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L. Narsi Narasimhan, Ph.D. is
a former professor of Management Science and Management Information
Systems at the DuPree College of Management at Georgia Tech. In
1993, he became an entrepreneur and advisor to several startup
firms. He is a co-founder and CEO of Paalam,
Inc. Narsi is widely recognized in the South East as the founder
of the Indian Professionals Network.
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The year was 1996. Right after
the Centennial Olympics, the Indian Professionals Network (IPN),
with support from Raksha, Inc., hosted the NetIP national convention
in Atlanta. The luncheon keynote speaker, Dr. Sam Pitroda made a
remark that crystallized to me what I knew all along. He mentioned
that Indians consider thinking as “Brahmin-like” or high class
and working as “Shudra-like” or low class. A year ago, I had the
pleasure of listening to him make the same comment at the Global
Business Forum luncheon at Georgia Tech CIBER. He was upbeat about
India in 1996 and even more so in 2003. He saw hope and confidence
amongst every Indian. Of course, this was prior to the India Shining
flop of the recent elections.
Before going any further on this topic, let me reveal what I have
lined up for my upcoming columns so that I could seek your
inputs on them – any observations and personal stories that I
could use. Indian Americans have made tremendous impact in (a)
Healthcare as Doctors, (b) Hospitality as owners of motels/hotels,
and (c) Information Technology, especially during the dot com
period. Of course, I am not forgetting the countless dry cleaners,
Blimpie stores, Arby’s and so on. I am certainly not forgetting
the “other” non-traditional professions either. I would like to
focus on them one at a time, probably in that order. So, the next
column in this series will be on Indian Americans in Healthcare.
Now back to my topic for this piece. Rene Descartes once said, “I
think, therefore I am”. When it comes to thinking, at least
certainly before the Renaissance, India had a much higher per capita
thinking than the rest of the world. Probably such esteem attached
to thinking by ancient Indians resulted in the lack of regard for
labor. I wish the American Puritan
work culture could be infused into India. The good news is that the
IT and BPO revolution in India is doing precisely that. It is making
work dignified – at least the deskwork you do in front of the
computer and the phone is now respected in mainstream India. In the
past, Indians used to work hard because they had to. Now, they are
attaching the same significance to work as they did to thinking.
We hear everywhere that we are in a knowledge economy. The value
creation by a knowledge worker is significantly more than that of an
old economy labor worker. Then, why does the Indian economy have to
embrace the culture of getting its hands dirty to succeed? My view
is that the computers and other tools that we use in our R&D
make the thinker more productive. The distinction between thinking
and execution is blurring. The worker has to be empowered with tools
(and authority, of course), and the thinker has to have access to
instruments to test his ideas out. Without one, the other is not
going to be effective.
The reverse migration that is taking place when the NRIs return to
India, the frequent travel between India and USA, and above all the
television that exposes the developed economies to Indian viewers,
are all having a profound impact in transforming the state of mind
in the Indian society. The work being a desk job also helps make the
Indian elite do “shudra” work, and not just think. Like Sam, I
am bullish about India. Indians have started to respect work. Thus,
they have a good shot at becoming a developed economy. They work,
therefore they are… destined to be a major player, that is!
Please send in your comments to
narsi@paalam.com or editor@nripulse.com.
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