Book:
Offshoring Secrets: Building and Running a Successful India Operation
Global corporations, especially those with large
operations in the west, are constantly seeking to reduce costs, improve the bottom
line, and create magical "quarterly results" in the least possible time.
When such dictates are handed down from the boardroom, management goes into a
flurry exploring potential avenues to execute upon. Typically, the first recommendation
is to explore India, and set up an Indian operation. After the initial brou-ha-ha
about Offshoring, job losses, and so on have died down within the company, a fatalistic
sense of helplessness settles in. The management team is up against the wall,
wondering how it would start to achieve the impossible—and the headache has
just begun.
Enough has been written about offshoring services, the "flattening"
of the world, and so on. But there is no book, to the authors knowledge, that
tackles the issue of HOW to do it. In this book, Utkarsh has drawn upon his years
of experience and interactions with various people in the industry in setting
up and running a successful India operation. You will understand the issues faced
by managers in India, and their frustrations in dealing with their counterparts
in the parent company. This book can be used to:
Resolve
cultural clashes
Overcome
communication issues
Understand
the risk analysis
Support
successful hiring and retention
Support
people management
Understand various
HR and Government policies to adhere to
Drive
project execution
This
book features the following table of contents:
Chapter
One: A brief history
Chapter Two: Choosing
the Right Leader
Chapter Three: Setting up
the Operations
Chapter Four: Recruitment
Chapter
Five: Culture & Policies
Chapter Six:
People Management
Chapter Seven: Execution
is Everything
Appendix A: Terms and Their Meaning
Appendix
B: List of Vendors to Manage
Appendix C: Various
Policies to Adhere to
Appendix D: Case Solutions
You
will want to read this book if you are:
Engineering
management teams from the parent company who execute their projects in India
Managers
in India who work on projects assigned to them from the parent company
HR,
Facility Management, Finance and Legal teams at both the India and parent company
who are responsible for policies in India
Any
curious engineer or support staff in India or abroad working on common projects
Anyone
interested in exploring offshoring opportunities
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Foreword
from Vinod Khosla who says "I will be the first
to recommend this book to my portfolio companies..."
Praise
for "Offshoring Secrets"
"While
many have read about outsourcing in India and China, Utkarsh truly 'owns' the
experience of establishing multiple, successful, operations in India and speaks
from both his mind and his heart in this book. Utkarsh is a wise advisor when
he creates case studies to put you in the other person's shoes to understand the
environment that person or work group lives in." Mr. Gary Rieschel,
Founder and Managing Director, Qiming Venture Partners, China
"Utkarsh
has experienced off-shoring himself, that is evident from the way he writes this
book. From that experience, he provides a full spectrum of all the important aspects
of an off-shoring operation, in great practical detail." Dr. Bob
Hoekstra, Opportunity India Management Consulting, Holland and former CEO Philips
Innovation campus, India
"Utkarsh's
book, drawn from his substantial experience in working in this industry and then
steering a start-up to success. This is an excellent primer not only for those
intending to start operations in the already overheated IT industry in India,
but also for those who are already running operations and are facing numerous
challenges to be successful." Mr. Sammy Sana, Managing Director,
Motorola Software Group, India Design Center
"While
guarding a reader on the likely pitfalls on the way, the author systematically
takes a reader through all aspects of implementation; be it hiring an office space,
recruiting staff, or managing cultural differences. How to manage expectations
of the parent company while simultaneously addressing local issues have been dealt
with in great detail." Mr. Ravi Sangal, Former President, International
Data Corporation (IDC) India Ltd, President (Corporate), Cyber Media India Ltd
Here are some questions that this
book will help you answer:
"I
have been asked by my manager to setup the India center and save costs, but I
am not achieving any remarkable savings within the stipulated timeframe. I wonder
why?"
"I fail to understand why I
am always surprised at the end of the execution cycle?"
"We
provide a very competitive salary review every year, but why is our attrition
still so high?"
"Why am I unable
to foresee people issues in India and unable to manage them well?"
"I
am tired of traveling to India to simply put out one fire after another. Why do
these issues crop up in India when I don't see them within our parent operations?"
"How
will I say 'no' to the parent company to a new change request, as this will impact
the schedule?"
"How do I allay fears
within the parent company with two engineers in India who discuss their salaries
or positions within the company and cosider it perfectly normal?"
"I
am frustrated that I foresaw and raised the risk three months back, and now the
overseas manager is asking the reason why."
"The
U.S. office does not realize the turmoil in the Indian employment market, and
set pretty ambitious recruiting plans. How do I make them work in synch with the
state of the market here?"
About the
Author
Utkarsh
Rai, head of India Operations, Infinera, started his career in the late
eighties as one of the first few batches of IT professionals who joined Siemens
in India and went on to work in Siemens Germany for a stint. The team returned
to form a spin-off called Siemens Information Systems in India, an IT company.
Utkarsh moved on to work with Adaptec in Silicon Valley, where he was
involved in a full-blown product development lifecycle. In the boom period of
the late nineties, when Indians flooded the U.S. in search of IT jobs, he could
see India—and Bangalore, specifically—being a center for product development.
He flew against the winds of the time and joined the Global Software Group at
Motorola in Bangalore.
This opportunity provided
him with the experience in leading large teams, recruiting a large pool of engineers
and handling complex people issues. When the first Motorola facility in Bangalore
was filling up, the team was asked to move to a new location in Bangalore, which
provided him an additional opportunity to learn about the challenges of starting
afresh. As he grew to become a member of the senior management team of Motorola
in Bangalore, he addressed operational issues like crisis management, setting
up the right compensation and benefits, adherence to government regulations and
execution challenges.
This experience prepared him
for his current role as the head of India operations for Infinera—a startup
in digital optical networking—a position that he took in early 2003. At that
time, there were few people on board, and he was responsible for reinforcing the
company culture and its policies, ramping up the team in number and in skills,
and over the past four years, he has achieved a smooth execution with ownership
and drive from India. He understands the Indian Government's regulations and operational
compliance, and setup a new facility in line with the expansion plan. The single
largest success has been in managing and developing the greatest asset–people.
Infinera went IPO in June 2007.
All
these experiences triggered Utkarsh to write a book on India operations, which
he sees as a great way to share his knowledge and experience with wider audience.
