PDF: 2962 pages, 5.2 MB - Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Global Reach
• optical character recognition scanning, allowing machine readability and secure verification
of paper documents; and
• touch screen, pen-based, voice activation, and intuitive keyboard solutions that address
the barrier of 22 principal languages spoken throughout the country.
HP Labs India has joint PhD fellowships and has sponsored research students and projects at
the IITs in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, and at IISc Bangalore and Birla Institute of
Technology and Science, Pilani.
Of U.S. companies, Cisco Systems has been one of the most aggressive in building an
India presence geared to global markets. To that end, Cisco announced in 2007 the establishment
of its “second global headquarters” in Bangalore, headed by senior executive
Wim Elfrink, who has since moved to India. The core of the strategy is to accelerate business
growth by positioning the company close to the action in the rapidly developing markets of
Asia and the Middle East.
With growth in emerging markets eclipsing growth rates in more developed economies, Cisco’s
presence in India is targeted on both India’s domestic market and its goal to position Cisco as a
market leader in developing economies. India is also playing a central role in Cisco’s broader
global strategy. As Elfrink describes it, lower cost is not a sustainable advantage, which in the
end will only come from talent, innovation and the ability to add value. This is leading to a shift
in the linear value chain to a “collaborative business network model,” in which India’s role shifts
from vendor to partner. The difference between vendor and partner is that a partner co-creates
value: “It’s how you globalize brains.”
Cisco established its wholly-owned India subsidiary in 1995, primarily to recruit, train and certify
value-added resellers (VARs) for its routers, switches and other enterprise networking products.
Presently headed by Naresh Wadhwa, the India subsidiary is part of Cisco’s Asia-Pacific region,
which accounted for 10% of company revenues in 2007. Cisco has 7 sales offices in New Delhi,
Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Kolkata, and joint development centers
with Wipro, Infosys, HCL, Satyam, and Zensar Technologies.
Cisco’s VAR network includes 900 partners in 100 cities, and it also uses two nationwide distributors,
Ingram Micro and Redington. Its broader network includes 10 system integrators, including
IBM, HP, TCS, Wipro, and Cable & Wireless, and 13 gold and silver certified partners.
Cisco operates 9 logistics centers throughout India, part of a customer support system that offers
next business day replacement of equipment. Its India workforce totals some 4,000 people, including
R&D and business/sales support.
The Cisco Networking Academy Program, launched in 1997 globally and brought to India in
2001, has 152 academies in 23 Indian states, offering specialized college-level curricula in computer
networking to some 9,000 participating students. In November 2008, the company
launched a joint development program with the Small Industries Development Bank of India
(SIDBI) and the Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park (STEP) to encourage development
in India’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector. The new program will
200