'The playing field is being levelled', the statement made by Mr.Nandan was the inspiration for Mr.Thomas L.Friedman to coin the title for his bestseller 'The World is Flat'.A few weeks ago I went to Bangalore on an official trip. An advertisement board in Bangalore airport grabbed my attention and made me to stand, stare and shake my head. The ad-board has a golf field, Tiger Woods is walking up on a slope in the golf field and the ad-line goes 'There is no such thing as level playing field'.
Probably many would have guessed when I said the name, Tiger Woods. Yes, the advertisement is for the Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing giant, well, global giant, who provides end-to-end solutions to its customers, the one and only Accenture.
I know that Accenture India sucks. Probably Accenture has its shop in India just to show their customers that they have presence in Indian market, which is the most chanted name as the offshoring and oursourcing destination. But definitely Accenture-America is not a sucker. It is so obvious that Accenture sees Infosys as a threat, while Infosys is just a 2.5 billion dollar company originated from India and still in the warming up mode to provide end-to-end solutions to its customers & trying to become a business partner.
As an Indian I am so proud that a company originated from India makes a company like Accenture feel the fear and panic enough to release such an advertisement. I was wondering what would a CEO or CIO some corporate think when he sees such an ad? I felt that this ad is a definite image booster for Infosys.
Actually Accenture is not the first one in that panic list. I think IBM was the first one to (over)react its panic. IBM story goes three years back. In 'Wall Street Journel', (just to emphasize, there wouldn't be a single CEO in US who does not read Wall Street Journel) there was a full page (or a half page - not sure of the size - but that doesn't matter really) ad which goes something like this. 'We are better than any consultancy in Banking domain'.
Irony is in American dictionary you can not find the word 'consultancy'. It clearly shows that IBM felt that TCS was a threat to its business.
For IT solutions, India should become like what China is for manufacturing unless it would be too difficult to run this 'India Story' a few years from now. I believe that research is one important area where India Inc must concentrate more to accelerate the growth and enjoy the benefits of globalization. We can not survive so long just with the low-end jobs being outsourced.
6 comments:
"World is Flat", I read this book. It was good. As far as outsourcing is concerned, this is what I look at today!
Tier 1 global players are IBM, Accenture & HP. (Third one I am not sure)
Tier 1 Indian players who do global services are TCS, Infosys & Wipro.
No doubt Indian comp ramped up its services in outsourcing on par with global players. Already Gaps between Global Tier 1 and Indian Tier 1 players are started witnessing shrinking. Wish to have Tier 1 Indian Players in Global Tier 1 list.
Go India!
Toyota being a Japanese Comp ranked #3 in Car Sales Revenue (Year 2004). (GM being No 1 and Ford being No 2)
So definitely if Indian Service Comp beats the competition then definitely Indian players will be there in Top 3.
Your Point of View is absolutely right. I had an oppurtunity to read an article from Business Today. The article discusses the IBM's presence in India and its future plans ($8 billion Investment in next three years). This investment is targeted to capture Indian Market which we ignored as we considered that as Domestic one. IBM is gonna concentrate on Bharti, Tata Steels,.. etc.. I bet, these companies would have given priority to giants to Infy, Wipro, TCS. But in my understanding, Out of what I read, it seems to be like Infy, TCS, Wipro would have ignored the deal straightly considering it as Domestic deals. If this approach gonna be continued, I think in future, the approach would definitely affect us (our companies)where foreign companies would take over several deal not only in US but here too.
Your Point of View is absolutely right. I had an oppurtunity to read an article from Business Today. The article discusses the IBM's presence in India and its future plans ($8 billion Investment in next three years). This investment is targeted to capture Indian Market which we ignored as we considered that as Domestic one. IBM is gonna concentrate on Bharti, Tata Steels,.. etc.. I bet, these companies would have given priority to giants to Infy, Wipro, TCS. But in my understanding, Out of what I read, it seems to be like Infy, TCS, Wipro would have ignored the deal straightly considering it as Domestic deals. If this approach gonna be continued, I think in future, the approach would definitely affect us (our companies)where foreign companies would take over several deal not only in US but here too.
True. This sort of advertising is becoming common. I guess it started with pepsi and coke. (As an aside I can relate it to the thread in Harry Potter where the Lord Voldemort will mark young Harry as his equal who will gain powers because of that :-))
But emulating china's manufacturing will be difficult with the rising salaries in india and falling dollar. The companies should rather emulate japanese car makers providing quality without relying on the cost advantage.
Research ! that is a long way to go.
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