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The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

August - 2011 - issue > STARTUP CITY

How to build a world class technology company in India?

Vimali Swamy
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Vimali Swamy
It is often said, that great technology companies do not come out of a vacuum but from technology disruption or big changes in the market forces or customer forces. While India has witnessed a great success in the IT industry with its prowess in services, the last decade is seeing a new wave in the industry where many are making a great attempt to move from the services legacy left by the likes of Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant and others. But the new generation of entrepreneurs that has gripped the Indian IT industry is focusing on buzz words like “software product” and “Intellectual Property”. It is observed that though are and have been great ideas that have been circling the market, a very few actually hit the spot and created a name for themselves. In most cases what seems to be missing is that ‘X’ factor that perhaps holds the key to an entrepreneur’s success.

So what does it actually take to build a world class technology company in India? This was the question that was addressed at the CEO Conclave held by SiliconIndia in its flagship event - Startup City in Bangalore.

Are you ready to be an entrepreneur?

One has heard the clichéd talk of an entrepreneur needing a passion and belief in his or her ideas and not giving up on it but there seems to be a need for more than that if one truly wants to be able to build a successful product. Dr. Vivek Mansingh, President - Collaboration & Communications Group, Cisco India, advises that though entrepreneurship is becoming a trend today among the youth, but one must not jump into this bandwagon unless you are sure you are ready for the long haul. He believes that to be an entrepreneur one needs to have certain personality traits. “Startup is not for everyone. Do you have the personality and have demonstrated the abilities in your job so far that makes you believe you are ready for a startup?,” he asks. Ability to think far, having a passion and conviction, ability to persevere, risk taking abilities and strength to face failure, having a thick skin to face rejection, ability to think different are some of the essential personality traits one must posses before joining the startup bandwagon. The best way is to have some honest people around you and let them judge whether you have these qualities, suggests Dr. Mansingh.

Engage with customer: They decide the fate of your company


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