Mercury News recently talked to Narayan Murthy, Chairman of Infosys, on the rise of India. A few things I took away from the article are outlined below. On being asked if this boom was sustainable, Mr. Murthy affirmed, as long as, "... we deliver value to our customers, as long as we attract the best and the brightest professionals, as long as we use speed, imagination and excellent execution -- and improve that. The day we stop doing that, we will disappear like dew on a sunny morning."
Mr. Murthy also made a very important point - the established corporations can make a fortune by focussing at the bottom of the pyramid, which constitutes a 5 billion+ population. I have always wanted to read C K Prahalad's vision in his book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Talking about the bottom of the pyramid, Mr. Murthy brings a very crucial mention of big companies the likes of Microsoft, SAP and Oracle introducing pricing models for countries like India, China and Brazil. Depending upon how they price their offerings for these economies, they stand the opportunity of making them major markets and at the same time reducing piracy rate.
Mr. Murthy's advise on the pricing models for developing countries reminded me of something interesting that I had come across. In the very recent past, HCL introduced sub-10k Rs. low-cost PCs in India. They were finally able to hit a price point which can facilitate wide-spread adoption. With Microsoft not giving them much room on the price, HCL finally went with Linux to maintain their pricing goal. A few weeks back, we heard MIT working on releasing a $100 laptop for the kids of developing countries. Needless to say, Linux once again. On the same subject, the people's PC project in Thailand has most of its PCs running Linux. Microsoft, in an effort to compete for its slipping share reduced the pricing way down to $37. By then, most populace of Thailand, who hadn't even seen a PC before had gotten way too comfortable using Linux.
On the cell-phone side, with companies like Motorola and Philips working diligently on introducing low-cost handsets, the pricing model for developing countries shall dictate who makes the best of these growing economies.
Mr. Murthy also made a very important point - the established corporations can make a fortune by focussing at the bottom of the pyramid, which constitutes a 5 billion+ population. I have always wanted to read C K Prahalad's vision in his book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Talking about the bottom of the pyramid, Mr. Murthy brings a very crucial mention of big companies the likes of Microsoft, SAP and Oracle introducing pricing models for countries like India, China and Brazil. Depending upon how they price their offerings for these economies, they stand the opportunity of making them major markets and at the same time reducing piracy rate.
Mr. Murthy's advise on the pricing models for developing countries reminded me of something interesting that I had come across. In the very recent past, HCL introduced sub-10k Rs. low-cost PCs in India. They were finally able to hit a price point which can facilitate wide-spread adoption. With Microsoft not giving them much room on the price, HCL finally went with Linux to maintain their pricing goal. A few weeks back, we heard MIT working on releasing a $100 laptop for the kids of developing countries. Needless to say, Linux once again. On the same subject, the people's PC project in Thailand has most of its PCs running Linux. Microsoft, in an effort to compete for its slipping share reduced the pricing way down to $37. By then, most populace of Thailand, who hadn't even seen a PC before had gotten way too comfortable using Linux.
On the cell-phone side, with companies like Motorola and Philips working diligently on introducing low-cost handsets, the pricing model for developing countries shall dictate who makes the best of these growing economies.
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