Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
from Sakthi Prasad:
The brave new world of Ideas
The world was built on ideas and in the absence of innovation, mankind would have continued to live in stone age.
Of course, Rostow Ravanan, chief financial officer of Mindtree, would subscribe to the view that new ideas are absolutely necessary to promote business growth. Well, who wouldn’t? While talking to journalists at Reuters India Investment Summit, he vigorously defended his company’s foray into designing smart phones saying it is a new idea, which may as well pay off.
Ravanan, in a philosophical manner, said the world is “spermicidal” and is designed to kill new ideas -- but that will not deter a company like Mindtree in pursuing business opportunities. Just because the smart phone market is perceived as crowded, it is not a good enough reason for Mindtree not entering the market.
When he was pushed by Reuters journalists to provide some color and details regarding the company’s smart phone project, he evaded the volley of questions in an innovative manner: He said he is paid not to reveal the details before the official launch.
from Sakthi Prasad:
New Contracts are like honeymoon
As the old adage goes, it is easy to build a new house as compared to remodeling an old one. If one would like to extend this adage to the new-age IT industry, then we could use what L. Ravichandran, president, IT Services of Tech Mahindra, told the Journalists at Reuters India Investment Summit in Bangalore: it is easy to negotiate new contracts with the clients rather than renegotiating old ones. He likened the new contracts to that of a honeymoon -- both the customer and the service provider are happy. But, of course, he did not extend his metaphor to old contracts by likening it to a marriage gone vinegary.
Ravichandran also pondered over the fate of fixed lines telephones. According to him, the fixed line phone will not be done away with altogether. Instead, it will be increasingly used to deliver other digital services like broadband internet, IPTV etc. So in a perverse way, landlines may continue to be used, but not much to make phone calls though.
from Sakthi Prasad:
India Investment Summit comes to Bangalore
Executives of real estate, technology and pharmaceutical firms will be exclusively talking to Reuters journalists about their companies’ growth plans, challenges they face and business opportunities that are available within the wider context of India investment story.
Stay tuned.
The Reuters India Summit comes to Bangalore
On Wednesday, the Reuters India Investment Summit comes to the information technology hub of Bangalore.
The city has become synonymous in the West with outsourcing and “cheap labor” but is rapidly emerging as a hot spot for research and development. Bangalore is also marching ahead in the information technology value chain. Some companies like Wipro actually outsource work from India to Egypt.
However, the city poses several challenges for the multinational companies. Infrastructure growth in the city hasn’t kept pace with population growth and economic development. Power cuts are frequent, and it isn’t uncommon to see pothole-filled roads clogged with traffic against a backdrop of modern glass and steel buildings.
Other challenges for the outsourcing industry include pressure from populist U.S. politicians, who point out that the economic recovery hasn’t been able to curb unemployment. Buffalo, though, is unlikely to take away any jobs from Bangalore in the foreseeable future.
The Bangalore leg of the Summit will feature senior executives from the information technology giants including Infosys, Wipro, Mphasis, Mahindra Satyam and SAP.
Hyderabad is a better place to do business. It has better roads, better infrastructure and is cost effective.
Audio – Meltdown Melodrama
Hollywood and Bollywood screenwriters must beware. Their creativity stands no chance against the “cataclysmic” global financial crisis’ talent for script writing if Infosys BPO’s Anantha Radhakrishnan is to be believed.
In these “turbulent and tumultuous” times, the script being crafted by the crisis promises to “differentiate the men from the boys” in the business process outsourcing industry, with deep-pocketed firms expected to brace their way through the storm, according to Radhakrishnan, a vice president at the outsourcing firm.
But not before electric fluctuations in the currency market play their course, and bitter and desperate price battles are fought and won. Multi-stranded epics starring Amitabh Bachchan have to hang their heads in shame.
And all this amid heart-stopping uncertainty of the Hitchcockian variety.
Audio – Still holding out
One would expect a top executive of the world’s largest software services provider to hang out with the latest gadgets. Sandip Patel, Managing Partner for IBM Global Business Services in South Asia, seems to be quite the contrarian.
He is antagonized by even the most common gadget to adorn executive pockets in these times.
“I haven’t yet succumbed to the Blackberry,” Patel confessed when asked what phone he carries. He spoke at the Reuters India Investment Summit.
He proudly pulled out a well-worn Nokia E90 and admitted he wasn’t much of a gadget guy and just liked a good solid phone.
Audio – Bitter-sweet flavors
As the global economic turmoil rages on and shows no sign of abating, Genpact Chief Executive Pramod Bhasin believes “wait and watch” is the flavour of the season for business process outsourcing firms.
The flavour seems bitter for now.
Over the past few years, BPO services firms armed with competitive, English-speaking professionals working for relatively cheap wages have cashed in on an outsourcing boom. But they are now experiencing a lull in growth as the U.S. economy faces one of the worst crises in history.
Amid such grim conditions, CEO Bhasin doesn’t care to track his company’s stock price. “I don’t even know what my own share price was yesterday, for instance, and I don’t normally look,” he said. To hear the comment click here.
Audio – Opportunistic youth and the works
It’s not just the global economic crisis that is weighing on Genpact Chief Executive Pramod Bhasin’s mind, but also several home-grown concerns.
Nothing works in India, Bhasin said, and rattled off a list of public utilities from water and power to security and transportation.
“Indian entrepreneurs are dragging us into the 21st century and our public services are dragging us back into the 18th century,” he said at the Reuters India Investment Summit. To listen to the comment, click here.
Bhasin wasn’t very appreciative of the Indian youth either.
A lot of young people today want to be capitalist when the returns are good and turn immediately socialist when their jobs are threatened, the head of India’s largest business process outsourcing firm said. To hear the comment, click here.
