Evolution of the Tech World

The story of the India tech world is one of constant renewal and rejuvenation. In the 80s it was about people going abroad from firms like TCS, Hinditron, Datamatics, CMC etc and doing work for global corporations especially in the USA. It was called body shopping. Many professionals boarded planes with a book on C and Fortran and learnt on the job and delivered to client outcomes. Then by and by the scope enlarged and morphed and Indian IT firms started to take more responsibility. Firms like Infy, Wipro, HCL came into the fray with newer areas of Application Development & Maintenance Services (ADMS) and Testing.

Y2K was a watershed moment in the history of the Indian IT industry where firms were required to provide staff at scale at short notice to meet the deadline. And they did so too without worrying about the consequences of "what after 31st Dec 2000"

The date came and went and suddenly clients realized that they had a bunch of smart tech people with them and they had to implement Business Process Reengineering (as mandated by the likes of KPMG, Deloitte, EY etc.) as a part of which ERP was required to be implemented enterprise wide. The very same keyboard bashing engineers of Y2K, trained on various ERP packages and started to work in the very same firms.

Indian IT boomed and how??!!

Around the same time, the BPO wave commenced and soon became a tsunami. In the beginning there were the lowly BPO firms on one side and the nose-in-the-air IT services firms on the other. But over time the lines blurred and everyone jumped into the BPO bandwagon because clearly there was money to be made. BPO and then KPO ....

While all this was happening, technology moved from Mainframes to Client Server and then Web based computing. The Indian IT firms went along merrily. With IT and BPO covered, the next logical thing was to manage the hardware, servers and so on for their clients. So in came Infrastructure Managed Services (IMS). Firms like HCL took a lead here and zoomed away with their revenues. Newer firms like NetApp, Microland, NTT etc made hay as well.

And then Cloud happened!! At first there was resistance and there was talk of Private Cloud and Public Cloud and Hybrid Cloud but then along came Covid. WFH became a must have and firms threw all skepticism to the wind and embraced Public Cloud. Cloud revenues boomed and how? Amazon, Azure, Google.....they all laughed their way to the bank.

The latest and the greatest is of course Generative AI, made popular by a chat use case called ChatGPT4. How things will pan out is still to be seen but my initial thoughts can be read here.

In terms of the workforce, I think we have coped well during this entire journey of technology. Mainframe tech to (Client Server + DBMS) to (Web tech / HTML) to Customized Off the Shelf (COTS) products to Cloud and now AI going forward. The tech industry also provided employment to folks beyond technology when BPO came along or when ERP implementations came along and Functional Consultants were in big demand.

To my mind the significant milestones in the evolution are the Y2K to the ERP shift that happened post 2000 and now the AI shift that is happening as we speak. AI as I have said in my earlier post will democratize IT even more. The engineer vs non engineer divide will start to blur and even vanish.

So what skills have stood the test of time? I would say, basic human skills will never ever be out of fashion. Learnability, Can Do, Collaboration, Ownership / Accountability and Empathy. Most or all of this is encapsulated by what I preach - PADI HAI!!

Besides this, it is important to remain proficient in any one modern programming language like Python. It's important to become proficient in Generative AI and the use of ChatGPT4. For Indians it continues to be important to be proficient in the use of the English language both in speaking and writing. I would recommend folks to dabble in entrepreneurship in some manner to get a hang of doing business and become sensitive as an employee. It is also important to understand at least one business domain well - Banking, Manufacturing, Telecom, Retail etc.

I do not need to emphasize that building personal networks is a life-long activity and should be done consistently. People should also build proficiency in the use of social media for building their personal brand and thought leadership profile.

What is my advice to those seeking to build a career in Tech today?

• Don't be obsessed with an engineering degree
• Learn to do business
• Go deep into Generative AI and what it takes to go there (Python)
• Start in a start-up and work your backside off. Things will happen.
• Obsess with and embrace Padi Hai.

Apna Time Aayega!!!

#PadiHaiwithKG