WHY HAS INDIA NOT PRODUCED THE LIKES OF MARK ZUCKERBERGS

India needs lateral thinkers who can evolve a perspective that is disruptive and demonstrate vision and leadership to build a business empire.

It is a very serious question that asks for serious attention of the Govt. Of India (GOI) - Why India has not been able to produce entrepreneurs the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk? Though like the others, these entrepreneurs have used technology to their advantage but what sets them apart is their ability to conceptualize and build their concept into an application that disrupted the traditional thinking. They did not stop there but through the strength of their vision they built those applications into global business empires.

We have IITs and IIMs which have respectively distinguished themselves in producing engineers and management minds but what we don’t have are institutions that are geared to produce entrepreneurs with lateral thinking, those who have the ability to break away from traditional thinking, challenge assumptions, evolve a perspective that is disruptive and demonstrate vision and leadership to transform the perspective to a business empire.

Neither does America has those specialized institutions but they have is a naturally evolved ecosystem that rewards lateral thinking, encourages entrepreneurship and positively regards failures. Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are/were lateral thinkers in their own right and have leveraged the American ecosystems to their advantage, conceptualizing disruptive products and demonstrating vision and leadership to build a business empire. They have had their share of failures before hitting it big.

It is important to understand to what do the likes of Mark Zuckerberg have that makes them successful entrepreneurs

• Elon Musk set before him ambitious goals, laterally thought through their execution and problem solving, committed work ethics but took daring risks to succeed in areas where others feared to tread.

  
  

• Bill Gates blended his intellectual prowess, entrepreneurial spirit, lateral thinking and a commitment to lifelong learning to understand new opportunities and challenge those invading his field.

  
  

• Mark Zuckerberg succeeded, mixing his technical expertise, entrepreneurial drive, choosing to think outside the box, and laid a deep focus on innovation and scaling.

  
  

• Jeff Bezos leveraged his unique combination of visionary leadership and lateral thinking to navigate uncertainty and foster a culture of collaboration and diversity of thought, adapt to change, unparallel customer obsession, and took daring risks to establish his empire.

  
  

What is common among them is their exceptional entrepreneurial skills, ability to think laterally & lead and their outstanding vision to transform technology to their advantage. What also contributed to their success was the ready access to an obliging ecosystem consisting of world-class universities, venture capital, bank financing and a culture of innovation that encourages risk-taking and failure.

India in fact needs thousands of such lateral minds over the next ten years, who are capable of conceptualizing an idea from a thought, have the dynamism to sell the concept to raise money to develop a product prototype, seek investments to establish their commercial versions followed by a market launch and manage its journey to success.

While replicating a figure like Steve Jobs is a tall order for any country, India must fully exploit the potential to foster a lateral thinking culture among its entrepreneurs that encourages creativity, innovation, and problem-solving. These entrepreneurs should be capable of leveraging their risk-taking appetite supported by a large pool of talented engineers to address the growing Indian market and establish innovative brands.

GOI should also be sensitive to the need for constant innovation and must establish an ecosystem that is obliging and encourages India to become a breeding capital for exemplary innovations.

Please stay tuned for the next part of this article, which will soon be published.