And there is no evidence that I've seen to make me believe it will happen in India anytime soon, nor is it reasonable to expect it from a young, developing country with the multitude of challenges India faces. True innovation is creating the next game changing technology, like Google or cell phones or doesn't happen that often. In a knowledge economy, information is rapidly spread and acted upon and organisations need to continually innovate, or they will lose their competitive advantage eventually (just look at the US auto industry, or what's left of it, or the creative slump Sony has been in).
All of them have used the I-factor in their conversations with me and are seeking ways to innovate and make transformational change and develop proprietary solutions so they can offer additional value and real partnerships to their clients.
#IFACTOR MEMBER SOFTWARE#
Some will sell out to a larger operator, some will merge with a former competitor, some have changed their fee model, some have already refocused from low-level call centre work to higher-value legal or medical outsourcing or software services.
All are completely aware of the challenges they face to sustain their businesses and their options. I've spoken to a number of Indian business-people in the BPO sector, formally and informally. Cheapening communication abilities and cost mean that companies can more easily than ever assemble virtual organisations and networks, taking the best from each locality and managing it all from a few hubs. Nearly all non-agricultural organisations are now operating in a knowledge economy which is truly global. each offering a cost, time zone, or language advantage over India. The 'multi-shoring model' has become very common, meaning BPO India also competes with China, Mexico, Philippines and Eastern Europe. Growth in the Indian BPO segment has slowed to about half its previous rate of 30%, existing contracts are being renegotiated for lower rates, and deals are taking longer to close. to save costs but will that keep them here, as labour cost advantages continue to be eroded, by currency fluctuation, salary inflation and technology advances changing the very nature of IT-led services. All this contributed to the world's leading technology companies setting up operations here. Bangalore, in particular, had a high number of English-speaking graduates with 86% overall literacy, some of India's top science and technology institutes, a mild climate and business-forward local and state government policies and taxation. It's also in the 24/7 time zone, offers world-class telecom and private infrastructure and has proven its delivery capability of complex IT services. Hyper-growth of the sort Bangalore has suffered and prospered from (a doubling of population since early '90s) brought these infrastructure challenges.But, what triggered the IT BPO boom twenty five years ago? What did Bangalore do? And will it sustain its advantages during these times of lowered global economic growth? The economic reforms of 1991 and the lower labour cost of highly educated staff first brought India to the world's attention. But most of this took place centuries ago.and when walking around the streets of Bangalore, I wondered what had happened to the skills of city planning, and sewage management, which there is also clear evidence of in past Indus valley civilisations. I've had an amazingly warm South Indian welcome here and quickly learned that Indians also proudly claim to have invented the number system and other mathematical concepts, chess, various metal working techniques, numerous textiles and finishing methods, Ayurvedic medicine (including surgery and anaesthetics), yoga, and several discoveries in astronomy. Oops! Thankfully, I didn't lose the work over my ignorance and I immediately booked my flight to Bangalore for first-hand enlightenment in India's technological hub. I responded, "Yeah, I couldn't think of any either" and he very politely countered by saying, "No, I meant the number zero". When I asked the professor if he could name some for me, he said "Zero". I couldn't think of a single Indian invention, recent or ancient. When I was first asked to conduct research about innovation in India for a leading UK university, I immediately wondered if those two words had any business being linked together.
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