Catch them Young..No matter where They are

The story appearing in the Small Business Trends of November 15, 2005, reads as:
Largely because of Sarbanes-Oxley, few startups go public now. For all practical purposes, succeeding now equals getting bought. Which means VCs are now in the business of finding promising little 2-3 man startups and pumping them up into companies that cost $100 million to acquire. They didn’t mean to be in this business; it’s just what their business has evolved into.
Hence the fourth problem: the acquirers have begun to realize they can buy wholesale. Why should they wait for VCs to make the startups they want more expensive? Most of what the VCs add, acquirers don’t want anyway. The acquirers already have brand recognition and HR departments. What they really want is the software and the developers, and that’s what the startup is in the early phase: concentrated software and developers.
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I think this is what I wanted to emphasize in my earlier blogs. The tremendous embedded potential in the small business efforts gradually wears out if a timely rescue is not done. And it is good that companies like Google and others have come forward to accomplish.
In my opinion, these efforts should be extended beyond the boundaries of any specific geographical location and globally. For example, in country like India, which is much known for its talents in IT and technology, there are thousands of small businesses which are just waiting for a small push to go past the “sonic boom”.
I think we are approaching a time, where IT is gradually coming out of its old water tight shell and getting discretely mixed up with technology. So the concept of cheap labor and time zone advantages is rapidly becoming a cliché in deciding upon the offshore outsourcing strategy. Superior technology and advance technological concepts are gradually becoming the drivers and countries which were used to be branded as a source of “cheap labor only” can do wonders….particularly the SMEs over there. So catch them young.

Precarn Seeking New Project Proposals
Precarn Incorporated announced today the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for collaborative research and development projects in the field of intelligent systems.

China acknowledges SMEs role


Slightly belated though:

Context: Overview of the SME Support
As economic transformation progresses, the Central government of China gradually learned to recognize and appreciate the importance and significance of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the efforts of establishing an enabling environment for SME development (year 2003 is a milestone to Chinese SMEs: “SME Promotion Law” began to take effect and be implemented on Jan. 1st and the State Council newly set up SME department in State Development and Reform Commission-SDRC). The law stipulates the policies that are in favour of SME development, e.g. establishment of SME Support System network nationwide in all municipalities in line with local conditions and the special funds from government budgets set aside for supporting SMEs, etc.

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SMEs-where the talent is

Historically, the aggregate revenue generated by SMEs in offshore outsourcing sector has always been much more than the so called blue chip players.

When veteran and experienced professionals, after seeing their respective success and contribution under the umbrella of big corporate start rethinking why not sail of our own — SMEs are born. Therefore at the initial stages, the professionals who have proven success stories behind them directly give hands, contribute and try to gather similar minded professionals on their newly formed platform and that’s how the story goes.

The most nascent and innovative stage in the life of a SME is probably the first three years. The fortunate groups of SMEs which click with their offerings and services in the initial years gradually grow. The left over group, with the compulsion for generating revenues, starts frequently switching their offerings to discover the matching ones to which the market may finally respond. Unfortunately, through this compulsive process their innovativeness is worn out. They take the course of survival being completely oblivious of what they wanted to bring in the market. This way perhaps we have been losing many talented groups of SMEs and probably many innovative concepts and technologies that never see the light of the day.

Perhaps a collaborative platform might have been the answer. Complimentary partnering under one umbrella would have allowed SMEs to maintain their own niche and at the delivery end the customer could have been the final beneficiary.

All said end done, SMEs are where the talents live and let the flame of talents show the ways to tomorrow’s technology.

Tapan Mukerji's World