Outsourcing: Martin Migoya, CEO Of Globant (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: Interesting. I have spent a lot of time in Buenos Aires. One of the observations you are making is that there is more of an artistic blend, I suppose, in the workforce that you are trying to hire, and that workforce one that sits on the cusp of design and technology and is playing with mobile apps and so forth. What kind of role does the Latin American heritage of music and dance play in that?

Martin Migoya: Although I have my roots as a musician, I am an engineer. Probably, it is there in our genes. There is a lot of music and dance here. It’s there in Colombia.  Every country uses the same method because we have that kind of passion for things and passion for arts, passion for life in general. We demonstrate that in different ways, such as dancing, and when you take that experience to software development, you see pretty much the same, a lot of passion, a lot passion for interfaces, and so on.

Sramana: OK. I am going to try and explain it, and you tell me whether you agree. Music, dance, and art come from one part of the brain, and technical skills come from another part of the brain. It is the idea of the right brain versus the left brain, and my thesis is that the best creativity comes at the cusp of right-brain and left-brain personalities. I think if you look at Steve Jobs, he has an incredibly sharp eye for design, and he has a real passion for it. Apple could never have happened had it not been for that intense commitment to and passion for design combined with technology. So, Apple is not a pure technology company, nor is it a pure design company. It sits at the cusp of the two. I think what the culture of Latin America probably creates is an environment for those left- and right-brain talent pools or right brain and left brain thought processes to come together more naturally.

Martin: Oh, yes. I really agree with you. Can I use it for other interviews?

Sramana: Sure. You can even use it with your customers.

Martin: I agree with you, and I think the idea around the passion is a combination of two things. Of course, it is more the left side of the brain. The left side is the part that deals more with logic. Actually, passion is about purpose, and when talking about Globant, the kind of projects, the kind of challenges we put in front of our talent pool are what we are building. Each product reflects a certain amount of passion, and that is one of the things that make a company like Apple or Google very successful. But they are also trying to change the school of thought on how things are done in their landscape. We are doing exactly the same here. We are trying to change the way software product development is done around the world. We are trying to change the current school of thought on the way Latin American companies perceive us, and we are trying to create one of those companies, so people in Argentina, people in Latin America get passionate when they start talking about building a worldwide leader from here, building a company that did not exist 50 years ago. For example, in India you have many companies that have been able to do this, but not in Latin America. So, we are bringing that hope of building a company that can be a worldwide leader from our continent, which will be quite amazing for every person at Globant I feel that many of the good things that are happening at Globant have a lot to do with the passion that each person here has in the area in which he or she works.

Of course, passion cannot be explained just by the technical side of the brain; it needs to be explained by the artistic side of the brain as well.

Sramana: That is partially true, but also the field you have chosen to work in takes advantage of the culture of Latin America in more ways than a  TCS does. Because TCS is more about run-of-the-mill software development, you are actually tapping into a source that is very much in tune with the Latin American spirit.

Martin: Absolutely.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Outsourcing: Martin Migoya, CEO Of Globant
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