We've talked about why you wouldn't want to outsource to Amazon (and were proved right when they went down hard recently) but when Aaron wrote an excellent article on The Future of Business Process Outsourcing I thought it might be good to give a (slightly) dissenting opinion.  He makes a lot of very good points about the hardware and software side of outsourcing, but I think he kind of runs off the rails when he looks at the opportunities and people in India.

Aaron's Complaint

It's a long article, and worth reading, but he's basically frustrated because it is hard to find people who will tackle what I'd call small(ish) projects - things under, say, $250K per major piece.  I'd agree, but then again we have a shiny technical group, so we do all that in house.  But one of his observations is that this is really hard stuff to send to India.  I'd really agree with that.  A 5 person three month development project can't be green-fielded to India. The overhead of getting it running and the risk simply do not make it worthwhile.  However, if you have a larger project ($500K budget) then you'll definitely be able to invest in India and get a tremendous time/money boost.

Our Background

In a previous life Don and I had a technical team (7 total) and a business process team (60 total across 3 shifts) that handled internal operations for a very large multinational.  We spent three years building the group from scratch and it had several key distinguishing factors that made it different from the average "outsourcing team" in India:

• 2% annual turnover
• Promotion from within
• Promotion of females to management positions
• Fresher training plan

Rocket Science

It ain't.  You can't run a group in India like you would one from the US, but they're still people struggling with Maslow's Hierarchy, though perhaps with some different ordering.  I mean, really, if you haven't looked at that picture in a while, then look around the categories, think about the people you've worked with from different countries and cultures - you'll be shocked at what you can fit in there.  (The real beauty of being an academic is that if you're the first to write down something obvious you are famous forever.)

(Those of you familiar with India will appreciate the color coding!  And, no, I'm not going to explain that joke if you don't get it.)

So let's just assume that you are having regular team meetings, offsite team building exercises, reward dinners, and all that jazz that you have to do with remote teams.  Let me give you a

India Specific List of Success Factors

In no particular order:

• Have a real presence
  • Show up often
  • Plan for the long term with facilities and equipment
• Work type is important
  • Don't try to outsource small stuff
  • Start with smaller projects, with closer deadlines, and with lower risk and complexity levels.  Your Indian team needs to succeed and learn how to work with you under good conditions rather than while flat out and scared.
  • If you don't understand what you want the project will fail
  • No customer facing activity, even internal customers
• People are key
  • Hire someone in the states who has built a team and succeeded as it is too expensive to make a mistake
  • Hire a manager in India who has successfully managed for an American company
  • Hire expensive high quality high level people - there is little cost advantage (3:1 maybe) there because of shortages but they are critical to getting leverage from large teams of freshers (10:1) and juniors (8:1)
  • Bring your senior staff to America. Plan on this process taking a long time to arrange if someone needs a passport because they will probably have to make three trips to their home state to get it.  Over a several month period.
• Culture
  • Lean the culture
  • Learn what areas your people are from
  • Native costume day is a great icebreaker for when you're in town
  • Learn how to ask questions like an Indian not an American
  • Yes doesn't mean yes and no doesn't mean never
  • Learn how to eat the food ... with the right hand
  • Before you eat meat in front of a vegetarian, ask
• Relationships are critical
  • They will want to know a lot about your family and life
  • You should ask them about families and life
• Personal Stuff
  
  • Anticipate Delhi Belly, even in the ITC Sheraton in Bangalore
  • Don't fly Indian Airways, certainly not in coach, and even business stinks.  First is meh.
  • Get a driver who speaks English well and always get the same guy.  Tip effectively, your life is in his hands.
• At Home
  
  • Your home office technical staff needs to be more senior and better communicators because their job will be harder.  On the other hand, since they will be doing technical leadership and the really interesting work you'll be able to hire better people.
  • Don't have all the meetings on US time - this is rude, swap it around

My Favorite Non American Place In The World

I really really like India as a country - a big messy sprawling vibrant alive democracy.  With great food and tasty cold beer and beautiful sights. And, yes, grinding poverty which is being pushed back as fast as humanly possible.  It's good to remember that in the 1940's about 1 in 5 draftees were unfit for service in the military because of poor childhood nutrition or gross physical infirmities. 

And my team in India and the Indian co-workers and friends I've had over the years have only strengthened my attraction to the county.

So if you have the money, the time, and the need, then extending the capability of your company by building a team in India could be a professional success and a personal reward.