Silicon Valley Success and Bangalore’s Blueprint: Valuable Lessons from Two Tech Giants
Takeaways for tech-savvy developing economies from the cities of California and Bangalore.
Silicon Valley does not need any introduction unless you are only interested in water valleys. Well, jokes apart! Silicon Valley was the pivot that the tech industry needed to boost its domain. This article discusses the tech revolution and how it was initiated so that developing economies might follow the same.
Silicon Valley is a region in the South San Francisco Bay Area and is home to more than 2,000 innovative startups. The major IT-based companies today had earlier launched from Silicon Valley and thus share the same roots. To mention a few startups that are headquartered in the Silicon Valley, they are named: Intel, Adobe, Uber, LinkedIn, eBay, Yahoo, Tesla, Apple, Google, Netflix, Facebook, and the list goes on.
Fredrick Terman is often known as the father of Silicon Valley; he was a Stanford University professor from 1925–41. During his professorship, he invested in some Silicon Valley personalities and struggled to reclassify the programme of electronic engineering as the first-tier programme being offered by the university. The creation story of the startup environment began when Mr. Terman became disappointed by watching his brilliant students leave the town towards the east for better job opportunities and not invest in their own businesses.
He encouraged his students to initiate their own startups and boosted their morale; hence, the well-known company HP came into existence under William Hewlett and David Packard, and hence his efforts finally became successful. Some other correlated factors for the creation of Silicon Valley include the beginning of WWII, the invention of silicon transistors, and the invention of the Sputnik-1 satellite.
According to the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and Booz & Co., the one thing above all that was found to be a special trait that distinguishes Silicon Valley’s firms from ordinary companies is the capacity to intermix innovative ideas with business strategies. The three strategies that may come in handy for developing states are: 1) need seekers: know the needs of people. 2) Technology drivers:to take direction from the engineering department rather than need-driven people 3) Market readers: to focus on the customers and rival companies after the launch of the product for in-depth analysis and capitalising in markets.
2. India’s Silicon Valley Model: Exclusive Takeaways from the City of Bangalore
Bengaluru, commonly known as Bangalore, has become an IT hub and welcomes tech-savvy entrepreneurs from all around India. It has become the new “talk of the town” for all developing states and is sometimes regarded as a “technology powerhouse.”. The story of success begins primarily in 1984.
Imports and exports of hardware as well as software boomed. Looking at the great opportunity ahead of them, companies like Wipro and Infosys launched small startups, and thus the beginning of the employment of talented engineers embarked on its journey. The IT sector contributed to 8% of India’s GDP in 2017, and around 3.9 million people were employed in the industry.
Furthermore, the annual revenue accumulated to $180 billion in 2019. International relations with American companies were built, and India imported advanced systems and benefited from the scheme. Americans invested in the large talent pool, and the first franchised development centre in Bangalore was established by Texas Instrument Inc. in 1985, thus opening new avenues for further opportunity to step in. Research and development in India is estimated to reach $40 billion in the years to come. Bangalore alone accounts for 35% of global in-centre houses in India.
The most prominent factor behind the success of Bangalore as the next Silicon Valley is the high-tech and skilled talent that can build first-class software systems and applications at an eye-catching cost. The city consists of 12 million people, 1 million developers, 100+ IT colleges, and youth dreaming of starting their own unicorn business instead of becoming part of mega IT industries like Google. India’s IT exports are nearly $137 billion USD per year, and it has become the 3rd largest hub for IT startups.
The developing states can also formulate such lucrative and visionary policies that can further flourish the IT industry in their respective countries.
