Over the years, siliconindia (sister magazine of The Smart Techie) has evolved into an authoritative platform for Global Indians to share their experiences, views, and ideas in the fields of technology and business.

To commemorate its tenth anniversary, siliconindia organized the ‘siliconindia Leadership Summit’ in Bangalore on August 31, 2007. Over 400 executive-level professionals from technology companies, who excel at innovation, engaged in business transformation, and are busy building highly efficient work forces, attended the Summit.

The Summit was a full day event with four keynote speakers and nine panel speakers. Sharad Sharma, CEO, Yahoo! India R&D, addressed the keynote on ‘From Offshoring to Incubation - A Dream Realized’. Talking about the need for moving from offshore services to incubation he said, “Only three kinds of people will excel in the coming era of incubation – people aspiring to lead in the global center of excellence, intrapreneurs (entrepreneurs within an organization) and entrepreneurs.”

A talk on ‘Identifying Great Leaders Early’, by Ramesh Srinivasan, EVP, Bally Technologies, gripped the audience’s attention. In his talk, Srinivasan brought out many unconventional traits of a prospective leader. “A potential leader is a rebel, customer pleasing, dedicated to work, mentors his peers, and is not perhaps a long term planner,” Srinivasan said.

Just before lunch, Dr. Vivek Mansingh, Country Manager, Dell India R&D, enlightened everyone with a speech on ‘Leadership through success: The Ramayana Way!’. He brought forward Lord Rama’s teachings on leadership in context with today’s world. A beautiful comparison of the strengths and qualities of a good leader with the various parts of a warrior’s chariot held everyone in awe.

The second half of the summit started with a keynote from Dr. Biswadip Mitra, MD, Texas Instruments India. He spoke on ‘Leadership traits for an emerging market’. Explaining why one could invest in technology that would bring about a revolution in the emerging market of wireless, colour TV, and cinema among others, Mitra said, “Not much is known about this new category of consumers in India known as the ‘aspirers’. They are the ones that are driving the trend towards future rich electronic equipments and value-added service models.”

The closing keynote by C. Mahalingam (Mali), Senior VP – HR, Symphony Services, on ‘Managing leadership derailers’, left every one laughing their heads off, due to the humor laced speech. Explaining about leadership derailers Mali said, “As we succeed in our endeavors, over a period of time we tend to develop certain qualities that are disturbing to others. Eventually we start believing that these annoying little qualities are the factors that help us succeed. Get a feedback from your peers and correct such faults.”

Heads of India R&D centers of Akamai Technologies, AppLabs, Bally Technologies, BEA Systems, GlobalLogic, Infineon Technologies, Philips, and many others also shared their views and opinions at the Summit.

The Summit was a dynamic forum for lively conversations and penetrating questions about the business, technology, innovation, and opportunities.