Tech Mahindra execs go back to university In a brightly lit conference room inside a non-descript building in Silicon Valley, about 40 Indian men, in formal suits, listened to lectures on technology innovation. The traditional software outsourcing fortress is crumbling, they were told, and it is time to build next-generation technology systems to survive. It was the first day of a two-day leadership programme held last week at the Singularity University, an academic institution backed by NASA and Google in San Francisco that looks at the future of technology. The middle-aged men attending the course were executive-level employees of Indias fifth-largest software outsourcing company, Tech Mahindra. Led by chief executive officer CP Gurnani, these senior executives travelled from Mumbai to Silicon Valley to learn about the big transformations in technology industry and how they could be on top of it. IT companies from India are yet to develop disruptive technologies and thats what weve been talking about, said Vivek Wadhwa, vice president of innovation and research at the Singularity University. For almost two decades, Indias software outsourcing companies have made a fortune by developing and maintaining largescale technology applications for their enterprise customers in the United States and Europe. But with increased automation, changing business models and competition from startups in new-age technology areas, such as analytics and cloud-computing, these companies are now staring at a future, where their traditional business model based on labour arbitrage would no longer add growth in the rates it used to in the past. Gurnani spent big money and brought these executives because he believes change is on its way, added Wadhwa, a fellow at Stanford University and former entrepreneur, who made himself popular by raising his voice against the corporate culture in Silicon Valleys technology industry. Over the two-day course, executives from Tech Mahindra discussed technology advancements with academicians at Singularity and engaged with change-makers in the Valley, a place that houses the worlds largest technology companies, startups and venture capital firms. But Gurnanis and his teams learning did not end at Singularity. A team of five executives visited high-end electric carmaker Tesla Motors, a company whose ideas on popularising and manufacturing electric cars has caught the attention of technology and auto industry. At Tesla, the team met its chief financial officer Deepak Ahuja and discussed the complexities of manufacturing. Met Reddy from Hyderabad who recently joined @TeslaMotors. Market cap was 22 billion the day he joined. Three weeks later, today it is 30 billion, Gurnani tweeted on Wednesday after visiting the Tesla factory. An unusual move, but for industry observers, Gurnanis visit to the Valley does not come as a surprise as Indian software providers have been trying to cope themselves with changes in the IT sector. The visit, in fact, underscores the fact that software outsourcing companies are looking for new areas of growth and to equip themselves with the right skills. In 2012, people like Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and executive vice-chairman of Infosys, and former HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayyar were among the executives who attended programmes at the University. CP was very impressed with Teslas vision and work in robotics. Thats the kind of disruption were talking about, said Wadhwa. For any queries related to Software Product and Animation please log on to : locustechsoft #locustechsoft
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 05:40:29 +0000
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