I have collected over a million miles travelling between US, India and China and must be one of the many who has frequent miles on American, Air India and Air China. Sometimes I think this blog should have been titled as “A Perspective from Seat 3 B” as many of my thoughts emanate from the interesting conversations I have with fellow travelers in 3 A and 3 C. When combined with the thoughts that come from voracious reading (also mostly done when in transit!) and thought provoking discussions with some of the best minds in the world today, what emerges is a compelling stream of thought. In the last 20 yrs, travelling through various geographies, I have surprised myself by arriving at conclusions based on this stream of thought – I call them distant signals which will become drum beats fairly quickly!
The distant signals today indicate that the markets have moved Eastwards but the mindset is essentially Western. A disaster waiting to happen is evident on the ground as West meets East with over-engineered products, complex systems and armchair decision making. The East, as I see, is meeting West with entrepreneurship, ground breaking thoughts and cost breaking markets with migrating population happy to be on the ground to create market understanding.
This post is for those who believe in the West’s domination of the world and for some more enlightened souls who smell an opportunity in a “collaborative enterprise” between West and East. There is urgency for action here and now, because tomorrow, like the automobile industry has shown us, the East may not need the West. If the current inflow of capital in showcase institutions of the West from East is not an indicator of what is to follow, I don’t know what other proof one is waiting for. This post was written way before the cash started moving from East to West but I dare say I predicted it and predicted a lot more – this is just a beginning.
However the optimist that I am, I see only opportunities huge opportunities in the marriage of ideas, intellect, spirit and markets in building global corporations of the size and scale the world has not seen so far. Imagine a corporation with management robustness of West and entrepreneurial enterprise of East, capital markets of West and cost consciousness of East , engineering innovation of West and development excellence of East – imagine the Blue ocean opportunity for creating global operations in the world of ever changing realities where the past has no relevance for future.
The critical question is will it happen as a collaboration or transfer of power. Well if I could tell you that I would predict the future, which I can’t. However I will end with a note of caution – we do know that West can’t do it alone-let us not quickly assume that East can.
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Hi Vineet,
This is the first time I am reading your blog. Intersting Observation and Prediction. I only differ on one aspect that is why we need to have western mind and eastern entrepreneur skills?
We have seen crashing of management skills (Lehman Brothers, Merril Lynch, Societe Generale etc.) for whatever reasons it may be. Why cant eastern people innovate their own management skills and let western world follow it.
Let the "Collaborative Enterprise" be fully eastern, participants can be from different countries and let your other observations and prediction come true, It would be a different world.
Amen! to all your predictions and observations.
I am overwhelmed with your perspective and its presentation!
Mr Nayar, Very thoughtful and true indeed. I also feel east is growing because of the cash flow from west.East still lacks the money.All we need innovation. Mostly the big brands are from west.Japanese auto and electronics, Indian IT though have penetrated the western market we may have to go longway in other domains. We may need something like wall steert,LSE in east. As indians we may have to overcome the fear. By fear I mean to say the anxiousness of getting promoted, fear of loosing a hepty salaried job, future family planning etc etc. I will not write more.Don’t want to make a big one.Just thought of posting my thoughts. Thanks for the post.It is always valuable to read justified blogs.
I agree that collaborative enterprise is surely going to be the future but the big question is how close we are to that “flat world” future? It’s true that China and India are potential economic superpowers, but that being said, we cannot deny the fact that the physical infrastructure in the east is still a big issue, quality of the skilled resources we have is increasingly becoming a matter of concern. Also, what’s happening currently is creating isolated isles of economic growth around the big cities in the east and this to my mind leads to creating a social divide. So the question is, if these factors above really seem laying the foundation for “collaborative global enterprise” any soon?
It feels great that the automobile industry in the east has carved a niche for itself, and perhaps does not need the west anymore. But let us talk about the IT industry, which is majorly responsible for getting the east recognized on the global map.
In the last decade this industry has shown some phenomenal innovation in global brand building and created some real great delivery and business models from nowhere. For the most part, this is an export based industry. Here is the point where I see the stance differing from the automobile industry. Largely the intellectual property still remains with big firms of the west (We still depend on the operating systems, microprocessors etc…). The east doesn’t seem coming up with ground breaking technological innovation. Where are we striving for the independence here? I don’t want to be away with the fairies, but realize that a working framework for the “collaborative enterprise” can only be built, if we do first things first. A growth for all approach, generating better quality resources, improving the physical infrastructure are the few pre-requisites for creating “Collaborative Global Enterprise”.My question to you sir, is the one I started with, based on your unprecedented insight, how soon do you see the collaborative enterprise coming?
Hello Vineet ,
West reaching out to East- its true and interesting. Spending at all levels in West is being checked the other side of the double edged tool is the educated masses available in East. Why would anyone like to spend more if nearly the same quality is available for lesser price ?
Unfortunately for the two major giants in east , India and China the population has been a bottleneck and this is repeated allowing the west to bring down the competitive price in the market . Collaborative enterprise would improve more in days ahead but the market size may not significantly grow but more players from east would like to get the slice of cake. Hence the first movers are the ones likely to benefit , they can drive with good strategy.