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24/04/2014

A typical day at work for Meera Walia starts at 8:00 a.m. in a plush glass tower at Gurgaon. A quick round of emails, multiple interactions with business and domain heads across the company’s verticals, and a number of off-shore calls and discussions with her UK-based client later, she has reached the fag end of the day. The doctor-cum- knowledge consultant is working at the outsourcing company WNS as a Senior Vice-President for its pharmaceutical and healthcare services.

Life, however, used to be much different about eight years ago for Walia, an Armed Forces Medical College alumna, who used to be a full-time doctor in the Indian Military (and also in Oman). After a nine-year stint as an ophthalmologist, Walia decided to join the business process management (BPM) industry.

Walia has been with WNS for five years now and is engaged with one of the top five pharma companies in the world as her client. She is enjoying her 9-hour work day, not to mention a hefty compensation for her subject matter knowledge, and past experience of patient interactions and research and analytics. “It’s not very different from being a clinician,” says Walia. “All through your medical career you evaluate what is right for the patient but now you are on the other side where you are looking at which pharmaceutical company will be best suited for clinicians.

Her division’s business has doubled from this UK-based client, she’s quick to add. The BPO industry has come a long way from being a wage arbitrage player for its international clients, who were seeking just voice-based services or simplified data analytics services from India. For instance, WNS started operations 10 years earlier as a back office of British Airways for online and voice-based support. And now, 80 per cent of the company’s revenue comes from data driven high-end services. “We have been able to show the client that we have not just been able to play the wage arbitrage model really well but can deliver much higher value as well,” says Keshav Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS Global Services.

Compelling career options

BPO behemoths turning into BPMs offering higher value services such as analytics, finance and accounting services, research and legal process outsourcing has been the biggest change this industry has seen so far.

The model has brought forward many compelling career options for youngsters. Many CAs, lawyers, statisticians, PhDs, doctors, and HR professionals are entering offshore outsourcing businesses with a view to having a long-term profession.

Like Walia, professionals in large number are attracted to this relatively newer career option in lure of a work-life balance, handsome compensation, rapid growth and international experience.

Young people in their 30s are running very large portfolios at such companies. “In a growing organisation the chance to take on a leadership role at an early stage is very high,” says Murugesh. “Where else would you get an opportunity to lead an entire business portfolio, or a group, at a very young age. You are constantly learning, and travelling across the world.”

WNS has close to 8,000 qualified professionals for its finance and account practices, along with close to 2,500 analytics professionals. The outsourcing firm has employed doctors, and pharmacists in large numbers as well.

Flexible opportunities

Kunal Purohit, Country Head, India, of Integreon Managed Services, an offshore Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) outfit that works for law firms in the US, UK and Australia, shares Murugesh’s views, “With rapid growth comes a steeper learning curve and more opportunities to explore options. Such flexibility in industries where growth is stagnant is hard to come by,” says Purohit. “Our employees have the opportunity to gain on-the-job project management and business development skills that can complement their technical and academic expertise.” With a growth rate of 30 per cent each year, the LPO industry is currently one of the fastest growing segments in India.

The Indian IT-BPM sector directly employs nearly 3 million professionals currently, adding over 1.6 lakh in the coming year. Though the industry needs professionals at various levels with previous experience, most of the candidates are hired at entry-level, especially those who have recently completed their education and are looking to enter the job market. The doctors, lawyers, CAs, and pharmacists, even at entry and mid-level in the outsourcing business, are well compensated. All the hygiene factors in terms of salary, travel, perks, growth and lifestyle are taken care of by the industry.

“The compensation offered by the BPM industry is as high as three times what an entry-level professional will earn in the traditional practice which further makes such jobs a lucrative option,” says Jyorden T. Misra, founder member and Managing Director of Spearhead InterSearch, an HR consultancy.

Right fit

Outsourcing jobs have emerged as an option for lawyers, according to Integreon’s Rashmi Kishore. “Lawyers really just have two options when it comes to law practice in India: either you practice in court or become a corporate lawyer,” says Kishore. “Corporate law too has not matured as much in India; LPOs provide opportunity to various young lawyers in India.” Integreon currently employs 500 lawyers and 250 MBA/engineers (consultants) on its payroll. They work under three business units of litigation, research and business services.

When the nature of work becomes complex, getting the right candidate to do the job becomes important. Thus, unlike the bulk hiring that BPOs used to carry out, the outsourcing companies have become more careful in picking up talent when it comes to hiring domain experts. “We hire from a select group of colleges and are selective in picking up talent with a conversion ratio as low as two or three per cent,” says Integreon’s Purohit. “We look for candidates who bring strong domain and analytical skills.”

Rebranding the industry

WNS too has a strong hiring engine and recruits candidates from top institutes and even those who complete the Indian Army’s short service commission. “The doctors, financial analysts, and pharmacists we hire are highly qualified and come to join us at the prime of their lives,” says Murugesh. “Once they have spent two or three years in this industry, nobody will leave this industry essentially because of age and experience.”

Industry body Nasscom recently published a report, according to which, the BPM industry is expected to add overall revenues of $ 13-14 billion to existing industry revenues of $ 118 billion. Export revenues for the next year is projected to grow by 13-15 per cent to reach $97-99 billion.

“We are looking at complete rebranding of the industry - so that student, teachers, people could look at the industry as a compelling career choice,” says Murugesh, who is also Chairman of the Nasscom BPM Council 2013-15. “We want to create an ecosystem of talent by working with institutes and universities to build business-ready graduates, who will be trained as per industry requirements.” Nasscom is currently running a pilot project in 20 colleges in Haryana, Chandigarh and Bangalore currently, offering a tailor- made course.

According to the Nasscom–McKinsey Perspectives 2020 report, the BPM industry in India is expected to earn revenues of $50 billion by 2020. Currently the export revenues from the BPM industry stand at $18 billion. With the shift in the traditional business model of BPOs from an onsite-offshore model to a more specialised, domain-centric and high-end analytical services provider model, the industry is in for a major re-branding. And, Nasscom is striving to make India a preferred global destination for BPM.

25/03/2014

The age of entrepreneurship awaits:

Over the past two decades since liberalisation, a number of trends have begun converging and leading to a critical mass of the elements needed for a breakout in entrepreneurship.

First, of course, is the dramatic rise in the number of young people who have earned a good technical or business education.

Second is the phenomenal rise in the value of our market capitalisation, which provides the incentive to these young people to stay on in India and look for the payoff right here at home.

Since 2007, Indians have founded 8 per cent of all technology and engineering startups in the US, and 14 per cent of all Silicon Valley companies.

Obviously we have entrepreneurship in our DNA. It’s time to bring the show back home.

The third is the much-awaited sprouting of venture capital firms and networks which provide the necessary fuel for startups. Despite problems of exit, PE and VC investments grew by 46 per cent in the first half of fiscal 2014 and organisations like the Indian Angel network are growing like a virus.

The Indian government only last week announced its plans to set up a $1 billion venture fund that would be seeded by Silicon Valley heroes of ethnic Indian origin.

Finally, and most important, is the role of new technologies in generating a multiplicity of options for new business models. Information technology spawned a generation of Indian businesses in the outsourcing arena during the nineties. But the internet and smart connectivity are generating new ventures to a degree that will dwarf that outsourcing boom. Internet pe*******on is finally gathering steam, and new and cheap smartphones will dramatically deepen that pe*******on.

Perspiration payoff
In this arena, Indian startups don’t suffer the disadvantages of the old generation of entrepreneurs for whom poor infrastructure was a major impediment.

Technology allows us to trump infrastructure. In fact, the lack of physical infrastructure itself offers entrepreneurial opportunities to provide virtual infrastructure. For example, impossible traffic conditions and congested cities will accelerate e-commerce in India. And poor recreational facilities only mean that our dependence on 4G-enabled entertainment in the palm of our hands will explode.

Unlike some of the closely held industrial technologies of the past, today’s technology already resides in India and there is nothing to prevent a tiny team, say, in Bangalore, from making the world its market.

It’s no surprise then, that Facebook recently bought a small startup called Little Eye Labs in Bangalore, giving them an early payoff to their perspiration. This is just the beginning of a tidal wave of such buyouts, which will only serve to enhance the incentives for risk-takers.

Technology is also a wildly disruptive force in shaping industry structure. Facebook pays $19 billion for WhatsApp and makes giant telcos shiver because of their plan to offer free telephony. Technologies such as 3D printing and embedded intelligence are turbo-charging traditional manufacturing and enhancing its competitiveness. Hence I see no reason why India can’t lead the world in “intelligent” manufacturing, and small factory startups could very well challenge the hegemony of older and larger manufacturing companies.

If the old competitive landscape could be compared to a placid river upon which giant barges had right of way, think of this new disruptive and unpredictable competitive environment as white water rapids, which are better suited to small and nimble kayaks that can manoeuvre between the shifting currents. Evolution is now favouring the small and the agile, and the old barriers to entry are fast eroding.

Embracing the environment
I say again, the age of entrepreneurship is upon us, and I urge you to embrace it. Not just because of the economic rewards that lie in store for you, but also because your innovation could provide the much-needed answers to the many problems that still snap at our heels.

This country is crying out for better healthcare, education, nutrition, water and sanitation. Your creativity can provide opportunity for you to do well even as you do good.

This is not to downplay the virtues and the rewards of a more conventional career option. I compliment all of you who have landed plum jobs at blue-chip firms and consultancies and Investment banks. In fact, I sincerely hope at least one of you might have chosen my group to work with.

But I worry that if a good number of you have not chosen to leverage this age of entrepreneurship, then who will?

If an IIM grad does not showcase the ‘next big thing’, then who will? If one of you does not build a new age company that will command the admiration of the globe, then who will?

Yes, many of you who try to be entrepreneurs will fail. But the failure to try, the failure to take any risk is perhaps the greatest failure of all. On the other hand, if you learn to celebrate the learnings that come from failure, then I guarantee you that success will eventually come, and that however enjoyable a time you’ve had in college and here at IIM, your best days will indeed lie ahead of you.

As you continue your journey, one thing you can count on, the rules of the game are going to change. Make sure you’re the one changing them.

Good luck and Godspeed.

15/03/2014

Happy holi

07/02/2014

India and China will drive world growth and have a greater say in world forums

The size of the global economy doubled in the decade preceding the 2008-09 financial crisis, increasing from $31 trillion in 1999 to $62 trillion in 2008. The growth encompassed dozens of developing countries and emerging economies.

The rise of India along with other major emerging economies coincided with their push into the world’s richest markets in the US and Europe, and the creation of new ties of goods, money, people and ideas across and within countries and regions.

Prior to the global crisis, India along with other emerging economies had made a concerted effort to build interconnectivity within the developing world, fostering new ties around the exchange of goods, capital, people and ideas.

After the global financial crisis, there emerged a need for global forums such as the G 20 to cobble together a coordinated policy response. The emerging economies contributed to global recovery after the crisis. India too became more active in advocating reforms in the global architecture, at the G20 as well as the UN and other platforms. Various economic developments have made India more visible and hence enabled international collaboration between India and other economies. Currently, the emerging market economies continue to account for the bulk of global growth. India seeks a financial system that is balanced and driven by ethics.

Looking for balance

In 2012, the G20 (excluding the European Union) comprised about 62 per cent of the world’s population; of this the G8 countries constituted only about 12.6 per cent. In the same year, India accounted for 17 per cent of the population, much more than that of the G8 countries put together. However, it lagged behind China, which accounted for 19 per cent.

The demographic significance the G20 countries such as India and China is likely to continue. India’s GDP grew at 4.8 per cent during the third quarter of 2013. India’s current account deficit was at $5.2 billion in the same period on the back of a turnaround in exports and decline in gold imports.

While in the short-term India’s economic growth and inflation will remain a challenge, the long-term fundamentals appear strong. India’s industrial growth is expected to expand and sectors such as infrastructure have immense scope.

Global context

The G20 countries, excluding the EU, accounted for 77 per cent of world GDP in 2012. In the total share of 77 per cent, G8 countries accounted for about 49 per cent, the being contributed by 11 other member countries. China’s share was 12 per cent, India’s 3 per cent.

The Indian economy is one of the fastest growing in the world. In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) India ranks third largest in the world, after the US and China (2012 figures). According to the PwC report, World in 2050 – The BRICs and beyond: prospects, challenges and opportunities, India is expected to remain in third place in 2030 and 2050 in terms of GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) terms. It is expected to become a bigger consumer market as real wages increase and real exchange rates appreciate.

The G20 countries, excluding EU, accounted for 60 per cent of world trade in 2012. Trade grew at an compound annual growth rate of 12.2 per cent during 2000-08 with more than 20 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in the case of G20 countries such as China, India and Russia. After a decline in 2009 due to the economic crisis, global trade recovered in 2010 and mid-2011 witnessing annual growth rates of more than 20 per cent.

Active engagement

India’s share in world merchandise exports has been fast rising since 2004, reaching 1.3 per cent in 2009 and 1.5 per cent in 2010. It increased to 1.9 per cent in the first half of 2011, mainly due to relatively higher Indian export growth of 55 per cent compared to the 23.1 per cent world export growth.

Global GDP growth over the next decade will be divided equally between developed and developing nations, with the western world providing a steady engine of stability, and the developing countries the acceleration and the opportunity for change. India will be a key player amongst the developing countries.

After the global financial crisis, capitalism is being redefined and socialism altered across the globe. Its effect is being felt in countries such as the US and China. Mixed economies such as India are going to play a balancing role in global governance. Therefore, as a member of the G20, India will be actively engaged in global economic governance and in shaping the world order.

15/01/2014

‘Entrepreneurs do not fail, enterprises do’

Some of these failures have been rampant in technology, retail, e-commerce and services sectors.

Over the last decade or more entrepreneurship has received immense attention in this country, so many management students and engineers have graduated with a vision to do something different.

Corporate bigwigs have turned to starting their own businesses for a deeper sense of professional satisfaction. But many businesses also ‘fail’ miserably.

Some of these failures have been rampant in technology, retail, e-commerce and services sectors. The internet space, for example, makes it easy for just about anyone to kick off a business; capital and infrastructure requirements are lower. But while redBus, JustDial and Flipkart stand as monuments to success among online enterprises, so many like them do not make it too far.

In the big cities, we’re preoccupied with success and failure of enterprise.

‘Fail quickly’ is a mantra on most lips in the start-up sector, but how does it actually play out?

FAILURE TRENDS
Debapratim Purkayastha, Assistant Professor at IBS Hyderabad, reveals, “Nearly 50 per cent of the new entrepreneurial ventures fail within the first three years of their launch. The exact reason for failure is not easy to pinpoint, rather it is a combination of factors.” A retrospective look further indicates that some of the reasons for failure among entrepreneurs refuse to go away. “Failure to commercialise the idea due to lack of customer awareness and planning is one. Failing to get key resources such as finance and human resources can also be a huge impediment. Many companies fail as they fail to put systems in place. Like Subhiksha, India’s first true EDLP (Every Day Low Price) retail chain, had to shut shop as it failed in managing its finances,” explains Purkayastha.

So entrepreneurs must have a long term view of where they will take their businesses. Kavil Ramachandran, Indian School of Business, is of the opinion though, that other players in the ecosystem have an equal role to play in failure trends.

“First generation entrepreneurs are not getting enough support in the manufacturing space. Financial institutions ask for a significant amount of collateral and so a lot of the expansion and investment in this space occurs among family-owned businesses. Services now contribute about 60 per cent to the economy, because many first generation entrepreneurs enter the services sector. Impetus to manufacturing will lead to more services businesses, but as it stands the contribution from the services sector cannot go up. It will present an uncomfortable situation.”

Examples of currently successful entrepreneurs failing multiple times before making history makes for great conversation and speeches. And as Purkayastha says, “You don’t always get your prince without kissing a few frogs.” But acceptance of failure as valuable is not widespread in the Indian ecosystem.

“Companies like Google make it a point to accept failure early on and move quickly to the next project.

It is important for new ventures to fail quickly rather than continue as a zombie – consuming scarce resources without getting anywhere. A number of incubators and accelerators (e.g. Indian Angel Network Incubator, Khosla Labs) can play a big role here,” underlines Purkayastha.

Ramachandran adds, “Entrepreneurs do not fail, enterprises do. There is a need for more people willing to just help entrepreneurs screen their business ideas properly. Business development services are vital too – we need more mentors in our ecosystem. Decent governance at the Centre, along with less interferences by government departments (because some controls are unnecessary) and less delays in permissions for water supply and power, among other things. This would boost the manufacturing space.”

Is the need of the hour then an element of trust rather than an atmosphere of suspicion? More in a fortnight.

31/12/2013

30/12/2013

This process of maintaining a standing army of unpaid graduates has become characteristic of the IT industry over the last three years

There is an excellent book, really a long essay, by Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith called ‘The Economics of Innocent Fraud’. He points out how we, as a society, have come to substitute the term ‘market economy’ in place of the term ‘capitalism’.

In this case, ‘market economy’s a more favourable and gentler term. It comes with an implication that economic power lies with consumers rather than the owners of capital or with the managerial class, who have taken over the work of the owners. It is this substitution that Galbraith points to as an example of innocent fraud.

The trouble with innocent fraud is that it always comes with a foundation of truth. It is essentially more of a white lie than a black one.

What we tell ourselves about the Indian IT industry — that it has created wealth in a completely transparent fashion in contrast to the rest of India Inc., that its genie-in-the-bottle was a Bollywood-like Silicon Valley tale, and that for India to grow, its IT industry must grow — is an innocent fraud.

It was Amartya Sen, in a JFK-esque speech at Nasscom’s annual conference in 2007, who first knocked on the doors of this innocent fraud. “Given what the country has done for Indian IT,” he said, “is it (not) silly to ask what specially can the IT industry do for India (other than what happens automatically without any deliberate pursuit of non-business ends)?” Dr. Sen, however, did not take his train of thought much further than gently chiding the industry, and pointing out that it could contribute outside just the IT sector. In the six years since Dr. Sen’s speech, it has become much easier to see through the innocent fraud surrounding the IT industry; in fact you have to make an effort to not see through it.

Largest protest
On March 4, 2013, fresh engineering graduates hired by IT firm HCL Technologies staged what was perhaps the largest protest in the history of India’s IT industry. Their demands were simple: they wanted the company convert the letter of offers that had been handed out into actual jobs. The students had been issued the letters of intent nearly two years before the protest, in September 2011. Not only were they not being paid, many of them were also pressured and forced to turn down other job offers as HCL dangled the hook of promising them a join date.

As of October 1, 2013, a number of students were still reportedly waiting to be scooped up; others have been turned away after two years, with the company now saying they aren’t technically qualified to become HCL employees.

This process of maintaining a standing army of unpaid graduates has become characteristic of the IT industry over the last three years. It offers IT companies a set of talking points when they pitch to clients; the bigger pool of waiting engineers one has, the quicker you can scale up and down.

On April 11, 2013, CBC News published an expose, detailing how IT firm iGATE tightly controlled the lives of Indian employees that had been sent overseas to work on onsite projects.

“They [iGATE] have a rotation policy, and they make sure you don’t get settled here,” said one of the ex-iGATE employees. “You are always threatened that any time you will be sent back to India.” One of the workers also said, at one point, that he and his family was forced to get on a plane to India with little notice, right after his wife had given birth.

A dense network of immigration rules, work visas and intra-company transfers (which are doled out as ‘favours’ as going abroad are often seen as perks) ensure that Indian IT companies can quell Western protectionism fears while still maintaining profit margins. Employees are sent to Western countries, but still held tightly on a leash, and can be summoned back at any moment. Much to the contrary of Indian apologists, those sent to the U.S cannot switch jobs and are subjected to lesser pay (the infamous Brookings Institution study that claims otherwise has a number of flaws).

Labour laws
Infosys shelled out $34 million earlier this year in a settlement with the U.S Government, which alleged that it brought Indian programmers illegally into the U.S on visitor visas. Where, then, is the outrage over an industry, that has come to define India, shipping its employees into the U.S to work for sub-standard pay and on fudged visa documents?

In October this year, Karnataka started the process of yet again exempting the IT industry from the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders Act)—a set of labour laws that would require each company to define conditions of employment and details such as working hours, wages, grounds of termination and so on.

IT industry captains have, on cue, dismissed any push towards regulation as “retrograde” and an “archaic step”. The common consensus amongst business leaders is that regulation is best left to governing the manufacturing sector.

Labour laws, however, are the exact prescription the IT industry needs. Especially at a time when employees at mid-sized IT firms are often forced to work 14-hour days, when women BPO employees are paid less than their male counterparts, and when employees are terminated under less-than-clear grounds.

It is clear that the IT Industry has become more rigidly exploitative — as a natural consequence of lower wages, economic slowdown, a lack of jobs in the country, the outsourcing engine, not to mention human nature.

The roaring 1990s and the wealth it brought to India’s middle class went hand-in-hand with the growth of the IT industry, bringing about a sense of gratitude towards the sector that mostly continues to today. It is this attitude of gratitude that keeps us from seeing the real picture in the IT industry.

The technology entrepreneurship scene, which is still in its infancy, has started the shift towards a business model not based on a ‘race to the lowest wage’ premise. But why not aspire for more i.e for a better and more transparent IT industry?