Random thoughts
1. When in the midst of a group of people discussing about innovation, you find yourself saying “It is not at all necessary for companies to innovate. It is more important to be a fast follower than an innovator”, do you call yourself a pragmatist or a pessimist or worse, a combination of the two, i.e. a businessman?
2. Isn’t it ironical that the United States has a quota of 20000 visas for students with advanced degrees from US universities under the H1B visa program (which the Government claims is to enable highly skilled immigrants work in the country and thereby gain citizenship in the long run), and yet one of only two conditions for rejecting an F-1 student visa is that the visa seeker is a potential immigrant?
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Filed under: Miscellaneous
>> yet one of only two conditions for rejecting an F-1 student visa is that the visa seeker is a potential immigrant?
Especially when everyone incl. consulate officers knows that the “ideal and non-risky” answer you give to that question is far from the truth.
1. “It is not at all necessary for companies to innovate. It is more important to be a fast follower than an innovator”
Depends on which industry the company is in. Example: Pharma: once a medicine is discovered, more or less, it gets sole access to the market. Another example at the risk of taking a risky investment equivalent to research expenditure: Oil exploration. You know about the risk-rewards of this. There are also fast followers - eg. Sun TV, unabashedly copying programmes from other channels. If you are the “combination of the two”, the line is simple: if something gives me more than what I give, I will go ahead. (the returns are always risk adjusted ;o))
2. I don’t know much about the US Visa system. But I find a flaw in your (implied)argument. The US may want to give visas to 20000 eligible people. It may not mean it will give visa to the first 20000 who land up in the embassies. It may give visa if the person is eligible (on whatever grounds). The problem might arise, say if in October, when the quota of 20000 is reached - a time even when the eligible candidates might be rejected visa. This is the time period when your question poses more challenge.
Personal Experience. Nothing wrong in copying. We in Industrial Engg. terms call that Bench Marking against the best in class.
@Patrix: Yeah, and the line goes thus, “Only son of loving parents; I love my country; all Indians are my brothers and sisters; see, here in my pocket, I carry my soil from my backyard… so patriotic; I have even booked my return ticket”
@Selva: Yes, I have alluded to this in a previous post (http://www.vkpedia.com/2008/04/10/innovation/) myself, as the rule not being applicable to industries driven by patents. As for the immigration system, you’re confusing the F-1 system with H1B. My point is that while one leads to another, the base criterion for the first is that it should not lead to the other.
@GD: Yeah, you industrial engineers have a way of legitimizing it, don’t you?
1. Its is not always possible to become a fast follower. Especially with current IP rights, patent policies, and trade secrets act, the innovator can gallop away before the fastest follower can begin.. well.. following.
2. Funny you should mention this, my friend went back to India and had to get his F1 visa renewed. At the visa interview he was asked if he would take up a job in the US, to which he replied “If the job is lucrative enough, yes I will.” And the interviewer didn’t seem to take that as a negative and granted him the visa right after. Maybe the rules are changing, but the dogma isn’t. And the many visa counselors and advisors are still sticking to coaching their customers with the ’safe’ answers to be given.