Many people thought it was almost impossible to complete the project. For a company like ours it was too complicated a project. Forget the technical competence or expertise, we did not even have the minimum levels of raw intelligence that would be necessary. And of course (to add some management terms) we lacked the processes. Basically, it was doomed to fail. Yes, it was new technology. People had not even heard of it, let alone having worked in it.
And as the team missed one deadline after another, all hell broke loose. And as any other organization would have, a crisis management team was "sent", to rescue the project, to "fix" issues and to get the project "done". Heads rolled, a lot many things changed, (or so we thought), new people were "brought in" to head the project. After all, we did not have experience in developing a complete product. What the "new" did or did not, is an entirely different issue (which must very much be questioned, but, later).
The core technical team though worked through all this. And to the amazement of a lot of people, did in fact complete the development of the product, late by a year though (the schedule in the first place, itself questionable).
If we looked back at what we knew when we started, and where we stand now, we really should be surprised. None of us had even heard of the technology. Today, we have a complete working product, almost ready for end users. All this in less than a couple of years.
Yet it seems not many are surprised. In all the drama, people, i think failed to recognize certain amazing things.
I have always had one question in my mind, if we were capable of developing what we had, then why did we ever wait for someone to come and "outsource" that.
From the one project i have worked in, i must say, most of us are working (or being worked) way below our potential. Not in terms of efforts, but in terms of intellectual ability. In a way it is really not justifiable. But as a continuation to the education system that trains people to be as creatively dumb as possible, it fits well into the system.
The kind of talent, intelligence available in leading IT companies is really amazing. They recruit the best from every other college. Hence have a big pool of talent, but most just wasting.
Ours, a typical IT services company, is really worried about, services. Only, about services.
Which other project can we get next from the client, how do we never loose a client, is he willing to outsource any other part of his system, how much can we "bill" him, how much "more" can we bill him, and how long can we keep billing him.
Why are we always looking for a client to serve? Why can’t we develop things on our own? A country of more than a billion people must surely have enough problems to solve, enough challenges to face and enough opportunities to grow. I believe, we have the ability to.
The few products we develop are based on available standards and specifications. Why are we, only, looking at existing standards, products and always "wondering" to whom we can "sell" them. Why are we implementing standards and specifications someone has made, yes this too has its own challenges, but, i do believe we can really develop standards and specifications for the rest of the world to follow. Intellectually, i think we have the ability, NO doubts.
In some of our organizations there are certain small groups that are into R&D. Maybe, they are doing good work. But from what i have seen there is so much talent just being squandered senselessly.
Not bad satya! good one
ReplyDeleteYes buddy, I do agree with you that we have a lot of technical potential in developing a product on our own. But to get a product into the market that is not sufficient.
ReplyDeleteApart from technical potential what we need is,
1. PRE SALES: we should have a good presales team to analyse the market, which analyses things like the features of the product currently available in the market, features that could be possible in the near future and the support and services needed by this product to be available in the market(ex: A 3G phone sold in the market, when the service providers are not ready with the 3G spectrum and services. The 3G phone fails in the market not because it was inefficient but it did not have ambience required for its launch, he comes the concept of "Time to Market". The product should be launched into the market "Just in time" not early n not late.).
2. MANAGEMENT: The Management should manage the project and in turn the people driving it, but what we saw was the management tried to manage the people without even knowing where the project was going. The management should be strong enough (should be technically literate) to speak to the client in terms of technology. Just speaking is not sufficient, conveying ur thoughts is important. But here ppl speak just because they are paid to speak.
3. FUNDS:
Many R&D projects fail just bcoz the funding is not sufficient. Services company cannot and will not FUND more on R&D just because its a services company and its not meant for anything other than services.
These are a very few points, there are many other things where we are NOT GOOD, though we are good at things technically.
The funding and initial investment plays a very important role for any PRODUCT. For Funding to be just in place there are 2 points.
The first point is that the company (or the person who is funding) should have the confidence and trust on the technical team that they will do it. Second thing is that the team should be willing to work for the project, you cant just fund the project and force a few ppl to work for it.
A services company can think out of the box and might start funding some product. But Looking at the current IT sector scenario especially in the services industry, the attrition rate is very high. ppl just jump from company to company for different reasons. In sucha scenario its difficult for the company to trust and fund on the project. Hence most of the services company prefer to stay as a services company and will not enter into product development.
A company should have a lot of trust on its employees and a lot lot more guts to put the product into the market. Most services company wont have that guts to put the product into the market. So they prefer to serve than ruling the market with their own product.
In this part of the world, Adding to the above problems there is lot of corruption in the system, politics, regionalism, racialism and a lot lot more problems. We lack leadership skills and let others to rule us. A huge majority of the PRODUCTS that we use in our day to day life is NOT from this part of the world. Becase we lack leadership skills and we let others to rule us by using their products. We are the slaves in the market and slaves are meant to serve irrespective of the skills/potential we have.
So moral of the story is Improve your leadership skills and start ruling............
I know saying is easy....but doing it is difficult......But its better late than never
---RAJ.
good one.. at last, after one and a half years you have some time for urself. your writing a blog proves that :)
ReplyDeleteSuper sir. This was a long awaited one. Looking forward to your posts.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you are more gentler towards your company when you write compared to what you are when you talk :) ..
nice one scientist! i think brains like u need to take up the onus and try to make people think in a different way rather dwelling on the same old practices which are being followed since ages!
ReplyDeleteThe education system cannot make anyone dumb or intelligent (may be our college indeed did this!). One should blame himself if he cannot create new things by analogy or creativity. No one can implant creativity. It just comes or happens. We should probably be happy that we are given an opportunity to learn. But how well you learn is left to you.!!
ReplyDeletetrue...."No one can implant creativity"....but i think...there is a lot of discouragement for being are creative...or try to be creative...creativity must be nurtured and appreciated...and enough opportunities provided for people to think...i do not think our education system really does tat...
ReplyDeleteThe world's become to appreciate "moderate" talent. Even the best one's have to fancy their chances. Our country is too populated for individual attention. And lack of encouragement should not be taken as discouragement. See, opportunities cannot always be provided, they need to be created.
ReplyDelete*The world's become too BIG to appreciate. . .
ReplyDeleteVery nice outflow of thoughts !! And true indeed... As far as I know u , u do not belong here... A person of ur calibre needs to find a way out of this "Service Company Fish Market" and venture out to establish a company of ur own in the yrs to come.. Do remember me when u do that :)
ReplyDeleteBeing Another victim.. S.K.V.
ReplyDeleteThis one s very predictable out of u kinds satya!!!!;) enjoyed it though :D
ReplyDelete