
Why Indian IT firms are hiring failed entrepreneurs - deusclovis
http://www.livemint.com/Industry/tDr4iXm1d5dYNPisSY9sHP/Why-Indian-IT-firms-are-hiring-failed-entrepreneurs.html
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plinkplonk
The subheading of TFA is

"Eyeing fresh business from outsourcing clients, IT firms are creating start-
ups focused on disruptive technology "

riiight. You create 'disruptive' startups to get more T&M projects by
projecting an image of kewl.

There is a lot of unintended hilarity in that article.

"A banking customer that has huge data is asking why I can’t do what Google is
doing with data. "

Duh, that question is going to get a very long or a very short answer.

"At Wipro, Sajjad Hussain, a company veteran based in the San Francisco Bay
Area, is busy creating a start-up organization that can compete with the best
and most disruptive ventures in the valley. "

uh oh watch out stripe, YC etc. All your best engineers are going to leave for
Wipro!

As someone who has friends working in TCS (and other "service companies in
India) and so hear about the various shenanigans that go on in this particular
bodyshop, I'll just say that any "entrepreneur" who joins TCS deserves
everything (s)he gets.

~~~
thewarrior
Your snark is misplaced. Atleast they're trying to change. You can't go from
IT services to Silicon Valley overnight.

Though the article was right when it said :

"Some experts feel Indian tech firms should instead be freeing up the talent
they already have to work on the next big thing."

This doesnt happen enough .I work at a small IT firm in India. Its trying to
develop its own apps in a small subsidiary it incubated with its own revenue.
They aren't very successful yet. But understand that things here are changing
and eventually we will catch up. There's too much potential here . Its only a
matter of time.

~~~
r0h1n
Erm, Indian IT services companies aren't exactly youngsters. Here are the
'birthdays' of the biggest four:

\- TCS: 1968 \- Infosys: 1981 \- Wipro: 1966 \- HCL: 1991

To clarify, I'm disputing your "overnight" remark.

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thewarrior
As long as their services divisions were growing fast they had no reason to
look elsewhere. Now that growth in their traditional markets has slowed down
they have no choice but to innovate.

~~~
r0h1n
> Now that growth in their traditional markets has slowed down...

Would you care to clarify what year "now" means?

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r0h1n
An utterly confusing and glib article.

Firstly, it says Indian IT companies are hiring "failed entrepreneurs and
successful VCs" without specifying what that means, or why that should be the
case.

As another commenter has pointed out, the entrepreneurs being hired are
"experienced" (I'd even say "ex-entrepreneurs"), not "failed" ones. There's no
evidence as to why they "failed". Did they go bankrupt? Did they grow at less
than industry average? And what company on earth goes looking for "failed
entrepreneurs" by design?

Conversely, why are "successful VCs" joining staid services companies that are
poor paymasters? Doesn't make sense.

The combination - "failed executives and successful VCs" is even more
hilarity. What is the logic? [Edited a typo]

~~~
danohuiginn
"And what company on earth goes looking for "failed entrepreneurs" by design?"

One weighing cost/benefit. Failed entrepreneurs will be easily an order of
magnitude cheaper than their successful counterparts. If you think you can
identify and correct why they failed, you have a good source of talent. e.g.
"this person was great at product development but lousy at business
administration, so we'll give her a CTO role"

There are workable strategies other than "get the very best, and pay the moon
for them"

~~~
avemuri
Yahoo seems to have done it. Successfully.

~~~
r0h1n
Are you sure you're not conflating true disruption with media coverage/stock
price appreciation?

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mark_l_watson
I just (temporarily) moved to Silicon Valley three weeks ago to work as a
contractor at Google (fun and interesting!). The whole area of Silicon Valley
has a vibe of energy and wealth. My wife's and my permanent home is in the
mountains of Central Arizona where the ill effects of the current economy are
so clearly visible. It feels good to be at an epicenter of wealth generation,
and I am going to enjoy this area as much as possible while we are here.

I used to think that there are compelling economic reasons to start tech
businesses in much less expensive cost of living areas, but it is difficult to
argue with the success of his area.

It makes sense that Indian IT companies would also want an R&D presense here.

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ashwinm
They are not failed they are experienced entrepreneurs.

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partyanimal
this is a big improvement over this article.

"Indian IT firm accused of discrimination against “stupid Americans"

[http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2013/08/indian...](http://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2013/08/indian-it-firm-accused-of-discrimination-against-stupid-
americans/)

