Ever since I visited the US I have dropped many of my misgivings about the country and its people. Ofcourse the fact still remains that I think Bush is the biggest enemy to world peace next only to Osama himself. But what I am talking about here is the people side of it. I have come to hold them in very high regard for a few reasons. I will talk about one reason which holds a lot of relevance to India;
Outsourcing-this is one word that has generated more heat in the 21st century that anything else and I should say I am truly impressed by the way Americans have accepted outsourcing as a fact of life: it is painful today, but ultimately it brings a level of competitiveness to their companies and hence to their economy which will be really difficult to be surpassed by anyone in the foreseeable future. Trust me, operating on a global scale with countries like India (with a 12 hour time difference) is not an easy task-and the American companies have just begun to master it. There have been huge layoffs-in the order of tens of thousands of people. There were ofcourse loud noises-that is natural-but the point is that there were no draconian "populist" measures to pacify these noises. The politicians were still able to “sell” the idea that outsourcing is good for the Americans and the people accepted it-this is true democracy-where leaders don’t look for the impulses of the people and be carried away by that-but are able to think long term and “lead” their people to success and prosperity.
Well, just imagine this scenario-some time in the future an "Indian" company in Mumbai is laying off five thousand people to stay afloat amidst tough competition. What do you expect would happen the next day? My guess is atleast 10 buses will burn the next day. The communist parties would be marching all the way from Kerala to 10 Janpath, from Kolkata to Mumbai, creating havoc disrupting public life. Newspapers would highlight the fact that this company could just as easily closed down its branch in Kenya (which was by the way operating at half the cost). Then all public attention would have been diverted to the fact that the evil Kenyans were ultimately responsible for all of these. Then the government would chip-in and make laws which prevent any company from opening divisions in Africa-just protecting the locals they would say. Then the communists would hail it as a victory and parade it in the next elections to come back to power now to include along with Africa, other parts of Asia as well in the list of “prohibited” areas. Soon these businesses would be chucked out of competition by smart American firms who have by now established a firm foothold in Africa and Asia. And our communist babus will be flying in airplanes (as cabinet ministers ofcourse) to US and other countries begging them to establish centers in India-all the while wondering what was so wrong with this country that noone wants to invest here!!!
This might be a bit far-stretched, but this is not very far from reality-I bet in another 25 years we will be facing something akin to that-will we be mature enough by then?
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I attest to every word of this. I also feel this attitude among Americans. I hate generalizing things, but these guys are highly practical. They get on to the next big thing. Public memory is so short-lived. Maybe it is because of thier short-lived national history. Said that, it would be certainly be interesting to see how Indians react when thier jobs get outsourced to other countries as well. I have a feeling that: That day is not very far off...
ReplyDeleteHow true! I never thought this way abt them.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, with the young population we have (which is still growing, mind you) the outsourcing situation you mention may never come to pass. There would be upward mobility of some classes, yes. But there are enough people in the IT labour pool to sustain low wages for looooong time to come :)
ReplyDeleteThough it may seem like we have an unending pool of young talent, if you look real close at the kind of talent that it takes to make a successful BPO (most importantly good English, some basic education and knowledge in the field that they operate in-like healthcare, software etc) there are actually fewer who classify. Also the loyalty in these sectors is razor thin with people jumping for a raise of a Rs. 1000 or so.
ReplyDeleteThe reason we dont find it happening already is due to the threethings-1. stable governments (well almost..)2.Good Talent Pool 3.Cheap Indian Rupee. The moment any other country will come close to replicating these you will see a switch...first because these companies want to distribute risk (what happens when communists come to power in India for eg.), then because over time they offer a cost cut at same or slightly lesser quality.
To add another perspective, The single largest advantage such a widespread globalization offers, is the capability to place demand and supply in different geographies. This doesn't have to be restricted to supply of human resource alone. With this,
ReplyDeleteone can envisage a not-so-distant future in which every market has its supply chain processes happening elsewhere on the globe.
Even in the IT services sector, due to the ever increasing competition, we may soon see companies like Infosys, start trading services of Ugandans instead of Indians as they do now! :)
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