<p><strong>Amit Midha,</strong> president, Dell Asia Pacific and Japan, talks to <em>BW</em>’s <strong>Mala Bhargava</strong> about technology-enabling transformation<br><br><strong>How do you see technology as being transformative for India today? </strong><br>When you build an airport, or a highway, expectations on infrastructure go up. Similarly, with eGov projects, expectations of people about productivity from themselves rise. This is a transformative move, and it brings transparency to the system. The government has a huge role to play in using technology to bring together transformative initiatives for the society. The current government has been doing that.<br><br><strong>You’ve worked in China. What lessons do you think India has to learn from eGov implementations there? </strong><br>I think China has taken eGov to the level which I have not seen anywhere else. Some of that is required here because of the controls. You could go to a city’s mayor and see a single dashboard where you can see what the revenue is, what the traffic is in any part of the city. If you go to an airline office, they can take their profitability by the hour down to plane and passenger login.<br><br><strong>And what is the parallel for companies today? </strong><br>In my view, never before has technology been more critical to a company’s survival and success. A recent research showed that in 1920, SMB (small and medium business) 500 companies had an average lifespan of 67 years, which means once you got big, you stayed big and successful. Now, that average span is reduced to 50-20 years, which means companies are dying faster because more disruption is coming. Disruptions come from different directions, but they are all fuelled by technology.<br><br><strong>Do you see industry-wide changes from the use of technology? </strong><br>Technology changes what’s possible exponentially and leads to new business models, new economics, new benefits, new efficiency, new customer care and service. So, all these are what’s changing the industry. We have seen that in media, hospitality, travel, and now we are seeing that in retail, healthcare, education, and it will continue. So, technology as a transformative element has never been stronger. This is all possible because you are applying big data to the already data available. They have such a good level of information flow and they have invested in that. I think trying to build the profitability by the hour is a good thing, but if you don’t do anything with it, it’s a waste of money. <br><br>mala@pobox.com;<br>@malabhargava<br><br>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 24-08-2015)</p>
