Proto.in

This is the transcription of the talk that Atul Chitnis, The Senior VP of Geodesic, and the man behind FOSS.IN gave during the Fastrack Sessions of Proto.in January Edition ‘08. The tone of voice might have to be imagined, given that its taken from a talk and not a written speech.

Imagine a situation where a technologist is trying to showcase the iPhone. He goes through every step of the features of the phone, the gestures, the various user interface nuances of the device and the audience barely reacts. A little frustrated, the technologist tilts the phone to the side, and the picture aligns itself sideways, and the audience goes wild – almost giving him a standing ovation. We’ve seen this demo before, and we know what all an iPhone can do.

Case in point: Technology alone doesn’t fascinate. How it is packaged, and how it resonates with the audience and customer means a lot more. India lacks in that space, most times.

There are cases where an Indian company genuinely builds a fabulous product, but the case of marketing and positioning the product in the global market seems to be – or atleast is perceived to be – tough that the company starts a subsidiary in the
US and positions the company as a US-based one. That is a big mistake. Positioning yourself in the US is a short-term advantage and you are competing with the players there and in the global market. Acquiring the market here in India, and playing the world market are completely two different things.

In order to position a product in the US and to play the global market, you need to have huge resources in order to market your product. That brings us to our second point, the point that, no product is ever successful or will be able to stand the test of time, unless its first of all successful at home.

Ten years ago, I wrote an article which was published and which is still floating around in the web, where I mentioned that there are a lot of Indian companies which have great products. What has happened to them? Where have they disappeared to? Some of the examples at that time were of Wipro, who had a project planning package called Easyplan(?) which was quite a fantastic product from the perspective of ease of use, well designed, and fully functional. It had a few holes here and there but at that time Wipro decided that it would be easier to try to market it through the US. The decision led to the creation of EasyPlan Corporation in the US which marketed it as an American Product – just about the sametime when Microsoft Announced MS Project. The rest isn’t hard to guess and is history. Now, if you think about it, Microsoft Products didn’t come to India for several years. In the meantime, there was a nascent market over here that needed a project planning application and Wipro wasn’t catering to its own market. Long story short, the product died. By the time that they realized that it could be done, it was too late.

Focus On Home

Let’s look at the situation today. We are a billion plus people here in India. I am not saying that its a huge market – because we all know that the real market that we are all addressing by means of technology are much much smaller – maybe 2 – 5% of the entire population. 2-5% of a billion people,is actually a lot of people. a lot of people. Its a huge market. If you can manage to even scratch a percentage of that market, you would build up a much larger user base than you would by marketing your product in the US or in Europe. Not only that, by marketing it here you actually start getting feedback from actual users of your product. You can interact with them, and there is also this sweeping sensation of national pride that it is an Indian product. It gets much harder for a company to pay much for an American product, when there is an Indian product that does the same thing. Ten years ago the situation was very different. For one, you most certainly wouldn’t get fired for buying a foreign product. But today every decision maker thinks twice, you have a better product, which is competitively priced, you can interact with the developers and you can help that product grow.

There really is a huge market here that is waiting for products that it can absorb. The sad fact is that, just as it were 10 years ago, companies – even those that are building products – are only targeting the US and Europe. I personally think that thats a big mistake. All those products that are successful in the US and in Europe are because they succeeded in their own native markets – their own home markets. They have had the advantage of interacting with their local audiences and users. You are denying that same advantage here in India when you start fixing your eyes elsewhere.

You might say that being an indian company and selling might be a tough proposition, but thats not the case anymore. Decision makers go by the functionality of the product, not on the basis of where its made. The ability to put out a product and say that we have a million users, or a web service that attracts a far greater user base, from an Indian perspective its quite abysmal. Imagine growing your userbase here in India, grow monstrously, and then heading to any western country claiming that you already have a million users. Imagine that!

Build Strong differentiation

I also think that building a fabulous product requires a strong product differentiation. You have to differentate an IM from an Email. If you send me an email and an IM, they are most probably going to reach me at the sametime thanks to the devices and connectivity that we enjoy. So saying that you have a better communication tool without any base, or building a me too product will perhaps get you an audience with the gullible crowd, but not more than that – Even that gullible crowd at some point is going to figure out that these folks are competing with the giants.

Today its easy and safe to say that Gmail is the standard when it comes to emails. Its going to be very tough to yank them out of that position. Does that mean you shouldn’t get into email based products? Not at all. There are even a few companies that are presenting here [proto.in] that are working on that space – there are quite a few companies who are working on that space overall, and some with a very good fighting chance. You will see that there is scope for innovation.

There is a scope to be seen so different that you will rise above the rest. It is important to understand and build that strong differentiation, rather than looking at services like Gmail and Yahoo mail, and building similar mail services hoping to catch that same audience and market segment. That’s not going to happen. Lets be clear about that.

As much as we are so far talking about the technological differentiation a company needs to have to be seen as a leader, it becomes a little bit difficult to scale this from a slightly macro perspective to see India as a technology leader. From a macro perspective, India as a nation being a technology leader – as compared to a company level – does not mean as a country having the best product. It actually starts meaning the various components that make the product. For example, there are folks who’d claim that they are very good at HTML, some very good at java, very good at database optimization and all this. The value of a product is not in its components but how you tie those components together. This is how it works from a corporate level. Now scale this up to an entire country…

India, as a Leader. Collaborate.

If a country has to be seen as a technology leader, it would mean that its not in the sum, or the various companies like Infosys or Wipro who do well, and hence decide whether India is seen as a technology leader, but its more than that. It is essentially how various companies interact, how they leverage the resources of each other, rather than each company reinvent the wheel. If you have a strength in a particular area, and someone else in another – rather than sitting in corners and reinventing the wheel, collaborate. The minute you start doing that, you become bigger than the sum of your parts. If you start doing this in a national level, thats when people start to sit up and take notice of a leader.

Just look at the case of a Project leader. A project leader is usually not the guy who is the best in a particular domain, but is the guy who can leverage the strengths of the various people in the team who have these the strengths of the domain, to tackle the problem. The same thing applies if we as a national want to elevate our status to that of a technology leader.

If we want to become a technology leader, our focus should not only be on SEZs, Income taxes, tax benefits, and encourage more software companies to come up, but it should incentivize collaboration. Its only when companies come together to tackle a problem and to create a breakthrough, that India will be seen as a technology leader.

Today the world sees India not as a leader but as a technology disruptor – not just technology, but also in the corporate perception. The notion of low cost arbitrage, jargons like economies of scale etc are what are driving those notions. They should try come hiring in Bangalore and see if Indians are really cheaper, but, sadly thats the image that we have out there. In the midst of that image, all the other things that we are are just buried.

Stand up. Stand out.

As bleak as that sounds, the onus comes back on us who are the innovators to rise up above all this and to stand out from the crowd. Most of you might know of my association with the Free and Open Source Movement. There is always this notion that India is the largest consumer of Open source software, but its not a producer of open source software. My argument is that its not true. There are a lot of Indians who are contributing to the open source space – you just don’t know it. Foss.in, was essentially started to showcase these Indian contributors so that the world can see them. Just like this event for example, which highlights
companies In India who are innovative, startups which are working on fascinating concepts, and by bringing those people on the spotlight, a voice is born and thats when the world starts taking notice.

When we first started off Proto.in, we were gathered together in a hall in IIT Madras and nobody had a clue as to what was going on, by the second edition there was a fair bit of anticipation, and here were are at the third edition and the crowd in this one room is much larger here than the total crowd that we had in the first edition of proto.in. Its nice to see a crowd here that understands the mindset of a startup, and represents a serious audience of folks who want to build companies. Its crucial to ensure that things like these get highlighted. One of the things that is sad is when I go to events like IT.com, which is now IT.in in bangalore, or one of the exhibitions which happen in Pragati Maidan in Delhi, and the sad aspect is how you go from stall to stall seeing american companies, or subsidiaries of American companies showing their wares. Where is the Indian part of it? Why are Indian companies so scared of standing up and showcasing their products proudly?

India is much different from how we were in the 20th century. We are not the stereotypical market that was painted to be doing menial labour. It’s much different today. The world in many ways expects something to come out of India. Why aren’t we showing it?

If you want to be known as a technology leader, as an individual, a company or as a nation, you need to stand up, and let the world notice. Coming back to the question, Can India be a technology leader? Probably so, if the marketers, the businessmen, the technologists, and companies start collaborating, and are seen. You cannot be a leader unless you are seen.

Invest Early. In Yourself. In Others.

There is also an issue which is not directly related to the software industry, but will become part of that in the next five to ten years – the students. One of the reasons quoted for the low numbers in startups is the blame that is thrown on the education system, the environment etc. Its not that! The education system is only part of the overall picture, the other part comes from students themselves. Students need to understand that it takes more than just mugging up of textbooks. The ability to do something which everyone else in your class can also do does not matter for much. To be seen as someone who is different means being different – which means going out and trying to do things, exploiting opportunities, leveraging chances that others are oblivious to. You also don’t want to wait till you graduate, find a job where you are probably going to get micromanaged to actually do something out of the ordinary and to find your passion. When you are working in a full-time position for a company, probably working long hours as well, is not the time when you can do anything at all. The time when you get to do something, is when you are still studying. Don’t use the course load, the projects or the exams as an excuse – everyone has to do that. Standing out, also means managing your time, and doing something extraordinarily.

Let me give you a few good examples. Does the name Google mean anything to you? Guess where it was formed. Does the word Microsoft mean anything to you? Guess where it was formed. Does the word Yahoo mean anything to you? Guess! where it was formed. All during college days. Most technology companies were formed within the education system. Most of the great technology startups in Europe and the US came out of colleges while they were still studying, had a great idea, had an environment to make that idea grow, sat and worked and had the resources available around them, and when they came out they already knew what they were going to do. Actually, most of them already were funded before they even came out of college.

It’s really the difference between wanting to do something, rather than hoping something will happen.

Now its true that the Indian education system doesn’t exactly nurture this. But you as the software industry or the technology industry aren’t better either. How many people here hire freshers in their company? How many of you ask those freshers that they would have to spend 50% of their time coming up with great ideas of their own? How many of you hand a java textbook in that poor chap’s hands, give him a day and expect 600 lines of code everyday from the third day? That’s pretty much how the indian software industry right now is. Not so very different from the way the education system is, and is blamed to be. That attitude is not going to nurture technology leadership out of people coming out of colleges, nor for your company.

Take a Chance with the Dreamers.

Give them time, give them space, give them resources, give them the pride to be a part of your company and when they come up with a great idea, let them come up to you and be proud of the fact that they are part of a great team, explain their idea, be grateful for the resources and depth you’ve given them to grow their idea and they’ll show the commitment to be part of your company and make it grow. And Guess who benefits from this. All of you.

Don’t force the poor guy to work long hours, or come up with ideas on their own and don’t be surprised that if and when he finally does come up with a great idea, quits the company and goes and starts a company on his own. It usually turns out that they have no resources, no people backing them, no team, no network, no market understanding an they are dependent upon getting funds from VCs with absolutely no guarantee that their idea will work. Don’t let it come to that.

When you take in young people, they come in with their dreams and visions. Give them room, resources, the backing of a great team, the support they need, your domain expertise and exploit those opportunities together turning each idea into value. Try it, ask each of your employees to spend 50% of their time for the first two years on something they love, and something unique. Make their dreams come true, and be there to help make it come true.

In my interaction with students, and the plenty of them that I interact with, I am sheerly amazed at the kind of ideas that i come across. But a few years later, you realize that those students are missing. They go join a major corporation, work from 9-5 totally drained of their creativity and lose out from exploiting an idea and an opportunity that later gets picked up by some other guy or someone from a far country, is built into a product and in most cases is sold to India.

If you are hiring right, be assured that every one of your fresher and employee will have a potential idea that will grow your company big, and add to the vision that you are growing towards. Thats the final point that I wanted to make as far as India promise as a technology leader goes.

This is the transcription of the talk that Atul Chitnis, The Senior VP of Geodesic, and the man behind FOSS.IN gave during the Fastrack Sessions of Proto.in January Edition ‘08. The tone of voice might have to be imagined, given that its taken from a talk and not a written speech.

His focus areas include mobile and hand-held computing, wireless data networks, “appropriate technologies” (matching available technologies to actual requirements, instead of the other way round), Linux and Open Source, computing in entertainment technologies (especially the music industry), and the identification and understanding of future technologies that could impact his clients and technology audiences.