place to target. Many companies have realized this already but lot more can be done.
Here’s one more article. This from NYT on India and innovation…http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/business/global/09innovate.html?_r=1
Hello Ram,
Great thoughts ! ,
I definitely agree with your thoughts about the availability of the technology prowess and the hunger to create a distinct mark on the technology evolution / revolution. Some times I wonder as to is at as much the ability of what this talent can in reality or the perception of the talent and its abilities of India in other’s mind (by that I mean) that sets us on a back set when it comes to “creating” a product that is world class. In my very limited exposure to people from other countries, in the conversations, I have always got a sense that India and Indian IT organisations are percieved as sweat shops and not innovative destinations (Hopefully this is changing). (While i am not sure of this fact,I heard that Infosys Consulting is the only loss making division and I am not surprised if it is because of this perception)
Or may be we also think like that !!. I learnt an interesting thing about Elephants. Generally Elephants are tide to a very small iron rod with a chain and they stay on with out breaking out (even though they have this tremendodus strength to), the reason i learnt is as Baby elephants they are tied to them and they cant break out of it as they lack strength but then as they grow they ever grow out of this mindset and still contiue to stay locked to those poles when they can actually break out of these poles easliy. Struggling and surviving under different invasions, may be we have invariably learnt to stay second and take orders.
Come to think of IT industry itself we have been in this space for more than 25 years and I can hardly identify products that have originated from India and made it to the top of the list. May be Flexcube, Finnacle (Hotmail ??)
Probably this it is time we get out of the baby elephant mind set
Love the baby elephant example
, and I guess it can explain some part of the mindset. However, in my opinion there are couple of other reasons which have resulted in not enough products emerging out of India; (a) Engineering services is a low-risk business model, and low-hanging fruit that the industry has gotten comfortable with and (b) Innovation needs genuine engagement, understanding, and closeness with the end-market. This was not possible/required in “work-for-hire” situations.
The good news is both these reasons are disappearing. With increased competition a plain vanilla services approach is not enough, companies will be forced to innovate to differentiate and compete. Also some Indian companies have started engaging with markets better in order to build products, of course India as a market itself is also becoming important and this helps. Things are getting better!!
You have rightly pointed out that the Indian People need to make up their minds for accepting the new technological paradigms and also the government has to work pragmatically to overcome the predicament in implementations. I am sure that the ICT initiatives, which are in vogue, will bring potential to India and make people ready for change and climbing the value chain.