Need for an Innovation Economy

Let's face it.

When the world was celebrating a Facebook and a Twitter, we were happy to celebrate the number of followers we had. Our point of noise was - 'I have been on facebook since 2009...Hah! I am technologically superior'.

When the world was using skype and China was ripping it off to create multiple talk platforms.....we were writing the code that foreigners were asking us to. When China was banning Whattsapp and Google and creating a Baidu and We Chat...we were happy to ignore our local platforms such as Hike and others.....They were just not good enough.

Well ...you know what? Even Baidu and We Chat were not good enough....but they are getting there.

Today there is a difference between our corporate success and theirs. A Tesla, A FB...even an Amazon and a Sony have created a new world paradigm in the time that Reliance and Tatas and Birlas (all venerable institutions in themselves) have become behemoths by exploiting resources like iron, spectrum, coal, petroleum, gas and of course PEOPLE...(Millions of people writing codes .... and picking telephone calls......and remotely accessing systems and all sorts of things....the new menials as it were)

When was the last time that a real innovation came out of India? Something new .... Something that would become a brand in it's own right?

Yoga ?

Taj Mahal ?

Years back, I submitted a proposal to the higher ups. My team and I had worked out an app that would be a talent share of 15 seconds to 30 seconds on the cloud .... We thought it was a path breaking thing.....Our seniors did not. They said Youtube already existed and that we were wasting our time despite an Elevator pitch that looked kind of good to us.

I dont have the power of hindsight to tell them at that time 'Sir, TIK TOK is a huge success".

Corporate India is littered with dreams that died young. Every higher up has only ONE over riding agenda......STATUS QUO......

It is not their fault. It is just what they were trained to do. Damn, we go to town talking about disruption...but we dont really want that...Do we? After all, after years of poverty and static growth, we don't really want to take chances do we?

#innovation #india #needofthehour