Sharad Sharma, CEO, Yahoo! India R&D:

You may start your company with a brilliant idea and then look forward to scale up the business, however most of the time the model of scalability changes according to market fluctuations or a myriad other reasons. Market changing disruption and unpredictability as to what the market will look like after 2, 3, or 5 years from the present are important contenders that companies face. Being able to think about the ideas needed to start a business is just half the battle. Being able to execute these ideas, which should make themselves customer worthy is a different ball game altogether.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO & MD, Infosys:

There is a realization today as to what technology can do. Many products in any organization cannot be produced independent of market inflexion or technology disruption. Rather it makes sense to create products with your company’s partners in sync with the need of the customer. Through such co-creation you are enhancing your customer’s value and usability experience.

Praveen Vishakantaiah, President, Intel India:

The customer must be kept in mind while developing products. This makes the technology realizable or visible to customers. Everybody knew what storage is, but Apple went ahead and created the revolutionary iPod, which redefined music storage and ushered in the ‘music-in-your-pocket’ era. Such technology disruptions are created more in the startup realm and less within IT heavyweights as the latter carry the burden of product, people, and processes accumulated over the years. The industry needs to look at the customer needs, than looking at technology for technology’s sake. Tata’s one lakh car, the Nano, is an example where the customer needs were looked into first and what technology needs to be used to achieve the customer needs was figured out later. Startups are poised better to take care of shareholder requirements and the changing culture and mindset of their organizations. The leadership in any company must be attuned to customer preferences to muscle their way into the customer’s heart.

Dr Vivek Mansingh, Country Manager, Dell India R&D:

Your billion-dollar idea can meet with success in India if it is meant to provide solutions for the crying four problems that our country faces currently, and which can be dealt with innovation using IT. This means technology companies cannot exist in a vacuum. The primary four public issues that are muzzling India are sub-standard health services and booming population, lack of cheap energy, illiteracy, and shortage of food. These problems require immediate solutions and IT must bail out India from this conundrum.