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Chairman, WINOC (Work in Northeast Ohio Council) and President, Fotedar Associates, Avon Lake, OH
Presented at the 22nd Annual Convention of the of the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin
Posted with Permission from the Author
445 West Liberty St. Suite 225 Medina, OH 44256 330-725-4885 |
Globalization presents many challenges and opportunities to businesses as well as to workers around the world. This is primarily driven by low cost of labor available in developing countries in South East Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. As a result of this many industries in the USA and Western Europe are moving their manufacturing operations to mainland China and other low cost countries to take advantage of low cost of labor and raw materials. Many industries are also opening up engineering centers in India in order to take advantage of ready made pool of English speaking engineers and technicians in India. In the United States many people including engineers of Indian origin may be afraid of Globalization and wonder what impact it will have on their jobs, aspirations and careers. It is therefore important to look at the phenomenon of Globalization from a historical perspective. The fact is Globalization is not a new phenomenon. It has been with us for thousands of years. It began first with the Globalization of trade through Silk Road and dissemination of IDEAS through the spread of religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Another form of Globalization has also been through conquests and colonization starting from Alexander the Great, conquest by Romans, Chengiz Khan and Arabs followed recently by the British Colonization of India and North America as well as the Spanish colonization of South and Latin America. Each of these colonization and invasions are replete with their own successes as well as horror stories. British colonization of India did enslave us for nearly 200 years but it also gave us fluency in English language, knowledge of western business and legal system, a good educational system and a civil service for governance. This is allowing Indian engineers and businessmen to compete globally. Since the early sixties Indian engineers, scientists, academicians, IT professionals and businessmen have been contributing to the growth of Industries in the United States and India. How Indian management thinkers are changing the face of American business is discussed by Stuart Rainer and Des Dearlone in July/August 2005 Across the Board magazine article entitled “The Indians are Coming”. The authors describe the rise of business gurus such as, CK Prahalad, of the University of Michigan, Ram Charan, Rakesh Khurana, Nitin Nohria, Krishna Palepu of Harvard, Deepak Jain and Mohnbir Sawhney at Northwestern and Raj Reddy at Carnegie Mellon. Similarly Indians occupy corner offices of world’s top corporations. For example Arun Sarin at Vodafone, Pepsico President and CFO Indira Nooyi and venture capitalist such as Vinod Khosla and Gururaj Deshpande influence the funding and creation of new businesses and industries. What is driving the rise of Indian thinkers
and entrepreneurs is the fact that Indians have a strong work ethic,
speak English, have had the opportunity to work in a diverse
multicultural environment in India and have been strongly influenced by
American and British education system. What is different in the current version of Globalization is summed by Thomas Friedman in his book The World is Flat, as described in the September, 2005 issue of Fortune Magazine “The fall of the Berlin Wall, the rise of internet, and the ever more inoperable nature of the software have created a newly flat global, political, economic and cultural landscape that allows people previously cut off from the centers of power and of affluence to join right in on the moneymaking and opinion forming as long as they have the skills and the gumption and the broadband connections”. The consequence of this wave of globalization is awesome. As reported in Business Week (8/25), three million US manufacturing jobs have been lost in the past five years and it is expected that another six million will be lost in the next decade By 2015 it is expected that China will be leader in Autos and information technology while India will capture leadership in software and high finance. So where does this leave American business? It is expected that as India and China modernize they will need more high technology exports from United States creating jobs and driving innovation in high technology industries in this country. For example last year 22% exports to China were of high technology up from 14% a decade earlier. Mainstream economists think that the full entry of China and India into the global economy is a plus for the US as a whole. For example off shoring of computer software and services will add $124 billion to US gross domestic product by 2008 by lowering inflation and interest rates and by increasing productivity. U. S Mckinsey Global Institute estimates that America gains $1.14 for each dollar of output it sends off shore. I believe Globalization is going to be a win- win for America and other countries. Indian engineers should welcome and accept Globalization wholeheartedly as it plays to their strength and creates opportunities in the U.S. as well as in India. However to compete in this environment technology savvy Engineers need to develop managerial and leadership skills such as:
Indian Industries and business houses will also need to adopt and adapt to western governance and management techniques as well as Baldrige Performance Excellence Values such as:
Finally Indian Industries will have to change the “Chalta Hai” ( good enough) mindset and commit to the highest standards of quality, ethics and integrity as well as respect for people and practice good citizenship to thrive in a globally competitive environment. top
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