In The Spotlight

Industry Renewal and New Horizons

Data Quest Article, 02/2010, Ganesh Natarajan

Prof David Garvin, academic extraordinaire and an epitome of Leadership and Learning at the Harvard Business School was one of the stars in the recently concluded India Leadership Forum of NASSCOM in Mumbai. In his plenary keynote on Corporate Entrepreneurship, David argued eloquently for the need to nurture new business ideas within successful organisations to ensure that the process of renewal which is so essential for a dynamic industry like ours is kept fresh. Something that we at Zensar can definitely testify too – as a late starter in this industry, the foremost reason for the ability to become globally relevant in the short span of ten years has been our willingness to take risks – in new markets, new approaches and new business models and develop a distinctive “point of view”. And if  the two hundred billion dollar goal that the IT and BPO exports industry is chasing for the year 2020 is to be achieved, at least a quarter has to be delivered through this capability to innovate and build successful products, services and processes through innovation.

The Leadership Forum saw over sixteen hundred participants and global thought leaders like Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, David Garvin of the Harvard Business School and industry leaders like Azim Premji and Nandan Nilekani sharing their ideas on the global economic revival and the new challenges and opportunities for the Indian IT and Business services firms.
The global downturn has caused a fundamental rethinking of the nature and scope of business in most economies. As financial structures, organization hierarchies, customer access and response mechanisms and the management of global supply chains came under sharp scrutiny, mature organizations in key industry sectors chose to reengineer their processes, improve productivity of people and technology and focus on a minimized cost model to keep bottom lines intact even as top lines remained flat. The successful firms that survived the recession mayhem and grew their market share and entrepreneurs who saw business ideas in the discontinuities caused by the slowdown and grabbed opportunity share in the last year and more have all demonstrated that innovation is the key to building a successful model for times of adversity and creating a platform for future success.

The confidence displayed by all CEOs and analysts at the Leadership Forum has demonstrated that the next few years will be a period of robust revenue and profit performance for most of the players who have strengthened their value propositions in the slowdown period. Opportunities in Platform BPO and Cloud Computing are being tapped and new innovative revenue streams can be expected to contribute at least a quarter of the two hundred billion dollar exports revenue that the NASSCOM-Mckinsey Perspectives 2020 study has projected for the sector. There is a note of caution here that the withdrawal of stimulus packages in the West and even in India and China might create some short term ripples but the ongoing need to reduce costs by availing of high quality offshore services should keep the industry buoyant.
 
Many innovative firms across industry segments have shown the way to continuing success and progress on a fast track even when economic head winds have threatened to slow progress. Clairvoyant leadership, a culture that rewards entrepreneurial risk taking and celebrates success and processes that lend themselves to rapid innovation and new idea mobilization and implementation on a sustained basis are the recipe for success in the coming decade which will provide more challenges for all firms. In recent times, outstanding partnerships of global majors like Microsoft and CISCO with smaller Indian players to transform Indian capabilities in Education and Small and Medium Manufacturing enterprises have demonstrated a spirit of collaboration is in the air. The principal expectation of the industry from the Government in 2010 is an extension of the SEZ benefits to small and medium companies operating in Software Technology Parks around the country. The cessation of the 10 A / 10 B tax benefits under the STPI scheme could be replaced by a virtual SEZ plan which will keep the industry competitive at all levels. Further investments in Education and Infrastructure and an acceleration of spending on e-Governance projects are other factors that would give a fillip to the industry in the medium term. The industry looks forward to the strengthening of its support eco-system in the years to come.