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Talent Crunch
Given the high-end R&D (research and development) done out of India, a
constant flow of talent is the need of the hour. The situation currently is
somewhat manageable, but the future looks bleak. According to Aravind Sitaraman
of Cisco, Talent shortage will soon be a reality if we dont take corrective
measures. We are starting to feel the pinch in the senior technical talent. He
adds a peculiar Indian mindset. He says, The social pressure in India for
engineers to become managers is immense. The moment someone has experience of a
few years, there is a huge pressure on him/her to become a manager. People have
to realize that there is a difference between technical competency and
managerial competency. The pressure on us is to either promote or let the person
go and this is when we lose good engineers. In the US, it is a common thing for
engineers to remain in technical positions for many years.
Cisco is addressing this tendency to move to managerial positions (from
technical ones) by deglorifying managerial roles and highlighting the technical
aspect. The company is also looking at an inorganic optionimporting talent from
the US and other locations. But Aravind Sitaraman of Cisco also believes that
there is no alternative to sustained coaching of people to believe that you
dont have to be a manger to grow.
Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, IBM India Software Lab, says, I think the
graduates that are coming out of engineering colleges are fine, but there is a
lack of practical experience during the course of their studies. We invite
technology students in our lab to work with us very closely on some of our
projects. Students have to learn to connect with their classroom learning to the
practicalities of what the industry is demanding.
Gopalakrishnan also laments about the gap that exists when it comes to high
level or PhD level technology training that people are getting. In fact, the
small number of PhDs that India is producing could create problems in the future
as companies would move up the value chain of R&D activities.
According to Ajay Gupta of HP Labs, What has not improved is the
collaboration with universities. The reason is that financially it is a bad
proposition to do a PhD in India. Getting a job is seen as more important than
pursuing higher studies.
Slow Moving University Engagements
It would be difficult to recall any breakthroughs that have emerged out of
the joint R&D initiatives that several companies have set up along with
education institutions, particularly IITs. Universities and engineering collages
have merely remained a source of talent pool rather than a collaborative R&D
that goes on in the universities in the US.
Most companies sponsor students and hire them once they have completed their
education. Aravind Sitaraman of Cisco agrees that the company has not been able
to pay adequate attention to this aspect but is actively working toward it.
Cisco has a program wherein it invites faculties to visit its facility and learn
about the technologies apart from asking alumni to visit the university to share
their knowledge.
Elaborating on some other gaps, Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, IBM India Software
Lab, says, Though some companies are maintaining some kind of relationship with
universities and institutions, there is a gap in terms of academic research and
technology directions, and market demands. It is not that technologies have to
be advanced to be successful, the technology can be just right and meet the
right requirement. The other gap, according to him, is the availability of risk
capital as the volume is not at the desired level. Sounding optimistic about the
shape of industry-university collaboration, Subramanyam GV of Infosys
Technologies, says, This ecosystem is slowly developing.
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| We localize
Google applications that are relevant to India, and further innovate to meet
the needs of our emerging users
Prasad Ram, Head, R&D,
Google India |
The graduates
that are coming out of engineering colleges are fine, but there is a lack of
practical experience
Ponani Gopalakrishnan,
VP, IBM India Software Lab |
Talent shortage
will soon be a reality if we dont take corrective measures
Aravind Sitaraman, VP and
MD, Cisco Development Organization, India |
R&D for the Indian Market
India is emerging as a big market for most products and services innovations
that come out of these labs. Staying closer to the market and working on things
that are relevant to the Indian market is the way to go for several companies.
HP is totally focused on India. According to Ajay Gupta of HP Labs, Providing
IT in the local language was one of our focus areas. The reason is that 90% of
Indians dont use the English language. This significant portion of the
population would like to use IT but are intimidated by the English language.
NXP even has a ready reference design that enables a company manufacture
mobile phone and sell under its brand. Companies like Onida and Videocon have
shown interest. Though IBMs primary focus is to work on technologies that can
be marketed globally, whenever there is some requirement from the Indian
customers, it is taken care of. For example, IBM Software Lab caters to Bhartis
specific requirements in managing their network.
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| We have to accept the fact that
not every product or innovation that we work on would be successful
Subramanyam GV, VP and head, SETLabs,
Infosys Technologies |
Financially, it is a bad
proposition to do a PhD in India. Getting a job is seen as more important
than pursuing higher studies Ajay
Gupta, Director, HP Labs India |
The talent challenge is at the
product architect level. Rajeev
Mehtani, VPand MD, NXP Semiconductors, India |
According to Prasad Ram, We localize Google applications that are relevant
to India and further innovate to meet the needs of our emerging users. We build
comprehensive solutions that bring more local content online, deliver
applications relevant to the emerging users, overcome access barriers, provide
great user experience, and contribute to the economics of organizing and using
information.
Measures of Success
IT services companies are better off in the rate of success as they are
constantly in touch with their customers to augment their solution portfolio by
doing some fine tuning. While HPs efforts at creating some innovative products
(like Gesture-based keyboard) was laudable, though it did not get the desired
success in the market place. Elaborating on the reasons for the lukewarm
response, Ajay Gupta of HP Labs says, We thought licensing was the way to go
about it, and we licensed the product to some vendors but that did not work. He
also informs that HP is rethinking on this licensing strategy to make sure the
mistakes are not repeated. He also does not rule out the possibility of HP
directly marketing and selling the innovative inventions coming out of its India
lab.
| HP
Reinvents Labs Strategy |
| HP, which has
invent as its tagline, has been in the news due to concerns being raised
about somewhat slowing down of the rate at which innovations happen in its
labs. A lab that boasts programmable calculator and inkjet innovations is
trying to restore its old glory under its new head, incidentally an IndianPrith
Banerjee. He has set the agenda for his labs team spread across the world,
including India. He said recently, I want researchers to feel empowered to
propose bold, new initiatives, and to encourage risk taking. He identified
five clear areas for thisinformation explosion, dynamic cloud services,
content transformation, intelligent infrastructure, and sustainability.
Another important initiative is the creation of the open innovation office
for collaborating with scientists, entrepreneurs, academia, and businesses.
Technology transfer is something that HP wants to speed up and adopt other
methods apart from licensing. It is even considering working with VCs to
spin off into new companies.
Table: Leading R&D Labs*
*The list is indicative. Key innovations are also a sample of work done by
the R&D labs |
According to Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, IBM India Software Lab, When we
think of advance technologies, either in research or product development, it is
very closely driven by interaction with our customer base and the market
requirements are directly captured before we even get started on something. The
success that we had in our lab has been significant. Talking about the degree
of success or innovations that will come out of R&D labs, Subramanyam GV, VP and
head, SETLabs, Infosys Technologies, says: We have to accept the fact that not
every product would be successful.
Sudesh Prasad
sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in
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