The business side of software
Ray Brooke was one of my students who graduated from Carnegie Mellon sixteen years ago. Today he owns a large software company with over 15,000 people and many offices in India, China, Singapore, and Philippines. Last week, he returned to CMU to give a speech for the Alumni club so we decided to have lunch together. The lunch quickly became a conversation about current trends within the software industry and I asked him how students could follow his footsteps if they want to start a company. Ray gave a simple advice: “Tell them to focus on the business side of software.”
He explained: “Business skills are the most important in software industry today but students graduate in technical area only want to work on technical projects. If they are trained in designing, coding and testing then all they want is doing exactly on what they are trained. No one is willing to learn something else and that is why it opens opportunity for me. I started in the technical side but when I found there was an urgent need in the business side, I made a quick change. Sixteen years ago, there were few technical people who were willing to work in the business side so I had no problem to go into business area. I learned about how to manage project, how to work with customers, and how to negotiate business deals and I climbed to higher positions very quickly. When I reached the top, I asked myself: “Why do I have to work for somebody?” so I started my own company. After that, I learned that there was a shortage of skilled people in the U.S but there were many skilled people in India and China so I opened offices there. Today my company provides IT services to hundreds companies all over the world”.
I asked: “But every company also had business people, people who study finance and accounting. How can you were successful but they were not?
He laughed: “Business people did NOT know technical and did not want to learn about technical. Technical people did NOT know business and did not want to learn about business. Since I was willing to learn, I had no competition. Even today, finding technical people with business skills is still rare. I find it difficult to find technical people who can communicate or negotiate a business deal. Most technical people are happy to do technical works. The problem is technical works can easily be done elsewhere but business work is NOT. You cannot outsource the business.”
I asked: “So the key factor is to get out of programming and into business skills?”
He corrected: “What I mean is to move into the “business side of software” which is different from the business skills such as finance or accounting. Students need to learn how to become systems analyst, business analyst, project manager, director, Chief Information Officer (CIO). These are the business skills of managing a technical area. Of course it takes time and requires the right experience and learning to be successful. Today many companies outsource programming and testing to lower cost countries so to have jobs, students must learn additional business skills.
I asked: “It sounds easy but how do you move to the “business side”?
He explained: “Students could take classes on Information System Management. If they already working in the industry, they can do it by assuming more responsibility, learning management and improving their problem-solving skills and Soft-skills. I began my career as a programmer but when the project had problems with customers, I volunteered to work with customers to solve problems. When others wrote code, I negotiated with customers and analyzed their requirements. Eventually I became a Business Analyst, someone who focus on understand customers’ needs and negotiated with them on requirements changes. I worked hard and accepted more responsibilities throughout the project. When things were overwhelming for my project manager, I jumped in to help and gradually accepted more of the project management responsibilities. When new opportunity came, I was promoted to project manager. I learned more about project management by taking additional classes to improve my skills. When my project completed successfully, I was given additional projects. Within four years, I moved to manager and manage several projects. Over time, as the company owner’s confidence in my abilities grew, I was promoted to director to manage the entire division of the company. Few years later, I became the Vice President to manage all software business for the company. I continued to improve my skills by took additional courses. At this level, the “Soft-skills” such as communication, presentation, negotiation, listening, conflict resolution, time management are very important.
He stopped and told me: “I wish that I could learn those skills when I was still in school. I did not take your advice on taking the “Soft-Skills class” before I graduated. When the need of hiring more software people come, I found that the U.S had a shortage of skilled people and have to hire many developers from India and China. I thought to myself: “This is a good opportunity to have my own company” so I started a company and went to India to open an office there. Since I already knew a lot of customers in the U.S, I told them that I could do the same work for much less. My past successes gave them the confidence that I could do it so they gave me many software works. The business grew quickly from ten to hundreds then thousands customers. I started with customers in the U.S but eventually have customers all over the world. To keep growing, I opened offices in China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Today I have over 15,000 developers and generate several hundred million dollars per year. Basically, It is all about understand the business side of software, identify the opportunities, and take action”.
I asked: “That happened several years ago but do you think students can still doing thing like what you did today?
He seemed surprised: “Why not? There are much more opportunities today than ten years ago. Today every business need information technology and with cloud computing and internet, you can do itanywhere. In my opinion, this is the best time to start a software company. To start a company, you need software tools, but with open source you do not have to buy anything, just download those tools from the internet. You need people for the company, but there are lots of skilled people who need jobs, especially in Asia so you can hire them easily. You need infrastructure, but with the cloud computing, you do not have to buy equipments or servers anymore, you can rent them from Service Providers. Of course, you need marketing but you can use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs, so marketing is also no cost to you. You need offices but today you can rent offices in Technology parks in India or China for significant low cost. The Chinese government could rent it to you at almost zero costs for five years if you hire enough of their people so you do not have to start with a lot of money. If you open business in China, you also pay no tax for five years. There are so many opportunities today than ten years ago because starting a company today is much cheaper and much easier”.
I asked: “But would you still start a company in a post-recession time when business is slowly recovered?”
He smiled: “It would better if it is not in a recession and companies are spending more money. But starting a new company takes several months, if you start now then you will be ready when the economy improves. At this time, many people are afraid so no one would do anything and that is a great opportunity because there is no competition. From the business side, you must identify opportunity and take ACTION, and this is the time for action.
I asked: “If you talk to our students today, what are you going to tell them?”
He laughed aloud: “I will tell them to focus on the business side of software because that is the future. By the way, for a young student getting out of school, your parents are still supporting you. Why not live at home and start your company now. You do not need a lot of money but only few computers and access to the internet. Why wait? The opportunity is here and now. Just do it”.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
