I like to believe that I was at the starting point of software product offshoring to India way back in early 90s when we setup the AT&T Bell Lab’s R&D operations in India. Now most technology companies have large R&D centers in India. While there has been a lot of headcount growth, I feel that the maturity hasn’t grown as much as should have. This series of 7 articles, written over a period of three months, tackles some of the issues that need more attention. Check them out if you have missed any.
Archive for the 'offshoring' Category
First Series Roundup on India R&D Centers
Published by March 30th, 2007 in offshoring, software industry and roundups. 2 Comments5 Sacred Cows of Product Offshoring
Published by March 28th, 2007 in offshoring and software industry. 1 CommentSacred cows are ideas that are exempt from criticism or questioning. Here are 5 common sacred cows that get in the way of product offshoring…
Managing the Tension between Product Offshoring and Incubation
Published by March 25th, 2007 in offshoring and software industry. 2 CommentsThere is strong business case for India-based product offshoring and product incubation. Doing both surfaces the inherent tension between them. Good performance with one of them doesn’t automatically result in good performance with the other. If anything, the odds are that doing one of them will weaken the other. So what’s the way out?
India R&D Footprint: Time to Evaluate and Fix the Portfolio
Published by March 19th, 2007 in offshoring and software industry. 0 CommentsTwo basic questions that underpin long-term success in moving product development to India have been ignored. These questions are: (a) Which sub-products or components to move? (b) How to move them? In place of careful consideration, the focus has been on momentum. The result is that the India R&D footprint of every MNC has uneven quality. What’s more there are significant variations across MNC captives. These variations didn’t matter when the times were good and growth was easy to come by. But now times are changing… it’s time to evaluate the portfolio. This is how it can be done…
A Practical Framework for Successful Product Offshoring
Published by March 16th, 2007 in offshoring and software industry. 5 CommentsThe product offshoring failures don’t get discussed publicly and the same mistakes are made again and again. This article discusses a practical framework for success.
5 Reasons Why R&D Offshoring is Maturing So Slowly
Published by February 16th, 2007 in offshoring and software industry. 4 CommentsEffective R&D offshoring remains a black art. While individual success stories exist, they haven’t yet become repeatable. This article talks about the 5 reasons why India-shoring of R&D is maturing so slowly.
Hope Vodafone Has Learnt Its Lessons (about Globalization Models)
Published by February 12th, 2007 in offshoring, organizational design and mobile industry. 7 CommentsAlthough Vodafone was the first to recognize the potential of horizontal consolidation, it didn’t execute the integration very well. Telefonica did a better job. Getting the globalization model right is critically important. This requires striking the right balance between global integration and local responsiveness. Not only is this not easy, this is often ignored. Probably the least understood area today is R&D globalization…
Accenture’s Two Inflection Points This Year (Involving Employees and Profits)
Published by January 31st, 2007 in offshoring and software industry. 5 CommentsAccenture’s decision to add another 8,000 headcount (HC) in India is making news. This will make their India HC larger than US. For me a more significant inflection point will come in a few months. It’s almost certain that Infosys will report a higher profit than Accenture this quarter…
Why CIOs Have a Shot at Becoming Chief Innovation Officers
Published by January 25th, 2007 in offshoring, software industry, organizational design and adaptable infrastucture. 0 CommentsUtility infrastructure model is coming. There is no escaping this trend. This trend will reshape CIOs job significantly. CIOs will either become practically redundant or will become Chief Innovation Officers. I think it will be the latter and here is why…
This R&D Boom Now Needs a (Temporary) Bust
Published by January 18th, 2007 in offshoring. 2 CommentsR&D offshoring to India is booming. This is creating many bubble effects. Is a bust round the corner?
Ten Takeaways from the APSEC Workshop
Published by December 12th, 2006 in offshoring and software industry. 1 CommentThis Saturday, on Dec 9th, there was a day-long workshop on Software Product Development Challenges in India. It was held in Bangalore as an add-on to the APSEC 2006 conference. The workshop went really well; kudos to Pravin Bhagwat and Pawan Goyal - the organizers. Hopefully we can find a way to make this an annual event. (Disclosure: I moderated a panel discussion in the afternoon). Here are my ten takeaways from the workshop…
I normally don’t write about BPOs, but there is something really interesting happening in that sector. Today’s Economic Times has a story about how BPOs in India are shedding their plain vanilla pricing in favor of performance/transaction pricing. In fact this is not it. From what I know there is lots more cooking on that front.
Bursting of the India R&D Offshoring Bubble
Published by November 21st, 2006 in offshoring. 19 CommentsI believe that India shoring of R&D is going through a “trough of disillusionment”. There are unmet expectations on both the US and the India sides. Many feel that the model isn’t working. Some companies are slowing down, others are scaling back and many more are re-evaluating their plans. But this phase is good for the future. It will recalibrate expectations and will lead to a more thoughtful and sustainable growth in India shoring going forward.
Limits of the MNC Hub-and-Spoke Model
Published by November 13th, 2006 in offshoring and organizational design. 45 CommentsA friend who joined IBM Global Services (IGS) in Bangalore five days back shared his joining experience with me. His desk wasn’t ready… His case could be an exception but I doubt this is the case… I am surprised that so many MNCs have failed to get their India leadership structures right…
The War of Innovation Ideologies
Published by November 9th, 2006 in innovation and offshoring. 1 CommentThis new battleground where established companies and startups are fighting over next generation products is where the interesting action is taking place. One can see this as a war between two different innovation ideologies; a war that is fueled by the shrinking capital needs of new products due to the emergence of modular value chains and R&D globalization. And this war is playing out in a range of industries, right from telecom, enterprise software, pharma/biotech to the entertainment industry. The outcomes of many of the individual battles are critical for they will shape the new industry structures.
