Tidy error!
The chief executive of BT, Ben Verwaayen, is warning the
UK to pull its finger out or else face the great Indian takeaway,
writes Simon Moores.
Ben Verwaayen, chief executive of BT, mixed words of
encouragement for the UK, as Europe’s strongest economy, with a
clear warning that we have to “wake up” or risk falling behind
countries such as India, which are successfully leveraging their
cheap labour force and education system to create a knowledge
economy to challenge our own.
Verwaayen was addressing an audience of MPs, shadow technology
minister, Michael Fabricant and the leading IT suppliers at a
Conservative Technology Forum event at St Stephen’s
Club, London, last week.
He said, "Two weeks ago I was in India, visiting a couple of
Bill Gates equivalents, both serious developers. India does not
have one Bill Gates, it has five."
While India is a paradox with so many millions of people living
without any contact with modern technology, it has double the
amount of people, living at UK standards or above.
“In Bangalore, I visited a fantastic campus with 15,000 young
people, with an average age of 24, average month’s salary, £500
[£273], and average qualification MBA plus," said Verwaayen.
"In 1988, India exported $50m in IT services. Last year, India
exported $15bn and these are not the call centres that everyone
talks and worries about. This is knowledge.
"It is a fact that we are going to live in a world where aid
will be replaced by trade but the problem is that we are not ready
for it. We are sleeping at the wheel.
"We worry over exporting our jobs to India and China and we
believe that our universities are better than others. Think
again.
” We think we have a system that gets the best out of people and
makes them productive. Think again. We all have a computer but your
computer is worthless unless you use it as an instrument to compete
and you need advanced networks to compete,” said Verwaayen.
He pointed to the movie “Finding Nemo” as an example of
international cooperation using advanced networking. The film
was made in three separate studios in real time, Israel, Bristol
and California, as the artists collaborated on each frame.
“So, what you see happening now is the ability to connect best
in class with best in class completely independent of distance and
location," said Verwaayen.
He warned that the economy of the world will continue revolve
around consumers buying the best possible quality for the lowest
possible price and businesses are no different. "There is no point
in turning around to your politicians in five years time and asking
where the employment has gone," he said.
"If you want to stay competitive you need to look at the
opportunity triangle again. On each of the three sides you have
knowledge, entrepreneurial skills and costs and in the middle you
have networks.
“In the UK, BT is spending £10bn to build the end-to-end IP
network we need to make certain, that with a click of a mouse, you
can compete with everyone else in the world,” said Verwaayen.
He implied that BT was providing the tools but it was up to
government to do the rest. “This is a fast changing landscape and
we should be learning from Germany, where in a short space of time,
four million jobs have slipped over the border to the new members
of the European Union, proving that in Germany, at least, the
triangle doesn’t work."
Sending his wake up call to politicians of all parties, he
concluded, “It is time that the UK looked very closely at its own
triangle."
Shadow technology minister, Michael Fabricant said, "BT is to be
congratulated with the rapid roll-out of broadband, though there
are still questions of the speed of the connection - 512kbps will
not be the standard of the future.
"BT enjoys a virtual monopoly position in the UK and Ben
Verwaayen has recognised this by dramatically reducing the costs of
local loop unbundling though we still lag behind France and
Germany. We cannot be complacent."
In the meantime, he said the government must ensure that BT is
given the same access to European markets as France Telecom and
Deutsch Telekom enjoy in the UK; at present there is an unfair
imbalance. "Sadly, the three sides of the UK’s triangle these days
looks very like health, transport and housing, with Iraq stuck
firmly in the middle, so don’t hold your breath Ben," said
Fabricant.
Setting the world to rights with the collected thoughts and
opinions of leading industry analyst Dr Simon Moores of
Zentelligence.
Acting globally, Zentelligence (Research) advises
governments, suppliers, business and the media on the evolution,
application and delivery of leading-edge technologies, and
specialises in the areas of e-government and information
security.
For further information on Zentelligence and its research,
presentation and analyst services, visitwww.zentelligence.com