India – Page 16 – DECISION STATS

Mergers and Acquisitions 2: Indian Offshoring

Some tricks that Indian offshoring companies adapt to boost up valuation just before recieving a dose of private equity or enter into negotiations are-

1) Build additional centers to make it look bigger

Make a small 50 member team size in East Europe, a 50 center team size in South America, a 50 member team size in China while 90 % of team stays in India. And claim we are present in one dozen countries so we have minimized location/ country instability risk.

2) Claim to invent the Indian Outsourcing sector when they first worked in 1990’s at McKinsey or Gecis or IBM.

Some companies claim to invent the KPO (knowledge processing) sector while some companies claim to invent the BPO sector.

The first apperance of the word Knowledge came from the back office McKinsey Knowledge center in 1990’s where almost all early recruits went and set up or joined other back offices- McKinsey continues to keep that centre as well as keep small teams in multiple outsourcing companies to gather information. It has the most secretive client relations and the best run alumni network in consulting companies.

recently McKinsey tried to aim for cloud computing by creating a market for private clouds rather than just clouds.

Who invented KPO or BPO or BTO? Even Wikipedia entries can be maipulated. Even Google SEO can be gamed by link farms

3) Becoming Bigger and Better pre infusion of funds

Increase staff size,

pay lower salaries,

lock attrition by bonds that prevent people from moving for two years ( yes it is not illegal in India)

Not pay overtime ( many companies keep detailed records to ensure minimum of 10 hours work from employees and spur unpaid overtime as this is not required by law for Indian outsourcing companies.

4) Create an industry wide database to keep private information on individuals thorugh the NASSCOM – the premier lobbying body for Indian ITES

Most of this is due to the rapid rise of Indian ITES as opposed to mature practises in Indian IT industry- even there it has been an occasional scandal like Satyam

Are you offshoring work to India? Do you know how many people are working how many hours to get that great job done? Do you wonder why only 1-2 senior members speak on a tele conference but junior team members dont.

Happy Outsourcing.

Jai Ho!

Strategic Tactics in Sanskrit/Hinduism

I have used the word Hinduism in the title tag, but it may be interchangeably used by the word India. Hinduism remains the world’s only religion without a founder and also with the maximum number of Gods including gods of Nature, and was in existence long before the Egyptians, and Romans came and died. Most people end up taking the religion they were born into, without knowing what it means- Hinduism is a melting pot and a philosophy.

It has nothing in common with the people who try and market it for profit.

Here are some techniques for Strategy in Sanskrit

1) Sam ( Pronounced as Saahm) – Praise someone to gain their favor.

“Excellent Job”- Terrific- Wow

2) Dam ( Pronounced as Daahm)

Offer money to baser monetary instincts

3) Dand ( Pronounced as Dund)

Punish the person by denying him what he thinks he deserves.

4) Bhed ( Pronounced as Bhaid)

Provoke the target’s jealousy and envy by praising someone else in his presence or ignoring him.

The definitive manuscript for strategy was written by Kautilya and here is a paper from a University that refers to it-

http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/9962/1/MPRA_paper_9962.pdf

Other counterparts are Machievelli in Italy, Clausewitz and the concise Art of War by Tzu Su of the other great civilization China.

Offshoring and Technology

The world is getting flat. Despite Microsoft �s attempts to reduce Indian h1 visa holders by sending some of them home � and then remote working from there. Who needs immigration when you can work at a low cost location near your family using Skype, PayPal ,and a secure remote desktop.Nobody reminding you that you are two shades lighter and your cost is lower so you should charge lower rates. Like charge less than an illegal Mexican immigrant sweeping the garbage.You don’t need health care in India, you fall sick there are tens of millions others hungrier and younger who will work at 5 $ /hour lower than you would.or 5 $ a hour lower than the Mexican janitor would.

But thanks to technology � you can compete with the Boston Brahmins without going to Boston. If American people can work from their homes and tele-commute for US companies in the US- they can certainly work for US companies sitting on a beach at Pataya. No Hb1 visas are needed for hiring mathematicians in East Europe � just internet connection, Skype, PayPal and a remote desktop connection.

And I have a dream-The only color that matters will be grey � the color of your brain cells.And green �the color of environment and the money you get.

Comprendez vous ?

Indian Crabs – A story

I heard the following story /parable as a child. I don’t know who is the author. It may be someone you know like most jokes it is more widespread than the author. If you already have heard it ,let me know it.

There was once a crab competition for all countries in the world.All countries sent their crabs to compete. Then someone noticed that the stall from India had a huge box, but it was open. There was no lid for it to keep the crabs in. So people asked the man standing there Why is there no lid for these crabs. They may escape and spread here and there. The man replied , These are Indian crabs. They don’t need a lid. They are too busy pulling each other down.They wont escape.

India arrives at the Oscars party

While watching the Oscars today in which eight were won by Slumdog Millionaire based in India- I could help but note the fact that the song and dance musical routine (vaudeville) is now back in Hollywood , while in India�s Bollywood it never went away.

A R Rahman won two Oscars , one more Indian won for sound mixing, while the poet Gulzar won for best song as well. 4 Oscars for 3 Indians � is unprecedented for the nation of a billion movie watchers- India produces and consumes more movies in more languages than any single other nation. What took India so long- the cocoon of isolation in which movies were released 3-4 years in India after they had been released abroad was finally waved off in the mid 1990s.

And thanks to the globalized world, Indian movie goers learn the pleasures of multiplexes , off beat movies, award ceremonies while teaching the world � how to dance when the wallet , stomach and the home is empty. To the newly impoverished Western citizens in the global folly of the financial recession , Indian citizens , at least 80 % of whom live below 1 dollar a day, these citizens ask � � As long as there is music in the movies , life and it�s surprises are worth living for.� And like the 18 year old actor who debuted in a low budget movie which won 8 Oscars, you too can win the Millionaire show. If it is written. Because it is written.

A R Rahman, an Indian Muslim trained at Trinity College,England ,rising from poverty himself —kind of summed up the Indian way of looking at things ( as opposed to the Pakistani 😉 way when he said � In Life you can choose between love and hate. I chose love and so here I am.

ps � Hugh Jackman tried so hard .

But I would prefer Steve Martin and Tina Fey any day.

India:Bungalow Dogs bark back at Slumdogs

The recent Oscar Nomination and subsequent debate for “ Slumdog Millionaire” is both astonishing and disturbing.

While it is astonishing

as the first major Oscar nominated English movie on India in thirty years since “Gandhi’ (made by another British director) ,

it is disturbing

as it reflects the inherent tensions in a nation of a 1.147 billion people racing to the moon in unmanned orbit(2008) ( and thus proud of its recent achievements including economic, sports, and political

while at the same time

a nation state struggling to provide basics of food, housing ,employment (conservatively 300 million people live on less than 1 dollar a day in India) and lack of state safety from terror attacks.

Most of the critics decrying the exhibitionism of “poverty porn” , a unique term, are themselves safely far removed from the slums themselves.

An average Indian Middle class family earns 1-2000 USD a month ( depending on how good the economy is),

I find the rows of people sleeping on pavements and defecating openly – both embarrassing and humbling.

There has to be some shame, some morality in an economic system where the urban middle class earns more than 60 times than the urban poor ( or 60 times 30 dollars a month) .

Yet

I find the lack of conscience ( we cant help them, so lets help ourselves)

in my peers ,

fellow middle class chaps and

especially the intellectual classes of academia and corporates

and their

hubris and pride in the inevitable rise of power to a glorious Mother India ,

an amusing and sometimes puzzling drama which is as entertaining as any fictional movie created by a global Holly or a local Bolly – Wood

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India

Happy Republic Day

India celebrates the 59th year of being a Republic ( It took us 3 years to write ,debate and finalize our constitution till 1950 , when we finally got the Constitution and the President as a figure-head kind of Republic democracy).

59 years ,

One billion people,

300 million slum dogs,

many billions of software exports,

more billions of oil imports,

one cricket world cup,

one high tech unmanned mission to Moon from us and

many low tech manned terrorist strikes inflicted on us…

later-

The Indian Republic still stands as the only democracy in its neighborhood with substantial secular rights to minority religions and viewpoints.

May the republic still shine- freely.

Amen.

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