Mobile handset industry: Is change the name of the game?

February 1, 2012 14:55 IST, Rediff Business - Technology

Mobile Handset Industry: Is change the name of the game?

(G Krishna Kumar is a wireless Telecom professional based in Bangalore.  Blog: http://bloggerkrishnak.blogspot.com, krishnak.krishnak@gmail.com  Views expressed are personal)

Who could have predicted the rise of newcomers Google or Apple in the mobile arena and fall of the traditional market leaders, a few years back? In fact, the Top 5 ranked Smartphone vendors have changed dramatically over the last 5 years. 

Changing Market dynamics

The Mobile industry’s structure has witnessed unprecedented and tumultuous changes over the past two decades as the trendsetters and leaders have rapidly changed. Up until a few years back, the mobile Industry was controlled by the handset manufacturers or OEMs such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson etc on one hand and the Mobile operators on the other hand.

Japan, long considered as a top technology innovator and a pioneer in the mobile Industry has suddenly seen its leadership position eroding.  Although Japan has quite a few firsts to its credit like the concept of App store and mobile money,  the Japanese mobile industry of late has been struggling to keep pace with the Apple-Google effect.

The sheer size of the mobile phone market drives every other hardware or software vendor to believe that they have a high chance of being successful. This has led to creation of many software phone platforms, by companies with deep Mobile Industry expertise and through consortium. However, a few met with limited success and rest simply vanished. Google’s Android, the open source software platform is perhaps the most successful thus far.

In general, why is the Smartphone market important for OEMs and operators? While Smartphones offer maximum margin to OEMs, it also helps in increased data revenue for Operators. Content providers also enjoy direct benefits due to higher consumption of services and applications by Smartphone users.

Apple-Google double impact

The launch of Apple’s iphone and Google’s Android has created an unprecedented double-impact on the mobile Industry - iphone is still the undisputed reference for a Smartphone and has created an “Aspirational value” among business users and consumers alike. In contrast, Google’s Android has ensured availability of hundred of phones at affordable prices.

Apple’s user experience was a game changer, considering that many OEMs over the past 15 years failed in creating a compelling touch driven user experience. Android has played a key role in drastically reducing Smartphone prices to less than Rs5000. Android has significantly reduced engineering and R&D cost, thus lowering the entry barriers in the OEM space. No wonder the Indian OEMs like Micromax, Lava etc provide tough competition to established players in the Indian market. The Semiconductor companies have also enabled this change as they seek to win market share and also be competitive in offering comprehensive solutions to OEMs. Reduction in Hardware and semiconductor costs have also helped in bringing down the phone cost.

Apple is credited for being vertically integrated - offering Applications and content to its users through the App store and the recently launched iCloud service. Google’s App store too experienced tremendous success. This has resulted in a huge disruption in the market allowing users to personalize their phones from lakhs of Applications in the App store. Earlier, users had to depend exclusively on their operator to download Apps/content and this was working nicely for the operators’ walled-garden approach. Large global operators on their part, continue to believe in providing quality apps to its subscribers, but with limited success.

Traditionally, a phone’s life-cycle from concept to realization has taken roughly 18 to 20 months. Over the past couple of years, the cycle has shrunk by more than half.  Newer models hit the market every few months. The drastic reduction in the phone creation cycle has naturally reduced the number of differentiating features among phones. Increasingly product differentiation among the various mobile phones is reducing by the day and the Mobile market is looking more like TV and other consumer electronics market.

More Challenges/ opportunities and more changes!

With most OEMs under severe margin pressure, such a hyper competitive environment is certain to witness more consolidation, allowing only the strong and truly innovative ones to survive. Traditional hardware manufacturers can certainly cause disruption, but the challenging times are here to stay in the OEM space. Operators, on the other hand may eventually have to remain contented being a data-pipe provider (aka landline broadband providers).

As the role of mobile devices becomes ever more important in people’s lives, the platform powering the devices will play a critical role. Hence, more platforms like Android will emerge, however it is unlikely that Android will be displaced in the near future. RIM (creator of Blackberry) is expected to push its platform aggressively. However, Microsoft’s mobile platform may emerge as a dark horse, especially as Nokia has been able to move faster than before.

Another challenge that has come to the fore is Patents. Patent and royalties have always been part of the mobile Industry, but only recently has the patent war been so public. In the past most patent disputes have been relatively low key affairs resolved issues behind closed doors.  In order to strengthen their position, over the last few quarters companies have made significant investment in acquiring available patents from Nortel and IBM, Google buying Motorola etc.  With the on-going cases around the Android platform, and Apple's recent successful patent lawsuit against HTC, it's clear that the patent war is not going to subside anytime soon.

It is proven beyond doubt that in such a market, Innovative companies with strong IP portfolio have a distinct edge. Interacting with the mobile through gestures or tracking eye movement may re-define the market. Will Google’s future technology – Wearable computers bring about the ultimate disruption in the market. 

Apple has tried to maintain the stickiness quotient with its customers and there-by retaining its loyal customer base, however, will Apple be able surprise its users with innovative offerings every year?  Will Apple become a network service provider (MVNO), thereby creating an even tighter vertical integration and provide everything from handsets, network access, content to storage for its users?

The current social networking wave would continue, however, the next wave could well be Mobile-money or mobile wallet. Will other countries be able to repeat Japan’s success in Mobile Money?

Summing-up, the power equation in the Mobile Industry has shifted away from Operators/ OEMs to platform providers. Android and iphone, considered outsiders from a mobile industry perspective were able to revolutionize the mobile Industry and have created immense positive network externalities. Due to the dynamic nature of this industry, anyone within or outside the mobile ecosystem now have an equal chance of changing the mobile Industry. Amidst all the changes and challenges faced by the Industry, for the average mobile phone user, the good times are here to stay!

Reading this, you enjoy double subsidy

Dailypost India , Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Krishna Kumar

It is a fact universally acknowledged that children imbibe habits from their parents. My father rose every morning and looked for the news paper, the first thing he did each morning. I too have grown into the habit of reading the newspaper first thing each morn.

Over the past few years, I wondered if the Indian news papers will vanish due the ever increasing breaking news TV channels and online news content. It is however heartening that the newspaper Industry in India seems to be thriving.

I really only appreciated the value of Indian newspaper only when I started travelling across the world. Thanks to my work as a software engineer, I have had the opportunity to visit many countries and live in some places abroad.  There are parts of the world wherein finding an English-language newspaper can be hard. Not always I had an English newspaper delivered to my room while living abroad.

When I first started travelling the world, I would think to myself that the cost of just one newspaper in some countries would fetch me my newspaper back home for the whole month! In course of time, however, I dropped the currency-conversion habit and began to buy a paper.

I've found that in the West, many newspapers are heavy on local content. Even so m given that the world is now a 'global village', it is never hard to comprehend the news.

While abroad, I pose questions to my foreign colleagues to get a sense of whether i'm forming impressions that they share. I would ask my colleagues if they knew that India has more daily newspapers than any other country in the world. Twenty of the world's top hundred newspapers are printed in India.

My colleagues tell me that they are not surprised that such a large number of newspapers come out of India;after all it is such a populous country!

I have also sometimes compared the cost of a newspaper to a litre of petrol. In most countries, the cost of the newspaper is almost the same as a litre of petrol, even though there is no direct co-relation between the prices of these two items. Only in India is there such a vast difference.

 Come to think of it, in India, inflation or not, the price of the newspaper has remained stable. There were even a few years when newspapers were available for just one rupee, due to cut-throat competition.

I've wondered how Indian newspapers were priced so low. An editor of a leading newspaper recently mentioned that while printing a newspaper costs at least Rs 12, it is sold at a heavily subsidized price.

As an average Indian, I enjoy something of a 'double subsidy'. I get a subsidised newspaper, and when I sell my stack of raddi, I get nearly 30 percent of what I spent on my already subsidized newspaper right back! The low pricing is possible thanks to advertisements.

Indian newspapers are rich in content are attractively priced. But not so many Indian readers will appreciate that they are truly lucky, to have such attractive newspapers priced so low! Long live the Indian Newspaper!

Krishna Kumar is an IT professional based in Bangalore

Infrastructure and Literacy

Financial Express ,  FE Special

G Krishna Kumar | Updated: Oct 26 2011, 03:40 IST

Despite all the hype about information technology, India is ranked a lowly 116 among 152 countries in the ICT Development Index (IDI) as per ITU’s (International Telecommunications Union) 2011 report. In fact, India has just improved by one rank in the IDI between 2008 and 2010.
It is well established that broadband uptake plays an important role in a country’s ICT growth. Reports suggest that a 10% increase in broadband penetration results in close to a 1.4% increase in a country’s GDP. In fact, in China, every 10% increase in broadband penetration is seen as contributing an additional 2.5% to GDP growth.
Globally, the US, Korea and Japan are leaders in broadband penetration. There are plenty of examples of government initiatives yielding unprecedented growth in broadband— South Korea’s Korea 21, Australia’s National Broadband Network, the EU’s Digital Agenda, Singapore’s iN2015 Master Plan etc. For the technically inclined, broadband is defined as a connection that provides a minimum of 256kbps. While the US has recently tried to raise the minimum speed, the rest of the world, including ITU and OECD, still consider 256 kbps as broadband. In fact, this speed is quite adequate for a large majority of users.
The recent draft National Telecom policy (NTP) 2011 plans to achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017. Considering that the previous broadband policy failed to meet the goals, how can we be sure that this time around the goals are realistically achievable? Should we simply depend on 3G for broadband uptake?
Why was the broadband uptake slow?
The 2004 broadband policy had set a goal of 20 million broadband users in India by 2010, but in reality only half of that was achieved. Why? The PSU telcos enjoyed a huge monopoly in the fixed-line segment, with over 80% connections. It is well known that the PSUs have challenges in adding broadband connections by themselves due to their antiquated procedures/policies. Also, due to the lack of regulation on unbundling of local loop (sharing the infrastructure among Internet service providers and competing operators), the ISPs were not able to utilise BSNL’s last mile infrastructure. Broadband tariff has not seen reduction akin to the mobile world. It is also observed that India’s fixed-line broadband speeds are far lower compared to the rest of the world, primarily due to lack of maintenance.
Although cable TV has picked up significantly in India, coaxial cable-based broadband did not witness similar uptake due to licensing requirements, quality of infrastructure, and lack of awareness in terms of cost and quality of connection. The lack of awareness among people concerning Internet usage and availability of simple plus meaningful local content acted as a dampener for broadband uptake. Another factor was the inadequate availability of affordable Internet-enabled devices together with high broadband connection costs. So, BSNL enjoyed no competition for two years in 3G deployment and still was not successful in increasing the wireless broadband user base.
Create infrastructure and ecosystem
After the 2010 spectrum auction, 3G and BWA trends indicate that mobile broadband is certain to witness significant addition over the next few years, especially with newer and lower-priced devices like tablets, laptops etc hitting the market. This, coupled with more attractive tariffs, will boost broadband adoption. Any government regulations to improve spectrum efficiency by allowing re-farming and spectrum-sharing among operators will certainly augur well for mobile broadband adoption.
However, due to the limitations of spectrum availability, infrastructure costs and the anticipated demand for huge bandwidth, an alternative long-term broadband solution is needed for India.
The government’s plan to create a pan-India, wired broadband infrastructure with USOF-funded National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) is certainly a step in the right direction. NOFN is expected to connect 2,500 village panchayats and would allow all the private operators’ broadband services to rural areas. India already has 7.5 lakh kilometres fibre laid out by private operators. Globally, there are several examples of optical fibre-based networks being successfully deployed and resulting in a huge uptake in broadband.
Once implemented, NFON will certainly give impetus for e-governance initiatives such as e-health, e-banking and e-education. However, given that a PSU telco has been tasked with implementing NFON, the moot question is whether the NOFN infrastructure will really be ready by 2014?
Availability of affordable tablets or PCs will certainly help in rapid broadband adoption. So the government’s initiative in launching the subsidised ultra-low-cost tablet device Aakash is a welcome move. The government’s plan in supporting semiconductor fabs will enable indigenous hardware development. This, coupled with encouragement for R&D and IPR creation, will provide the impetus for availability of affordable devices. Relevant local content and attractive tariffs are also needed for broadband uptake.
Literacy/e-literacy
India has seen unprecedented growth in mobile connections with teledensity reaching over 70%, and with rural teledensity growing at an impressive rate from 1.9% in 2005 to over 35% now. In spite of this phenomenal transformation in communication, India’s human development index stands at an appalling 119th rank of 169 countries.
The literacy level in India must be increased as it is well established that literacy translates into growth and economic development. The latest United Nations HDI trends indicate that countries like Russia, Brazil and China are way ahead compared to India in terms of youth literacy. All the three countries are far ahead of India in terms of broadband penetration as well.
Reports suggest that overall India has less than 10% computer literate population and only 32% of people living in cities are computer literate. Another important area for successful adoption of broadband is to improve e-awareness. This would enable users to understand and appreciate the value of technology and help increase the adoption rate. It is equally important to encourage meaningful/productive use of the Internet. The government could deploy USOF and embark on a mission to increase Internet/mobile broadband/computing awareness with an active collaboration amongst various stakeholders such as the government, telcos, learning content providers, universities, schools and local administration.
NTP 2011 aptly recognises the need for Right to Broadband. A strong broadband network can form the backbone of this country and hence the need to treat broadband
as an essential basic service. For enhancing positive network externalities, it is imperative that the government undertakes measures to improve infrastructure, support an indigenous ecosystem, and rapidly increases literacy/e-literacy across the country.
The author is director and delivery head for mobile devices, Teleca software solutions India.
Views are personal

For Telecom Sense Today

Econmic Times, 21st October 2011, Editorial Page

Draft Telecom Policy 2011 lacks an operational framework

The writers, V Sridhar & G Krishna Kumar are wireless professionals based in Bangalore. Views are personal
The recently-announced draft Telecommunications Policy, 2011, lacks an operational framework. It has a clause on spectrum sharing, but recent DoT action to scrutinise the 3G roaming pacts of certain operators raises a fundamental question as to whether the government should put a stop to the actions of the operators who, by sharing the infrastructure and scarce spectrum, try to improve the efficiency of providing wireless broadband services.

This is not to say that operators can violate rules and regulations. However, since telecom regulations and policies are found to be trailing technology and practice for most parts, is it time to rethink about being flexible in our policy formulation and implementation?
Given the constraints in spectrum, lower disposable income of the general populace and the glaring rural-urban divide, telecom operators in the country indeed have done a tremendous job in their innovative offerings- often referred to as frugal innovation - to increase the utility of their subscribers. This is evident in the improved telecom penetration levels, low prices and the increased contribution of the telecom sector to the country's GDP: more than 3.5% currently.
By cooperatively sharing the spectrum, much like the passive tower-sharing as being practised as a norm in the industry, the operators can potentially reduce costs, optimally use the allotted spectrum and enlarge coverage areas, leading to the birth of 'secondary spectrum market' in India. As long as it increases the social welfare - i.e., profit of the operators as well as subscriber utilities - government shall not stand in the way. However, the process should be transparent so that all stakeholders, including subscribers and the government, are aware of the sharing pacts. Hence, the need of the hour is guidelines for spectrum-sharing for operators to follow.
Some CDMA operators use 800 MHz spectrum to provide 3G EVDO service. Though 800 MHz was allotted for 2G services, it is better suited for 3G services. This method of use, referred to as spectrum refarming, is not allowed in the policy. However, nobody is complaining as both the operators as well as subscribers earn positive net utility out of this initiative. Though the draft policy reiterates delinking licence (for the provisioning of services) from spectrum, appropriate interpretation and implementation is required relating to the above context.
Similarly, the recent move to cancel the licences of one of the spectrum winners of broadband wireless access (BWA) service on what seem to be minor deviations in the application process, might throw a spanner in India experimenting with leading-edge technologies in wireless broadband service (reports suggest this move is now being withdrawn).
The licensing procedure should be simple enough as long as scarce resources such as spectrum for providing the required service are priced and paid for appropriately. In a very good move, the draft policy advocates unifying different licences to just two - network service operator and service delivery operator - that should simplify the licence maze.
It is not that the government and regulator didn't track technology and market activities earlier. On some occasions, the policies were modified in tune with the market conditions. In early 2003, the government imposed access deficit charge (ADC), a cross-subsidy initiative wherein private telecom operators were required to pay to fixedline providers, mainly BSNL, for sustaining its rural wireline network. However, taking cognisance of the fact that ADC created an unfair tax burden on mobile, national and international long-distance service, and also to stop grey market operations, the Trai abolished the ADC in April 2008.

Another example is the changes brought out in the applicability of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Though NTP 1999 envisioned reimbursement of the net cost of providing universal service in rural areas from the USOF only to basic telecom operators, realising the role of mobile services in providing affordable communication services, the government enabled support for mobile services as well from the USOF through Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2006.
To sum up, though the draft Telecom Policy, 2011, recognises convergence, technology evolution and market developments, the government and the regulator should interpret the broad policy initiatives within the context of improving social welfare and act accordingly. Thanks to the much publicised 2G scam, decisions in telecom are being stalled and postponed. Micromanaging by posing bureaucratic hurdles only will stall progress of telecom in the country and might turn the once golden goose of liberalisation to a dead horse!
 

IT.biz loses fizz

Bangalore, Oct 18, DHNS: Deccan Herald

 

BangaloreIT.biz, once considered the flagship event of the state’s growing IT industry, appears little more than a pale shadow of its past.

The event, inaugurated on Tuesday in the city by former President A P J Abdul Kalam, has been marked by steady decline in numbers and little interest from the industry it claims to represent.

The number of delegates has fallen from 6,000 at its peak to mere 1,000 this year. Though the 130 exhibitors may be numerically the same as last year, most of them are small and lesser known names.

It was a far cry from the event that kicked off in 1997 to provide a platform for a fledgling industry eager to showcase its potential. The initial editions also lured several onlookers who were mesmerised by the sudden spurt of the city’s high-tech industry.

G Krishna Kumar, director-engineering at the Bangalore branch of a multinational, said the industry has lost interest in IT.biz. “Not many of the 500 people in our Bangalore office wouldn’t even know that the event is starting today,” he said. Organisers have attempted to re-brand the event to make it more appealing for the business sector, rechristening it from Bangalore IT.in and later Bangalore IT.biz. A former official of I-flex said the major draw of the event in the past was conferences.

“We attended many editions as they drew senior officials of important banks, our target customers. But as the quality of conferences deteriorated and the participation thinned, we stopped attending IT.biz,” he said. Krishna said unlike Nasscom conferences which are organised around specific issues, IT.biz remains a generic event offering little value to participants.
A Nasscom event organiser speaking on the condition of anonymity said it was unfair to compare a state government event with Nasscom conferences. “Nasscom is a member-driven organisation. It works closely with members in deciding the conference themes, agenda and speakers. As members pay hefty fee, they have high expectations, which would have be met.”

“The event organisers should improve their act before IT.biz becomes a painful annual ritual. Bangalore is India’s biggest IT brand. The industry here deserves a better organised event than IT.biz,” he said.

Telecom Policy lags practice

Economic Times , Sep 7, 2011, 01.16am IST, Editorial Page

 

By: Vsridhar & G Krishna Kumar

The DoT panel looking at various issues for the forthcoming New Telecom Policy has recommended that the country be considered as a single region — instead of the current 22 circles — a move that will spare customers roaming fee while travelling.

Roaming fees for voice calls have dropped considerably in recent years thanks to intense competition. So, the proposal may not have a significant effect.
However, what is the effect of one-nation-one-market policy on 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) services? In the case of voice roaming, the Trai regulation implemented in 2007 ensured no rental or surcharges can be levied by operators.
Trai has also regulated the maximum permissible per-minute charges for roaming calls, irrespective of terminating network and tariff plan. Moreover, multi-SIM mobiles have reduced the relevance of roaming. A user who often roams typically has two SIMs, one from an operator in the home circle and another from an operator in the roaming circle to reduce roaming charges.
With no operator holding a pan-India licence for 3G and only one operator for BWA — and assuming that the operators had a rationale and business models for picking up circles of their choice and paying the huge spectrum fee for the same in last year's auction — combining the circles for data roaming could be tricky.
A recent report says that the country has over 25 million data subscribers and about 49% of Internet users use only mobile phone for accessing the Internet.
In the initial stages, it will be the high-Arpu, post-paid subscribers in metros and category-A circles who will be the innovator segment to adopt 3G/BWA, and it is likely that the subscribers will use data roaming to a large extent.
Without a regulatory oversight, the larger operators are likely to have better bargaining power in the roaming negotiations and, hence, the smaller operators might be disadvantaged, both for originating and terminating roaming data calls.
In BWA, it is worse. The smaller Internet service providers that got the BWA spectrum are at the receiving end of pan-India unified access service providers who can leverage on the scale of their operations. As of now, data roaming charges are not regulated across the world.
EU has drawn up a three-year plan for reducing roaming tariff for data. As per the new regulation, subscribers will have to pay a maximum of 90 cents per MB of data by July 2012. The charges will go down substantially to 50 cents by July 2014.
EU has also defined ceiling charges for wholesale rates, between two operators. Some mobile operators have launched 3G services in circles without having won the spectrum for the same in the auction. Though not likely, the operator could have refarmed the existing 2G spectrum in the 900 and 1,800 MHz to offer 3G services.

This is being practised by some CDMA operators to provide high-speed data services in the 800 MHz they received for 2G services. There is consensus that the industry needs to move towards spectrum allocation independent of technology, thereby bringing in efficiency of spectrum usage. For example, earlier this year, UK's regulator Ofcom allowed refarming of existing 2G spectrum for 3G service.
Though the unified access service licence allows the operator to use any technology to provide any service including data and multimedia, legacy indicates that spectrum is associated with a type of service: 2G or 3G. Spectrum refarming explicitly disassociates spectrum from technology or service.
Another possibility is cooperative sharing of spectrum between the operators who have spectrum and those who do not. If so, even though there is no policy on spectrum-sharing between network operators, it indicates the birth of secondary spectrum market in India.
This type of sharing can occur between two spectrum holders within the same circles too. The operator that does not have the radio access infrastructure in specific geographical areas within a circle can possibly use the spectrum and the associated infrastructure of an existing operator to provide coverage that again will lead to optimal utilisation of spectrum.
These arrangements can also be construed as roaming, though not precisely. What is notable in both the above cases is that the ministry of communications and IT is yet to take a policy decision on refarming and spectrum-sharing, though it is apparently in the works at DoT to be included in the New Telecom Policy.
Though credit shall be given to the operators for taking these initiatives, without policy directives, the user is not adequately informed and even misinformed.
It is time that the much-hyped telecom policy is announced soon, with the above incorporated.

 

Take charge & go-ahead! It is your career

 

Deccan Herald,  7th Sep 2011, DH Aveneue

 

G Krishna Kumar

Polish up
It is not a perfect world where everyone gets an opportunity that matches aspirations

Requirements management, User experience, Build and release Management, Triage management are some of the roles that were never heard in the Indian software Industry say 10 to 15 years back. However, over the past few years, these niche roles have emerged in the Indian Software landscape among both the services and product companies.

These, together with the standard roles in development, testing and project management, provide engineers with several options to pursue a career in the IT Industry. The myriad of options, often adds to the confusion especially among engineers in the less than 10 years experience range.

While there are a few engineers who are aware of the value they deliver currently and how they would enhance it in the future, a vast majority of them are not sure. Salary increase appears to be the sole parameter to measure growth.

Most IT organisations have developed career paths on technical and project Management ladders to help their employees. It is to be noted that the work content in software product and services companies is similar to a great extent and there is no dearth of opportunities in both technical and managerial ladders.

In general, managerial roles are more acceptable in the Indian society. However, technical skills are always at a premium, in high demand and provide immense potential to realise value both for the individual as well as for the organisation.

Although career plan is strictly a personal initiative, there is a popular perception that it is owned by the organisation as an HR initiative. How can we expect an organisation to own the career plan for each and every employee?

It is important to understand assuming that an individual has a fair idea on the future goals, let us look at the practical aspects in realising the goals.

Spend disciplined effort
It is not a perfect world where everyone gets an opportunity that matches both the individual’s aspiration as well as business needs. In reality, it is highly likely that the current job may cater to say 50 per cent of an individual’s aspirations. This means, the rest needs to be “earned”, by spending additional disciplined effort to strengthen the areas not covered by the present job.

For example, let’s take an individual aspiring to be a Software Test Architect, while the current job is that of a manual tester. The Individual could learn/enhance programming, scripting, creating Test benches etc. Another example could be that of a developer involved in maintenance of a software product.

It is very likely that the scope of work will be limited to a few modules. However, normally, the engineer would have access to a lot of product resources that could help the engineer in gaining deeper product knowledge. In general, understanding the overall purpose of the project and seeing the big picture always help engineers appreciate their current work.

The next logical question is to find out if this knowledge can be put to good use. It is safe to assume that opportunities are aplenty in any organisation. It is a matter of interest and commitment from an individual that would open newer opportunities.

Focus on Fundamentals
Over the past few years, the Indian engineers have learnt the need for soaking into a domain in order to gain expertise. All the Domains like Wireless Telecom, Finance, Health care etc offer hundreds of sub domains that can be specialised over many years. For example, a wireless telecom engineer can be an expert in a niche sub-domain like a layer in LTE protocol stack or multimedia framework etc.

An individual could identify and gain expertise on multiple sub-domains. Each of these domains is evolving and this, not only provide an opportunity for the individuals to be abreast with the latest changes in the domain, but also, potentially contribute to the standards.

The next important area for an individual to focus on is, programming language or scripting language as the case maybe. Best programmers are always in scarcity and are equally desirable for a pure software Development project or a maintenance project. Programming languages, akin to sub-domains are an evolving area and a new programming language emerges into the arena every few years.

Importance of Mentor
It is important that the engineers are fundamentally strong in programming and design so that they can seamlessly move into new programming languages without much effort. While parents and close relatives play an extremely important role during education and early part of the job career, it is important to identify a mentor who could either be from the current organisation or from any other organisation.

The mentor can guide the individual in taking key career decisions and could even guide the individual in handling inter-personnel challenges. It is important to realise that the mentor is not the decision maker. Softer aspect like communication skill is very critical and is often ignored. It is extremely important to be clear and articulate while communicating with stake holders including customers, immediate managers and other team members.

Thinking of a solution for a complex problem is just one part, clearly articulating and obtaining buy-in from the stake holders is immensely important. It is also important not to get into an “I-know-it-all” mindset, to remain humble and be a good team player. One more important factor is the longevity of the individual in any organisation. It is fairly established that, in a growing organisation, a good performer will always have plenty of opportunity to grow rapidly.

To sum up, it is the Individual’s career which is at stake and hence more than anyone, the Individual needs to “own” the career plan. Organisations can play a supportive role with framework and policies and a personal mentor can help in key decision making.

It is imperative that the individual focuses on enhancing technical skills and there-by adding value to self as well as the organisation. Sticking to an organisation longer certainly helps. Amidst all these, it is vital to focus on softer aspects and be a genuine team player to experience true career growth.

(The writer is Director and Head of Mobile Devices Delivery, Teleca software solutions India)