Over the last two decades, the word, and India has grown more polarised. Dominant right-wing forces, riding on a nationalist fervour, are very popular in several countries. India, long defined by its religious tolerance and diversity, faces strain. The fabric of our culture and our identity, which survived the onslaught of colonialism, is being challenged.

Yet this phase has also broken old mindsets. For the first time, we believe our own capabilities have been widely unleashed. The path forward needs careful contemplation. We must create our own models rooted in the local context and do what is good for us while firmly upholding our principles and values, guided by first-principles thinking and anchored in ethics. Some cynical friends suggest that, in today’s climate, I would not have been the president of a Jesuit institution’s student union. I choose to believe otherwise. One defining experience was my partnership with Ravi, a Tamil Brahmin. It raised eyebrows in our respective families and communities. Over two decades of working together, our backgrounds never bothered us. Vedha Automations encouraged everyone to practice their beliefs actively. We knew that this would create a solid foundation and make us better humans. This worked very well for us. Naveed was a product of this environment. He was a proud and committed team player at Vedha, and he played a crucial role in Shoper’s success.

Today, however, the spread of misinformation and echo chambers has hardened opinions and stunted collaboration. You might wonder how this is relevant to making India a product nation. It is. A strong product culture is facilitated through innovation that questions conventional wisdom and encourages healthy, data-driven debate. Assumptions must be reviewed constantly. Mistakes are quickly acknowledged and corrections implemented. Learning, unlearning and relearning have to be continuous. This mindset is critical. We must be willing, even eager, to be proven wrong early in the journey. Any prejudice will hold us back from engaging with each other freely. This is why a product culture cannot be seen as being independent of communal and political forces and perspectives.

India is a great ecosystem for building and launching a product. If a product works across our diversity – social, linguistic and economic – it can probably address many other markets. Our strength lies in acceptance, integration and synthesis. Building for India, with intent and conviction, is a powerful advantage.

Tally exemplified this. BG embraced diversity, underlining that standardisation is not a sustainable practice. Instead of franchise models, Tally built a broad, inclusive partner ecosystem, aligning with trusted local communities. Any business that wants to succeed needs to have a similar open mindset. The iSPIRT initiative, for the first time, helped us understand the challenges businesses face while implementing new technologies. Point solutions that addressed specific problems were accepted, but the real hurdle lay in executing and adopting organisation-wide, integrated solutions. Up until then, we had little visibility into the nature of these issues or their root causes. The scale of the problem was not understood. Successful projects and happy clients were few and far between. Most customers were disgruntled and wanted iSPIRT to resolve their problems. We quickly realised that changing the software was not the answer. We had started with the assumption that customers were looking for help deciding on product selection. Instead, we found out that customers are disappointed with software vendors.

Some common complaints emerged. Projects were rarely delivered on time. Products were buggy and difficult to use. Customers wanted their specific requirements addressed, but customisation was expensive. This created a classic lose–lose situation. Customers, product companies and service vendors were all dissatisfied. On further analysis, we concluded the following reasons for project failures:

• End users are not involved early in the project. Failing to secure the buy-in of those whose work is meant to improve is one of the biggest reasons for failure. The additional effort required during transition offers little immediate value to individuals, making it a disincentive. In many cases, systems are seen as centralised controllers rather than enablers. As a result, end users resist change, making implementation difficult.
• Departments within organisations often function as independent fiefdoms. Collaboration happens only when necessary. Technology that promises to break these silos is met with suspicion and fear. There is limited investment of time and attention in setting objectives and participating in change management. Technology transformation is treated as a low priority and, as a result, is poorly managed.
• There is a poor understanding of how similar organisations have implemented technology. While no two organisations are identical, peer learning can offer powerful insights. Yet, there are a few easy ways for companies to access such learning.
• Finally, there is confusion about the capabilities of available products and solutions. Demonstrations are rarely sufficient to reveal challenges in process flows. Full-scale pilots require significant effort, so most implementations become reactive and prolonged exercises.

As we worked more closely with businesses, it became clear that software project failures were rarely about the technology itself. They were rooted in poor preparation, unclear ownership and unrealistic expectations. Our recommendations, therefore, focused as much on organisational readiness as on product choice.

• A critical first step was to appoint a programme manager, or a quasi-CIO, with prior experience in digital transformation. This role bridged the gap between business teams and technology providers. Someone needed to understand what it takes to prepare internal teams, align processes and drive implementation with discipline.
• Equally important was the need to define clear objectives and milestones. Organisations often relied on vendor promises of efficiency gains, but these were too generic to guide execution. What worked better was articulating specific, measurable goals that were relevant to the organisation, both in the short and long term. This created alignment and ensured that technology adoption remained a business priority rather than an abstract aspiration.
• A more complex question was whether to adopt a single, comprehensive system or a set of best-of-breed solutions. My own preference has been to choose products that are best in their class for specific functions, rather than forcing one system to do everything.

Our experience with Madura Garments illustrates this well. During our engagement with Vedha Automations, we built bespoke solutions to manage factory, warehouse, trade finance and retail operations. The company later decided to implement SAP ERP to improve customer service, particularly to address unfulfilled sales orders caused by inadequate warehouse stocking.

The expected gains from efficiency improvements were significant, but the transformation took over two years. Despite efforts to standardise processes and the involvement of a consulting firm for business process re-engineering, the level of customisation required within SAP was immense. The Vedha team that had built the earlier systems transitioned to support the new platform.

However, the system struggled to keep pace with the evolving needs of the business. Over time, specialised solutions for warehouse management and complex retail back-end operations had to be introduced. The idea of a single system managing all functions proved ineffective in practice.

This reinforced an important lesson: systems must be designed to accommodate business flexibility and exceptions. In many cases, tight integration across all functions is neither necessary nor desirable. Simpler control mechanisms, including periodic audits, can often be more effective than overly rigid system design.

Excerpted with permission from The Product Code: Shoper, Tally and the Making of an Entrepreneur, Shoaib Ahmed, Westland.

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