New Careers In Outsourcing
December 17, 2009
In my last post, “India’s Response to the US Dollar“, I ended with a question: What comes next?
After the competition on cost alone, we had competition based on value. Then we had xPO (BPO, LPO, KPO, etc.). Today, we see competition based on deeper and broader ways to deliver value to the end client.
So, what comes next? Herein lies the answer to the question about new careers in outsourcing.
Think about what outsourcing really is. You have someone giving the orders (client, a.k.a. “master”) and someone executing them to perfection (outsourcing provider, a.k.a. “servant”). Today’s outsourcing is really a glorified master-servant relationship.
The easiest way that I can think about is to illustrate my initial discoveries of Silicon Valley in the US and Hyderabad in India.
I had heard about Silicon Valley for years. My thought was, “Fine. You have a bunch of nerds that did well financially.” But when I got there and drove around, I was amazed. Neighborhood after neighborhood, street after street, building after building, there were high-tech startups and young companies doing millions of dollars of business. Everyone had ideas for new businesses. The whole place from San Francisco to San Jose was buzzing with activity, energy, and enthusiasm.
A few years later, after hearing about Hyderabad for many years, I had the chance to go for a month. It was exciting. I was going to the #2 IT hot spot in India. I had visions of another Silicon Valley in India.
Big disappointment.
What I saw was huge business parks owned by the monstrously large multi-national companies. Tens (or maybe hundreds) of thousands of highly intelligent, very enthusiastic, very capable people were excited about “working for” a great company. There were no visible startups. There was no sense that this was a hub of creativity. It was just a large hub of well-paid people who chose to trade their creative potential for a good job.
In the big picture, it makes sense. If Infosys gets a contract to deliver work at a fraction of the American cost, then they need people in India to do the work at a fraction of the American cost. So, having these large information processing plants is necessary.
But go back to Silicon Valley for a minute and what do you see? The people doing exceptionally well financially and creatively are Indians. Many of the movers and shakers in technology are Indian. Take a trip to Seattle and you see that Microsoft and Boeing depend on Indians to do well. Hike across the country and you see that business and technology leaders are Indian all across the US.
And yes, these are the same people who were once drones in the Hyderabad intellectual factories.
So, the problem is not with the people. The problem is with the opportunity to do more with what they have to offer the world. Outside the corporate infrastructure, there is opportunity. Many enterprising Indians are discovering this. I am currently employing two such people. They work at their jobs during the day. In the evening, they work for me. Still others started this way and now have thriving businesses of their own, where they created products that are being used by American and Canadian clients.
On the other side of the pond, we are seeing American companies, headed by both Americans and Indians, who are starting to realize that viewing Indians as a cheap source of labor only saves them $20 per hour. Instead, seeing them as joint venture partners can yield hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra profits every year.
The new careers in outsourcing are not simply based on providing value to a foreign master. Instead, they are based on offering value as an equal partner in a global joint venture. It is taking intellectual property that was developed on one project and packaging it into an offering for the broader industry. It is working with the resources of the foreign partner to open up markets in India and other countries where they have no presence.
In the next 5 years, you will see advertisements for people who can manage teams in multiple countries. You will see advertisements for people who can open markets in different parts of India. You will see advertisements for people who can source reliable technology from India for the purpose of offering it to clients in America and Europe.
The landscape is changing rapidly. And again, I will end with the question: What comes next?
Pawan Varma
IntraWorld Outsourcing Management Center
http://www.IntraWorld-Outsourcing.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/pawanvarma
www.twitter.com/outread
pawan@outsourcingreadiness.com
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3 Responses to “New Careers In Outsourcing”
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Nice post!..its a very difficult,because your posting is a step by step to become an SEO professional.
You may more post!
So, what kind of new jobs will appear in the outsource industry? I’d love to read your next post on this one.
-KK
Hey pvarma,
Thank you for your nice post. Outsourcing have bright future in future…awesome post.