CaptainDash Settles in Tunisia
There needs to be a next step, and for Tunisia, it is IT Services.
2011, is looking more and more similar to 1989, the year that saw all the communists –and dictatorial- countries turning into democracies… Although there are sadly some differences with 89, such as the violence occurring in Syria, the shift seems structuraly quite irreversible.
For Eastern countries, the times that immediately followed the revolution weren’t that easy ; and during years, millions of people have long mourned the former socialist-era which, even though it didn’t give them any freedom, at least brought them a good level of social security, education and, if not gigantic, decent enough revenues.
In general, democracies become lot healthier when followed as fast as possible with wealth, jobs and sustainable growth ; and reversely, poorness and unemployment nourish despair, resent, extremist, and eventually violence.
Bridging to the next Step
In Tunisia, it needs to be a next step and this step is very much likely to be IT services. For those who tried to work there –like Bruno Walther, Founding Partner of CaptainDash- Tunisia was once a great country. There were plenty of highly skilled people very much willing to learn even more and completely open to new experiences and horizons. But at the end of the day, as soon as the business became significant, bribery came along and screwed-up all the business’ opportunities. In 2005, Bruno had to close up his company in Tunisia, dismissing all of its 50 workers.
Quite likely, these times are now over with the end of the Ben Ali era. Bruno went to Tunisia recently and was even more stunned by the know-how of its engineers and programmers than when he owned his IT company seven years ago.
Teaming up
If we really want these people to succeed, if we really believe that there is a piece of history that we can now build together, it is time to team up.
It would really make sense: France has a lot of leading IT-Services companies* and Tunisia has certainly the best workforce to that extend among all the Mediterranean countries, and even beyond.
Some would argue that giving-up some high-value piece of work to such low cost countries is just plain stupid, while France is already experiencing a high level of unemployment. Anyhow, this argument is just not valid: in the coding process of any complex system, there is already a split between the strategic coding and the less valuable works that are already outsourced in India or elsewhere.
It would be far better to organise this process with a country with which we share a common language, lots of history, and that has already a strong community in our own country. After a while the added value would go back and forth in both countries.
That was what the German organized immediately after the 1989 Revolution: while they where the leading country in manufacturing machine-tools and equipment, they understood that teaming up with the Czech, the Hungarian, and the Polish to organise a complete and powerful set of manufacturing network would be a powerful shield against the low-cost countries from the Far East. It now largely explains the German incredible economical competitiveness.
CaptainDash Settles in Tunisia
Captain is happy to announce that it has agreed to setup our ITdev in Tunisia. As soon as June 1st, we will have a working force of more than 10 people out there (see the following post). We hope that this will therefore share our part of the country’s development.
*CapGemini, Steria, Thales, Bull Cegid and lot more…
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