Bertrand Barthélemy's Blog

The differences between the Chinese and the Indian education system for Engineers could explain the past…and give a hint for the future

Indians are taught software and program management, they learn how to work in groups.
Chinese are taught hardware and in professional skills (aerospace, accounting, …), they work more on their own.

This difference could explain why India has specialized in IT and saw huge Indian companies emerge on the world scene: their skills fit the program design needs, program management and software development.
The Chinese are better in everything to do with the machines. They excel in computer manufacturing, Telco equipment. They don’t have national champions in IT services where teamwork and knowledge of software are more necessary.

For BPO, China could have an edge: the most important skills for BPO are “sectorial” skills (a good knowledge of the processes in a given sector). International BPO companies could find easier to train a Chinese process expert to work in BPO, than to teach a sectorial process to an Indian professional with soft skills.

By the way, on that matter, Russia is very close to China… watch out for China and Russia in some high-end BPO markets!

Insights on China and India

Thoughts on comparing China and India in the Technology world.

China and india seem to live in the same ecosystem.

350 000 new engineers arrive on the labour market each year in India.
600 000 in China.

their workforce is used to apply processes and enjoys a very high motivation in both cases.
Both countries has a diaspora in the US. This diaspora is very useful to ease the connexion with clients.

Companies of both countries get the same support from the government with Special economic zones (low tax, good networks, special labour laws).

China seems to have an edge when technology is concerned.

There are 4 times more mobile handsets in China than India; three more times PCs , three times more Web users.

And as everybody knows, much better infrastructures in China.

Chinese seem to enjoy Technology in their day to day life;but does in translate into powerful Chinese companies,

Yet, the Information Technology Offshoring (ITO) world is dominated by India.not by Chinese companies

In India, 70 of the IT market is served by the 15 biggest IT companies (TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HCL,..) with employees by the tens of thousands. 15 is served by the local branches of Western IT companies (Accenture, IBM, Capgemini, CSC,..)
In China, there are 10 000 IT companies, only 5 of them bigger than 2000 employees. IBM has 2000 employees in IT, Accenture 1200, Capgemini 400

Why is the market so concentrated in India and so fragmented in China?

BPO (Business process Outsourcing) came by chance with captive subsidiaries of US companies (GE was the front runner) which were transferring work from the US to India.

But ITO (Information Technology Offshoring) came from Indian managers themselves. Apparently from an handful of managers able to create these 15 giants. They got the support from the Indian government, they took advantage of being linked to big US companies (some of them started as jv).

Does the proficiency in English explain the difference? Is it something else?

My intuition is that the education system and culture play a big role in the emergence of India in the IT world. Offshoring products and services need the capability to run processes. Both China and India have it.

But IT services require an additional capacity: being able to question specifications, in a complex environment. This capacity seems to be well spread in India, where maths are highly regarded. In the traditional Chinese culture, question orders seem not to be so common.

Finding an answer to this question is key for western companies which want to expand in China.

Is the “Indian way” the right solution?