One of the things that I enjoy about blogging and my travels is it gives me a wonderful opportunity to pick up data points that otherwise would be lost in the noise of daily routine…the best moment of all is when one discerns a pattern amidst the din of news and the burden of information overload.
One such moment happened recently…starting with this story in the International Herald Tribune on Tuesday (3rd April): “India outsourcing moves to front office”.
Anand Giridharadas wrote in the report how “quietly, but steadily” the received wisdom about the non-offshorability (for want of a better word) of “high-end careers requiring graduate degrees and commanding six-figure salaries” was being challenged by recent developments in India.
Amongst other things, he noted how “The pool of jobs once thought to be impossible to outsource is gradually evaporating” and how “investment banks like Morgan Stanley are hiring Indians to analyze U.S. stocks, a job that can pay $200,000 a year or more on Wall Street.”
Keep Reading…
April 6th, 2007
Posted by
Shantanu |
Globalization, Immigration, India |
2 comments
Last Thursday (18th Jan), I shared a panel on “The New Argonauts: diasporas and talent flows“ with Li Gong, Cong Cao and AnnaLee Saxenian at the ”Atlas of Ideas” conference in London.
We briefly talked about the “global flows of talent, and the shift that is underway from ‘brain drain’ to ‘brain circulation’” around the world as skilled immigrants and professionals from Asia return home to start on their own or contribute indirectly to indigenous capability development.
This was followed by a lively Q&A session which spilled over an hour where we debated these views and the impact of these talent flows on innovation in the US and Europe.
Swati Piramal challenged the view that there was little propsect of fundamental innovation happening in India and I mentioned a few bottom-of-pyramid businesses that have the potential to threaten established business models in developed economies (see one of my earlier posts on this topic)
One of the attendees asked a very perceptive question about identities and allegiance of these “new argonauts“…Another asked whether these talent flows can be moderated and whether Governments should consider intervening to influence these flows…
All in all, lots of food for thought…
Here are the slides I shared with the audience before the Q&A.
January 24th, 2007
Posted by
Shantanu |
Conferences and Panels, Immigration, India, My Presentations |
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Red Herring reported on a recent study (available on the NVCA website) which shows how immigration has been one of the major driving forces behind tech innovation in the US. (Hat Tip: Shefaly)
The study revealed that over the past 15 years, 25 percent of U.S. public companies that were VC-backed were started by immigrants. Together these companies account for an impressive market cap exceeding $500 billion.
Note that legal immigrants account only for 8.7% of the population.Some of these companies include Google, Yahoo, eBay, Sun Microsystems, Intel and Solectron
Worryingly, the study noted that two-thirds of respondents in its survey said “U.S. immigration policy has made it increasingly difficult to start a business in America” and a “a nearly-equal percentage felt that the visa policies, particularly the limited number of H1-B visas allotted to companies “harm American competitiveness.””
The study underlines the immense entrepreneurial capacity (and risk-taking attitudes) prevalent amongst immigrants – something that would hardly surprise anyone who is an immigrant in any country (I count myself as one).
Keep Reading…
November 16th, 2006
Posted by
Shantanu |
Entrepreneurship, Immigration |
one comment
In the Wall Street Journal of 28th Aug ’06, came across an Op-Ed comment on Innovation and Europe (“Innovation, innovation, innovation” by Ann Mettler, Director of Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think tank).
It echoed a lot of thoughts and comments I have heard in various discussions on this topic. Some excerpts:
“When recently asked what his top priorities were for his country’s European Union presidency, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen had jus three words to day: “Innovation, innovation, innovation”. A collective nod went through Europe, a continent that never tires of pledging to build a knowledge-based economy, a place where politicians incessantly talk up entrepreneurship and risk-taking…”
“Innovation European-style, on the other hand can be summed up as follows: We like the buzz of the word innovation, and we certainly want the prosperity and growth that usually comes with it. But in reality, we prefer to keep everything exactly the way it always has been. And because innovation is such a fuzzy and complex phenomenon, we thought we could attain it by simplifying it to a formula – 3% of gross domestic product spent on research and development equals innovation” and drill our officials to repeat it with prayer-like conviction. Amen.”
Complex it certainly is- but no one would argue that a large (and often overlooked) factor in this “formula” is the quality of education – particularly in schools.
So its no surprise that the article praises the Finnish school system which underwent comprehensive reforms through the 90s to move from a position slightly better than OECD average to being the top-performer in the achievement tests today.
The article pointed out that Europe spends only about half as much per college student as the US does). As I was reading it, I remembered this front-page story from the Daily Mail published just two days before (Aug 26th ’06), “Thousands of children fail to reach English and maths targets” …and remembered Boris Johnson’s lament in the Daily Telegraph, the same week, on falling interest in Science and Technology amongst University students in Britain.
So will the EU have to depend on immigrant students and researchers to make up the shortfall in science and engineering graduates? And does this have any implications for innovation? What happens if/when these researchers/ scientists decide to go back to their countries of origin…when opportunities as well as standards of living, both increase to a point where a reverse brain drain* begins? What implications does this have for national competitiveness?
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*See this interview of, David Heenan author of “Flight Capital: The Alarming Exodus of America’s Best and Brightest” for some more thoughts on this.
September 1st, 2006
Posted by
Shantanu |
Globalization, Immigration |
3 comments
