Tech&U talks to Mobile Monday’s Malaysian Chapter founder Shailesh Waran on his role in the organisation and how it helps to boost the local mobile applications industry.

Shailesh believes that Mobile Monday can help small companies bring out their innovations to the industry through its vast network of big players and mobile solutions developers.

Q: You are the founder of Mobile Monday Malaysia Chapter. Tell us about your role here.
A: As the founder, my main role is to bring the mobile industry together under one umbrella. By doing so, we hope the mobile solutions developers, carriers and phone manufacturers will be encouraged to create more innovations in this space. What I like most about my job is the opportunity to meet lots of people, which is the key factor to innovation. For companies, the only way to invest is in the people, as technologies come and go.

Q: What are the issues faced by local mobile solution developers and how can these be addressed?
A: The biggest problem is doing the business. As technology moves so fast, you have to get the products out fast too. Hence you need to make people know about the product that will incur marketing costs. For the small companies, this is very expensive. Mobile Monday can officially become a marketing arm for them by leveraging our 65 chapters. We can get the message out to more people in an effective manner. By becoming a Mobile Monday member, which is free, we expose the company’s solutions to the group and take it to the whole forum worldwide. For instance, somebody from Uzbekistan or Estonia may want to help in making the solutions better.

Q: How important are these small mobile application developers to the big players?
A: For mobile phone manufacturers, most of their phone applications come from these small players’ invention. Some of these companies also end up buying the smaller players. These big companies are into their handsets, but they know that the primary mover is the applications. The companies have fantastic research and development (R&D) and a huge budget, but they also know that there can only be one company at a time, but if they leverage hundreds of other companies out there, they can just be that more innovative.

Q: How is the performance of local companies in mobile solutions?
A: I believe it can be better. We have lots of strong players, but many are predominantly in the ringtone business. In terms of short messaging service (SMS) technology, we are still lagging. However, we have some good ones which innovates applications like prayer times and other religious apps. It’s innovative in the sense that the older generation doesn’t mind having that in their phones. Innovation comes when you are able to create emotional connection between the phone and the user.

Q: What’s your work philosophy?
A: Don’t be selfish in this business. For Mobile Monday, the reason people meet is to share their ideas.

BIODATA

Shailesh Waran’s professional experience extends over 13 years, ranging from engineering to sales to managing companies. Since graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor in Engineering (Electrical) Honours Degree, he has worked with various companies and industries such as Philips Malaysia.

Backed by strong technical knowledge, he joined a startup Disaster Recovery Company called ISL Services Sdn Bhd.

In late 1997, Shailesh joined NCR Malaysia helping the company grow related areas of business for NCR South-East Asia. After eight years, Shailesh left NCR and started an investment company, Origine First Capital Sdn Bhd.

Shailesh is a founder and director of Huvii Sdn Bhd, an MSC- status company, focusing on mobile applications and mobile portal services.

He is also a founding member and director of Mobile Monday Bhd Malaysian Chapter. Mobile Monday is a global non-profit organisation consisting of 50,000 strong members worldwide, and is locally supported by Mosti (Science, Technology, and Innovation Ministry) and MDeC (Multimedia Development Corporation) in Malaysia.