 |
Business Process Outsourcing Talk Global outsourcing spending is projected to reach $1.2 trillion by the end of 2003. Two thirds of the outsourcing spend is in large Fortune 500 companies. India commands over 90 % of all offshore outsourcing in IT services. What is the relevance of Business Process outsourcing (BPO) and these figures to a B-School graduate? It lies in the idea of outsourcing, of tapping the immense potential for it in the world markets, and of entrepreneurship and management in this context. In an Industry that employs even undergraduates due to the sheer demand for personnel, and involves more than 170,000 people, what new directions await to be taken, and what can be done differently? What does it offer the future executive in terms of a career? These were the questions that characterized the mood at The BPO Talk at the IIM Bangalore campus. The Talk was conducted under the aegis of the Forum for Industrial Interaction (FII), a student initiative involved in bringing together the Industry, the student community and the academia. The panel of speakers, invariably the individuals who started it all, the who's who of the world of Indian BPO, comprised of Mr. Amitabh Chaudhry, VP, Transition Progeon Ltd., Mr. M. J. Aravind, Founder & Vice President, Daksh eServices Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Ranganath Iyengar, Founder and Senior Partner, Think Harbor Consulting Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Vivek Nagarkatti, Director, HP Global E- Services and Mr. Narendra Dev, VP, Business Development Customer Corporation, California. The talk was aimed primarily at addressing two areas. First, the future growth map of the BPO sector in India and the related opportunities and challenges. Second, and more relevant to the students here, the new areas of growth in which MBA graduates can find and create roles, and the job profiles that they can expect in this sector. Needless to say, the speakers dealt with these and many more complementary issues at length, as they came up in the course of their talk. The first speaker of the evening was Mr. Amitabh Chaudhary of Progeon. He spoke about what goes into creating a sustainable BPO business and the transition process, drawing on his own experiences at Progeon. As befitting the role of the opening speaker, he gave the audience a very good feel of the BPO business and prepared them for what was to come. He was followed by Mr. Ranganath Iyengar who talked about the drivers, inhibitors and the challenges of the BPO business in India from an entrepreneurial point of view. Mr. Iyengar talked about the resources available for the BPO companies to tap: people, finances, infrastructure and so on. He gave a roadmap that they could follow to move up the value chain. His talk was replete with pointers for any prospective BPO entrepreneurs amongst the MBAs present in the audience. He was followed by Mr. M. J. Aravind, who discussed the scaling-up challenges that lie ahead for the Indian BPO industry and how these could be managed. He talked at great length about the scalability possible in the BPO sector, the need for scale, the payoffs associated with it, the challenges of scale and more importantly how scale could be managed. Every phase of incorporating scale requires the right people and Mr.Aravind also touched upon the roles available to MBA graduates in this context. After Mr. Aravind came Mr. Vivek Nagarkatti, who talked about the Indian BPO sector from the perspective of clients. He explained the factors that the clients look at while considering India as an outsourcing destination. While dwelling upon the future of the Indian BPO sector, he talked about the various industries and verticals that would need or prefer more outsourcing in future to gain competitive advantages and how MBAs from premier institutes can help chart the future map for the BPO sector. The last speaker of the evening was Mr. Narendra Dev, who discussed the reasons why India was emerging as a key force to reckon with in the global market for BPO, especially the US, and also talked about the current outcry against outsourcing in US and the sustainability of the resistance. He discussed the quarters from which India was facing competition in the BPO sector and also mentioned how India could retain her competitive edge in the global BPO scenario. He too stressed the importance of the roles that MBA graduates could play for the same and touched upon the competencies and knowledge of verticals a fresh MBA needs to have to be able to break into the management of a BPO company today. After their talks, the five speakers shared the stage and the floor was opened for questions, which were quite a few, considering the curiosity of the audience. The speakers successfully created an environment that was conducive to open interaction. The students present had many incisive questions on the manner in which the BPO businesses operate, on the job profiles of openings that exist in the industry for them at this stage and the kind of career path that they can expect in this industry. The speakers went to great lengths to answer each query satisfactorily, and also ensured that the BPO sector was no longer seen as an unattractive prospect by the MBAs from the institute. The result was, certainly, a clearing of the perception that some had that the BPO sector was about little more than call-centres. It was clear that outsourcing functions- be they in IT, manufacturing or HR- required professionals with skills in the traditional functions of Management. To sum it all up, the evening was a truly memorable one and that the audience was delighted to be part of the talk was evident from the ovation that the speakers received at the end. Almost all those present felt that the talk was extremely educative. It would not be going too far to say that after the talk, most of the audience was left with a clearer and more informed perception of BPO and what is in it for them. Contributed by: - |
 |
|
|