Friday, June 19, 2009

Polarize -v 1.2

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Now we come on to the question that was responsible for the polarity and this series of blogs.
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So in the meeting all of us were having a discussion on the topic "Why Indian IT is service based and not product based?".
Answers were something like--
To find a market for a product is much more difficult then to find a market that needs servicing.
Another reason that we got was --Return of investment is much faster in a service based industry.
Another rationale given was --Risk is much less in a service based industry.

I was sitting there listening to all these pretty convincing points...but somehow i was not able to digest that these are the sole reasons for our being a service based industry.I was thinking that if we remove all the constraints of money,risk,rate of investment and potential market.Do we have it in us to come up with a iPhone** and suppose we do come up with a iPhone.Do we have the self belief that our iPhone will be consumed in the western markets or our own markets.

It really needs a leaders mindset ,a winners mindset to see a market that just doesn't exist.To be a leader one doesn't just need hindsight,it has to be foresight as well and to be a industry that comes out with Products(innovative and path breaking ones) you have to have a Leaders mindset.The whole industry should feel like a leader.It has to believe that if we manufacture a car,a phone or a computer.Our product will create a market of its own.

The fact which was disturbing me even more was that we as Indians will be behind most of the softwares being written.It is very much possible that for iPhone also the software has been written by some Indian software company.This means that we have the talent and the expertise to write software for Apple but we just can't think of it ourself. It has to be Steve Jobs who comes up with this idea and it has to be us who will implement his idea.

We make pretty handsome money from this Apple deal but we lose on the bigger picture.We don't create the hype and the excitement that Apple and Steve Jobs create.In the end it is Apple that is the apple of everyone's eye and we just have a few hundred thousand dollars.

To add to it was the fact that Steve Jobs hasn't written a single line of code in his whole life.He just has a mindset and a vision that does the magic for him.In addition to these i had read CK Prahalad quoting somewhere "Being a Developing nation is just a mindset".


All this facts led me to the deduction that we have got everything (talent,expertise,knowledge etc),only thing we are lacking is in mindset.

All these things were going on in my mind,
I raised my hand and let go of the revolution that was going inside me...

I took help of a story to keep forward my point

Once upon a time there was a Gurkha(lets name him Bahadur singh).He was a watchman and so were the men from his earlier generations.He was fed up with his job,he didn't want to be a watchman any more.He used to cry ,he used to ask god to free him from this boring and mundane job of his.He decided to leave the job and start a Tapsya(prayer) to Lord Shiva.After 12 years of rigorous tapsya in the himalyas,Lord Shiva decided to meet this devotee of his.Clouds thundered,lightening occurred,it started to rain.Bahdur Singh felt a hand on his shoulder....he opened his eyes and was very happy to see Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva:: "I am really happy with your devotion.Ask whatever you want to have?I'll heed any number of wishes??"

Bahadur Singh::"I want to be the richest person in the world"

Lord Shiva ::"Tathastu (Granted) .What else??"

Bahadur singh ::"Most beautiful lady should become my wife"

Lord Shiva::"Tathastu,what else??"

Bahdur Singh::"Most beautiful home in the world"

Lord Shiva::"Tathastu ..what else??"

After heeding to as many wishes as Bahadur asked for.

Lord Shiva says::"Bahadur ,now you have everything possible.Can i leave or there is something else??"

To this Bahadur singh(richest man in the world) replies

Bahadur Singh ::"Itna kuch de diya ,ek shaab aur ek mem shaaab bhi to de do."

Lord Shiva::"With a big satirical smile said ....TATHASTU"

:D

think about it...
We have everything that is required to be the leaders ,but it's just a case of changing our MINDSET.


**iPhone - its just a representation that i have taken to symbolise a product which creates a niche for itself.

Note:We already know what happened after narrating this story.If not , please read the previous two blogs of this Polarize series.

9 comments:

divya said...

Very well said and I feel the story is a perfect embodiment of the mentality of not only a typical Indian IT Professional but any Indian for that matter.

All of us have this big flashy plan hidden somewhere deep inside our heart but we somehow don't trust our intuition well enough.

I think this article of your will be an eye opener for a lot of us!

mrugesh wasnik said...

we are pseudo intellectuals misunderstanding superficiality with depth... and we are happy with the rosy picture...

Mayank said...

great work...sort of an eye opener.....the other thing I can point here is we Indians lack that courage to implement our ideas...

Sachin Thakur said...

I am very well agreed with the divya's comment as it will be really an eye opener to every indian,, one has to think differently to be different.,,,
carry on with new and motivating articals,,,, n do intimate evrybdy bout it,,,bcoj it has to reach everybdy,,,,ok

Gaurav Vashist said...

@Divya
I just hope we get the strength someday to say that i am not doing this crappy job anymore.I have a dream and i'll live it.

Time to trust our intuitions and give our flashy plans a execution....

@mrugesh
Hi bhai,
we are pseudo intellectuals ...i agree.but that is the problem...solution kya hai .How do we remove the word pseudo from our intellect? any sugestions on that

@mayank
Hmm very right,we lack the courage but what should we do to gain the courage??? any suggestions.If you had to open your comapny ??what will hold you back???Waht can we do alleviate that fear??


@Sachin
sure sachin ,
Its nice that you can find motivation in the blogs.

will try to keep up.

mrugesh wasnik said...

the solution is us..u ve started thinking this and we can hope others too thinkthis way... this gen i.e. we have to make efforts to travel from the receiving end to the giving end..and thats going to be tough..real tough..
we have always chosen a path that has the least resistance....
we should sit and think what we really want..a penetrating thought should be given ..and we should collect courage to do what we want to do...
we are done if d crazy(in d +ve sense) ppal in this country do what they want to do...and more importantly devise a way to reach their goals/dreams whatever....

i have a big mouth !!! need to do some action..

take care bhai ...

stupid as always-mrugesh

Gaurav Vashist said...

Solution will be a transformation from

we should to we have

yup righto.

get doing....

Mayank said...

@gaurav
what holds us back is the safety window which we always keep open..we need to close that first..
Only a revolution can change this mindset..and somebody has to start it..

saurap said...

vry rightly said vashsiht....

The problem with is our mindset... Or shall i say our attitude...

We have that feeling ingrained in us that we are inferiors... What comes from west is better than what we can do...

Look at yoga for ex. We had it for like millenia, but nobody cared. Then some american came, learned it n sold it back to us. N suddenly that becomes a marvelour technique.

Also what we lack is the ability to sell ideas. But i think that roots from the confidence. We dont have confidence n hence we cant sell them.

One last thing... Our environment, the things that we have learned right from childhood, form schools n from anywhere we went....
Complete education from reputed institutes, become a doc/engg, have a good safe job... Why not take the education that u like, start ur own enterprise....

save money, keep it in bank... Why not invest it somewhere....

And thus by the time we start to understand things better, its time to marry n start a family.... N see how good have we become in building families.. But have failed in building enterprises....