GATES TO SUCCESS

One of the most interesting moments in the session conducted by Bill Gates

for the who’s who of the Mumbai Corporate sector was a reply he gave to a

question on "what ideas could he give to 20 year old entrepreneur wannabes

from India." He said it would be better for the entrepreneurs if he didn’t

have the same idea as them since that would give them no chance of succeeding

against the might of Microsoft

What may have struck many Indian minds as an arrogant statement is probably

just the single minded intent to succeed that has made this man and his company

the object of major attention all over the world. It can’t be just coincidence

that in every segment chosen by Gates, the company has grabbed major market

share. In fact as one American succinctly put it "If in any segment, you

end up competing with Microsoft, the best option is to quietly get out of the

way."

This month is a season of seminars and conferences as the weather turns cool

and inviting for the hordes of foreign dignitaries who like to descend on this

country in winter. And the season’s mood seemed to have affected the US too

with the seminar on Information security mounted by the US India Business

Council (USIBC) and the Confederation of Indian Industry attracting speakers

from all the top Indian IT companies as well as a number of participants from US

Government and Industry.

There can be no better endorsement of Indian Industry’s coming of age in

this field than our own experiences over the last couple of years. We have moved

from implementing the security standards of our global clients to partnering

them in designing security plans for Indian and overseas data centers to now

providing Consultancy across Asia and Europe to major software product vendors

in developing their security strategies for implementations outside the USA.

The boom times seem to be returning to the Software sector and this time,

business is coming in primarily to those firms who have established an

individual value proposition beyond the generic India offshore story. While this

is good news for all the serious players, there is a note of caution to be

struck at the speed with which the Accentures and IBMs are expanding their

capabilities and facilities in India and also the captive IT and ITES facilities

that are being set up by major financial institutions and other large global

corporations in India. While this will in any case boost the economy and provide

employment to thousands of young job seekers, the speed of movement of the

multinationals is a clarion call for the indigenous firms, which will have to

move faster and smarter to get their fair share of business.

A last word on Bill Gates’ visit. In Mumbai, it was amazing to see the

glitterati who turned up to see and hear the world’s richest man. The cream of

business society rubbed shoulders with savvy politicians and a handful of tech

CEOs, establishing the point that the integration of IT with everyday life and

work is here to stay in this country. And irrespective of whether it is Andhra

Pradesh or Karnataka or Maharashtra or Delhi that gets the lion’s share of

Microsoft’s intended $400-million investment, Bill Gates with his annual charm

visits can certainly take a lot of credit for keeping IT on top of the mind of

every connected Indian in this country.

Ganesh Natarajan



The author is the global CEO of Zensar Technologies