Connecting Wave: OUTSOURCING

“I've been Bangalored” is a phrase often used in the United States by people whose jobs have been offshored to low-cost destinations. It is estimated that by the year 2010 close to USD25 billion in revenue will be generated by India's offshore industry, which provides business process/knowledge process outsourcing (BPO/KPO) services. The year-to-year growth rate in this industry has been close to 40%. This has generated immense interest not only among multinational corporations, who are offshoring processes to India, but also among graduating students from all over the world. Each year, our MBA students are positively surprised and sometimes jolted when we visit firms such as Wipro (BPO), Brickwork (KPO), or Evalueserve (KPO). When visiting Evalueserve,2 one of the largest KPO firms in India, last year with our MBA student group, we were welcomed onto their campus by Andrea and Sigrid. Andrea has a master's degree in Economics from Germany, while Sigrid has a master's in Journalism and Communication. They both had decided to work for Evalueserve to gain experience in the offshoring sector, global operations, and working in India. There is a growing number of students who, like Andrea and Sigrid, want to gain experience in working for Indian firms. And why not? Firms such as Evalueserve or Brickwork1 engage in a number of high-end, value-added activities related to market research, business research analytics, investment research, intellectual property services, and marketing and sales services that can lead to a fulfilling career. This is a win-win situation for both sides, since these firms, which are beginning to set up operations in Europe and Latin America, need employees who can speak languages other than English. As a result, Evalueserve today has 50 international employees in its ranks, up 150% from the same time last year…