The secret recipe for success of Indians

Nikhil Inamdar and Aparna Alluri, writing for BBC, recently tried to explain the success of Indians in the US.

This is in the wake of the appointment of Parag Agrawal as the head of Twitter, joining other CEOs of Indian descent, including those of Google, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, Palo Alto Networks, VMWare and Vimeo.  

The former heads of Coca-Cola and the Harvard Business School were also of Indian descent. Indians are easy to recognise because they keep their names, a sign of confidence in their identity. We are afraid of using our traditional names because we think they are not cool; we lack identity and let other people define us.  

India is a big country, which increases the chances of getting gifted leaders in any field.  

Leading a big firm is not for the faint-hearted. It’s one of the biggest mistakes we make in Africa, thinking that entrepreneurship is  for “failures.” Does it surprise you that blue-chip firms such as Google, Yahoo or Facebook started in top American universities?

Starting a new firm demands creativity and ingenuity. Remember new firms have no precedence. When will our ‘A’ students dream of becoming entrepreneurs and not professionals? Another factor in the success of Indians is their focus on science, technology, engineering and maths ( STEM) course, which gives them an edge in getting visas and jobs.

I recall my high school maths, physics and chemistry teachers were of Indian origin. Later, my teachers in these subjects were Ugandan. One thing parents should realise is that taking STEM gives a student flexibility as they can shift to social sciences later. If you start with social sciences, you can’t shift later; you are stuck in a rut.  

Another interesting factor for Indians’ success is multiethnicity, which makes it easy for them to interact easily with other nationalities. The US is a multiracial and multiethnic society that values diversity.  Yet in Kenya, we rarely see multiethnicity as an asset. We see it as a drag on growth. Kenya would be a very boring country if it were homogeneous.  

The network Indians build in Silicon Valley and elsewhere is another asset. You need someone to show you the way in a new country.  

The BBC writers also note the fact that many Indians have American qualifications such as masters degrees. This makes it easy to get integrated into professional circles. 

Indians are also proficient in English, which is the language of business and the Internet. This gives them another head-start.   

The Indians who make it in the US are also a self-selected group; they come from the Indian upper classes, making it easy to afford an American education and start a new life.

They also have very good universities that compete with Ivy League institutions.  

What of Indians in Kenya? They are equally successful for the same reasons. They have taken another bold step recently—a keen interest in politics, with some becoming MPs.  

More than 100 years after building the rail, the Indians have secluded themselves culturally, rarely intermarrying and retaining their religion and way of dressing.

You are likely to see them wearing saris on the streets of Nairobi and other towns. And their temples mark the edge of their domains. 

I am not sure if that seclusion is a factor in their success. Would they be more successful if they integrated with the rest of society? 

One argument is what Britons saw far into the future; they needed Indians to insulate themselves from the “commoners.”  

One study I would like to undertake is which class of Indians came to Kenya.  

Kenyan-Indians have another route to success—international networks through their relatives in India, the US, the UK and other countries. That gives them choices in seeking business or schooling opportunities. 

Sadly, as Indians become CEOs of the world’s biggest firms, our greatest worry is our students burning schools.