'Indian IT should not ape US products'

Despite evolving as the world’s back-office and building an over $50-billion software exports industry, product ideas emerging out of India are still a far cry from what the industry would like to see. Guy Kawasaki, the marketing brain behind Apple’s legendary Macintosh system and managing director of Garage Ventures, says many Indian product companies tend to ape American products, which is not such a great idea. ET brought Kawasaki face-to-face with Som Mittal , president of Nasscom and the man responsible for taking the Indian product story forward, in a freewheeling discussion. Excerpts:

How is the Indian product story evolving, and does it really compare with what’s happening in countries such as US, Israel and others?

Guy Kawasaki (GK): The Indian software industry is primarily business-to-business. What I feel is that most local product firms are trying to copy what is being developed by American firms, and that’s shooting too low. I am waiting for the day when US firms will be vying to copy what Indian firms create. Budding entrepreneurs should focus on building something unique, something that “you want to use”.

Som Mittal (SM): With consolidation among hardware majors, most have become infrastructure solution firms. This provides local product firms with a lot of opportunity if they can offer niche solutions, software that can interact with infrastructure. Moreover, large system integrators want to work with software product companies to add value to their offerings. Product companies can use such partnerships to reach global customers. In the Indian market, a lot of business-to-government projects are coming up, creating opportunities.