Products Vs. Services - What's up, India?

[The_Big_K]

CEans,

This debate is inspired by Mr. Kanetkar's answer to our question "India is focusing more on services than product sector. With the current burgeoning service industry, by what time can we envisage India, to emerge as a product player?

Answer: http://www.crazyengineers.com/index....d=23&p2_page=2

Let's debate on why India has typically been into services offerings & not into products development. Moreover, do you think India has been benefited by going into services offerings?

Flood this thread with your thoughts & ideas. I'm sure this is going to be an interesting debate. If we get enough 'good' posts, we will compile an article using this thread.

What are you waiting for? Get started!

-The Big K-

[Newmanite]

I dont think India has the overall infrastructure needs to become a products supplier without having to outsource resources.However they do have a wealth of knowledge and many people to draw from.
Services they provide have been identified by them as being profitable and expansive,with this view India can become economically viable in regard to shares and industry building.
I dont think India will be seen as a global product player for at least 5 to 10 years,and thats only if infrastructure is being recognised now.Products that are decided upon would have to undergo standards testing for that market.For now the easy profitable route I consider would be services.

[crook]

Originally Posted by Newmanite

I dont think India has the overall infrastructure needs to become a products supplier without having to outsource resources.However they do have a wealth of knowledge and many people to draw from.
Services they provide have been identified by them as being profitable and expansive,with this view India can become economically viable in regard to shares and industry building.
I dont think India will be seen as a global product player for at least 5 to 10 years,and thats only if infrastructure is being recognised now.Products that are decided upon would have to undergo standards testing for that market.For now the easy profitable route I consider would be services.

I think you have a valid point. But I do not agree that infrastructure is the main problem. Probably the problem lies with people's attitude. Why do you think infrastructure is preventing India from being a player in the products market?

[Newmanite]

Without a solid infrastructure you have no base to start a product line.Pick a product and I could give you examples of infrastructure requirements before an enterprise could begin.From feasability through to market plan.

[ash]

I think India does have the infrastructure, and the problem lies more with people's attitute like Crook said. Its the same case here with Malaysia. We are manufacturing and exporting a lot of electronic products of MNC's (like Intel chips), but we don't have much of our own innovative products. The tools and resouces are there, but not many take the risk (like in xheavenlyx's post about Silicon Valley). Regarding a country depending on tertiary services.. Using a bit of high school economics, I think a country is safer off depending on services IF their economy is at an advanced stage, like UK.

Forgot to add, the government policies also play a very significant part in this. If they have more incentives for local companies to start up, then its a good way to have clusters of secondary level companies. Things like lower corporate taxes, financial assistance, etc.

[Elisa]

I do not have much to add to this discussion. I'd like to post a link to an interesting post on Big K's blog. http://crazyengineers.com/me/?p=30

[kidakaka]

Originally Posted by Newmanite

Without a solid infrastructure you have no base to start a product line.Pick a product and I could give you examples of infrastructure requirements before an enterprise could begin.From feasability through to market plan.

Good point by Newmanite. The problem here is, that around 90% of a start up's time is taken by putting in the infrastructure. Post which they would then start focusing upon some actual product development. The point nowadays, is that you simply cannot be a pureplay products firm, it always has to be integrated with either services or then ensuring you find a channel partner who is willing to outsource that service for you. e.g. recently we purchased an email filtering anti-spamware solution. It was an Indian company and an Indian product, but they had to augment their offering with a service of tech support. Still they had to depend on a channel partner through whom we came to know of their product. So effectively even for a product based company in India, you would need a solid service to back it up. Another eg. is lets say Futurebazaar.com, the core offering are the products on the site, but what impresses me as an end-user is the post-sales service they are offering me.

So, in effect I would ask a question: What's the point of this question?