インドのソフトウェア・ITサービス企業・Wipro

インドのソフトウェア・ITサービス企業・Wiproについての取材報告がFast Companyに載った。

「A decade ago, Wipro was an anonymous conglomerate selling cooking oil and personal computers, mostly in India. Today, it is a $903 million-a-year global company, and most of its business comes from information-technology services. Since 1997, Wipro's revenue has grown by an average of 26% a year while profits have grown by 69%. Its 15,000 technologists write software, integrate back-office solutions, design semiconductors, debug applications, take orders, and field help calls for some of the biggest companies in the world. They are as good at doing all of that as anyone in the world. Perhaps better. And they are cheaper -- on average about 40% cheaper -- than comparable American companies.」

この記事を読むと、人件費のレベルが大きく違うインドのエンジニアが、だんだんと実力をつけてくるとどういうことが起こるかということが実感できる。シリコンバレーのスタートアップ企業でも、たとえば100人とか150人の従業員といった数字にしてはバーンレート(月々の経費)が低い会社は、必ずといっていいほど、ソフトウェア開発部隊をインドに持っている。IBMの戦略シフトに見られるように、アメリカは急速にサービス産業化している。

「Think hard about that. If you are a strategy consultant working for Accenture or EDS in the United States, how do you compete with Ganesh? How does your company compete when Antony's troops can execute Ganesh's solution for perhaps a quarter of the cost of your staff -- and execute just as well?」

本当にインドと競争ができますか?この記事はそう問うわけだ。

「If what you do can be done by anyone, there will always be someone willing to do it for less. If what you do can be done by anyone, there will always be someone willing to do it for less.」

と。

そしてインドの技術も向上の一途をたどる。

「Wipro has embraced quality. In six years, it has trained 7,000 employees in Six Sigma and completed 1,000 quality projects. Six years ago, Fast Company profiled a team at Lockheed-Martin that wrote nearly perfect code ( "They Write the Right Stuff," Dec : Jan 1997 ). The team's claim to fame: It was one of only four outfits in the world to achieve Level 5 certification from the Software Engineering Institute. Wipro has Level 5 certification in three different categories. It's eye-glazing stuff, but an amazing achievement.」

先日フォーサイト誌に発表した、スタンフォード大学・西義雄教授のインタビュー・エッセイの中で、西教授は、

「韓国が顕著ですが、発展途上国が質のいい小中高等教育を用意し、指導要領を整備して入試という関所を作り、ガンガンやって力をつけるのは、たやすいことなのです。」

とおっしゃった。インドのソフトウェア技術の向上も、基本的には全く同じ構図である。

「Imagine, then, that you are a young Indian engineer working for an Indian technology company that is successfully starting to challenge some of the most established service providers on the planet. Yes, you want to make good money and buy a home. But just as likely, your work isn't solely about personal achievement or even your employer's market cap: It's a statement of national identity. "There is the same feeling that I found in Japan many years ago," says Gurcharan Das, the retired head of Procter & Gamble India, now a writer and venture capitalist. "In the 1970s, I visited a factory there; it may have been Toyota. And a worker told me that he was working for the greater glory of Japan. It's the same sense of destiny that is partly driving these people today in India."」

豊かになりすぎた先進国・日本に育った日本人は、30年前の日本に似た「インドの発展途上国戦略」とは、全く違う道を歩まなければならないのだ。