爲何印度裔高管遍佈硅谷 Indians relied on each other for prosperity in Silicon Valley

Sundar Pichai’s appointment this month as chief executive of the newly rejigged Google prompted happy outpourings across India. The US technology group will still be controlled by founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. But Mr Pichai’s rise to become their most senior lieutenant seemed to confirm the considerable achievements of India’s global diaspora.

上月，桑德爾皮查伊(Sundar Pichai)被任命爲剛剛重組的谷歌(Google)的首席執行官，這一消息在印度激起了一片歡騰。這家美國科技集團將仍由其創始人拉里槧奇(Larry Page)和謝爾蓋布林(Sergey Brin)掌管，不過皮查伊晉升爲二人最高級別的副手，似乎證實了世界各地的印度僑民取得的卓越成就。

Pride in eminent expatriates is common across developing economies. But it is especially warranted in India, whose émigrés have achieved great prominence in the US. Mr Pichai’s promotion follows a handful of others: Satya Nadella, for instance, who last year took the helm at Microsoft; or former Google executive Nikesh Arora, now heir presumptive at SoftBank, the Japanese telecoms group.

令各發展中經濟體驕傲的傑出僑民屢見不鮮，但印度更有理由驕傲——印度僑民在美國取得了顯赫的成就。早在皮查伊晉升前，已有幾位印度人身居要職：比如去年接掌微軟(Microsoft)的薩蒂亞納德拉(Satya Nadella)，以及前谷歌高管、現爲日本電信集團軟銀(SoftBank)假定繼承人的尼克什阿羅拉(Nikesh Arora)。

More interesting, though, are the wider accomplishments of Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.

然而，更有趣的是，印度企業家在硅谷取得了更爲廣泛的成就。

At first this looks counterintuitive. Indians have a strong reputation as software developers, dating back to the first wave who arrived armed with elite engineering degrees in the 1980s. But that same group has since gone on a less heralded journey, outpacing once-dominant communities from Taiwan and China, to become the US’s most technologically entrepreneurial immigrants as well.

起初，這似乎與人們的直覺相悖。自20世紀80年代第一批擁有名牌院校工程學學位的精英抵達美國起，印度人作爲軟件開發者一直聲譽顯赫。但人們沒有料到的是，這批人還趕超了一度佔據統治地位的臺灣和中國大陸移民羣體，成爲了美國最具科技創業精神的移民。

Today the contest is not even close. Immigrants either founded or co-founded around four in 10 Silicon Valley businesses between 2006 and 2012, according to the Kauffman Foundation — itself a remarkable statistic. Of those immigrant-founded companies, however, roughly a third were launched by Indians. The next most successful group, the Chinese, accounted for 5 per cent.

如今這場比賽已經拉開了明顯的差距。據考夫曼基金會(Kauffman Foundation)統計，2006年至2012年間，硅谷每10家企業中，有大約4家的創始人或聯合創始人是外來移民。而這些移民創建的公司中，約有三分之一由印度人發起。緊隨其後的羣體是中國人，佔比5%。

Indian immigrants in the US are numerous, highly educated and speak excellent English. This adds up to a powerful trio of traits that other foreign arrivals struggle to match, according to political scientist Devesh Kapur, co-author of a forthcoming book on the diaspora. As a result, Indians do well across corporate America, bagging top roles at blue-chip companies and Wall Street banks, and making Hinduism the country’s wealthiest religion per capita.

美國的印度移民數量龐大，教育程度高，說着流利的英語。政治學家德韋什慍湓爾（Devesh Kapur，他與人合著的關於外僑的書籍即將出版）表示，這三種強大的優勢集於一身使其他外僑難以匹敵。因此，印度人在美國企業界的日子都過得不錯，在藍籌公司和華爾街的銀行更是身居高位，還使印度教成爲了美國人均最富裕的宗教。

Yet this alone does not explain why they prosper in the technology sector, a phenomenon with deeper roots in the experience of the early engineers who first moved to California. Back then, employment at established tech companies came easily. But those who tried to launch start-ups found life more difficult, struggling to raise venture capital in particular.

然而，僅僅這一點並不能解釋爲何印度人在科技業如此飛黃騰達，這一現象更深層的原因源於早年第一批移民加州的工程師。當時，想被知名科技公司僱傭十分容易。而那些試圖創業的人卻發現生活要艱難得多，想要籌集風險資本尤其困難。

The lesson drawn by these pioneers, says Vivek Wadhwa, entrepreneur and Stanford University fellow, was that you had to stick together. “The first crop of Indian entrepreneurs all had similar stories of being held back by a tech system dominated by white Americans,” he says. Those who succeeded, such as Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, became linchpins in a support system for their fellow nationals, ranging from formal business groups to ad hoc networks for mentoring and funding. “They decided they needed to help each other out.”

企業家、斯坦福大學(Stanford University)研究員維韋克瓦德瓦(Vivek Wadhwa)稱，這些先驅總結的經驗是，大家必須團結一心。“第一批印度創業者都有類似的經歷——在由美國白人統治的科技系統被打壓，”他說道。那些成功者，比如太陽計算機系統公司(Sun Microsystems)的聯合創始人維諾德科斯拉(Vinod Khosla)，在印度同胞的互助體系中起着關鍵作用。這個互助體系從正式的企業集團到臨時的導師和融資網絡一應俱全。“他們決定必須互相幫助才能脫穎而出。”

Nowadays, Indian executives are over-represented across Silicon Valley, especially at businesses that prize engineering talent, such as Google. But while the original need to break into the tech sector has passed, their habits of mutual support persists. Mr Pichai seems to embody this culture too, given the way colleagues describe him as technically brilliant, but also kind and helpful to others.

如今，硅谷的印度裔高管已經數不過來了，尤其是在像谷歌這樣高度重視工程技術人才的企業。然而，儘管印度人不再需要像最初那樣打入科技業，他們互幫互助的習慣仍然延續着。皮查伊身上似乎也體現着這種文化。同事口中的他不僅有技術才華，而且爲人友善、樂於助人。

It might seem surprising that this kind of clubbing together was necessary. Silicon Valley is celebrated for its dense networks of funders and entrepreneurs. Evangelists portray the area as the ultimate open economic system; a freewheeling technological meritocracy, in which outsiders are welcome and good ideas rise to the top.

或許令人吃驚的是，這種“抱團”很有必要。硅谷以其密集的投資人和企業家人脈網絡而著稱。鼓吹者將這裏描繪成終極開放經濟體系——一個無拘無束的技術型精英管理體系。這裏歡迎外來者，任何好點子都能受到高度重視。

That is at best a half-fiction. The tech sector is not always collegiate, as recent revelations about Amazon’s work practices made clear. The same point is driven home by the anxious founders and backbiting coders of hit HBO comedy Silicon Valley .

上面的描述往好了說也是半虛構的。硅谷的科技業並非總是學院式的——最近曝光的亞馬遜(Amazon)內部工作風格將這點暴露無遺。HBO的熱門喜劇《硅谷》(Silicon Valley)中焦慮的創業者和互相中傷的程序員也同樣揭示了這一點。

Above all, successful innovators also tend to have the best contacts, opening closed doors to money and support. Those without access — foreigners, for instance, or women — must break into established networks or create others. And more than any other group of outsiders, it was the Indians who figured out that, to make it in start-up land, it helps to have a social network of your own.

最重要的是，成功的創新者往往也擁有最好的人脈，這就打開了原本緊閉的資金和支持的大門。那些沒有門路的人——比如外國人或者女性——必須打入現有的人脈網絡，或者創建新的網絡。比起其他外來羣體，印度人更明白這個道理——想在這片創業之地獲得成功，最好建立屬於自己的社交網絡。