Kris Gopalkrishnan, CEO, Infosys, Delivers Power Talk to Great Lakes' Students

Kris Gopalkrishnan, CEO, Infosys, Delivers Power Talk to Great Lakes' Students

He went on to say, "Access to education, access to information is very important. In the last 30 years, 2 billion new consumers have been added. We can talk about a base of 4 billion new consumers in the world. Around 350 million people are participating

fully in the world economy but the remaining 700 to 800 million people are yet to participate, but there is a lot of potential for countries like India and China. We have to address the needs of a billion people in India in terms of their access to products and services without impacting the environment. We cannot deny the people their needs and we need to find a way to deliver it without impacting the environment. The BRIC countries, the African continent holds opportunities. India has an advantage. Innovation can happen in a saturated market but there is a bigger opportunity to be tapped in India given that 600 million people are yet to avail these services. There is room to achieve economies and bring the price point down in India, which is not possible in the US. The incentive to innovate is lower in the US whereas there is a lot of room to bring the price down and achieve the ROI. Asia has an advantage. In fact, some people term this as the Asian century. Half the world's population is in Asia. India has an advantage in terms of the diversity, religion, culture, states, but it is a single nation. The EU is still trying to figure out how to embrace diversity. Diversity is important when it comes to innovation. It is also important in terms of resilience and risk mitigation. The culture is one of living together inspite of the differences, which reduces the extremes. China and India are predicted to emerge as the economic power-houses of the world. If we go back 400 years, India and China were 20% of the world's GDP. The demography around the world is changing significantly. The older people are increasing in numbers and the people who can add value to the economy are decreasing. Over time, the productivity and the GDP of the economies will decrease. Few people working would have to support a larger number of old people, or in some cases, it is also supported by the government. India has a unique advantage given that its population is mostly young. There is a thin line separating a society, which is at pain, and the one, which is at revolution."

He concluded, "We must be mindful of the fact that the youth need to be equipped to take up jobs and become productive, failing which it can lead to undesirable consequences. In the past, we had a shortage of computer science graduates and the others were going abroad. We recognized this and we introduced a 3.5 month training to mould engineers into software engineers. We need to invest in training, education and leverage technology to create wealth and jobs. Computer technology is 60 years old. The first 30 years were about figuring out what a computer is, the models for computing. Computers were meant for nerds, geeks then. In 1981, personal computing moved to the mainstream, as a productivity tool. There is a pervasive computing environment today and it is impacting every aspect of our life but there is some way to go in terms of integrating these technologies. An example is the GPS in cars, which is available in other countries. This shows how sensors are interacting with humans. Today, we can think about a small device in our hands and it can store libraries of information in the range of terabytes of data. We haven't fully figured out how to use it and I feel the innovation would continue for the next 30 years. We also have biotechnology; nano technology which have lot of potential for innovation and it is intersected by IT. The important traits for success would be the ability to learn, curiosity, authenticity, discipline, passion, problem solving ability, bias for action and measurement. Attitude plays a huge role in shaping these behaviors. We should be able to earn the trust of the people around us. It is important to combine talent with discipline and passion."

He concluded his talk by referring to a poem by Bessie Anderson Stanley about the measures of success.

Concluded.

* Contributed by -
Ranjit Shankar (Campus Associate),
Class of 2009,
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

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