I am a master in India

Chapter 460 Outsourcing
The concept of globalization is becoming increasingly popular, and various industries in India are exploring this new path.

The IT industry, in particular, has done this most thoroughly and boldly, overturning many people's business concepts.

For example, those outsourcing companies in the Sunshine City office building were among the first to try this new approach.

Ron didn't care about outsourcing; he just provided the property, collected some rent, and faced no risk.

Until one person came to him, Raman Roy.

"You mean you want me to invest in an outsourcing company?" Ron was very surprised.

“Sir, we usually call it a logistics services management company,” Raman corrected slightly.

"Okay, whatever it's called, how did you come up with the idea of ​​doing this business, or why are you so confident you can make a profit?"

"Because I am the founder of the outsourcing business."

"What?" Ron sat up straight in surprise.

"Let me reintroduce myself, Mr. Sue. My name is Raman Roy, former Senior Director of GE Capital India."

"General Electric?"

“GECIS, which moved into the Gurgaon district in 96,” Raman nodded.

“I think I vaguely remember,” Ron said, tapping his fingers on the table. “Let’s talk about this. I mean, the founder of the outsourcing business.”

Raman readily agreed. He wore small round glasses and a casual plaid shirt. In his early forties, he exuded extraordinary confidence and treated everyone with exceptional equality.

He said that when they first started this business and began recruiting, no one accepted their invitations.

Because the interviewers thought they must be crazy to fantasize about working for an international company abroad, everyone felt that the Indian standards were too low.

Many people don't believe it; they don't believe Raman can achieve that kind of quality.

Those were superior Westerners; they simply couldn't imagine that Indians could do white people's jobs.

Raman hated sheepdogs; he felt they were fundamentally flawed, that these people were prejudiced against themselves and the entire country.

As it turns out, the result was quite the opposite.

If there's one business project that has become a new hallmark of India's globalization, it's "business process outsourcing."

The idea behind it is that, based on modern communication, a company's different functions do not all need to be performed in one place.

These functions can be distributed globally and operate smoothly without any disruption.

This allows the company to shift non-core business to areas with lower salaries, saving significant costs.

In the early 90s, Rahman worked for American Express, a company that had remained in India since the colonial era. Rahman persuaded executives to gradually increase investment there.

He had intended to move the headquarters' logistics operations to India several years ago, and this trend has become increasingly apparent over time.

Raman realized that there was a value in this that had not yet been discovered.

In those years, many companies, large and small, were already making this attempt, some of which rose rapidly, such as Infosys.

Infosys' earliest business was helping Silicon Valley companies with software outsourcing, and they seized the opportunity.

India’s outsourcing advantage lies not only in its ability to deliver software systems to multinational corporations at half the price of its American counterparts.

Equally important, it can also reduce time.

The Indian consultant worked with the American client during the day in the United States and then sent briefings to India.

The Indian software team works during their daytime hours (while the US works at night) so that the US clients can see the results as soon as they get to work the next morning.

As a result, one workday became two.

Seamless integration, a favorite of capital.

Indians are very good at this kind of thing, and they are used to this decentralized approach.

This inspiration may have come from their hometown, where trading families have for centuries dispersed their members to different places to build their own business empires.

When you talk to members of this family, even if that person is very narrow-minded in terms of habits, you will find that they are often surprisingly indifferent to place and distance.

They only care about costs and revenues; if the latter outweighs the former, it's a good deal, no matter how geographically strange it may seem.

This way of thinking is perfectly aligned with the concept of globalization.

Western capital was interested, and Indians were used to it, so they quickly reached an agreement.

As for the protests of Western workers, who cares?
Gurgaon provided another element for the rise of outsourcing in India: a massive high-tech real estate park.

As early as the 80s, the DLF Group began to slowly acquire farmland here.

After it was fully opened up in 91, this region unleashed its astonishing value.

Gurgaon provides essential infrastructure for major global companies in India and is not far from Delhi Airport.

In the first ten years, many embassies were located here, and various companies gradually moved in, some of which moved from the commercial capital of Mumbai.

At that time, General Electric also announced that it would establish a new company in the Gurgaon region, namely General Financial Services.

This new company specifically provided support for the logistics operations of General Motors, and Raman received their call in 96.

The other party asked him if he was interested in further developing his experiments at American Express.

He went to the Oberoi Hotel in New Delhi and had discussions with GM CEO Gary.

The latter has exceptional vision and great courage.

He asked Raman directly about the outsourcing: "How much will we lose if this doesn't work out?" Raman added three million to his mental estimate, "Maybe ten million dollars."

“Okay,” Gary said. “It’s just a small amount of money. I’ll transfer it to an account, and nobody will ask how you use it.”

So Raman wholeheartedly began his first outsourcing experiment, something he had done at American Express before but never set up a separate company for.

He rented an office in Gurgaon, where India’s first international call center was located.

The employees are responsible for answering calls from credit card customers in the United States; that's their job.

At the time, members of GE's board of directors in India had explicitly forbidden him from conducting this experiment.

So Raman did it behind their backs and even invited Gary to come and see it.

He turned the place into an old-fashioned barbershop, and he put curtains between the employees to separate them.

There would be sensitive information on the screen, and if the GM board found out, Raman would definitely be fired.

Moreover, the whole thing was very unreliable; he had no budget and started with only about twenty people.

Gary visited his office and was stunned by the sight of the barbershop in front of him.

As the CEO walked downstairs, he shook his head. "I don't think you have any idea what kind of life-threatening situation you've started."

After Gary left, he began to vigorously promote this experiment at General Electric.

Their unit cost was less than half of the original cost, and the quality was higher.

In the United States, they hire dropouts, while in India, they hire people with college degrees.

Soon they were serving not just GE Capital, but the entire GE Group.

Raman's initial ambition was to eventually build a call center with about a thousand people, but the company grew far beyond that vision, reaching tens of thousands.

Soon, positions in the Gurgaon office became so sought after that the company had to notify the police every time it held a recruitment event.

People would come from far away with their whole families, and they would sit outside the office for days. Raman had to ask the company to provide them with food and water.

That was in the mid-1990s, and a salary of nearly 10,000 rupees was enough to drive many young people crazy.

In Gurgaon, General Financial provides a wide range of services to subsidiaries of large corporations, with customer service being just a small part of it.

Over time, outsourcing services have become more complex and specialized.

The systems and training have been developed to a highly efficient level, and Indian employees are not simply doing repetitive tasks.

Over the years, the outsourcing business has become increasingly successful, but Raman feels that he is missing out on an even bigger opportunity.

"It's great to work in a company. You can drive luxury cars, go to clubs, and there are all sorts of other benefits, but I saw an opportunity to do something big."

"How so?" Ron looked at him with great interest.

“I told GE that the real opportunity was to provide outsourcing services to other companies, but they wanted to have the business all to themselves,” Raman said, shrugging.

Ron understood; General Electric could no longer satisfy his ambitions.

As the person who single-handedly built the outsourcing business into a large enterprise, Raman was not content to remain just a senior director at General Electric.

So what are your plans now?

"I plan to set up a separate company to provide this type of outsourcing services to all businesses, including Microsoft, Dell, HP, Cisco, AOL, American Express, and Citibank."

"Wow, that's a big plan."

"Sir, I'm not just making this up. I frequently travel to the United States on business, and I've contacted all these companies. They are very interested in the outsourcing services I offer."

"If you have so many channels, why did you come to me?" This was what Ron didn't understand.

“Okay, I’m short of money. I’m still a little short of start-up capital, and I also need other help,” Raman admitted.

"Tell me more specifically."

“I plan to move my office to Sunshine Smart City. It’s closer to New Delhi and the airport, and most importantly, it offers top-notch internet service.”

"You're interested in renting office space here?"

"Yes, an entire building, as Spec's headquarters. Oh, that's the name of the new company."

"This is not a small number."

Sunshine Smart City leases office space to companies like Satyam Computers. A 20-story building in Sunshine Smart City pays approximately 100 million rupees in rent per year.

Given Raman's ambitious goals, it's roughly this size.

"Spec not only outsources call center operations but also handles some computer-related business. This requires a significant investment, including equipment procurement, recruitment, and public relations for distribution channels. All of these require funds."

I've had a good few years at GE, but I've only accumulated about $300 million. After paying the office rent, I can't do anything else."

"Do you know the price of office space in Sunshine Smart City?" Ron asked.

"Of course, this investment can be converted into shares."

"You mean I'll provide the location, and you'll provide the manpower, and we'll work together to build this company?"

"Yes, and the government also needs your help, sir."

"What's the trouble?" Ron raised an eyebrow.

(End of this chapter)