|
“Our technology companies need to focus on marketing”
Networking bridges those distances. Though I entered with no expectation, maybe that is why it has been a pleasant experience.
--- Mahesh Murthy, Entrepreneur
Passionfund |
| |
|
"Internationally, India is going to be dead in the water unless it begins to show innovation"
Indian brains need to be applied to the conception and development of innovative products and services, and quickly.
--- Atul Chitnis, Partner
Exocore Consulting, Bangalore |
| |
|
"Our
intent is to address the security market through whatever it
takes"
The market for security-related hardware,
software, and services is expected to swell to $45 billion in
revenue by 2006, according to IDC..
--- Mr. Rakesh Singh, GM
NetScaler, Asia
Operations |
| |
|
Start-up Watch
"Young
company with a mature mind"
Three years earlier, like-minded industry
veterans from leading technology companies came together to fill gap
found in IT services space, a good blend of consulting capabilities
and process oriented execution under one leadership.
--- Mr. Vinod P. Deshmukh
Sr. Vice President and
CTO, MindTree Consulting |
| |
|
"In
today's market, pure product play is very risky"
Telesoft is a product start-up with a high
passion quotient. In 1998-99 the company built a softswitch which
pipped giants such as Fujitsu, Nortel and NTT DoCoMo in the
marketplace.
--- Mr. Vinod Chandran
Chief Operating Office,
Telesoft |
| |
|
"Few
Indian companies offer total ownership in chip design"
2002 has been the worst ever year for the global
chip sector hammered by the slowdown and lowered IT spends.
Undeterred by the shrunken market and fast-disappearing prospects,
Avedis Microsystem made its debut in May, making it one of the few
hot technology start-ups of this year.
--- Mr. Sunil Kalarickal
CEO Avedis Microsystems
|
| |
|
"There
is a misconception that BPO means easy money"
Indian BPO players are on a high. Recent joint
projections by Nasscom- McKinsey indicate that the IT-Enabled
Services segment will generate Rs. 81,000 crore (US$ 17 billion) in
revenue and employ over 1 million people by 2008.
--- Rajdeep S. Puri
Vice President
Operations
First Ring |
| |
|
"Software
exports will touch Rs. 13,000 crore"
For the IT industry struggling to survive, the
last one year has been irredeemably bleak with growth rates crashing
from quarter to quarter.
--- Mr. B. V. Naidu
Director, STPI |
| |
|
Growth
and Profitability in tough times
In 2000, caught in the worst ever business
crisis, Firestone was forced to recall 6.5 million failure-prone
tires. Later research proved that the Firestone problem was as early
as August 1998 and the company could have prevented the damage had
it known that people were already beginning to talk about its tires
on the Net.
---Dr K. R. V. Subramanian
CEO,
AnswerPal |
| |
|
"Bluetooth
is not a wishful market"
By 2005, analysts such as Vision Gain predict
that all new multimedia mobile devices will be manufactured with
Bluetooth as the standard. A rip-off from science fantasy fiction,
Bluetooth promises communication between a gamuts of devices.
--- Mr. Basker Subramanian,
CTO and founder
Impulsesoft |
| |
|
"Musharraf
is serious about disciplining jehadis"
High -level visits from US and UK to the
sub-continent followed by President Musharraf's promise to
permanently clamp down on terrorists have brought India and Pakistan
back from the brink.
--- Dr Sreedhar,
Institute of Defence
Studies |
| |
|
"We
need to take the lid off the entire bureaucracy called
education"
India's garugantan education machinery churns out
scores of graduates every year. Yet apart from a few institutions
such as IITs and IIMs, Central universities and now the III-Ts,
India's educational sector is chronically sick.
--- Prof Sadagopan,
Director III-T, |
| |
|
"HR
is drawn to outsourcing for reasons other than cost
reduction"
Responding to the increasing business imperatives
of the new economy, the traditional HR department has been subject
to a drastic image makeover - from a cost-consuming, administrative
backstage functionary to a strategic business partner contributing
directly and significantly to the company's bottomline.
--- Mr. Leo Fernandez,
India Life Hewitt
|
| |
|
"We
wanted to make sure we did not miss being in Asia's Silicon
Valley"
The latest US company on the block to shift base
to India to leverage its cost effectiveness is New-Jersey-based
content and IP rating billing and settlement solutions provider,
Apogee Networks.
--- Mr. Balaji Pitchaikani
Apogee Networks
|
| |
|
"The
industry's problem is that we are trying to copy the Americans too
much"
Formed in 1986, Sonata Software is India's oldest
medium enterprise. At a corporate level, the SEICMM Level 5
certified company forms a fairly decent story to tell.
--- Mr. Srikar Reddy
Sonata Software |
| |
|
"There
is no such thing as an ethical hacker"
In 2001, computer users faced a seemingly endless
onslaught of viruses. Code Red Nimda and Scrim pinpointed the
vulnerability of networks and our helplessness to tackle them.
--- Mr. Subramanya Rao
Proland Software
|
| |
|
"Even
a slowdown can be advantageous if you want to take advantage of
it"
Challenge is a way of life for Ishoni Networks.
Two-and-a- half-years back, Ishoni's India office decided that it
was not going to be a mere service company and play second fiddle to
its US counterpart.
--- Dr Vivek Mansingh
Ishoni Networks |
| |
|
"HR
cannot afford to get divorced from business realities"
In a span of less than five years, Aztec Software
from being a little known start-up became the darling of the markets
when it went public last year. A fortnight back, rocked by
uncertainties in the market, the company was forced to lay off 35
employees. True to the Aztec work ethic, the company did not mask
the layoffs behind a flurry of excuses as most other Indian
companies have.
--- T. K. Anand
Aztec Software |
| |
|
"Things
are going from bad to worse"
Last year flush with VC funds, internet companies
in a battle for visibility blared out their existence from gigantic
billboards dotting the urban landscape. Recruitment ads shed their
stodgy image and became brand statements in their own right.
--- Mr. Vikram Satyanath
Enterprise Nexus
|
| |
|
"Failure
is not a dirty word in VC lexicon"
Nasdaq's downward spiral has triggered a
bloodbath in the tech sector. As start-up corpses begin to litter
the tech field, VCs are surprisingly stoic.
--- Mr. Vijay Angadi
ICF ventures |
| |
|
"New
paradigm of work"
"I feel every company in the future will have
distributed people. Why have a work force at all," he questions
passionately. No, this is not the stuff dreams are made of or what
we all though we would do when we were 14-year olds before we got
trapped in a cubicled existence."
--- Vinai Kashyap
Kelsar Technologies |
| |
|
"Being
laid-off is akin to standing at the edge of a precipice with nothing
in front of you"
Less than a year ago, HR managers of India
Software Inc. raged reckless battles to lure techies to their fold.
Indian techies never had it better - inflated salaries, stock
options, signing bonuses, paid vacations and relocation expenses
were deemed an integral part of the pay package.
--- Dr. Gideon Arulmani
The Promise Foundation
|
| |
|
Short Take
"HIPAA
is a big opportunity but not for every player in the market"
Healthcare informatics space in the US has been
relatively recession proof and is expected to touch $60 billion by
2004.
--- --- Dr.Saji Salam,
Consulting Manager, HL7
Inc |
| |
|
"Hyderabad
has an international face but reputational build-up will take
time"
In the last five years, Hyderabad has transformed
itself from the once somnolent city of Nawabs to an aggressive
player in the technology industry.
--- --- Colonel M. Vijay Kumar, Director, STPI,
Hyderabad |
| |
|
"The
next 18 months will separate the good from the 'once-upon-a-time'
companies"
Established in 1997, Mistral Software has emerged
as a leading provider of end-to-end services for embedded product
design and development.
--- Anees Ahmed
President, Mistral
Software |
| |
|
Company Watch
"Gunning
for 50 per cent growth"
Founded in 1997 CoreObjects is a product
development engine for robust, scalable software. The mid-sized
company has carefully crafted a differentiated strategy from its
contemporaries as a product-centric rather than a project-centric
company.
--- Sanjay Bhaduri
President
CoreObjects |
| |
|
"The
overwhelming evidence is in favour of good HR practices in
IT"
Since Nasdaq first hit the skids last April and
fortunes of IT companies, riding on the dotcom boom, nosedived, the
IT industry that had earlier waged wars too woo and retain talent
responded by slashing salaries, issuing pink slips, withdrawing
offers to freshers and freezing recruitment.
--- Prof. J. Phillip
Director XIME |
| |
|
Company Watch
"We
are optimistic about the next three quarters"
LG Soft India (LGSI) is a part of the US $80
billion LG Group. Despite the LG brand name, the company has had a
chequered history, first hit by the Korean crisis then by the US
downturn.
--- Mr. Shubho Kundu
General Manager
LG Soft
India |
| |
|
Invest Kerala
Hip,
Hep & Happening Kerala
The latest State to jump on the Indian IT
badwagon is Kerala, God's own country. Shrugging its somnolent
backwater, non-happening imageand armed with a brand new IT policy
and a more than supportive government, the State is pulling all
plugs to attract IT investments in the State.
--- Mr. Rajiv Vasudevan
CEO,
Technopark |
| |
|
"Future
of animation in India is brilliant"
"Kinetic Art is the first new category of art
since prehistory. It took until this century to discover the art
that moves. Had we taken the aesthetic qualities of sound as much
for granted as we have taken those of motion, we would not now have
music.
--- Bill Dennis
CEO, Toonz Animation
India |
| |
|
Start-up Track
"Organisations
need to understand what is happening tomorrow"
In an intensely competitive globalised economy,
strategy-generation and accurate decision- making have become
increasingly complex and an imperative for businesses to
succeed.
--- Subhash Gupta
Founder and Chief
Scientist
Zelante Solutions |
| |
|
"It's
a good time for VCs to invest, as no one else is"
VCs may still be hurting from their matri-money
with upstarts in the 'got an idea get a million era' but are not
calling it quits.
--- Sumir Chadha
Founder IVCA |
| |
|
Company
Watch
"Domestic markets hold poor lure for VCs"
In a country where PC penetration is as low as
five per 1,000 people, Inabling Technologies stormed the domestic
technology market in August 2001 with its indigenously produced
revolutionary e-mail device for the rural market, the I-station.
--- Mr. Narsimha Prabhu
Chief Technology
Officer
Inabling Technologies |
| |
|
"If
Hyderabad has 10 jobs, Bangalore has close to 100"
In the late Nineties, a 400-year old city closely
identified with its laid-back Nawabi culture discovered the power of
Silicon and made a pitch to transform itself from Hyderabad to
Cyberabad.
--- Mr A. K. Menon
CEO Options |
| |
|
"There
is nothing demeaning about working in a call centre"
The IT-enabled services opportunity in India is
expected to cross $20 billion by 2008, according to a recent Nasscom
report. The sunrise sector with a humongous potential to offer
employment to collegiates has also become the victim of many
misconceptions.
--- Mr. G. V. Giridhar
General Manager -
HR
ITES |
| |
|
"India
is not merely a low cost production centre"
Realising India's immense potential in IT and BT,
UK is trying hard to lure Indian investors by pitching itself as an
attractive and preferred hi-tech investment gateway to Europe.
--- Mr. Stephen Metti
Head of India and
Australia
Team of Invest UK. |
| |
|
HR
Focus
"It's the little things that make a vital
difference at Subex"
In February 2002, Subex Systems bagged the award
for Organisation with Innovative HR practices at the All India HRD
Congress.
--- Mr J. M. Prasad,
Subex Systems, |
| |
|
"Our intent is to address the security market through whatever it takes"
The market for security-related hardware, software, and services is expected to swell to $45 billion in revenue by 2006, according to IDC..
--- Mr. Rakesh Singh, GM
NetScaler, Asia Operations |
| |
|
Start-up Watch
"Young company with a mature mind"
Three years earlier, like-minded industry veterans from leading technology companies came together to fill gap found in IT services space, a good blend of consulting capabilities and process oriented execution under one leadership.
--- Mr. Vinod P. Deshmukh
Sr. Vice President and CTO, MindTree Consulting |
| |
|
"In today's market, pure product play is very risky"
Telesoft is a product start-up with a high passion quotient. In 1998-99 the company built a softswitch which pipped giants such as Fujitsu, Nortel and NTT DoCoMo in the marketplace.
--- Mr. Vinod Chandran
Chief Operating Office, Telesoft |
| |
|
"Few Indian companies offer total ownership in chip design"
2002 has been the worst ever year for the global chip sector hammered by the slowdown and lowered IT spends. Undeterred by the shrunken market and fast-disappearing prospects, Avedis Microsystem made its debut in May, making it one of the few hot technology start-ups of this year.
--- Mr. Sunil Kalarickal
CEO Avedis Microsystems
|
| |
|
"There is a misconception that BPO means easy money"
Indian BPO players are on a high. Recent joint projections by Nasscom- McKinsey indicate that the IT-Enabled Services segment will generate Rs. 81,000 crore (US$ 17 billion) in revenue and employ over 1 million people by 2008.
--- Rajdeep S. Puri
Vice President
Operations First Ring
|
| |
|
"Software exports will touch Rs. 13,000 crore"
For the IT industry struggling to survive, the last one year has been irredeemably bleak with growth rates crashing from quarter to quarter.
--- Mr. B. V. Naidu
Director, STPI |
| |
|
Growth and Profitability in tough times
In 2000, caught in the worst ever business crisis, Firestone was forced to recall 6.5 million failure-prone tires. Later research proved that the Firestone problem was as early as August 1998 and the company could have prevented the damage had it known that people were already beginning to talk about its tires on the Net.
---Dr K. R. V. Subramanian
CEO, AnswerPal |
| |
|
"Bluetooth is not a wishful market"
By 2005, analysts such as Vision Gain predict that all new multimedia mobile devices will be manufactured with Bluetooth as the standard. A rip-off from science fantasy fiction, Bluetooth promises communication between a gamuts of devices.
--- Mr. Basker Subramanian,
CTO and founder Impulsesoft |
| |
|
"Musharraf is serious about disciplining jehadis"
High -level visits from US and UK to the sub-continent followed by President Musharraf's promise to permanently clamp down on terrorists have brought India and Pakistan back from the brink.
--- Dr Sreedhar,
Institute of Defence Studies |
| |
|
"We need to take the lid off the entire bureaucracy called education"
India's garugantan education machinery churns out scores of graduates every year. Yet apart from a few institutions such as IITs and IIMs, Central universities and now the III-Ts, India's educational sector is chronically sick.
--- Prof Sadagopan,
Director III-T,
|
| |
|
"HR is drawn to outsourcing for reasons other than cost reduction"
Responding to the increasing business imperatives of the new economy, the traditional HR department has been subject to a drastic image makeover - from a cost-consuming, administrative backstage functionary to a strategic business partner contributing directly and significantly to the company's bottomline.
--- Mr. Leo Fernandez,
India Life Hewitt
|
| |
|
"We wanted to make sure we did not miss being in Asia's Silicon Valley"
The latest US company on the block to shift base to India to leverage its cost effectiveness is New-Jersey-based content and IP rating billing and settlement solutions provider, Apogee Networks.
--- Mr. Balaji Pitchaikani
Apogee Networks
|
| |
|
"The industry's problem is that we are trying to copy the Americans too much"
Formed in 1986, Sonata Software is India's oldest medium enterprise. At a corporate level, the SEICMM Level 5 certified company forms a fairly decent story to tell.
--- Mr. Srikar Reddy
Sonata Software
|
| |
|
"There is no such thing as an ethical hacker"
In 2001, computer users faced a seemingly endless onslaught of viruses. Code Red Nimda and Scrim pinpointed the vulnerability of networks and our helplessness to tackle them.
--- Mr. Subramanya Rao
Proland Software
|
| |
|
"Even a slowdown can be advantageous if you want to take advantage of it"
Challenge is a way of life for Ishoni Networks. Two-and-a- half-years back, Ishoni's India office decided that it was not going to be a mere service company and play second fiddle to its US counterpart.
--- Dr Vivek Mansingh
Ishoni Networks
|
| |
|
"HR cannot afford to get divorced from business realities"
In a span of less than five years, Aztec Software from being a little known start-up became the darling of the markets when it went public last year. A fortnight back, rocked by uncertainties in the market, the company was forced to lay off 35 employees. True to the Aztec work ethic, the company did not mask the layoffs behind a flurry of excuses as most other Indian companies have.
--- T. K. Anand
Aztec Software
|
| |
|
"Things are going from bad to worse"
Last year flush with VC funds, internet companies in a battle for visibility blared out their existence from gigantic billboards dotting the urban landscape. Recruitment ads shed their stodgy image and became brand statements in their own right.
--- Mr. Vikram Satyanath
Enterprise Nexus
|
| |
|
"Failure is not a dirty word in VC lexicon"
Nasdaq's downward spiral has triggered a bloodbath in the tech sector. As start-up corpses begin to litter the tech field, VCs are surprisingly stoic.
--- Mr. Vijay Angadi
ICF ventures
|
| |
|
"New paradigm of work"
"I feel every company in the future will have distributed people. Why have a work force at all," he questions passionately. No, this is not the stuff dreams are made of or what we all though we would do when we were 14-year olds before we got trapped in a cubicled existence."
--- Vinai Kashyap
Kelsar Technologies
|
| |
|
"Being laid-off is akin to standing at the edge of a precipice with nothing in front of you"
Less than a year ago, HR managers of India Software Inc. raged reckless battles to lure techies to their fold. Indian techies never had it better - inflated salaries, stock options, signing bonuses, paid vacations and relocation expenses were deemed an integral part of the pay package.
--- Dr. Gideon Arulmani
The Promise Foundation
|
| |
|
Short Take
"HIPAA is a big opportunity but not for every player in the market"
Healthcare informatics space in the US has been relatively recession proof and is expected to touch $60 billion by 2004.
--- --- Dr.Saji Salam,
Consulting Manager, HL7 Inc |
| |
|
"Hyderabad has an international face but reputational build-up will take time"
In the last five years, Hyderabad has transformed itself from the once somnolent city of Nawabs to an aggressive player in the technology industry.
--- --- Colonel M. Vijay Kumar, Director, STPI, Hyderabad |
| |
|
"The next 18 months will separate the good from the 'once-upon-a-time' companies"
Established in 1997, Mistral Software has emerged as a leading provider of end-to-end services for embedded product design and development.
--- Anees Ahmed
President, Mistral Software |
| |
|
Company Watch
"Gunning for 50 per cent growth"
Founded in 1997 CoreObjects is a product development engine for robust, scalable software. The mid-sized company has carefully crafted a differentiated strategy from its contemporaries as a product-centric rather than a project-centric company.
--- Sanjay Bhaduri
President CoreObjects |
| |
|
"The overwhelming evidence is in favour of good HR practices in IT"
Since Nasdaq first hit the skids last April and fortunes of IT companies, riding on the dotcom boom, nosedived, the IT industry that had earlier waged wars too woo and retain talent responded by slashing salaries, issuing pink slips, withdrawing offers to freshers and freezing recruitment.
--- Prof. J. Phillip
Director XIME |
| |
|
Company Watch
"We are optimistic about the next three quarters"
LG Soft India (LGSI) is a part of the US $80 billion LG Group. Despite the LG brand name, the company has had a chequered history, first hit by the Korean crisis then by the US downturn.
--- Mr. Shubho Kundu
General Manager
LG Soft India |
| |
|
Invest Kerala
Hip, Hep & Happening Kerala
The latest State to jump on the Indian IT badwagon is Kerala, God's own country. Shrugging its somnolent backwater, non-happening imageand armed with a brand new IT policy and a more than supportive government, the State is pulling all plugs to attract IT investments in the State.
--- Mr. Rajiv Vasudevan
CEO, Technopark |
| |
|
"Future of animation in India is brilliant"
"Kinetic Art is the first new category of art since prehistory. It took until this century to discover the art that moves. Had we taken the aesthetic qualities of sound as much for granted as we have taken those of motion, we would not now have music.
--- Bill Dennis
CEO, Toonz Animation India |
| |
|
Start-up Track
"Organisations need to understand what is happening tomorrow"
In an intensely competitive globalised economy, strategy-generation and accurate decision- making have become increasingly complex and an imperative for businesses to succeed.
--- Subhash Gupta
Founder and Chief Scientist
Zelante Solutions
|
| |
|
"It's a good time for VCs to invest, as no one else is"
VCs may still be hurting from their matri-money with upstarts in the 'got an idea get a million era' but are not calling it quits.
--- Sumir Chadha
Founder IVCA
|
| |
|
Company Watch
"Domestic markets hold poor lure for VCs"
In a country where PC penetration is as low as five per 1,000 people, Inabling Technologies stormed the domestic technology market in August 2001 with its indigenously produced revolutionary e-mail device for the rural market, the I-station.
--- Mr. Narsimha Prabhu
Chief Technology Officer
Inabling Technologies
|
| |
|
"If Hyderabad has 10 jobs, Bangalore has close to 100"
In the late Nineties, a 400-year old city closely identified with its laid-back Nawabi culture discovered the power of Silicon and made a pitch to transform itself from Hyderabad to Cyberabad.
--- Mr A. K. Menon
CEO Options |
| |
|
"There is nothing demeaning about working in a call centre"
The IT-enabled services opportunity in India is expected to cross $20 billion by 2008, according to a recent Nasscom report. The sunrise sector with a humongous potential to offer employment to collegiates has also become the victim of many misconceptions.
--- Mr. G. V. Giridhar
General Manager - HR
ITES
|
| |
|
"India is not merely a low cost production centre"
Realising India's immense potential in IT and BT, UK is trying hard to lure Indian investors by pitching itself as an attractive and preferred hi-tech investment gateway to Europe.
--- Mr. Stephen Metti
Head of India and Australia
Team of Invest UK.
|
| |
|
HR Focus
"It's the little things that make a vital difference at Subex"
In February 2002, Subex Systems bagged the award for Organisation with Innovative HR practices at the All India HRD Congress.
--- Mr J. M. Prasad,
Subex Systems,
|
| |
|
"One has to accept that the world of work is changing"
 |
Mark Hillary
Technology manager and
Independent outsourcing consultant |
 he furore over outsourcing has gathered steam over the last couple of months. While India continues to make an impact with unprecedented growth in this sector, detractors are having a field day too. With the American elections on the horizon, it has also become a major issue with politicians who are trying to use the issue to their advantage.
However, politicians like Tony Blair have recently come out in favour of outsourcing. In his first economic speech since the election, Blair said that 'British companies will benefit in the long run from letting some jobs migrate to India and China'.
In this month's interview, UK-based author, technology manager and independent outsourcing consultant, Mark Hillary, who has just published his book, "Outsourcing to India: The Offshore Advantage", shares his insights into the future of this business.
 Your book on the Indian outsourcing industry was released on February 19. When can we expect it in India?
I believe that this is the first book on how to manage the outsourcing process with a real focus on India. It is available globally direct from the publisher's website as I have already heard from people in Australia who have already received their orders. The hardback price is quite high for India so I am now in discussion with the publisher and distributors over there regarding the possibility of a South Asia edition, obviously at a lower price. The target market is the managers who want to take business to India, though I'm sure it is interesting for you to see what is being written about India from Europe!
What prompted you to write the book and the kind of research went into writing it?
When I worked for the French investment bank SG, I headed up the equity trading technology systems. I had technology staff in a number of countries and in 1999 my team of Indian engineers in Singapore built a fantastic global equity program trading system. This proved to me that Indian teams in offshore locations could be relied on to build complex systems; offshoring is not just about very mundane management of legacy systems. By 2000, I found it very hard to recruit in Singapore, so when the SG head of equity IT in Asia, Ramesh Kumar, initialised plans for a Bangalore development centre I was very supportive.
Although I had been working with Indian teams in Singapore since 1998, it was really this decision in 2000 to go to India that meant I started visiting Mumbai and Bangalore frequently and got involved in hiring out there - to build a new team and to transition my technical teams from Singapore and Paris to Bangalore.
It was this practical experience of going back and forth, spending time there on the ground trying to get new projects up and running and then some further research-only visits where I spent all my time interviewing people that gave the book a fresh angle. I found no literature available on this subject. There are many guides to India, rough guide or culture shock for example. There are also many outsourcing texts, but they are mainly geared for the academic reader, not the manager who needs some practical advice on where the pitfalls are for a foreign manager in India.
Experts say there is not much scope for entrepreneurs investing in the BPO business in India...
It's tough for new entrants because BPO is all about trust. If you outsource an entire business process to a vendor then you need to be reassured they can do it at least as good as you can internally. There are many good entrepreneurs creating great companies in this space in India but there are more who are just trying to ride the BPO wave. They use cell phone numbers and Yahoo! email accounts and expect to be taken seriously by clients in Europe and the US. Take it from me, if I was looking for a company to handle my corporate accounts or to answer calls from my customers, I would not even hold a conversation with someone who can't even present themselves as a professional.
Brand image is now really important in the BPO sector - Progeon, ICICIOneSource, Spectramind, Daksh - all new companies, but already they are great brands that create a state of trust in the client. This is very hard to create from scratch.
A major concern about the BPO industry is the generation of large volume jobs with little scope for career growth.
I think that no company can afford to ignore their employees at any level, otherwise they will just fall victim to the nightmare attrition rates some have already experienced. Just because India is a lower-cost environment than the US or UK, does not mean the people and their careers can be treated any more lightly. Any employer with this view will find they have no loyalty and no performance from their team. Take a look at the experience of Alastair Cox, CEO of the British firm Xansa. He has 5 or 6 service centres in India and they offer a strong focus on career and help such as flexible working hours and a crèche at the office - all geared to make career progression as easy for women as it is for men. He has an attrition rate in the region of 7% for his efforts, well below the industry average.
There is a lot of outrage against outsourcing amongst Americans who feel they are losing their jobs to India. Others feel that in the global economy, Americans should be prepared for this scenario. Where is the middle ground?
The middle-ground in this argument is a reality check. First, one has to accept that the world of work is changing. It is impossible to defy technological progression as Canute found when defying the tide. All those management theorists such as Drucker, Handy and the like used to write about federal organisations and people working from home. Well here we are. We now have global communications that cost almost nothing and an Internet that allows documents to zip around the globe almost instantaneously. So we are witnessing the reality of what the professors thought about before the communications were in place to make their dreams a reality.
Of course, anyone who is directly impacted by retrenchment because of outsourcing has a right to be angered by it, but the general outrage against the concept is not acceptable. Americans have ought for their freedom and the right to trade fairly throughout the world. Americans buy cars made in Japan and drink wine from the vineyards of France. They eat pasta from Italy and use silicon chips from Taiwan. Manufacturing became a global marketplace a long time ago, we are just seeing the next step.
It should be remembered that the doomsday scenario of all skilled jobs leaving a nation such as America is completely unfounded. There will always be a market for skilled and local people. The difference is that people need to think more about what differentiates them in the job market. It is no longer enough to think that your Java programming experience is good enough, as this is a skill with a global market. Java plus a business domain knowledge (banking, manufacturing etc) is more likely to provide a safe future.
Do you feel the recent uproar against outsourcing is more an 'election issue' in the US and will die down once the race for presidency is over?
The issue had been rumbling on for the last couple of years anyway, but I do feel that it has been exaggerated because of the US election. It is very sad to see a very two-dimensional situation being played out by both the republican and democrat politicians in this campaign. No attempt is being made to educate the electorate in how the economy is changing and how they can turn this to the advantage of the US. It is reminiscent of the Japan-bashing of the 1980s or Snowball's propaganda in "Animal Farm."
The American people deserve better than to be treated by their leaders as simple folk who can't grphp economic theory. Each time an economic advisor has spoken to the media they have been forced to backtrack by the politicians, fearing for votes. The spectre of an offshore service industry is a big and scary thing if nobody takes the time to explain what is going on and how America can be the destination of choice for foreign investment.
Look at how the German or UK government has behaved on this issue. They are completely in favour of the offshore concept. When questioned by the media they list all the favourable phpects, including job creation and foreign investment. The American fear of outsourcing must surely die down after the race to the White House for the sake of economic growth in the US next year and beyond.
You were in NASSCOM recently. Could you share with us some of the discussions on it and also the general mood of the Indian BPO industry.
The general mood in India is one of fear because of the question you mentioned earlier. Everyone wants to understand why America, the most open advocate of free trade in the world, has suddenly started to fear offshoring. Companies such as TCS have been directly affected, as they had a multi-million dollar contract cancelled in Indiana. They are to be admired for remaining stoic and refusing to criticise their American clients over this, however the industry in general is hoping that this is just an election year blip.
The most exciting thing about the NASSCOM show was meeting and talking to some of the companies offering new high-value BPO services. This market in accounting, paralegal, medical, education services did not even exist in 1998, yet it should be worth around $50bn a year by 2010. Evalueserve is a great example of the new wave. They can provide an intellectual property management service, filing and maintaining patents, for a fraction of the price of employing local patent lawyers.
They are also looking into the future of health tourism. Can you imagine flying to India for a hip replacement operation? Why not, if you get a great deal on the operation? People are already going to Thailand for cosmetic surgery, so a precedent exists.
There have been varying predictions about the future of outsourcing. Could you share your insights.
Software services are still growing at something like 23% in India and BPO is up past the 50% mark. While growth is still that strong the industry is still booming. There will be a slowdown as it becomes harder to find good people or when Brazil, China, Russia, Philippines and other nations can offer a service that competes with India. However, the quality of service and depth of experience in India means it will be the leading destination for remote sourcing for some time yet and with over 2m graduates a year entering the labour force they should not run out of people soon either!
(Mark Hillary also has his personal website where you can learn more about his background and his book)
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