I have been recently reading a book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The main argument of this book is that successful individuals are not only successful because of their own hard work and genius, but more importantly because of where they come from and the environment and the culture they thrive in.
When it comes to innovation Notion Ink, an Indian company responsible for the highly anticipated Adam Tablet has been running to trouble. The trouble is in the form of Indian custom officials who are demanding bribes.
As I had not heard a lot about Notion Ink for a few weeks, I decided to look up their official blog. The post by Rohan Shravan (founder of Notion Ink) was quite detailed about new updates. The second last point caught my eye.
It reads,
On the delay part (Indian one) There was a bribe demand from some of the people associated in releasing the product from Customs. Notion Ink would not pay them and that’s the reason for delay.
There is a very good chance he means that the people demanding a bribe are custom officials.
The post goes on to say that it could endanger Notion Ink’s spirit for selling the Adam tablet in India. Also refreshing is the attitude of Notink Ink to not take short cuts and instead fight it out. This could end up paving the way for a lot more people to actually take the leap and innovate in the hardware sector.
Until then hopefully the environment we grow up in becomes respectful and nurturing towards innovative companies rather than become a monster that discourages people for doing something new and different.
Link: Notion Ink Blog
4 Comments
sorry state of affiars.. India is still needs bribe to succeed.. Bad for innovation and bad for India. Rohan Shravan should carry a hidden camera and expose those money-leeches..
Yes it is quite sad indeed. But I do feel that Rohan Shravan is doing the right thing by sticking to his guns and not paying off officials.
India already seems to be in the cesspool as far as entrepreneurship and innovation is concerned and the guys who want bribe are nothing but mindless zombies who do not understand that they are holding back people who want to lead others.
Yes it is a sad case indeed.