NASSCOM EMERGE Community Catalyst for Growth of Emerging & Start-Up companies

Think of getting the list of IT SMEs and Start Ups in India with following characterstics

a) cos having differently disabled people on the co roll or on contract

b) cos operating using people coming from 2nd tier, 3rd tier or 4th Tier institutions/academic background.

We must shortlist and recognise the foremost examples of BOLDNESS and LEADERSHIPS by such organizations spread around, which could be a TAKEAWAY for other start ups and new cos.  I know such class of people have contributed significantly to the IT cos business and operations. Look at the Ideals of the entreprueners who employed such human resources. Hats Off to them.

It will be a trend setter for institutional inspirations and help dis-advantaged techies.

Of course we must do due deligence or get it vetted by Nasscom activists who make sure the facts are right.

Dear Mr. Raja,

Thank you. We are showcasing some of these companies at our annual conference - NILF. Vindhya, RuralShores & ZOHO are some of the companies who have done some good work.

Regards,

Avinash

Why not have a CIO - Emerge company match making session - almost in the form of speed dating.

Tech Expo on Feb 4th was really succesful. This can be repeated for more CIO's/ Company combinations.

Participating companies put up a profile, CIO's indicate whom they wish to meet and sessions are set up during the particular time. All companies with appointments with at least one CIO are then invited - may be to present to the full audience.

CIOs have no time and interest in analysing GARDEN VARIETY offerings. Prior screening is basic requirement to enable enough time and thinking time to differentiate if the offerings are well differentiated and killer idea or just ME TOO.

Obviously public open scrutiny is not fair or advisable. Speed dating is OK for body reading and smelling.

Not enough for "PARDE KE PICHE KYA HAI". पारडे के पिचे क्या हे.

The post definitely indicated that 'Garden variety and body reading/ smelling varieties' are not welcome. Only those profiles which CIO's are interested to talk to are welcome.

Obviously if one CIO is interested and the emerging company has spent time coming to the event, there should be a possibility to meet the others. In the recent Tech Expo, 10 global CIO's moved to alternate rooms every 30 minutes so that they did not have to waste set up time for the presentations and could meet all vendors with adequate face time.

I am of the opinion that events of this nature succeed in the long run only if there is a 'skin in the game' beyond the knowledge gaining varieties.

Any way - only a suggestion and I guess the veterans in this will know more.

George

A session that focuses on firms that do cutting edge work out of Tier 2 cities can be organized.  There are a good number of firms that are working on innovative solutions across the country, but they lack a platform to showcase their work. NASSCOM EMERGEOUT can act as a catalyst by providing them a platform to present their wares.  

Subbiah, Thank you. Do you want to suggest some companies. Happy to explore.

Thanks.

Avinash

Do we have a theme for the conclave yet?

Theme: "Inclusive Growth via Entrepreneurship"? Too complicated?

Sounds politically correct for sure :-)

@Kishore :Does it mean inclusive growth and Entrepreneurship are in some way inter-twined ?

I do agree your thought in Inclusive growth is very good. Maybe change it to "Inclusive growth via IT Innovation" ?

This will allow both the entrepreneurs and the social folks to talk about case-studies.

@Avinash : IMHO, there should be a showcase of how IT is being taken to the grassroots @ villages / schools and what possible impact can be driven ?

Disclosures : Possibility of conflict (being a trustee) with www.sikshana.org where we've distributed over 9000 "my laptop in a chip" idea as against the OLPC concept.

I am not sure if this is a priority for EMERGEOUT - it surely is an issue for NASSCOM to address at the broad level. The EMERGE cos need something more mainstream to their issues.

The idea of clustering / collaboration /co-operation amongst EMERGE companies is gaining ground. My suggestion would be to identify a theme around this space.

Arvind

In my opinion, inclusive growth should be the mantra for big companies rather than emerging companies. They seem to be the one to gain from all the e-governance projects given the high entry barriers small companies face.

Lets therefore focus on something that smaller companies can gain from - Here is a suggestion

''World class innovation in well chosen niche markets''

@Ravi, yes, I did mean that the two are intertwined. But I recognize that this is NOT a theme for EMERGEOUT - we do need something more "mainstream".

Co-operation is a possibility, but I don't see too many successes we can talk of - maybe I just don't know of them.

Having talked to Manav Garg of Eka Software at length recently, the "world class" and "niche market" combination seems interesting,  but is it interesting enough to a large number of members? 

Thank you for your inputs. Few observations:

1. We could do a session with the CIOs. Match making session can be explored. We have a partnership with the CIO association and we could explore this.

2. Instead of Inclusive Growth..we should focus on World Class, niche markets. Inclusive growth as mentioned above is a largish agenda and there are some things which we are already doing for companies.

3. We could talk about co-operation/collaboration. Also, one of the things we could ideate is on forming the cluster approach...how will it work.?

4. Should we have any focus on e-governance.? (We could get some good insights from Mr. Sanjiv Mital who heads NISG now.?)

Please do share your thoughts on the theme.

Thank you again.

Avinash

The Future of Indian IT

As it appears, multiple views are generated with different goals. Just check if following can be the focus categories

- one for learning by SMEs - new techniques, new practices - success and failure experience of others, DOs and DONTs from peers, THOUGHT LEADERS, ANALYSTS, MENTORS  

- second for innovative business techniques worth everyone to know- 2-3 examples

-third for getting new business entries into large corporates /thru their CIOs, new countries/govt bodies

- fourth to recognise IT SMEs who managed using differently abled staff

- fifth to recognise IT SMEs who depend on workforce - rural and 2 /3 tier educational background, poor English knowledge/fluency but excellent workplace contribution ... 

Networking and business opportunities are rightly deserved, but how many set ups are prepared with quality touchpoints, case for differential, robust arguments to justify their market place. How do we help start ups learn NAVIGATION by learning from PITFALLS suffered by SMEs of 5-10 years experience. How do we help these 5-10 years old energetic SMEs break the barriers of their own first.

Missing the goals every querter/ year for SMEs must make them STIRR OUT, and look OUT OF THE BOX, using Nasscom EMERGE. It is a great chance for those handicapped and suffering. That is where biggest ROI lies for members and non members who participate.

Extending current success formula by accessing CIOs etc are no less important, but that should be fairly easy if we have built a CREDIBLE STORY otherwise.

Publicity in coming weeks may highlight to sell the points

- how you can increase drastically topline and bottomline by benchmarking your existing offerings/sustainable market position

- how differently abled workforce and from rural and tier 2-3 institutions can do magic for your organization by far dependable work commitments

I had an interesting epiphany moment while reading thru Raja's post. So far we have been talking about emerging companies in a single bracket. Clearly this is a macro view of things. The needs and challenges of a 0-2 year old kid company are different from those of a 3-5 year young company and/or a 5-10 year old young adult company. Who knows there may even be 10+ year olds in the EMERGE category.

Can our one-size-fits-all approach work in the real EMERGE world? Should we not look at serving all constituents with specific discussions?

I for one would be very interested in a session where we could have case studies on their own evolution presented by the CEOs - 3 companies in 3 stages; so others can listen; be inspired and aspire.

Arvind

Raja: You are very sharp and sensible.

The topc for 4th and 5th point can be : An untapped IT - the Indian Talent. Some of the useless recruitment criteria can be addressed as well.

Dear Evangelists,

Sorry, for joining the partly late.

What about doing a theme around "Indian Domestic Market - The new US".

Today I was reading newspaper that says there are 40Crore GSM Subscribers. We can also bring in perspectives like "How IT can repeat what mobile has done?"

Thanks,
Suresh