BPO Industry is considered the lifeline today, for India and its youth... Ever thought who deserves the credit?!
Rarely does one get to meet a
person who is a pioneer ‘four times over’ and yet carries that air of humility around himself; making the person on the other side feel so comfortable. In reality, whether you catch up with him before or after his presentation, inside or outside his office, he’ll never make you feel that he, Raman Roy is actually the ‘Father of the Indian BPO Industry’. Today, Raman Roy has already helped his previous employers – from American Express to GE to Wipro Spectramind – implement outsourcing strategies, making their respective BPO businesses a major revenue earner for them.
In his quest of shaping the future of the BPO industry in India, China, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, Raman launched Quatrro in mid-2006, which focuses on high-end BPO services. The business model of his BPO is focussed on a mix of incubation and acquisition led strategies targeted at untapped potential in terms of market space areas. Explaining the same, Raman says, “Our tagline is ‘beyond the existing’. This is our fourth shot at BPO and considering our past success, we are trying to explore newer business models or newer geographies. Naturally, our focus is on newer areas; that is how we are getting into analytics and research. We are therefore into consumer analytics, engineering knowledge work and evolvement of different business models for technical support.” With ‘creating value through innovation’ being the cornerstone of Quatrro’s business philosophy, the company endeavours to endow its clients with innovative solutions through a blend of tools, platforms and business processes. So why is Quatrro looking forward to the SMEs? “We are tackling the small and medium segment as these things have not been done before. Our belief is that the untapped market is significantly larger than what has already been tapped and we want to demonstrate what can be done with the same” Quatrro, under the leadership of Raman, has been growing in leaps and bounds and currently follows the right mix of growth strategy, one that includes both inorganic and organic growth. He is a rare case of a living BPO practitioner who has lived through many challenges.
He can single-handedly boast of having transformed Quatrro into one of the leading BPOs in South Asia, while he still feels that the Indian outsourcing industry as a whole has a long way to go... giving it a most pitiable score of six on ten! While explaining the same, he states, “I think the domestic outsourcing is in its nascent stage because the benefits of outsourcing have not yet been realised by the domestic industries. And a part of the blame is shared by our ill-regulated framework. If you are in the Philippines and you do international business you can use the same table, chair, LAN, WAN, computer for the domestic business while in India you can’t and therefore the technology that is put for international business cannot be utilised for domestic business. Thus the domestic business does not benefit...”
Raman has also been recently appointed to the high-powered Working Group formed by the Indian Prime Minister’s Office for making recommendations on improving the supply of suitable talent in the IT & BPO sectors. Talking more about the industry and the employment opportunities he adds, “We have to make fundamental changes in what we are doing. Today, our educational system creates educated yet ‘unemployable’ people and we have to change because our education system has to be tuned to the needs of the industry.” He opines that the education system in India needs an overhaul and much more practical skills need to be imparted in order to fulfill the demand-supply gap in the outsourcing industry. Criticizing the Indian education system he questions, “Tell me one university, one school, one institution in India that teaches US GAAP. Zero! If you do not use US GAAP, then how can we compete with companies in Philippines where they can get people who have certificates in US GAAP by local universities.” Well said Sir, but can we point out something here? Well, we actually know many schools and B-schools in India which teach the US GAAP in their accounting lectures. We do! Honestly, we understand your concern, but here it reads like some old case of... it’s easier said than done!
With the IT/ITeS exports from India witnessing the share of BPO to touch $25 billion in revenues from the currently projected $8.3 billion for FY2007 as per CII, this man can be single-handedly take credit for lighting that matchstick which set the nation ablaze, giving India importance amongst outsourcing champion nations and also increasing the national output value and creating jobs to the tune of over 4,15,000, by creating the BPO industry in India. Playing his role and living up to expectations of being a Guru of Indian BPO industry, he as a founding member of the ‘Band of Angels’, a group of investors who invest in early stage businesses. In order to spread his intellectual opinions and messages, he regularly contributes to the Global Services Magazine, a publication focusing on strategies for sourcing people, processes and technologies. When asked about the future of outsourcing in India, he responds as thus, “I see early signs of that realisation coming where people are demanding and where business is moving towards the people who give good customer service. Expecting no anomalies, I see a huge growth in the Indian BPO industry in India.” Still trying to improve the industry, when it comes to his company, Raman follows a participative style of leadership; his success mantra being, “Get the right people. Get the right team, and success will be yours.” Raman does not believe in dividing his time between his personal and professional life but believes in obsession for work. “There is no balance. Either you are obsessed to achieve what you have to achieve, or, you simply have a balance. But, you cannot succeed by only being balanced.” However, this family lover feels that, “For vacation, I enjoy wherever my kids want to go... My choice really doesn’t matter.” This down-to-earth guru predicts that his company will be a dominant force in the industry over the next half-a-decade. And what about himself? “I hope they will not chuck me out of the company and I hope to continue to play a role in the company.” Surely, he has his eyes on all forms of competition. Good for him!
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
Rarely does one get to meet a
person who is a pioneer ‘four times over’ and yet carries that air of humility around himself; making the person on the other side feel so comfortable. In reality, whether you catch up with him before or after his presentation, inside or outside his office, he’ll never make you feel that he, Raman Roy is actually the ‘Father of the Indian BPO Industry’. Today, Raman Roy has already helped his previous employers – from American Express to GE to Wipro Spectramind – implement outsourcing strategies, making their respective BPO businesses a major revenue earner for them.In his quest of shaping the future of the BPO industry in India, China, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, Raman launched Quatrro in mid-2006, which focuses on high-end BPO services. The business model of his BPO is focussed on a mix of incubation and acquisition led strategies targeted at untapped potential in terms of market space areas. Explaining the same, Raman says, “Our tagline is ‘beyond the existing’. This is our fourth shot at BPO and considering our past success, we are trying to explore newer business models or newer geographies. Naturally, our focus is on newer areas; that is how we are getting into analytics and research. We are therefore into consumer analytics, engineering knowledge work and evolvement of different business models for technical support.” With ‘creating value through innovation’ being the cornerstone of Quatrro’s business philosophy, the company endeavours to endow its clients with innovative solutions through a blend of tools, platforms and business processes. So why is Quatrro looking forward to the SMEs? “We are tackling the small and medium segment as these things have not been done before. Our belief is that the untapped market is significantly larger than what has already been tapped and we want to demonstrate what can be done with the same” Quatrro, under the leadership of Raman, has been growing in leaps and bounds and currently follows the right mix of growth strategy, one that includes both inorganic and organic growth. He is a rare case of a living BPO practitioner who has lived through many challenges.
He can single-handedly boast of having transformed Quatrro into one of the leading BPOs in South Asia, while he still feels that the Indian outsourcing industry as a whole has a long way to go... giving it a most pitiable score of six on ten! While explaining the same, he states, “I think the domestic outsourcing is in its nascent stage because the benefits of outsourcing have not yet been realised by the domestic industries. And a part of the blame is shared by our ill-regulated framework. If you are in the Philippines and you do international business you can use the same table, chair, LAN, WAN, computer for the domestic business while in India you can’t and therefore the technology that is put for international business cannot be utilised for domestic business. Thus the domestic business does not benefit...”
Raman has also been recently appointed to the high-powered Working Group formed by the Indian Prime Minister’s Office for making recommendations on improving the supply of suitable talent in the IT & BPO sectors. Talking more about the industry and the employment opportunities he adds, “We have to make fundamental changes in what we are doing. Today, our educational system creates educated yet ‘unemployable’ people and we have to change because our education system has to be tuned to the needs of the industry.” He opines that the education system in India needs an overhaul and much more practical skills need to be imparted in order to fulfill the demand-supply gap in the outsourcing industry. Criticizing the Indian education system he questions, “Tell me one university, one school, one institution in India that teaches US GAAP. Zero! If you do not use US GAAP, then how can we compete with companies in Philippines where they can get people who have certificates in US GAAP by local universities.” Well said Sir, but can we point out something here? Well, we actually know many schools and B-schools in India which teach the US GAAP in their accounting lectures. We do! Honestly, we understand your concern, but here it reads like some old case of... it’s easier said than done!
With the IT/ITeS exports from India witnessing the share of BPO to touch $25 billion in revenues from the currently projected $8.3 billion for FY2007 as per CII, this man can be single-handedly take credit for lighting that matchstick which set the nation ablaze, giving India importance amongst outsourcing champion nations and also increasing the national output value and creating jobs to the tune of over 4,15,000, by creating the BPO industry in India. Playing his role and living up to expectations of being a Guru of Indian BPO industry, he as a founding member of the ‘Band of Angels’, a group of investors who invest in early stage businesses. In order to spread his intellectual opinions and messages, he regularly contributes to the Global Services Magazine, a publication focusing on strategies for sourcing people, processes and technologies. When asked about the future of outsourcing in India, he responds as thus, “I see early signs of that realisation coming where people are demanding and where business is moving towards the people who give good customer service. Expecting no anomalies, I see a huge growth in the Indian BPO industry in India.” Still trying to improve the industry, when it comes to his company, Raman follows a participative style of leadership; his success mantra being, “Get the right people. Get the right team, and success will be yours.” Raman does not believe in dividing his time between his personal and professional life but believes in obsession for work. “There is no balance. Either you are obsessed to achieve what you have to achieve, or, you simply have a balance. But, you cannot succeed by only being balanced.” However, this family lover feels that, “For vacation, I enjoy wherever my kids want to go... My choice really doesn’t matter.” This down-to-earth guru predicts that his company will be a dominant force in the industry over the next half-a-decade. And what about himself? “I hope they will not chuck me out of the company and I hope to continue to play a role in the company.” Surely, he has his eyes on all forms of competition. Good for him!
For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist)
