There cannot be more Yin and Yang then India and China

My recent trip to China after a pause of nearly two years made me contemplate and mull over to write this into my diary. Some amount of reading on China blended with hearing to perspectives of a few leaders during the NASSCOM trip where in I did present on the topic related to Manufacturing and IT. I have also linked my presentation on this topic.
When I was reading on Google, I came across this interesting piece about India and China, Nathu La pass re-opening in 2012 after nearly 44 years of closure, while can be considered symbolic it only goes towards furthering the argument the two giants are bound to work together as the foundations on which they stand are more complimentary then one can imagine. The business velocity is only going up exponentially with the expectation that by 2016 nearly 40% of the world trade to be controlled by the largest (China) and third Largest (India). This takes us back to the 1800’s when nearly half of the Globe’s trade was driven by the two.
With most Multinational’s lamenting about either lack of success or slow speed of business in both India and China , they obviously continue to be present despite all the complexities mainly due to the lure of the vast population and the humongous size of the market. Now are they investing enough to reap benefits ? That would be a million dollar question? This will obviously vary from industry to industry and will require deep strategic thinking, capital, and innovation to meet local value and price points leveraging local ecosystems etc before they expect any returns. Will the same shoe fit both the emerging markets, surely not? In more than a decade of experience with China, sharing a few thoughts through this note of mine.
10 years since I first visited China to my recent trip to China, what has changed? I still do recollect during my first visit, I had an opportunity to have a fairly long discussion with a very deep strategic thinker Shiv Shankar Menon the current National adviser to the Indian Government, who was then India’s ambassador to China. His eagerness to support an Indian company setting foot in China, was very evident as I am sure he saw the amount of interest the Chinese were expressing to get into Indian market and we obviously have seen the position they have reached in India by literally dumping Chinese manufactured goods at price points which will be very tough for any of the domestic companies to match upto. Balance of trade heavily tilted in China’s favour with them dumping into India. Menon surely wanted to see India in a similar position leveraging our Supremacy in Software .
In contrast to that , while Indian Software Giants entered China with a lot of Fanfare , many of us thought we could leverage the talent in China, some of us thought we would follow our Global customers into china and very few of us thought let us go after the Domestic market in China . While all these thoughts would have been considered radical in those days. I do not think any of the companies have achieved even 1/10th of what they intended to do. It can be argued that many of us have invested a pittance in China to achieve the above objective, another school of thought would be why Should we?

In the context of the status of the Indian IT industry, if we are seeing better returns for the dollar invested in other markets and in the shortest time frame why would we want to waste our energy efforts and capital by going after the China Market. China undoubtedly will be the most difficult market to address on all counts. While we can show statistics of the availability of software manpower there usability in markets outside China is pathetically poor. The amount of training and management time investments we would need to make is humongous to even bring them to the base levels.
Added to that would be the cautious approach any company would like to take in the current context of the global economic climate. In the past decade we have been used to hearing about the Supremacy of Chinese economic climate , that surely is over now and is surrounded with the fears of the implosion and the turmoil’s they are going through internally .
While there could be a few Global Multinationals have started seeing modest returns in manufacturing investments but none would be leveraging China for building either intellectual property or anything to do with core R&D. All of us know the reasons and that is not going to change any time in the near future.
Also in addressing the domestic markets most of them or nearly all of them have failed miserably as Chinese as a race will never trust another and they do believe as a nation they can do it all and they have the resources and money now to conquer the world. Why would they want to actually develop anyone else at best they would like to plug the gaps by buying what they do not have? Also for a moment if we were to leave aside the above perspective, and we go about forging partnerships with local companies to address the domestic Chinese market , for sure Chinese partner will be one of the toughest race to negotiate and the fundamental premise we should build on needs to be “cross leverage” .
In Conclusion with the above context, while without doubt there cannot be more Yin and Yang then India and China, as both have inherent strengths and if both of us need to prosper the only way out is “ Cross Leverage “ and negotiate to reach a win – win .
At a Government level, Indian IT Industry surely has the Software supremacy to command respect and also use the same as major leverage in bilateral negotiations to get the Chinese Government to concede with favorable terms for other industries where we are challenged. Also in sticky territories like manpower movement, movement of capital between countries we will need to more firms insist on concessions which will make our software industry consider investing more.
At a Company level , we should be negotiating with the Government bodies in China and get them to invest more in terms of capital so that we can assist in building up their industry . Earlier in the last decade the investments have been coming fairly aggressively from the Chinese government in terms of training grants , real estate subsidies etc. We should expect and get them to give a lot more in terms of giving boot strap commercial projects which we could help in executing along with their local companies and manpower and our Superior project / program management which would come at a premium price.
At a Individual level, just like the Chinese exhibit enormous hunger to learn, learn and learn. Many of us who have already invested in our carriers in China or have ambitions to do so, the only way would be to be ahead in the race by equipping ourselves to the next level so that we can manage and command the Chinese resources 

Passion & Attention to detail

Something i read today which made me ponder how many bosses have i had who have eexcruciating made me go through 27 versions of the same content in one presentation ... :-) But this story below is something which i would like revisit as often as i can to remind me to get into detail ....
But there's one story, perhaps, that's piercing because it portrays the exacting nature of Apple's former CEO. Vic Gundotra — the man behind Google +, the company's entree into social media — posted a story about an interaction with Steve Jobs.

He writes that on a Sunday morning in 2008, he received a call during a religious service. He didn't answer, but Jobs left a message saying he had something "urgent to discuss." Gundotra returned his call almost immediately:

"Hey Steve — this is Vic," I said. "I'm sorry I didn't answer your call earlier. I was in religious services, and the caller ID said unknown, so I didn't pick up."

Steve laughed. He said, "Vic, unless the Caller ID said 'GOD', you should never pick up during services".
I laughed nervously. After all, while it was customary for Steve to call during the week upset about something, it was unusual for him to call me on Sunday and ask me to call his home. I wondered what was so important?

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I've already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow," said Steve.

"I've been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I'm not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn't have the right yellow gradient. It's just wrong and I'm going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

The CEO of Apple — the tech visionary who revolutionized personal computers, the way we listen to music and the way we think of mobile devices — was worried about the yellow in the second "O" in Google. Needless to say the problem was fixed, and Gundotra says it taught him a lesson on leadership and "passion and attention to detail."

"It was a lesson I'll never forget," wrote Gundotra. "CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday."

Collaborative-innovation

In today’s world, the speed of technology evolution along with its pervasiveness, morphing of the world to an inter connected human network and the ubiquity of the classic 3Cs (communication, connectivity and consumer) is a technological marvel to reckon with. This thriving, though relentless age has brought about an exponential increase of data. Data is being generated and captured at the time stamp an event occurs. The challenge now is to tap on this humungous data and sort and assimilate it into useful information which can be leveraged upon in a timely mode.
If an organization were to work in isolation, it may potentially make itself capable and efficient enough to manage this data. However no single company can survive in today’s world as an island of know-how and expertise. It works and thrives in an eco-system - and this is where the biggest challenge for data extraction, management and utilization lies. An organization cannot but depend upon its partners, suppliers, customers and other members of the supply chain for this effective data management. So how does an organization compete in such an inter-linked, fast paced and competitive market place? One of the answers to this lies in Collaborative-Innovation.
Collaborative-Innovation.is the extension of scale and scope of external collaborations, alliances and partnerships to access and exploit new technologies, markets and customers. It leverages on the niche competencies and the individual strengths of the member entities. It enhances the sum capabilities of an organization and its relevant co-innovation partners from the ecosystem through an integrated network of domain expertise, leading edge technologies and platforms.
Key benefits of Collaborative-Innovation. include
• Acceleration of technology adoption and enablement.
• Facilitation of targeting new markets – especially where trade barriers are insurmountable by any one single entity
• Cost reduction and improved efficiency
• Increases options for biz development
• Helps in better management of uncertainties – market, technology&competition
• Generation of innovative ideas, new product concepts and development and testing of prototypes
• Profitable innovation

The process of Collaborative-Innovation. involves formulating strategic intent, assessing capability for innovation, building strategic alliances and partnering agreements etc. – all with the objective of selling and delivering value to the customer.

Collaborative Innovation

In today’s world, the speed of technology evolution along with its pervasiveness, morphing of the world to an inter connected human network and the ubiquity of the classic 3Cs (communication, connectivity and consumer) is a technological marvel to reckon with. This thriving, though relentless age has brought about an exponential increase of data. Data is being generated and captured at the time stamp an event occurs. The challenge now is to tap on this humungous data and sort and assimilate it into useful information which can be leveraged upon in a timely mode.
If an organization were to work in isolation, it may potentially make itself capable and efficient enough to manage this data. However no single company can survive in today’s world as an island of know-how and expertise. It works and thrives in an eco-system - and this is where the biggest challenge for data extraction, management and utilization lies. An organization cannot but depend upon its partners, suppliers, customers and other members of the supply chain for this effective data management. So how does an organization compete in such an inter-linked, fast paced and competitive market place? One of the answers to this lies in collaborative-innovation.
Collaborative-innovation is the extension of scale and scope of external collaborations, alliances and partnerships to access and exploit new technologies, markets and customers. It leverages on the niche competencies and the individual strengths of the member entities. It enhances the sum capabilities of an organization and its relevant innovation partners from the ecosystem through an integrated network of domain expertise, leading edge technologies and platforms.
Key benefits of Collaborative-innovation include
• Acceleration of technology adoption and enablement.
• Facilitation of targeting new markets – especially where trade barriers are insurmountable by any one single entity
• Cost reduction and improved efficiency
• Increases options for biz development
• Helps in better management of uncertainties – market, technology and competition
• Generation of innovative ideas, new product concepts and development and testing of prototypes
• Profitable innovation

The process of Collaborative-innovation involves formulating strategic intent, assessing capability for innovation, building strategic alliances and partnering agreements etc. – all with the objective of selling and delivering value to the customer.

Services Marketing & Social Media

While it can be argued that IT Services Organizations in the current Context of highly competitive environment and extensive cost pressures tend to lean more and more towards products based philosophy . Every services organization in the quest of adding more and more value tend to focus on building packaged service offerings which at times could be actual intellectual property (IP), but most times will be nice packaging of the conventional services creating a perception of it being a IP. Many a time the recipient of the services might not be mature enough and in such cases , the neatly gift packed service offerings will be passed of as frame works , close to an IP etc.
Quintessentially Services Organizations are "People Based" Organizations and hence the quality of the value zone being created between the Service recipient and the delivery provider is highly dependent on the "ingrained DNA" of the organization. A mature recipient will be able to see through a superficial attempt or just a PR focused perception creation.
Could GE be known for Six Sigma with it out it being ingrained into every business and every part of GE ??
Leave alone the conventional marketing mechanisms being practiced in Services oriented organizations, which include targeted marketing , focus on creating one on one relationships , building mindshare , wallet share etc . Tectonic shifts are occurring in the age of Social media , which has the power to either RESET , RECREATE or "Destroy" the fallacies of the so called high level thinkers who are intent on only creating a perception and they are hardly giving any emphasis on the actual implementation and execution of the culture you want the organization to espouse. The execution and implementation of this in a "People based" Services organizations is the toughest and hardly any CEO can claim that he is close to perfection .
An example i came across was to do with Starbucks of whom i am a very Loyal fan with at least one visit per day to any of the establishments . It is a well know fact that Starbucks as a organization after the string of success it has enjoyed is going through trying times with the state of the economy and also the onslaught and proliferation of the McDonald cheaper premium coffee brand . Howard Schultz who has returned as the CEO and in his analysis of the organization brand , in his second stint talks about how the bloggers , twitterers and face bookies put holes in the brand equity of Starbucks which was carefully cultivated over decades of handwork.

A simple sensational unfounded story on "dipper well leaks" which claimed that Starbucks was insensitive and was wasting millions of liters of freshwater which had all of the conservationists up in arms . This essentially happened courtesy a huge viral campaign launched on the Social media.
Services industry is all about "People" and Social media is all about "People in Communities" which can dramatically amplify the effects both positively and negatively about the perception you are trying to build . A warning to all the so called "high level" thinkers, focus on controlling the negative and give emphasis on execution and implementation of the culture you want the organization to be known for.

Building a Perception Far Ahead of Reality ! think twice ..

Back after a long hiatus to the world of Blogging :-) READ as " Basic laziness to construct long sentences and paragraphs" . Being a marketer I often wonder whether building a perception far ahead of reality is the way to go. There was a time or it was often joked most American companies launch the product as soon as the design spec's are ready on a PowerPoint , let alone developing the product, beta testing etc. For instance Microsoft surely learnt a costly lesion with the disastrous results of the much hyped Windows vista platform. No wonder they were doubly sure and on the basis of the lesson learnt, came up with a much more stable and rock solid platform in Windows 7. On the mobile platform Windows 7 is still slated for late 2010 Commercial launch. They must be testing, testing and testing with the fright apple has given them with iphone platform. While the example chosen above has been more relevant to a product , this more or less holds true when a CEO is building a identity or cultural statement for an organization. For instance if Tata's stand for trustworthy brand , this has been achieved over many decades. For sure JRD meant believed the same with his heart and spent a lot of his energies in ensuring successful execution of the thought to reality amongst the thousands of employees across the conglomerate. There are stories within the Tata group about senior management being sacked for not believing in it and not going all out to execute trust worthiness and it was not just building hype and wishy washing away with flimsy execution.

Coming to the moot point of building perception which leads reality which is often driven or conceptualized by the so called Gurus or visionaries who often get carried away by the blind passion that the unique idea they have is perfect and ideal for the rest of the world or for that matter the company or division or any entity they run. The zeal with which they would want everyone else to see beyond the normal is often driven due to a few unique thoughts they have. While the thoughts per se are revolutionary they sometime fail to understand that execution of the thoughts is equally critical. Execution to the last mile and many a time it requires the masses to believe passionately the very thought you espouse. For the masses to believe with the same passion the unique idea will require perfecting the execution process to the extent it becomes a movement amongst the masses. This at times might take a complete decade. The shorter the time it takes if the great unique idea is thought through to an extent that every step is carefully managed and the original intent is maintained and passionately transmitted from one to another without any loss in the intensity original idea. The idea obviously needs to be real in all ways. "Thinking" , "doing" and " "communicating" all these three dimensions need equal amount of attention by every individual in the organization. Gone or the days of the army culture , that there is one part of the organization which will do higher level thinking another part will just be executers and another part will focus on information dissemination. Every individual / manager will have to spend nearly equal amounts of time for each of the above dimensions. In conclusion Building perception which is ahead of reality is a great idea and should be done but only to the extent it is sustainable and stands by its merit. Do not build a perception which is far ahead of reality but slightly ahead of reality is fine , so that each one of us will do the extra stretch to reach close to it or even achieve the same.