Agree with most of your post, except that you left out the single most important factor in business success: connections.
The fact is that business deals are made on the golf course, not in the boardroom.
Let's not kid ourselves. Every successful businessman claims that he made it on merit, but luck and connections have far more impact than they are given credit.
IMO, too much importance is given to the connections angle. And it is not really understood.
Yes many business deals are made on a golf course, and happen because of connections. Connections are very important.
The fact is - and I have seen this personally - you can make use of all the connections you have
but they don't get you anywhere unless you can show that you can deliver.
And, another thing: there is
nothing wrong with connections. As an Indian my culture taught me to despise connections, the people who got things done 'by the back door'.
Well, a business school education and work experience in the west taught me different. You must aggressively make use of connections to better yourselves; it is not only encouraged, it is expected.
However, connections are made on the basis of a track record; on mutual business capabilities. Not just
bhai bhai attitudes.
It lies in the assumption that you are competent. If you're not, your connections will not matter a damn.
And what is true of individuals is also true of countries. India benefitted extensively in the beginning from its stable government and large expat base in the West. All the infrastructure and business support capabilities you mentioned developed much later, after India had been doing basic call center and grunt programming for several years.
Your stable government and the expat base argument are absolutely right. But to identify them as the only reason is to court failure if you're trying to replicate that success. IMO, the critical reasons for business success are the ones I identified in my earlier post, so I wont go there.
I am not sure what you meant by your infrastructure argument, but here goes a response anyway.
The fact that India had been doing basic call center and grunt work in IT for years actually supports another facet of my argument - business evolution. Obviously a business evolves in stages. The infrastructure and capabilities develop as the business develops. It makes no business sense to have capabilities that exceed your actual output.
So, going back to an earlier example, it makes no sense to produce a mini car if the market is not ready to accept it, if you don't have volumes and if you don't have an after sales service infrastructure (repair shops, spare parts etc) to support it.
(and me too).....
