Vivek Wadhwa, technology entrepreneur, film producer and professor, is the executive in residence/adjunct professor for the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. Recently named a non-resident fellow at the Harvard Law School, he has been researching American immigration policies with heavy emphasis on outsourcing, engineers and scientists.
Working with students and faculty at Duke as well as with the Kauffman Foundation, Wadhwa has written extensively about the reality of engineering studies in the US, China and India. He has written about trends and threats to the US economy in BusinessWeek online, and has appeared as a guest on television shows like Lou Dobbs' nightly business report on CNN.
Wadhwa holds a management degree from New York University and a bachelor's in computing studies from Canberra University in Australia. He is founding president of the Carolinas chapter of The IndUS Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit global network intended to foster entrepreneurship.
The entrepreneur and teacher discusses the nuances of globalization with Managing Editor (Features) Arthur J Pais.
What is the nature of your work at Harvard?
Globalisation has happened so fast, and things are moving so rapidly, that we don't understand what the long term impacts will be and who will win or lose. The debates rage in the US as well as India. There are few facts; most of the debates are based on un-informed opinion.
While academics and industry analysts seek to understand the impact of the current wave of outsourcing, the next wave has already begun. With its legions of well-trained, English-speaking technical talent, India is making breathtaking strides as a base of innovation for multinationals. From writing software and tweaking specs for auto parts just a few years ago, Indian engineers now are starting to design entire next-generation products for a who's who of multinationals, from Boeing and General Motors to Texas Instruments.
Meanwhile, China swiftly is amassing the requirements of a technology superpower: Modern research facilities, immense manufacturing infrastructure, universities capable of pumping out hundreds of thousands of world-class engineers and scientists each year, and the world's biggest consumer market for cars, consumer appliances, and telecom equipment.
My focus will be to look two steps ahead and understand the next wave of globalisation. I want to help develop recommendations and strategies for the US to benefit from this. There is no reason this can't be win-win for both India and the US. The US has to focus on what it does best -- innovation and entrepreneurship. It has to tap the goldmine of knowledge in its universities. It has to continue to attract the best and brightest in the world. We need to understand our strengths and develop policies that build on these.
How did you start in the technology area and how did your experience as a leader in the field lead you to be an expert on globalisation?
I have been in the technology field ever since I graduated from high school. I completed one of the first degrees in computing studies/computer science from Canberra University in Australia. I started my career as a computer programmer and moved up the ladder until I became a project manager and then a vice-president of IT at the investment banking powerhouse, CS First Boston.
I had invented some revolutionary technologies there that led to IBM funding a joint venture with First Boston to commercialise this technology. We formed a company called Seer Technologies. I was one of the first to outsource software development.
In 1992 I hired a team in St Petersburg, Russia, to develop technology that we could not develop in the US. They ended up developing some revolutionary technologies that led to the creation of my second startup, Relativity Technologies. I was also one of the first to outsource to India, in 1994. That was well before India developed the skills to do professional software development. We spent close to $1 million and decided that India wasn't ready.
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