The new entrepreneurs

Indolink.com reports on a study released today that breaks down the impact of Indian immigrants on several key U.S. economic sectors. Titled, “AmericaÂ’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs,” the document is full of interesting pie and bar charts that reveal the disproportionate influence that Indian immigrants have had in the last couple of decades. However, I’m here for those of you who don’t like pie and bar charts (slackers).

The joint Duke University – UC Berkeley study reveals that Indian immigrants have founded more engineering and technology companies from 1995 to 2005 than immigrants from the U.K., China, Taiwan and Japan combined. The report also shows that Indians have overtaken the Chinese, albeit marginally, as the leading group of immigrant entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.

The immigrant contributions must be viewed as part of a “U.S. global advantage” and provide a pointer to what “the U.S. must do to keep its edge,” the study says. In addition the study reveals that the patents awarded to non-citizen immigrants – typically foreign graduate students completing their PhDÂ’s, green card holders awaiting citizenship, and employees of multinationals on temporary visas – increased from 7.8% in 1998 to 24.2% in 2006.

It’s “a report that will without doubt rock the boat,” claims Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University, the primary author of the study. [Link]

originoftechies.jpg
Here are the key findings of the report.

• At least one key founder in 25.3% of the engineering and technology companies started in the U.S. from 1995 to 2005 was foreign-born, with 26% of all immigrant-founded companies having Indian founders.

• Indians have founded more engineering and technology companies in the US in the past decade than immigrants from the U.K., China, Taiwan and Japan combined.

• Nationwide, the immigrant-founded companies produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005.

• States with an above-average rate of immigrant-founded companies include California (39%), New Jersey (38%), Georgia (30%), and Massachusetts (29%). Below average includes Washington (11%), Ohio (14%), North Carolina (14%) and Texas (18%). Indian immigrant-founders were well represented in California, Florida, Texas, and New Jersey

• Indian and U.K. entrepreneurs tend to be dispersed around the country, with Indians having sizable concentrations in California and New Jersey and the British in California and Georgia. Chinese and Taiwanese entrepreneurs strongly favor California with 49% of Chinese and 81% of Taiwanese companies located there.

• The mix of immigrants varies by state. Hispanics constitute the dominant group in Florida with immigrants from Cuba, Columbia, Brazil, Venezuela, Guatemala founding 35% of the companies. Israelis constitute the largest founding group in Massachusetts with 17%. Indians dominate New Jersey with 47% of all startups.

• Almost 80% of immigrant-founded companies in the US were within just two industry fields: software and innovation/manufacturing-related services.

• Immigrants were least likely to start companies in the defense/aerospace and environmental industries. They were most highly represented as founders in the semiconductor, computer, communications, and software fields. [Link]

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p>The basic conclusion of the study is obvious. We NEED MORE IMMIGRANTS to maintain our edge as a nation. In case you doubt this check out this recent article in the Christian Science Monitor. Apparently the U.S. government has finally begun to accept the fact that if it doesn’t start making science and engineering a sexier option then we are headed for disaster. The Department of Defense is holding screenwriting classes to show people that studying science can lead to a glamorous job:

So what they’ve done for the past three years is convene a three-to-five-day screenwriting class at the venerated American Film Institute in Los Angeles. Called the Catalyst Workshop, it’s a lot like other screenwriting classes that have become a cottage industry across the nation. But here’s the twist – all participants in this one are actually scientists. Hardcore, PhD-laden, lab-certified scientists. Here’s the second twist – the training was all paid for by the Pentagon.

These screenwriting classes are indeed your Department of Defense tax dollars at work. Egregious example of DOD waste? Some bizarre recruiting promise? The cinematic equivalent of $700 toilet seats? Actually, it’s the Pentagon’s way of trying to enhance the nation’s science-and-technology adroitness. [Link]

Anyways, take a look at the report. The graphs make it a quick read with some nice insights.

118 thoughts on “The new entrepreneurs

  1. One statistic I read recently was that India is the second largest foreign investor in either London or Britain. I can’t remember which one, but even five years ago, that would have been unbelievable. India has begun to colonise the British economy. I just want one comedian to buy up some British business crown jewels and name their multinational company ‘The West England Company’ in tribute to the dastardly ‘East India Company’ under whose yoke the dastardly blighters took over the Hindoostanees.

  2. I just want one comedian to buy up some British business crown jewels and name their multinational company ‘The West England Company’

    Or, perhaps, the “(Dis)Honourable Western Europe Company”, full of fiendishly ambitious, unscrupulous capitalist rogues twirling their moustaches villainously and living apart from the natives in their own fortified cantonments, otherwise known as Southall, Ilford and Wembley 😉

    Mittal’s just the scout for the hordes to come — they’re already stealthily infiltrating Britain by taking over the nation’s back-office functions and call centres. It’s really only a matter of time before Wipro, Tata or Infosys are renamed as above. Just you wait and see.

    Today Strictly Come Dancing, tomorrow the world !

  3. I’m a little surprised that Pakistan’s numbers are so small since I assumed that the educational etc. profile of the Pakistani immigrant is the same as that for the Indian immigrant. If there is any influence of culture, I would assume they are the same too. However, Indians probably have a much better network laid down in the US already… OK, even my guesses are pathetic.

    • Igno-Raman
  4. It makes sense to me that immigrants in general are filled with an entrepreneurial spirit. If someone has the motivation to move to another country (let alone half-way across the globe) to seek a better life, they’re probably have the motivation to pursue a business opportunity when they see it.

    For my own curiosity, I’d like to see how many companies worldwide have been started by Indians. Preston Merchant’s website has photographs from Dubai where he mentions that Indians dominate the jewelry trade there, and he’s now in Kenya, where the Indian population is “are rich…They are in business”.

    Does the trend in the US hold up in other countries as well?

  5. Excellent post. The data doesn’t surprise me at all but it’s nice to have numbers that back up the arguments in favor of more open immigration policies.

  6. Maurice, I would agree. It probably has less to do with the fact that they are from India and more to do with the fact that they are immigrants. I heard on NPR the other day that 98% of human beings die within 60 miles of where they were born. The urge to move is a rare thing and immigrant populations are often the cream of their home countries in entrepreneurial spirit anyways. Of course, there are forced migrations, but refugees are not documented as doing exceptionally well in their new countries.

  7. Apparently the U.S. government has finally begun to accept the fact that if it doesnÂ’t start making science and engineering a sexier option then we are headed for disaster

    I doubt the government can project a “sexier” image for engineering and sciences when the popular culture’s idea of a techie is a socially inept geek (pick any tv show). There are fewer women now in computer jobs than 20 years ago. And as long as there are no controls to make it less profitable for tech companies to move their R&D overseas, no one is going to see a career in tech as stable, rather as another case of corporate greed putting profits above people.

  8. “The basic conclusion of the study is obvious. We NEED MORE IMMIGRANTS to maintain our edge as a nation.”

    The person who wrote the study is the same person who wrote this article, right? Keeping this in mind, I think Vivek Wadhwa would support increased immigration for only specific groups.

  9. We NEED MORE IMMIGRANTS to maintain our edge as a nation.

    qualification: we more more smart & motivated immigrants who need social capital to keep an economic edge. though, some would offer that economic dynamism isn’t always without cost. washington state, for example, is a nice place to live even if it isn’t as ‘vibrant’ as california or new jersey.

  10. Abhi, when they talked about “companies” were they talking about incorporated groups or small businesses? I think it makes a bit of a difference.

    Definitely interesting, though!

  11. rather as another case of corporate greed putting profits above people.

    Vikram, I thought you were a republican. What happened? Why should a corporation put people about profits?? Its not a corporations job to do public good. They are for the value enhancement of their share-holders.

  12. Vikram, I thought you were a republican. What happened? Why should a corporation put people about profits?? Its not a corporations job to do public good. They are for the value enhancement of their share-holders.

    Just because I don’t toe the left wing party line doesn’t make me a Republican. I’ve voted across party lines depending on the candidate. Sure a corporation is ultimately for profit, but when their policies lead to killing the very golden goose of American tech R&D by offshoring it, how long will their profits keep coming in ? If in 20 years everything is developed and made in China and the world has moved to the Euro as the currency of trade, what value will be provided for the share-holders ? And you are pretty mistaken if you somehow think that the Democrats are somehow more “people friendly” when it comes to corporation control.

  13. This rocket scientist might do more to create a “sexier” image for scientists than the Pentagon’s lame strategy:

    Summer Williams is a Houston Texans cheerleader. She’s also a rocket scientist. This is a true story. “Well,” Williams said, “I don’t actually use the term ‘rocket scientist.’ ” That’s what she is, though. Williams is a 25-year old aerospace engineer for the Jacobs Engineering Group, which is NASA’s main scientific support contractor. Williams, a small-town Kansan, is an assistant project manager on the group that figures out how to keep the international space station habitable. link
  14. Re comment # 1

    India is the second largest investor in the city of London with its 30% share of all foreign investment in the city. Indian-owned businesses in London include 140 multinationals that generate a combined revenue of approximately 8.5 billion pounds.

  15. I happen to be a tiny sliver on that tall, blue bar on the left. Based on my own entrepreneurial odyssey as well as that of others, I have a more practical rationale for the disproportionate number of immigrants becoming entrepreneurs. It has very little to do with drive, though being your own boss and having to meet payroll every Friday does makes you “driven” in a hurry. Like George Bush, we all grow into our jobs, as scary as that might sound.

    I think the primary reason why immigrants start businesses is that they don’t feel comfortable walking into the Great American Corporation and selling themselves into the best jobs as ABD’s and other Americans do. Now, we must qualify this a little bit. The tech companies, even the blue chip ones like Microsoft, will hire good programmers even if all they spoke were Telugu and Java and brought lunch in a “tiffin carrier.” But tech companies are very task oriented operations. Most companies, on the other hand, are people oriented businesses. Even high tech fields require much greater people orientation as one goes higher in one’s career. A physician on the floor or an engineer on the bench is one thing. A product manager or a head of medicine is something else. Immigrants have a much tougher time measuring up to the enormous people oriented task that is business.

    Having spent several decades with very smart first geners, ABD’s and other American borns, I will say this. First geners simply do not have the sense of entitlement to believe they could command the best jobs and perks in American business. Now, many do acquire this trait as they grow older, but by that time the game is over. Becoming confident about your worth in American business at age 40 means you have already blown the most crucial part of your career.

    So we start our own businesses. But the reason why we do it is not really important. My sole purpose was to tone down the drive and motivation rationale. But I don’t apologize for it. Ask any soldier awarded a medal for valor, and you will find out that his back was against the wall and he did what he had to do. Successful entrepreneurs, and yes, dear readers, I count myself as one, are a little bit like that soldier. We aren’t any more driven.

  16. Another prespective ….

    I know several engineering/programmer first genners , educated in India, who are the anti-thesis of driven but are nonetheless content. As one guy put it, “You take the local train in Mumbai for twenty years, spend hardly any time on a payground, always run form class to tutions to extra class – then a routine home-office-Costco life in America is pretty good payoff.”

  17. It is good to have some numbers and affirms anecdotal evidence that people see. But until at least one other report backs this up we need to take it with a grain of salt.

    Our research team then made thousands of unsolicited phone calls to these companies. We asked whether one or more immigrant key founders had established the company and if so, what their nationality was. This became the source of the data presented in this report.

    I would like to point out that nearly 50% of the companies didn’t answer the phone calls. It is more likely that a immigrant founded company would more likely to participate in the survey compared to non-immigrant founded companies. That can skew things a bit.

    Another interesting thing is that 54% of Indian immigrants have come to US between 1990-2000 where as only 43% Chinese are. That difference is much larger between 2000 and 2006. This may be the reason why large number of immigrant Indians have founded companies compared to others.

    But would this report change the popular support against increasing immigration quotas? I don’t think so because reasons for restricting immigration are nothing to do with success of the immigrants but more political and social.

  18. Indians have founded more engineering and technology companies in the US in the past decade than immigrants from the U.K., China, Taiwan and Japan combined.
    Indians dominate New Jersey with 47% of all startups.

    I do not mean to downplay or berate the accomplishments of Indians in the US but from my experience these numbers may not seem as impressive if you know what many of these so called “technology companies” actually do. Having worked for one, and then found out that there was hundreds or thousands of others, many ‘IT Consulting’ companies are little more than body shops run by two or three people who try to hire as many people on H1-B visas as possible, exploit their fear of having their visa taken away and then putting these tech workers on consulting projects where they are given almost no benefits and lousy pay. The two or three people running the “company” become very rich by charging high hourly rates to clients and a measley amount to their employees. The so called management of most of these companies do not even know how to turn on a computer themseleves, they have opened up the company to simply make as much money as possible and then do a runner. Pathetic people.

    Of course, I say if you take these types of companies aside (I would say at least 50% by my unscientific guess/ knowing the industry) then yes, thed accomplishment is impressive but will fall more in line with people from other countries.

  19. Vikram,

    when their policies lead to killing the very golden goose of American tech R&D by offshoring it, how long will their profits keep coming in ?

    I agree with your above statement. American corporate culture has become too much quarterly performance driven. If they have a short term quarterly outlook and dont plan and have a vision for big things, they are setting themselves up for trouble ahead. But corporations wont (and shouldnt) do something for “the people”.

    Interesting insights from Floridian!!!

  20. Of course, I say if you take these types of companies aside (I would say at least 50% by my unscientific guess/ knowing the industry) then yes, thed accomplishment is impressive but will fall more in line with people from other countries.

    That is probably true.

    I think there is a strong bi-modal distribution, one end being “body shops“, and others are like junglee.com, wagehera, wagehera.

    Anyhow, a lot of Silicon Valley startups are immigrant heavy, be it from India, UK, China.

  21. I know several engineering/programmer first genners , educated in India, who are the anti-thesis of driven but are nonetheless content. As one guy put it, “You take the local train in Mumbai for twenty years, spend hardly any time on a payground, always run form class to tutions to extra class – then a routine home-office-Costco life in America is pretty good payoff.”

    I second that too…

  22. This study looks like it was designed to prove what the authors wanted to prove. You know that India has contributed to a disproportionate number of recent techie immigrants. So, measuring the number of techie-immigrant-entrepreneurs seems contrived. I bet a chart of “Birthplace of Engineering and Technology Immigrants” reads identical to the one above.

    Also, the number and quality of Chinese immigrants coming to the US is falling. If they can get the best jobs in Shanghai, why come over here and slog for a egocentric desi prof, struggle with the language, get a phd and then join the h1B/labor cert/greencard circus?? 😉

  23. Here’s a related topic:

    A Times of India article on the decline of IITians leaving for US.

    The article is factually incorrect becuase it does not account for the students who opt for MS/PhD in US colleges. They’ve done a shoddy job in reporting numbers…by just looking at the number of foreign placements that companies offered during on-campus recruitment. Most of the tech-startups by IITians in the US are by MS/PhD students trained in US colleges.

  24. But corporations wont (and shouldnt) do something for “the people”.

    We may differ on the details of what “do something” should be, but I would draw the analogy to how industries have had to clean up their act with respect to environmental issues due to government legislation. One could say that this environmental legislation is “for the people”. If corporations were to their own devices, we would be having a Minamata like environmental disaster every day. So if environmental issues do require industries to be regulated and fined for violations, why not people issues (which in a way is also environmental)?

  25. popular culture’s idea of a techie is a socially inept geek (pick any tv show).

    Do I have too much free time, or did anyone else happen upon “Beauty and the Geek” on Fox? There was a desi guy in one team. It was like watching a train wreck.

  26. Floridian, On second thought, I think that you are being modest (about drive, motivation).

    Another way to look at this is that, those who feel that American business will not give them their due (the first generationers), who end up starting businesses, must be sure about the fact that they are worth more. This strong self belief and confidence is key for those who venture out on their own. It may not be drive to make a lot of money, but its for sure a strong belief in one’s own abilities, one’s own worth.

    I can say from experience that the start-ups that I have known in the Telecom industry are immigrant heavy, atleast the successful ones.

  27. I do not mean to downplay or berate the accomplishments of Indians in the US but from my experience these numbers may not seem as impressive if you know what many of these so called “technology companies” actually do. Having worked for one, and then found out that there was hundreds or thousands of others, many ‘IT Consulting’ companies are little more than body shops run by two or three people who try to hire as many people on H1-B visas as possible, exploit their fear of having their visa taken away and then putting these tech workers on consulting projects where they are given almost no benefits and lousy pay. The two or three people running the “company” become very rich by charging high hourly rates to clients and a measley amount to their employees. The so called management of most of these companies do not even know how to turn on a computer themseleves, they have opened up the company to simply make as much money as possible and then do a runner. Pathetic people.

    Agreed to a certain extent. These companies don’t exactly sell “masala dosa” either. It doesn’t matter if they don’t know how to switch on the computer. The fact is they are providing a “technology service” to big companies(like cisco,microsoft,verizon,cingular). And most of those technical consultants get absorbed as full time into those big time companies, which on any other normal day wouldn’t even consider the application of those consultants for full time. This is in line with what Floridian says in comment #18. Most of these guys have very very poor ommunication skills. But most of them can do the job pretty good. These consultants provide a service and it is “technical”.

  28. “Also, the number and quality of Chinese immigrants coming to the US is falling. If they can get the best jobs in Shanghai, why come over here and slog for a egocentric desi prof, struggle with the language, get a phd and then join the h1B/labor cert/greencard circus?? ;-)”

    Of course. There is already a brain drain reversal in progress with respect to India. They call it r2i. But it is only evident in the high paying tech jobs. Other fields in India still have a lot of catching up to do before they can attract NRI’s back or keep the Indians from leaving in the first place. But that day is coming – perhaps in another 20 years, which is the same lead that China has had over India.

    “I think there is a strong bi-modal distribution, one end being “body shops”, and others are like junglee.com, wagehera, wagehera.”

    I don’t know if it is all that bimodal. In between the two extremes is really the sweet spot of the immigrant-run tech industry, meaning companies that sell neither bodies nor the next big thing but quietly add value to existing business processes through some level of technology. For instance, one Indian I know figured out how to automate the balancing of data at big banks. Another built a better mousetrap by adding a few high tech features to good old programmable controllers. If you look beyond Silicon Valley, Boston and a few other nodes of extreme technology, you will find thousands of immigrants using low to mid-tech solutions as business builders. You will find these immigrants in places such as Chicago, New York, Detroit, Ohio, Houston, Dallas and so on.

    “So if environmental issues do require industries to be regulated and fined for violations, why not people issues (which in a way is also environmental)?”

    Actually, people issues are of great concern to business leaders but admittedly in a narrower sense, in that happier people make better employees which makes everybody more money. Whether people should be making even more money, spending even more time with their children, retire earlier, work less hours, and be given some worthwhile jobs for some pay even though they might be incompetent or just plain old – these are not necessarily the responsibility of one entity, in this case business. Business has its own agenda, as does every institution. To expect business to wholistically serve its employees is expecting too much of it.

    Of course, there is a more clinical view on the subject, which I do not fully subscribe to, and that states that an all-consuming pursuit of profit is ultimately – and ultimately is the operative word – good for everybody. Supporters of this theory cite the amazing success of the American economy in the last 25 years. Using all the standard metrics of GDP growth (3+% over decade), unemployment (the lowest in 25 years), average salaries and the acid test, purchasing power in the hands of common people (the highest ever), America has proven that, yes, Gordon Gekko, “greed is good.” But the pursuit of business efficiencies at all costs has taken a social toll in the last 25 years – elimination of old age pension, reduction of health coverage so that millions of well fed, SUV riding Americans can’t even afford an annual check-up, underemployment of qualified people cast away in their peak years due to downsizing, and this one that does not get my sympathy, either – the disappearance of a rather cushy middle-class formed by low-skilled and semi-educated Americans thanks to high union wages of American manufacturing. (C’mon guys, you can’t get $18/hour for tightening screws in today’s global economy.)

    Are we happier as a nation after having achieved unprecedented economic success using the efficiency and profit model? The answer will have to be a very qualified “yes.” Those tragic gaps that have appeared in our society in the last 25 years have been caused by the changes in business but they cannot be filled by business. It is like holding schools responsible for managing our drug problem. I would rather hold parents responsible, and in the case of social ills described above, the government responsible. The unbridled efficiency of American business also kicks back a huge dividend to the US Treasury. The question is how we allow our politicians to spend it – on a trillion dollar war or on education and health care.

    Sorry about rambling on. Business is one of my two most favorite activities.

  29. brown fob:

    The article is factually incorrect becuase it does not account for the students who opt for MS/PhD in US colleges. They’ve done a shoddy job in reporting numbers…by just looking at the number of foreign placements that companies offered during on-campus recruitment.

    It says in your article:

    There was a time when I had to set aside days to write recommendation letters for students wanting to go abroad, either to study or work,” says Ashok Misra, IIT-B director. ‘‘Now, because good jobs are available to BTech students, not many opt for post-graduate courses abroad. Only about 15% students go overseas for higher studies and approximately 5% take a job outside India.”

    Are you contending that that’s factually inaccurate?

  30. Business has its own agenda, as does every institution. To expect business to wholistically serve its employees is expecting too much of it.

    Agreed. But to blindly follow a path of singleminded profiteering by outsourcing intellectual expertise is a recipe for disaster. Unless everyone is comfortable with a future of being a service industry worker. Ironic for a country that built itself on technology and automation to have to move to a future economy where jobs that remain inshore are those that require manual labor or physical presence to perform.

    the disappearance of a rather cushy middle-class formed by low-skilled and semi-educated Americans thanks to high union wages of American manufacturing. (C’mon guys, you can’t get $18/hour for tightening screws in today’s global economy.)

    Funny how that “global economy” has only affected the $18 workers and not the CEOs with the $100 million benefits packages:

    In 2004, the ratio of average CEO pay to the average pay of a production (i.e., non-management) worker was 431-to-1, up from 301-to-1 in 2003, according to “Executive Excess,” an annual report released Tuesday by the liberal research groups United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies. That’s not the highest ever. In 2001, the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay hit a peak of 525-to-1. Still, it’s quite a leap year over year, and it ranks on the high end historically. In 1990, for instance, CEOs made about 107 times more than the average worker, while in 1982, the average CEO made only 42 times more. Had the minimum wage risen as fast as CEO compensation since 1990, the researchers calculated, it would now be $23.03 an hour instead of just $5.15. And the average production worker would be making $110,126 a year instead of $27,460. link

    To borrow from George Orwell, some employees are more equal than others. Greed has been selectively good for some. Once in a while a Dennis Kozlowski lands up as a resident of a federal institution, but not often.

  31. At what point do Indian Americans stop being Indian Americans? I’m a 1st gen Brit Indian (my parents came to the UK in the 60’s), married to another Brit Indian. Our kids, also Brit born are going out into the world as US citizens. Where do WE count in these figures? Are we Indian, UK or US entrepreneurs, and more importantly, does it actually mean anything?

    And Shlok, yes, if the Beeb says it’s so, it is so, get used to it.

  32. Funny how that “global economy” has only affected the $18 workers and not the CEOs with the $100 million benefits packages:

    Did the $18 worker worked 10 hr days right from when he was in high school. Did the $18 worker get his MBA from an ivy league?. $18 worker with a high school degree expecting a $100,000 per year job is ridiculous.

  33. risible:

    The opening lines of the artcile are factually incorrect:

    The brain drain from IITs has diminished to a trickle, with only 21 out of 3,980 BTech graduates going abroad in 2006.

    Later on they say:

    ‘‘Now, because good jobs are available to BTech students, not many opt for post-graduate courses abroad. Only about 15% students go overseas for higher studies and approximately 5% take a job outside India.”

    If this true then 15+5 = 20% of 3980 is around 800 students going abraod evey year.

  34. ‘At what point do Indian Americans stop being Indian Americans?” Well in the US at least, this term relates to ethinicity, not identity, and will last indefinately. For instance the terms African Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, still exist after many generations. This of course does not make any of them less “American.”

  35. “I would like to point out that nearly 50% of the companies didn’t answer the phone calls. It is more likely that a immigrant founded company would more likely to participate in the survey compared to non-immigrant founded companies. That can skew things a bit.”

    What is your reason for suggesting that immigrant companies are more or less likely to participate in such a survey….this is just conjecture.

    ” Another interesting thing is that 54% of Indian immigrants have come to US between 1990-2000 where as only 43% Chinese are. That difference is much larger between 2000 and 2006. This may be the reason why large number of immigrant Indians have founded companies compared to others. ” There are far more Chinese(>5 million) than Indians(2-3 million) in the USA, 43% of Chinese is a bigger number than 54% of Indians.

  36. “Of course, I say if you take these types of companies aside (I would say at least 50% by my unscientific guess/ knowing the industry) then yes, thed accomplishment is impressive but will fall more in line with people from other countries.”

    What makes you think that a higher percentage of Indian founded companies falls into this type of company compared to the others.

  37. “Had the minimum wage risen as fast as CEO compensation since 1990, the researchers calculated, it would now be $23.03 an hour instead of just $5.15. And the average production worker would be making $110,126 a year instead of $27,460.”

    And this economy would come down crashing like a house of cards, with both the $110,126 a year production worker and $100 million CEO selling apples on the street.

    It is already established that income disparity is rising in America, and that is a direct result of the profit and efficiency focus. But the answer to this problem cannot be a dumb redistribution of the $100 million CEO pay package across the factory floor. That runs counter to this country’s philosophy. Should we also begrudge the big NBA contracts and Tiger Woods’s $50 million endorsement deals while we are at it?

    “Funny how that “global economy” has only affected the $18 workers and not the CEOs with the $100 million benefits packages:”

    But it has. CEO jobs are far more insecure today than low-level jobs, thanks to global economic pressures and a drive for quarter-to-quarter measurable results. Let’s try to find out the average CEO tenure today in the Fortune 500 companies vs. the average 20 years ago.

    “But to blindly follow a path of singleminded profiteering by outsourcing intellectual expertise is a recipe for disaster.”

    I am going to be glib on this one. Do you know that the biggest call center company in India, called MPhasis or something similar, was acquired by an American company that will enrich American shareholders?

    In economics there is a law of comparative advantage which is as old as Adam Smith or as we would say in Hindi, “as old as Baba Aadam.” It simply means: let each country produce whatever it produces better and cheaper than anybody, and in the end, the world will be a happier place. The law was never practiced fairly, though, because of tariffs, cartels, import restrictions, dumping and all the other usual frictions in the world economy.

    The law is being practiced more fairly and more widely today for the first time, and one of the innovations that has facilitated the law of comparative advantage – of which intellectual outsourcing is merely a manifestation – is the internet, ironically an American invention. (Well, the guy who first thought of it was British, but I am talking about www, not specifically the scientific internet.)

    Let’s see what America’s comparative advantage is. I am not sure, but let’s hope it is something more remunerative in the value chain than flipping burgers. I think it is. Even in software, the most outsourced intellectual resource, America leads in innovation and, hence, product ownership and, hence, wealth creation. I maintain that it is still very difficult for the Japanese, let alone our brothers in India, to conceive of an original product that changes the world like the spreadsheet, relational database, and hey – the internet!!! – did. Why? Because writing source code is a learned skill with a high labor input – their advantage. Creating an iPod and changing the music industry as Gutenberg changed the writing business is something of a much higher economic order. It is not even teachable like Oracle and Java. Innovation is a result of peculiar social norms which seem to be found in greater abundance in this crazy country than anywhere else. Law of Comparative Advantage, anyone?

  38. begtodiffer,

    if you raise a son to have an inferiority complex, he’s sure to suffer from it

  39. My point refers not to how we see ourselves but to how the data is collected. Who defines an Indian, UK, or Chinese entrepreneur? Zero gen immigrants asides, using ethnicity alone can be a complex issue. Broad generalizations become totally meaningless, especially once mixed ethnicity become involved.

  40. Zero gen immigrants asides, using ethnicity alone can be a complex issue. Broad generalizations become totally meaningless, especially once mixed ethnicity become involved.

    For starters, census data and other US data collection agencies.

    They have boxes to tick, some of them you can tick multiple of them in addition to mixed.

    I remember filling the census forms here, and there are fairly complex.

    US is fairly an old hat at this stuff – for lot of Federal and State benefits, etc. are determined, say for Native Americans (issues like 1/8 the or 1/16th Native American blood), royalties for casinos, oil revenues for Native Alaskans in addition to current residents in Alaska.

    PS: I do not know how Duke researchers determined it, but is not difficult with the data available.

  41. its no secret that tech start-ups and their vc financiers have an over-representation of indians and pacific rim asians. its still mostly an white-male (and american) world (with london coming in 2nd); but the lack of women and even fewer blacks in this universe is quite shocking…especially considering it’s more meritorious than big biz, has not developed an old boy network, and is too young an industry to have a history of a glass ceiling.

  42. And this economy would come down crashing like a house of cards, with both the $110,126 a year production worker and $100 million CEO selling apples on the street.

    So the more “equitable” solution is that the $100 million CEO keeps his/her outrageous compensation, while the average worker earns 25K, to maintain the stability of the economy…

    Should we also begrudge the big NBA contracts and Tiger Woods’s $50 million endorsement deals while we are at it?

    That analogy doesn’t hold as the NBA stars and Tiger Woods are the reason people watch basketball & golf and hence the “producers of product”. Carly Fiorina & her ilk don’t design the products their companies sell nor do people buy the companies’ products because of who the CEO happens to be. Rather the designers and engineers of the product are told their jobs are outsourced. Sports is different: the person making the product directly benefiting from the contract.

    CEO jobs are far more insecure today than low-level jobs,thanks to global economic pressures and a drive for quarter-to-quarter measurable results.

    But it is not as though they are risking their own money (in most cases) to compete against the global pressures. If their salary was truly pegged with the profits/loss , then there is some pressure. But when somebody like the IBM CEO receives a raise even when the company posts a 19% loss, there obviously isn’t much of a connection between “global pressures” and the pay package.

    Let’s try to find out the average CEO tenure today in the Fortune 500 companies vs. the average 20 years ago.

    Which might explain some of the drive to earn as much in the short tenure these days… Am sure they earn more in the fewer years that they have the keys to the corporate kingdom than the CEO of yesteryear who spent a lifetime building a company.

    I am going to be glib on this one. Do you know that the biggest call center company in India, called MPhasis or something similar, was acquired by an American company that will enrich American shareholders?

    I wouldn’t equate acquiring a call center with retaining “intellectual expertise”. And the same company would have no qualms moving their R&D and data centers off shore.

    let each country produce whatever it produces better and cheaper than anybody, and in the end, the world will be a happier place

    In the 1950s the Rosenbergs were executed for giving the Soviet Union the secrets to the atomic bomb. The “exporting” of strategic intellectual knowledge in some sense is the same in that it provides the competition a quantum leap in knowledge that would have taken decades to develop otherwise.

    Creating an iPod and changing the music industry as Gutenberg changed the writing business is something of a much higher economic order.

    Generation iPod is going to inherit a country where the development of technology is increasingly seen as something arcane and mysterious, even as more hi-tech gizmos arrive in neat boxes labeled “Made in China”.

  43. until at least one other report backs this up we need to take it with a grain of salt.

    Exactly. This Vivek Wadhwa guy is a chest-thumping ethnic propagandist who also wrote this self-aggrandizing embarrassment that was discussed at SM recently:

    http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/003788.html

    I do not mean to downplay or berate the accomplishments of Indians in the US but from my experience these numbers may not seem as impressive if you know what many of these so called “technology companies” actually do. Having worked for one, and then found out that there was hundreds or thousands of others, many ‘IT Consulting’ companies are little more than body shops run by two or three people who try to hire as many people on H1-B visas as possible

    The study does not compare the quality of the immigrant-founded startups to those founded by americans. It does conclude that: “Nationwide, the immigrant-founded companies produced $52 billion in sales and employed 450,000 workers in 2005.” Now that figure is pathetic if accurate. Thats a much lower proportion of the american economy and the american job force than the percentage of immigrants in America.

    A cursory look at the top echelons in American Technology shows that while immigrants are well-represented, their numbers are not as overwhelming as this study would imply; and indian names are conspicuous by their absence at the top. For example: Steve Jobs of Apple Computers, the glamour boy of american technology, had an arab immigrant father (who abandoned him at birth though). One of the two founders of Google, Sergei Brin, is a russian jewish immigrant. One of the two founders of Yahoo is a chinese-american. And one of the founders of the latest IT sensation YouTube is also chinese. Where are the indians?

    But given the desi tendency to ridiculously exaggerate desi status and accomplishments you can be sure many indians are puffing up their chests and thumping it furiously. The indian media is at it already:

    http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1072784

    “Guess who is making Uncle Sam rich? A study shows that Indian immigrants have emerged as the biggest wealth creators among all immigrants in the US.”

    http://www.ibnlive.com/news/iitians-laid-the-foundation-for-silicon-valley-boom/top/30269-7.html

    “IITians started Silicon Valley boom”

  44. One of the two founders of Google, Sergei Brin, is a russian jewish immigrant. One of the two founders of Yahoo is a chinese-american. And one of the founders of the latest IT sensation YouTube is also chinese. Where are the indians?

    HOTMAIL. Sabeer Bhatia.

  45. One of the two founders of Google, Sergei Brin, is a russian jewish immigrant. One of the two founders of Yahoo is a chinese-american. And one of the founders of the latest IT sensation YouTube is also chinese. Where are the indians?
    But given the desi tendency to ridiculously exaggerate desi status and accomplishments you can be sure many indians are puffing up their chests and thumping it furiously. The indian media is at it already:

    Sun Microsystems. Vinod Khosla.

    Whoever makes the loudest noise gets noticed. I think the Indian media has woken up to that fact. Coz if you ain’t bragging, you don’t have anything. Nobody gives a sh*t about a silent guy in the bar. And it doesn’t matter if you dont have a porsche, you just need to be loud and aggressive when talking about yourself, otherwise someone else will.