This is something that I heard (twice) recently at the Enterprise Innovation conference in Redwood City. It struck me because I heard it within two hours of each other from two leaders in the industry with regard to generalized questions about software and globalization.

Bernard Liautaud, Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer for Business Objects, stated that while an overwhelming majority of the top 300 software companies are based in North America, he sees a shift occurring in the next ten years where more firms will be entering that list from both China and India. He further expressed that he sees China being poised even more than India to be a stronger player due to some things he sees developing. As a takeaway that I found interesting, Liautaud mentioned how Chinese universities are now offering students concentrated courses in enterprise software development explicitly and that they are even now adding courses in business intelligence software development.

Later in the morning session, Mark Bregman, CTO for Symantec, echoed the opinion. The view he expressed was that while India is comprised of a solid engineering culture and has taken a growing position in the market, he views China as the stronger contender in the software development arena. In his specific experience with Symantec’s growing work in China, he sees some top scientists working in China currently. Furthermore, he expressed the difference as China having more software science focus, developing scientific-based innovations rather than engineering-implementation focus.

It is an interesting set of views simply from the face of looking at the difference between computer science, engineering and the oft-confused business process (many elements of which are all bunched up in the offshore and outsource conversations. It is clear both markets are making strong contributions and that will only get stronger as signaled by the rate at which US-leading firms are establishing beachheads in both regions.

My personal experience substantiates this as I’ve had the opportunity to work with top-notch engineers from both China and India. While at MIT Sloan, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to spend a month in China working for a software development company. The number of engagements that the firm had already won from US firms, in that case mostly in the business process software development area. The firm was also bringing into the office 50+ computer science students from local universities two times a week.

Time will tell if there will be a clear fragmentation in the emerging markets with regard to computer science innovation and engineering. Surely we’ll see a mix but which market will take leadership position in which disciplines?