Software Business in the Middle East

Time to time you might see really interesting events taken place in Dubai. One of them this week was a meeting with Craig Barett, the chairman of Intel.

It’s always interesting to listen to the people who have managed to make such amazing carrier as Craig – to see how they think and what they are doing at the moment. In his 69 Craig has clear mind and he seems having a lot of energy living very active live.

Below are just a few excerpts from that meeting.

History of Intel

The company was founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. At that time it was not very common to get funded by venture capitalists – entrepreneurs borrowed money from banks. It was kind of difficult task for Intel founders to get money from a bank as their first business plan consisted of less than 180 words. Somehow they managed to find their first investor – Arthur Rock, whom Craig called as the first venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

Arthur Rock, by the way, was also an early investor in Apple – it seems this guy has an excellent sense of the right investment.

Entrepreneurship

There are three things needed for successful business – smart well educated people, smart idea and right environment. As an example, three large challenges for Microsoft didn’t come from other big competitors. The large challenges came from individual people who invented Netscape, Yahoo and Google.

Culture and Entrepreneurship

Craig had interesting discussion on how culture affects a number of people who want to start their own business. In Mexico, for instance, it’s not allowed to have a failure. If you fail, you become a looser there – so there are not so many people who want to take the risks. In other countries, where failure doesn’t mean bad thing, there are more people who become entrepreneurs.

It is good not to be afraid of failure, anyway.

Investments into Education

It is almost impossible to calculate the return of investments made into education. Probably, these investments are returned back one day when graduates start working for the company. Or graduates keep using the same products of the company in their daily jobs as they used to during their studing. But formally, there is no proper way to calculate if there is any return.

I appreciate the fact that Intel shareholders, according to Craig, have never expressed any concerns about investments made by Intel into education despite the fact that it is impossible to measure the profit.

Wal Mart in India

Somebody from the listeners asked the question about the protests against Wal Mart entering the Indian market. People over there have serious concerns that Wal Mart will kill small retailers.

Craig suggested to look at the situation from the consumer’s point of view. If Wal Mart gives no value to the customers, then it will definitely die. But if customers go to Wal Mart to buy stuff, it means Wal Mart adds some value for them. As result, small retailers might get closed. But at the end of the day it is a consumer who wins.

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