It was a great joy for myself and the Encanvas team to launch our 'Squork' secure and live business social networking technology in Lucknow, India this month with our partners US Tech. We were cheerfully surprised by the enthusiasm that exists in India for new technology - even when it's technology that changes the paradigm of business computing and asks people to consider new ways of working. (A big thanks to the IIM-L team for making us so welcome!).
Through a series of meetings with leaders of academia and business around the purpose and opportunities offered by Squork business social networking, surfaced the fundamental reason why I believe India will be the powerhouse of world markets in the next decade.
You see, here's my point:
In Europe and the USA, I see IT leaders playing a game of 'got, not got' over the building blocks of IT technology in support of their enterprise computing stacks that always reminds me of the game we used to play as kids swapping football player cards with our friends at the school gate. It seems every IT leader has to have at least one of every technology genre whether it achieves a business outcome or not. So I'm always being quizzed by CIOs about 'what Encanvas displaces' and 'where does Encanvas (and Squork) fit' in the enterprise IT stack? This focus on innovation is firmly pinned to their NOW, and the norms of understanding and behavior as they see them today. They are focused too much on DOING THINGS BETTER and think too little about DOING BETTER THINGS.
Never once did I have that schoolyard conversation in India. The most common question was this: "How will Encanvas help me to achieve 100% growth in the next 2 to 3 years?"
This is a much more relevant business conversation.
It's not secret that companies around the world have spent millions on IT, and yet - with an average of 15 business intelligence tools, tens (sometimes hundreds) of shrink-wrapped software products, workflow tools, search tools, mapping tools etc. - most middle managers and C-level execs. still complain about the fit between IT and their business information needs. Nomatter how we measure it, IT has not, does not, deliver agile information systems that always stay in tune with the way organizations want to work.
In Indian I found businessmen and women who aren't shackled by the IT investment they've already made. Instead, they're interested in the potential of IT to be a competitive differentiator. The question they want answering is how technology can deliver the growth they want to see.I'm convinced that, as long as new innovation delivers on its promises, they will happily throw out their current IT - AND ITS ASSOCIATED NORMS OF BEHAVIOR - without a thought.
And that's why Encanvas is in India.
I don't mind so much sitting in meetings with IT leaders in Western Europe and the USA evidencing how the world of Web 2.0 - with its enterprise mashups, drag and drop mapping, agile business intelligence, instant mobile apps and business social networking solutions - can make a step-change difference to business growth. I don't mind because I know that for every stick in the mud corporate gate-keeper there are other IT leaders who are thinking about business outcomes and it's always fun to help any and all of these people to find their own reasons to change their perspectives on the potential of IT to bring about a competitive advantage.
New web 2.0 technology platforms like Encanvas that are built for cloud computing and a new generation of IT savvy business people are unstoppable in the hands of entrepreneurs and creative people with uncluttered minds. And today, there are more of those people in India.
If we are to see economies in the USA and Western Europe remain as major players in global business markets, somehow we need to get more business people (and particularly IT leaders) thinking more about the 100% growth of their organizations, and less about the completeness of their IT stack. The 'got, not got' game of corporate IT procurement has got to come to an end.
How? Beats me.
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