I am sitting in a semicircle with senior managers from some of the top
defence, aerospace and engineering firms in Europe, and the
gentleman leading the break-out session asks, "Will your companies be open to
collaborating with us to build new IP and even possibly apply for patents
together?" The gentleman who asked the question was a senior executive in
an Indian tier-1 service provider, and that was what made it very interesting
for me. Why was an Indian tier-1 IT service provider interested in building IP
with hard-core engineering companies? To me, the question not only implied an
aspiration to become a partner from being a service provider, but an attempt to
explore a new business model and new revenue streams for the
future—creating partnerships and IP with
clients and then sharing revenues from that IP with them.
Do Indian IT service providers need a new business model? The
answer seems to be yes. And, in line with the above interaction, our research
indicates that most Indian tier-1s and some Indian tier-2s are already working
towards exploring new possible models. But here there is another
interesting question—is there one new
business model out there waiting to be discovered? Well, what our research points
to is that there is no one such business model; what we are seeing is a move
towards multiple business models coexisting with each other. This is
what makes the new switch more interesting and more difficult—there will be
the need for multiple mindsets within the same company, the senior
executives will need to think with multiple hats; but as these companies become
adept and more successful in integrating and executing these business models,
their success will be more and more difficult to replicate. Our research shows
another very interesting thing, whilst there will be similarities in how
these companies will look like in future, they will diverge in some significant ways.
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