Don’t be soft with software: Think global domination
‘Software’ is something that is ‘global’. Not regional or country specific.
Sanjiva Weerawarana
This is what Sanjiva Weerawarana, CEO of WSO2, a middleware (software that connects computer systems) production firm, wants all software-related fraternity and aspiring software industrialists to know.
It’s true, he says noting that the software development phenomenon is a global thing and it’s increasingly important to recognise this. In fact, any company that thinks big enough and keeps growing has a very good chance of becoming a global company, he says adding that there are some industries such as software that are more apt than others to make the leap earlier.
Software companies operating in the cloud, for instance, can operate anywhere in the world.
“So, there’s a huge (can’t stress this enough) opportunity for us here in Sri Lanka to compete at the global space with software,” Sanjiva says.
Anyone can be a winner in this. “The idea of competing with the whole world is feasible. It’s easier and better.” He should know – he’s built WSO2.
And he’ll be delivering the keynote at the IESL Ray Wijewardene memorial lecture on Thursday, September 7 at the Wimalasurendra auditorium of the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka office in Colombo. The title of the lecture is “Nobody to Leader: Achieving Global Leadership with Software”.
Sanjiva says that what the authorities at times don’t comprehend is that ‘Information Technology’ or IT is a major industry and a value creation opportunity for countries like Sri Lanka.
But given the perennial pressures of the need to remain profitable and competitive in the global landscape, foreign companies leverage large multi-skilled labour forces in lower-cost economies and bring BPOs mainly to this part of the world. This is owing to the labour cost compared with employment markets in the US and Western Europe is less than low. But this to Sanjiva is modern day slavery.
“Outsourcing is profitable, but it’s also modern-day slavery,” he says.
“Wonder why we lose top graduates that pass out from our tertiary systems within a year of them passing out? We lose more than 50 per cent of Moratuwa (University) graduates within two years of passing out. They don’t return. Why? Because (software) engineers are highly ‘movable,” he says adding that authorities ought to retain them. “That’s by enticing them with a reason to stay, but that’s another story all together,” he smiles.
These graduates are different in terms of their demand around the world to – say lawyers for example, because the rules in those countries pertaining to law are way different, Sanjiva lays his case.
Quite a few major software company founders are Sri Lankan – WSO2, Cake Labs, Emojot, etc. They all brought the entrepreneurial, can-do attitude to this country. So why can’t the government take this baton and run is what many in the industry question.”Don’t be a bottleneck. Don’t slap ridiculous specifications when procuring from a local software firm,” Sanjiva says noting that we need a cohesive effort to change the way the authorities and also entrepreneurs think and approach their problems much like the late Ray Wijeyawardena did. “His time was pre-software but he achieved so much.”
He says as a percentage there’re more Sri Lankans taking up IT in their tertiary education than India. “Now learning and educating in IT is a life skill,” he says stressing that we need more people who apply this than those who ‘create’ it.
Discussing start-ups, he says that there’s insufficient ‘world domination’ mindset in Sri Lanka. “The local investors have enough financial capacity, but you need to show them that there’s enough world domination in your products – that is how to make cash,” he says.