Being Yourself

From a previous blog of mine
Going in the right path, when all around yourself are free to do whatever the hell they want to do, is a bit difficult but not impossible. We know we have to keep pace with this world but it does not mean that we are supposed to change the values that we have. If we are convinced of our values, they should be given the first preference while deciding on the factor of changing oneself to suit the world.

Changing without losing your own distinct identity is the key to a successful change. Keeping pace with the world, while folowing our own ideals is an art. One of the first things in this direction is to be positively assertive. Don't take anyone's opinion or remark too seriously. Secondly, identify, upto a certain extent, what your core values are. Is honesty a part of your character or you are a person who fits the situation? Or are you a totally dishonest person? Is taking risk your nature or you are always one who'd prefer a safer path. Identify who you are and what are your best qualities. Do not compare with others. It may be that you are best at doing house work. But the friend near you who is too popular in your workplace is some one different: think twice before emulating her blindly. Be yourself. And for that you have to know what are your best qualities. One of my friends is best in keeping quiet and that helps her in her life.

Continuous progress is an untold things that we always want. I said progress. Not change.

Let us believe that continous change is mandatory. You cannot stop it. But continous progress is what is under our control.

Progress continously. Follow your own values.

This world is a very funny place. You cannot ever say for sure what the world wants. But it is an easier task to decide what you want. Focus on few things at a time. (You may wish for hundreds of things!)

The following is a quote I had seen long back - repeating it - it is by Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"

 All  my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself.

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Ethics and leadership - a personal event to recall

While being a student's leader during graduation, I discovered a racket that conducted free blood donation camps and then illegally sold the units collected. On the one hand, I found them saving lives and on the other hand, a cancerous culture of bribing, fraud and illegal trafficking of medical blood-units was thriving. Ethics was getting murdered, though lives were being saved selectively (by those who had money). I decided to campaign against this racket. At times I got life-threats and even faced the ire of needy patients (who could give anything for a few units of life-saving blood). Taking support from the ADM (Additional District Magistrate), plus the Rourkela chapter of the Red-Cross Society and fellow students, we could counter hordes of unofficial agents who illegally traded blood-units.

The integrity of a professional reflects in his daily work. Although this was just one incident of many that I have faced, the nature of lessons learned are applicable everywhere. Today, I have conducted numerous camps for eye-care, met numerous influential people who trade favor with values and once, I have had to decide between hiring a meritorious candidate vis-a-vis a less apt one but relative of my boss.

In life, we will continue facing similar ethics (or the lack of it!). But when we look at the bigger picture, we always can understand the right direction to go, even if it is seemingly difficult or temporarily unpopular. I believe that if we are determined and courageous to go ahead with the better path, any hurdle (be it government machinery, public misunderstanding or personal loss) can be constructively overcome.

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Dismay and Delight

Though I was officially briefed about it before embarking on my visit (in June '09), but it did little to alleviate my astonishment during my stay. The way they look at life, reactions and behavior, mannerisms (with specific ways to sit/stand/talk/wait), honesty, discipline and ultra-politeness (at times, artificial), ultra-cleanliness, addiction to work as well as video-games and cell phones, pervasiveness of electronics in daily life, with folks in trains either engrossed in their mobile phone or reading something or just with eyes closed and ears plugged to media players, the variety of food (preparation and eating manners, thanking everyone from the farmer to the fish being eaten), their handling of extreme stress  and their lovely music - it was a series of observations. My stay in the US was not that shocking even though the culture is very different from India. Also, it was not just differences but even similarities in culture that surprised me in the land of Fuji-san. My parents, my spouse, and myself have been brought up in different states in India and I am not new to culture diversity, but in Japan, I was impressed, awed, and fascinated at things - made me think deep about the global evolution of humans and how  values of a society reflect in the norms of the land. I discussed these with my spouse staying in the UK and compared this with my previous experiences with US, Indonesian and Burmese friends. My daily interactions with my Japanese teachers only strengthen my awe for a culture built on philosophies and thoughts of the highest good. And after all, there is so much similarity between the Indian aspect of higher thoughts and the Japanese aspect.
How thin is the line between dismay and delight!?
Life is a beautiful amalgamation of everything nature can provide us and the notion of right/wrong, and culture dismay/delight looks so relative to our thoughts!!

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Japanese and Deutsch

Since January this year, I have had some intellectual transformation of the kind that happens to you when you are in Kingergarten - only that, this time, I was painfully aware of some changes occurring to my brain. Over the year, I have been associated with learning two new languages, (at different times of the year), Japanese and Deutsch - the need primarily came from dealing with customers from both these nations, on a daily basis. I did Deutsch A1 and A2 (from the Goethe Institut, Bangalore), and Japanese (JLPT Level 4) from Navis Nihongo.

One of the most important attributes I (re)developed was my ability to attend classes. I was facing teachers who were trained to teach alphabets to adults. I was made to do homework (which I avoided in the initial stages but found to be a useful tool for my brain - wish they named it something better). My patterm recognition abilities have improved manifold (well, for the uninitiated, the Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji scripts in the Japanese language are worth learning from this aspect). While learning two different set of rules of grammar, I could understand the commonalities in very varied human behaviour.

We had various session on inter-cultural business etiquette (with certifications).

Not being afraid of the unknown is seen more in my classes than even in my corporate life. One I translated a sentence from English to Japanese as 'Please sleep well' and it got translated as 'Let us sleep together' - you can imagine the expression on the face of the young teacher. By the way, not falling asleep in class (and to get to sleep well when unable to doze) are two other attributes of this training.

During the last few weeks of the Japanese class, I used to attend Deutsch classes as well and my brain got mixed signals varying from insanity to amusement while mastering the vocabulary - add to this the fact that my wife speaks a different language from me (the common languages between us are Hindi and English and her mother-tongue is Marathi, mine being Odia) - it has been an amazing cocktail of experiences for my brain.

Overall, the result has come out quite positive and I am able to speak the fundamental parts of speech in both the languages. In both languages, they taught us how to shop in the mall, buy train tickets, talk formally/informally and so on. In both classes, we had hilarious sessions of mistaken language and terrible sessions of taking 'achievement tests' (I passed!).

While talking to the encryption expert in my firm, we both observed the necessity of tickling our brain with such experiences. It really sharpens you up! :-)

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Most Significant Achievement?

Although some achievements like being the state topper in matriculation, or getting into one of the topmost engineering colleges, look significant to people close to me, I differ.

This takes me back to 1999 when the eastern coastal state of Orissa in India was ravaged by a super-cyclone (officially called Cyclone 05B). I volunteered to be with one of the teams doing relief work.

I call this as an achievement because I found myself working with the army, handing over food packets to people who were hungry enough to kill each other for a handful of rice - I found myself collecting floating corpses so that they could be burnt before deteriorating further - drove a jeep in knee-deep mud to rescue kids surrounded by flood waters - and could not forget the face of hunger and calamity plus a determination to survive for the joy of life. Strangely enough, I also witnessed the worst faces of humans when I saw things like robbery, bribery and rapes even in such dire situations - it metamorphosed me emotionally as well as intellectually.

It taught me how to look beyond categories of people, and showed me the core of life's existence. As I sit today in my office in an air-conditioned environment, I feel one with Mahatma Gandhi's description of  his experiences in the Red Cross camps of South Africa (1906). I learned to have a vision bigger than individualistic goals and to 'be' the change that I want to see. It taught me real leadership when a single decision can save as well as jeopardize lives. It brought out the real leader in me. Life teaches..

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Imagine...

John Lennon:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

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Little Angels on Earth

(Repost)

Two and a half years have passed by since I was first in the campus of Ashraya and even now, when I go there every week, it seems to be a new experience. As I walked to the campus yesterday, I was wondering how quickly time moves. It was not the first time that I was in such a place but it was a very special experience to be with kids around you who are not just special but very talented as well. During the initial days, I was with a GE Volunteers team and had volunteered to teach these kids, mathematics, origami, and lots of fun-making activities. Most of the kids at Ashraya are normal from a physical point of view, but not so from the emotional point of view - I would term them para-normal! They are a bit more mature than their age, which varied between 3 to 13 years. Ashraya has a number of infant orphans as well but we were not interacting with them. This place was unlike the Helen Keller Institute at Vashi, Mumbai where was dealing with special kids with visual and hearing challenges. You need a different level of patience while interacting with these little angels.

They have a garden with swings, slides and see-saws to play with. I used to hold them in my arms and rotate fast - they enjoyed these rides and you should just see the expression on their faces. We were not supposed to take photographs, but over the years, I have taken snaps of the work done by the kids, such as in their coloring books. Last year, for Christmas, I got an idea which was quickly accepted by the other team members - we gifted them gifts which we helped them to make. Let me explain that a bit: We taught them how to make Santa Claus masks, cone caps with bells, and paper toys. Then few of them became Santa and all of them played a game where you have to sing for Santa and get your gifts! There were many sessions when we showed them animated movies - they loved Ice Age 2! They loved Winnie the Pooh so much that it took them no time to learn when I taught them how to draw and later paint, huge Winnie posters.

We have Rakum school for the blind at Indiranagar, Bangalore where I live. This is another place which I frequently visit since I have been in Bangalore. Initially, many of my visits were anonymous, and I felt good that I am able to contribute to the education of such special kids - they needed our time and understanding more than monetary contributions. As per Mr Rakum, there are many folks who contribute money, but the number of persons who contribtue their time is very less. It is a different kind of realization and an expansion of the awareness of your existence, when you are with these kids.

At Rourkela, I used to go to a place called 'Home and Hope', which was on the way to my school (Saint Paul's Rourkela). I used to observe these boys and girls, (I was of their age those days: this is around fifteen years ago) and was amazed at the patience of the caretakers in looking after mentally challenged kids. I continued interacting with these folks even after school, and during my engineering, I visited a similar school at Anushaktinagar, BARC Mumbai. I was gifted a Diwali card made by a mentally challenged 11 year old - you could find more beauty and imagination in the design than any other card you have seen and you will be perplexed when you meet the kid who created it. At 'Asha Niketan' in Koramangala, Bangalore, I met a 15 year old special boy, who asked me if I liked his drawings and would like to buy some. The bigger surprise came to me later when he shared, "I like A R Rahman's music - if you buy few of my drawings, I'll get enough money to get few more of his DVDs". I was dumbfounded to hear this and was really wondering whether he is mentally challenged or the rest of the world is - how come we ignore such talents in our day to day lives of mindless hurry.

Even after I got married, I continued my visits to Ashraya, Rakum School and the Spastics Society of Karnataka in Indiranagar, Bangalore. My significant half, Pallavi, is always with me in all such visits. It has been so many years that I have been visiting such places, and still everyday teaches me something new about life, something really novel. I have had very busy schedules in life, but I have tried not to miss these visits.

At GE India, and later at Mercedes Benz India, I organized some personal visits by volunteers who want to look beyond their problems in life and look at little angles struggling to make meaning out of their existence. We also organized a tree plantation program and 'Teach me Hindi' program for the kids. It was an emotional reconnection with their school days, for many of the volunteers. At times, we organized these events personally (not through the office) so that folks from various companies can join us - we had friends from SAP, Tesco, Yahoo India, HP India, and Infosys to name a few. For us, contributing our bit was closer to heart and meant much more than just logging hours for community service on the company portal.

Life teaches you a lot of things indirectly and it depends on our observation abilities, how much we learn from it. There is a unique humility that you develop with such events and it has a great effect on your management skills. You have a much wider outlook on life. We need to realize how fortunate we are, even in our deficiencies, and how we can still make a difference to brighten someone's smile someday. :-)

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Do-Gooder Auto Driver

Meet: An autorickshaw driver who gives free rides to the blind, pays the school fees for two poor children, donates money to an old age home and is trying to raise funds for the treatment of a sandwich vendor.Read the full story.

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Marketing Management

Marketing Management

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WSJ - Why Companies See Bright Prospects in Rural India

In late May, when India's GDP numbers were released, many were happily surprised. In the fourth quarter of the fiscal year (January-March 2009), the economy grew 5.8% against expectations of less than 5%. For the year, growth was 6.7%, less than the 9% recorded in 2007-2008, but still very (Read Full Article).

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Clean Tech - SSB Aug 09

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My post on the Headstart Network Blog

The August edition of Startup Saturday showcased two of the finest efforts in the domain of clean tech. While the term clean tech is in a lot of discussion, these days, there are a number of concepts that need clarifications, and when it comes to start-ups in clean tech, SSB is always at the forefront with its showcase! In fact, we had rush not just in nominations, but also amongst speakers and the demos in Lightning Pitches - we had more than we could accomodate and till the last minute, this kept us on our toes! So finally, NextGen PMS and AutoBoxx Automation were the ones that comprised the main demos and we had a number of speakers that made us decide about having a panel discussion. The concept of a panel discussion during an SS event was one of the two 'firsts' that we had  - the second one being mentioned next.

One of the newest feather in our cap was the concept of live streaming of the event, thanks to mobisy.com. The idea sprung up from the fact that we needed online videos of the event for archiving and streaming over the Net. In fact, our media partners have always been interested in having a copy of the part they have sponsored and live streaming really served this purpose.

Since this was an experimental effort this time, we have further efforts to improve the quality, lighting, timing and other related aspects of the video. View videos

­The way the volunteers have been supported by the people who attend SSB events was so clear when we faced a hitch in the mobile camera used for live streaming (it's battery went off!) and immediately, one of the members of the audience offered his phone's battery to continue the recording. Thanks to this spirit that SSB events have been so successful in Bangalore.

         

View more pics 

­ NextGen PMS are involved in the entire green chain, and are involved in estimating carbon waste footprints, and providing energy and emission efficiency measures and implementation plan. It was really a crisp presentation and Abhishek, who is the co-founder of the startup, interacted very well with the audience. He seemed to present a number of complicated topics in a very simplified manner to the group.

Think about managing energy in offices and houses and you got to talk to Ramandeep from Autoboxx Automation. They are not just into this but also in monitoring and tracking of company personnel, outsourced vendors as wel as customers. Their clientele includes banks retailers and telecom companies.

InOutAds was the first one to come up for the Lightning Pitches and went to showcase their approach towards connecting the folks who have places to advertise with the folks who have things to advertise. This was followed by Narahari from Presiding Tech India (They are primarily into Carbon credit and related activities), and Freeman who talked about the iAccelerator program at IIMA. Alleway Info talked about grooming the students entering the job market, and how they are not a placement agency but a source of well qualified and more than normal freshers in to the industry. Daniel from Daniel Power Systems was on stage with his wife and 3 month old kid and showcased his efforts at minimizing power thefts from the supply lines (not from homes) and at optimizing smart grids (without the hassles of having expensive smart switches at home/grids). MASH from IIMB presented the Marketing club efforts by the students and how they are coming up with innovative methods to reach more relevant people. They also mentioned briefly about the upcoming events at IIMB during the networking sessions.

The panel discussion was a very warm one with biggies like Vasudev Avdhani from the Tata Group,  Karthee Madaswamy from Qualcomm Ventures, Elmar Stroomer and Pradeep from Enviu, and Shashidhara K from Blueray Solar joining together with the audience to understand deeper aspects of opportunities in Clean Tech in India, and part of the discussion involved topics such as solar power, rechargeable dance floor, and hybrid autorickshaw project in India.

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­ We had a new concept of categorized business card collection and folks dropped their cards in to boxes with different labels such as web services, product based startups and so on. We also had a graffitti board up during the networking session for people to put in their thoughts about Startup Saturday events! Bangalore Mirror and StartupNews.in were present amongst the audience and did an excellent job of interacting with the audience. The audience enthu was brimming, and was visible during the networking session!

View more pics 

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Sharpening some tools?!

Now this is 'also' a good way to look at things that happened in my German and Japanese language courses. My mind went through a series of experiences that we undergo as kids, but never notice. The experiences made me renew my methods of memorizing, practicing, implementing (in short, naturalizing) the process of learning something new. It also helped my brain to correlate seemingly unconnected events that helped me in the process of learning. The differences between Japanese and German are wide in terms of the way of communication, the mannerism used, the characters and pronunciations, and the business etiquette.

It was not a new experience to learn a new language in both cases, given the kind of experiences I have with languages in India. I speak with my wife (my significant half!) using Marathi and Hindi, with my parents in Oriya and English, and with friends in Bengali (Score - 3/5), Bahasa (Indonesian; am very weak in this though!), and with taxi folks using Kannada, Tamil, and/or Telugu (In Telugu, I know expletives, 'How are you' with related conversations, and 'I Love You!')!! Apart from this, at office, I have a team white-board called 'Words of the Day' which I maintain in Japanese and German - this was after an in-house inter-cultural training.

In all this, the point I want to say is that it creates a state of mind that allows encryption/decryption abilities to be honed. It helps improve your emotion-switching skills (which is really important in daily business communication) and also helps you increase your failure/success-handling abilities (think, how!?). It makes you look at fellows in a totally different way (remember, I said 'different'). My ears/eyes/hands and mind got together once more - probably, in this fast world, we really forget to sharpen our basic skills. This was the way I used a seemingly boring matter (for an adult) learning newer languages into something that will help me sharpen my learning speed.

The world is beautiful with (human) emotions. Even animals have emotions (think about babies too!). And I feel excited to know some stuff in sign-language as well (I love spending time with special kids.)

[See a wiki stuff on 'How to learn a new language' Disclaimer! - Don't think I agree to everything on that - everyone is unique in their disability in learning!! ]

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How Individuals Could Help India's Infrastructure

By SUDIP BANDYOPADHYAY

 

The single largest problem facing India on its path towards economic glory is the lack of adequate infrastructure. Every aspect of infrastructure in our country is decades behind the developed world and even our Southeast Asian neighbors. The pace of infrastructure development in the Gulf region and in some African countries is probably better than that in India. Every area of our economic endeavors – be it agriculture, industry or services -- is suffering seriously due to the absence of adequate infrastructure support. There is a crying need for the government to take vital steps in this direction. Massive infrastructure spending at this stage will set in motion a huge virtuous economic chain reaction which would definitely benefit the overall economy significantly. Read full article...

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Theories of Entrepreneurship

Theories of Entrepreneurship

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I want to dream..

"jaage hain der tak
hamen kuch der sone do
thodi si raat aur hai
subah to hone do...
aadhe adhure khwaab jo
pure na ho sake
ek baar phir se neend mein
woh khwaab bone do"

Contact me for a translation, in case you didn't get the meaning.

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Dearth of Product Companies in India - repeat call!?

One of my articles published on the NSRCEL Blog

We were lucky as well as unlucky to have missed the industrial revolution during its birth pangs - we got the stuff once it was already in a shape in the west. If it was the first car that was made or the first record player that played music, the entirety of products came up in some form in the west. This had a dual effect of having some form of product on the one hand (acceleration of technology use in the society) and forgetting to develop newer products in the country. We always had a thought that the product gets developed in the west and then it is migrated in an appropriate form to countries like India. (In fact, if a Indian product really comes up, it is not looked at with the same respect as the one born outside the country!) And now with folks like Friedmann singing about the services industry, the media and the public in general are in a euphoria of being the services capital of the globe, forgetting and unfortunately, ignoring the importance of product development in India. The number of original products developed in India has been very less, in comparison to the other aspects of industry. Well, we need to look at the long term effects of this assumed 'high'!

Whether it be post-independence economic policies, or a rush to get richer quicker by providing services (rather than wait for the full development cycle of a product), there are numerous reasons to look at. But the time has come when indegenous products from India have to be honored, with services being looked as the cream on the milk.

How do you think most developed countries have been able to remain competitive? According to NSF (National Science Foundation, USA), “High-technology industries are driving economic growth around the world”.

Although a lot has started happening in encouraging products as the main motive for development, we have to push the pedal harder. “Even during the recent, slow-growth, ‘post-bubble’ period (2000–03), high-technology industry continued to lead global growth at about four times the rate of all other manufacturing industries.”

Is this article dated by a few years - because it seems, that with people like Mahindra, Tata and Bharat Forge, we do have a product oriented approach!? Well, this article, is not really dated - it is just a reminder for the intense focus that we need to have when we go ahead with products. The definition of product from being a physical entity has been shattered. We need to have the central idea that can materialize into a definite form, and that can by itself sustain the services industry that we are proud of.

To quote a random internet user (login Dharma - no link):

Its hard to build product companies when the markets for these products are elsewhere. Now, with India emerging as a major market for high-tech products/services, its only a matter of time before we have some product-based entrepreneurial success stories coming out of India. I personally know several different entrepreneurs in B’lore working on ambitious product ventures. What is needed now is a combination of (1) govt regulation, (2) infrastructure development, and (3) seed/early-stage support from “mentor” funds/VCs to nurture this budding ecosystem. The service companies have done a great job building up Brand India, and the folks who have made lots of money in the process have an unique opportunity to give back to Indian IT by helping with (3) above.

We do not want to undermine the software services companies - they have contributed brilliantly to the economy - we just should not over-enthusiastic with this and tend to lose a product oriented approach.

Again, quoting Sramana Mitra, in an address to IITians:

In the last decade, IT has sucked all other engineering disciplines dry of their best minds. Even the IIT Civil Engineers and Mechanical Engineers are writing low-level software for Oracle or IBM. If you continue at this rate, none of the other major disciplines will get their rightful share of leadership that is your responsibility to provide.

This may look like a repeat call for a product based economy - but in today's world, it does have its significance.

Any thoughts!?

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'Closer-to-life' Tech

One of my articles published on the NSRCEL Blog

With the buzz about cleantech going around, it seems to be very interesting to find companies investing more and more technologies that are closer to the survival issues of living beings. What started as a revolution in the auto industry with the introduction of diesel and gasoline as the driving fuels for automobiles, has now turned into a simmering source of pollutants that very well threaten the climate around us. It is like all the oil in the oil wells of the globe has been spread out horizontally over the earth through numerous vehicles and has been put on fire.

What exactly does the word clean mean in the term cleantech? Is is clean with respect to the harmful substances spewed by any process or is it the re-cyclability factor of any substance that makes it 'clean'? Apart from the auto industry, there are thousands of other processes which need to employ cleaner technologies and we have seem some improvements due to cleaner methods being used. If you look at the textlie industry, or at the pharma industry, there are numerous holes to be plugged. We are sitting in a room that is fast getting filled up with water and while we are busy plugging the bigger holes, the smaller holes are getting bigger.

When you look at startups and cleantech together, it seems to be a major fad that people are going with. With numerous b-plans that bank upon emerging technologies and industries, based on principles of biology, resource efficiency, and second-generation production concepts in basic industries. To begin with, there is an estimation of the human-caused results of industrialization - examples include: ozone hole, acid rain, desertification, and global warming.
In the 2007 report compiled by Dow Jones VentureSource, numbers show a strengthening trend in clean technology investments worldwide. A record sum of over $3 billion was poured into 221 clean clean technology deals globally in 2007, representing a 43% increase compared to $2.1 billion in 2006.
Looking on the innovations side, people are going to the very limits of their imagination - we have a working model of a battery that sustains itself on 'air'! (Have a look here.) The new design has the potential to improve the performance of portable electronic products and give a major boost to the renewable energy industry. The batteries will enable a constant electrical output from sources such as wind or solar, which stop generating when the weather changes or night falls.
We are moving closer to sustainability - we got to maintain balance - for, like all of us, our planet too is vulnerable beyond an extent! Any thoughts?!

When I was 5 years old

From a google image search:

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The World Without Us

A good pic to think on! Thanks to ArchiDose.org.

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Of foster parenting and technology marketing

One of my  articles published on the NSRCEL Blog

The state of technology marketing in India (and else where) is something that is of prime concern for the introduction of new products and the so-called buzz being created to focus on innovative products in SW. We have mostly been a service based economy as far as IT is concerned and there is a sentiment of venture gurus to focus more on innovation, so as to sustain and lead in this arena. Many folks blame the marketing fellows to have failed in sustaining innovation, even if technical folks are busy creating newer ideas. A number of product companies funded by well-known money mines are being shelved, and the blame goes to the entrepreneurs behind these ideas. Are they really failing? Many of them get swallowed by the biggies such as MS and Google (the founders consider it success for them if they have been bought over by a bigger player!).

        

I believe there is an amazing mismatch between marketing fellows and the techies, and this is the primary reason that they fail. People at the top are unable to comprehend, where buckets-full of money is vanishing in the name of branding a product. For every failure in the market, there are many success stories - sometimes the smaller fish is bought over by a giant or simply shelved into file-13.

I was interacting with the marketing fellow of a techie product - we did not know that he was not a PhD and not a techie fellow, until his boss revealed. The depth of understanding he had about 'how his product is going to help the customer' was superb. Another example, I would suggest a fellow from Mathworks Inc, who was completely from the sales and marketing side - the clarity he had about the usability of the product was the inspiration to even think of an alternative solution to the tool we were using at hand. You have to keep in mind, just two things - make the customer understand the technology involved in a very simple manner, and secondly, you have got to get the right price. Many marketing fellows avoid the most important questions, saying that they'll get back to the tech team. And some others, over-promise the merits of the product without even taking the tech team into confidence.

It is very difficult (particularly for the bigger companies, who are the guys with the money), to shift from a software tool to a newer one. They keep working with the older tool because their client overseas has not yet upgraded to the latest version or the newer tool in discussion.

Pouring money to marketing of technology is never going to work in the long run and we keep lamenting the disappearance of innovative SW. It has to (blame it to Darwin or to anyone) vanish unless sustained in a motherly way (marketing folks always have a mix of fear for tech and over-commitment, making them almost step-parental). In the same lines, we need more and more tech fellow develop the ability to market for themselves or assist the marketing fellow (instead of looking at the marketing fellow as a money-minded jerk who gets paid for 'just babbling'). In many successful companies, the pitching team always comprises of a combination of a tech person and a non-tech person.

We got to evolve. SW ideas evolve faster than they get accepted in the market. Secondly, SW ideas come to shape faster than bigger project's life cycle. Example, an Airbus 380 project had loss in billions of USD just because the SW they used underwent a major version upgrade. For this reason, the bigger projects prefer to freeze the SW till the project is delivered and the support for the project continues with the same tool. Its like, you have ten soaps on the shelf to take bath with, you'd generally choose one for the whole period of the bath (the project). Can you say that another soap which was bought while you were busy bathing has failed, for you!? Every innovation is important - to make it viable  in the business sense needs planned effort.

It is high time that VCs and the folks whose money is involved, get deeper into the idea behind an idea, than just playing with spreadsheets. It has become like the discussion between a foster parent with her teenage daughter - the adult is not interested in going into details of what the teenager wants to prove, and the teenager does not want to or is incapable of explaining the real meaning of her intentions. The money-folks keep looking at the halo over the head of the inventor, and the inventor may lack the basics of explaining the money aspects of the innovation. Unfortunately, the idea gets shelved!

Money (funnily, many folks really understand it as muscle power - its true!) plus better marketing/entreprenuers can make more number of SW innovations see the light of the day - and we need not lament dying innovations (due to Darwin stuff about evolution and the survival of the fittest) - if people can do without them, they will.

Incubators such as NSRCEL are a great source of a collection of mentors who bridge this gap to a large extent. You will find people who are interested in both technology and money, (in an equally ignorant way!), so as to look at the better aspects of both. When you look at an idea from a non-rejection perspective, and with all the patience that it deserves, it will evolve faster and healthier. "Generally at the NSRCEL no Idea is rejected." And if you observe, the gap between the marketing and the techies are being filled by appropriate support from NSRCEL. To have the right kind of folks do the job they are best at is the focus. This will help the techies focus on innovation and would make sense when the need of the hour is to focus on innovative products.

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