'Follow the rules, change them'

Intel chief Craig Barrett has called on the Indian IT industry to not only follow the traditional ways of executing a business plan, but also mature to an extent of changing the rules of doing business.

Addressing leaders of the Indian IT industry at a Nasscom forum in Bangalore, the CEO of the world's leading chip manufacturing company never fell short of examples to indicate how certain companies have managed to play the game on their own terms.

"Most successful companies have a way of changing the rules of the game if they want to grow and be more successful. I think it is important to follow the rules. But I think it is equally important to change the rules in an honest fashion to support your business plans," Barrett said.

According to him, a good business plan which focussed on products, customers, sources of revenues and sources of profits was the basic rule that every company must to follow.

Referring to the dotcom era, Barrett stressed on the need for a viable business proposition.

"While Amazon and eBay had logical business plans, companies like Google and Yahoo did not have a great plan. However, technology came to their rescue. These two companies, like Intel, constantly refined their business plans as they moved on. I just want to stress that you must at least have a wonderful technology that will make something of itself in the market," he said.

Barrett said that technology transition is also a must for executing a business plan. "Companies with big marketshare will defend it by increasing their efforts in marketing, advertising and other endeavours.

But they cannot fight the technology transition in which they are not participating, especially when an alternative technology comes along," Barret added.

Barrett lauded India's efforts to have a sound education system which has produced a wealth of manpower to the world IT industry.

"Investment in education of the employees as well as R&D is equally important. In this regard, India and Asia in general produce bright engineers and computer scientists. The world has come at your doorstep to employ these people. Employing the best and the brightest is typically the fastest way to succeed," Barrett told leaders of the Indian IT industry.

He pointed to the US airline industry and the entertainment industry to make the point that companies must change before they are forced by competition to do so.

"Only the paranoid will survive. If the competition forces you to change, then you won't like the result. You will like the change if you change in advance of being forced to change," Barrett said.

On the flip side, Barrett came up with a barrage of examples to show how companies have managed to break the traditional ways of doing business.

"Dell manufactures and ships computers within 2-3 days after receiving the order. Their inventory is about 70 computers in a year. Wal-Mart sells products like any other retail company. Their efficiency over inventory and their planning to reduce the supply-demand gap makes all the difference. Wal-Mart is really an IT company that happens to sell products. Unilever and Starbucks also do business differently," Barrett said.