If Indians Are So Smart, Then Where Are The Indian Googles, iPads and Viagr

[Jade]

(MBA50.com) This is an interview with Nirmalya Kumar, Professor of Marketing at the London Business School and Co-Director of the school’s Aditya V. Birla India Centre. His work focuses on marketing and the rise of India as an economic force. In 2011 he ranked #26 among the Thinkers50 listing of the world’s top business thinkers.

With the publication of his latest book, India Inside, Kumar and co-author Phanish Puranam asked themselves the question: If Indians are so smart, then where are the Indian Googles, iPads and Viagras? Where is the innovation?

Very quickly they realised that when they asked people that question, interviewees said that the reason is that the Indians are good software programmers and accountants, but they are not very creative. The more sophisticated people said “It’s not that they are not creative, it’s just that the education system in India doesn’t develop creativity.”

So where would they find creativity? They were told to go to Silicon Valley to the most creative companies like Microsoft, Intel, Google. They visited the R&D labs and the innovation centers of these three companies, and in each case they found that an Indian was the head of the innovation center.

So they said, “You must not have been born and brought up in India, because those guys are not very innovative. In each case they had got their full education in India before they went for their final degree to America, so clearly there is more to understand…”

Then they went to Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, and tried to look at what was happening there. And what they found was that the question is wrong.

The Googles, iPods and Viagras are a certain kind of innovation. They are the kind of innovation that the end user sees as a customer. But there are a lot of other kinds of innovation that are happening in India that they call invisible innovation. In every product that we are using today, some part of it was developed in India. It is just that it is not branded “India Inside”.

An example of the kind of innovation that we are seeing over there is process innovation. It is only in India, that millions of young people – smart, educated – dream of working in a call center. So what happens when you get these millions of young kids and you put them in a call center? Very quickly they realize that this is a very boring job, and then they start innovating. And you see all these call centers in India have got what they call an injection of intelligence compared to what they would get if they were located in the West.

If Indians Are So Smart, Then Where Are The Indian Googles, iPads and Viagras? - Forbes

 

[KS]

In USA...

 

[KRAIT]

In USA...

Don't forget to return back and work in India....

 

[pakfoj]

being an indian doesn't just make you smart... Im sure many members would agree.

 

[KRAIT]

being an indian doesn't just make you smart... Im sure many members would agree.

But it certainly makes them PROUD.

 

[IndoCarib]

Smart Indians live elsewhere, not in India

 

[dott]

we made the worlds first intel chip. the phucking gaddar vinod dham, made that chip for intel called the father of intel and then weent on to AMD and made a intel killer . crazy guy ehh..

if i was him, i would come to india immediately and build my own company of processors and india would right now bee at the top of the world in processor. only and only if he had come to india and not sold his designes to intel and amd. what an idiot

 

[Jade]

But it certainly makes them PROUD.

In the west, Indians have become synonymous with intelligence. If you are an Indian, employers have different exceptions from you.

 

[KRAIT]

In the west, Indians have become synonymous with intelligence. If you are an Indian, employers have different exceptions from you.

Most of the professors in foreign universities prefer Indian and Chinese students, they are considered more hard working than their western counterpart.

 

[IndoCarib]

latest feat of a smart Indian american

Indian origin researcher's smart headlights that see through rain

Indian origin researcher's smart headlights that see through rain - Indian Express

 

[cyphercide]

Indians are certainly smarter-than-the-average-kind but are in no ways exceptionally bright.Plus, since when is intelligence measured via your ability to mint money ?

If you think ''Indians are too smart'' then you haven't met many people in the first place.

 

[harpoon]

Most of the professors in foreign universities prefer Indian and Chinese students, they are considered more hard working than their western counterpart.

Yet they end up working for the likes of Bill Gates , Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg who never bothered to finish university.

 

[Jade]

Most of the professors in foreign universities prefer Indian and Chinese students, they are considered more hard working than their western counterpart.

Not only the professors, but also the employers. If you are an Indian, then they expect something 'extra' from you. Sometimes this is bad.

 

[jbond197]

This thread justifies the saying - "Apne mooh miyaan mithoo"

 

[Jade]

Yet they end up working for the likes of Bill Gates , Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg who never bothered to finish university.

Indians are known for their entrepreneurship. Many of start-ups in silicon valley are by Indians. Indians are certainly more visible

How Silicon Valley's new Indian entrepreneurs are blooming in all hues - Economic Times