Charles B Wang, chairman and CEO of Computer Associates (CA), migrated to the United States at the age of eight and started CA in 1976. He started the company with three associates and a single product and it is today one of the largest software companies in the world.
He was in India to announce the alliances that CA has entered in India. Excerpts from question and answer sessions that Wang attended in two press conferences in New Delhi:
Companies the world over are outsourcing software expertise from India due to the availability of cheap labour here. Is your decision also an outcome of this?
No. We are in India not because of the cheap labour. India is known for its brilliance in software development. We are here to tie up with Indian companies to use the local partner's understanding of the marketplace, expertise in marketing and their huge technical manpower in developing solutions in emerging technologies.
CA has announced a $100-million investment plan for India. In which areas would you be using this fund?
We are very much on track with regard to our investment plans in India. A part of this money would be used in tie-ups, like the ones we have announced in India. Worldwide, we have evolved through organic growth and through acquisitions. We would be following the same strategy in India, too. I am not ruling out the possibility of acquisitions in India.
What is CA's development strategy in India?
CA's development strategy for India is to partner with local companies to propagate our technology and to support the development of the local software industry. We foresee enormous growth opportunities in India as the number of Internet users in India is growing at a very rapid pace. We are open to strategic alliances with domestic companies with technological strength and marketing expertise to popularise various software solutions.
Today's announcements were of totally different nature. The one with Escort was purely business, and that with Impact India purely social. Are you trying to give a human touch to your business process?
They both show our commitment to India: both, business and social. With the first one, we plan to leverage the expertise that India has in the technology field and we intend to invest more in this field.
The second one shows our social commitment. We as a company believe in giving back to society as much as we can. CA has a policy to match 200 per cent of each donation made by our employees worldwide to various charitable organisations.
Children in India born with cleft lips and palates will benefit from the second partnership. The programme named 'The Smile Train' in association with Impact India Foundation is an effort to cure the children with cleft lips. This program also intends to train doctors for surgery in this field.
