Offshoring Secrets: Building and Running a Successful India Operation - Softcover

Utkarsh Rai

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1600050611 ISBN 13: 9781600050619

Publisher: Happy About, 2007

Synopsis

In this book, years of experiences and interactions with various people in this industry are drawn upon to suggest ways to setup and run an India operation. You will get solutions to numerous day-to-day problems that managers in the parent offices face. You will also understand the issues faced by managers in India, and their frustrations in dealing with their counterparts in the parent company. This book can be used to:

• Resolve cultural clashes
• Overcome communication issues
• Understand the risk analysis
• Successfully hiring and retaining
• People management
• Various HR and Government policies to adhere to
• Project execution

About this title

About the Author

Utkarsh Rai, head of India Operations, Infinera, started his career in the late eighties as one of the first few batches of IT professionals who joined Siemens in India and went on to work in Siemens Germany for a stint. The team returned to form a spin-off called Siemens Information Systems in India, an IT company.

Utkarsh moved on to work with Adaptec in Silicon Valley, where he was involved in a full-blown product development lifecycle. In the boom period of the late nineties, when Indians flooded the U.S. in search of IT jobs, he could see India--and Bangalore, specifically--being a center for product development. He flew against the winds of the time and joined the Global Software Group at Motorola in Bangalore.

This opportunity provided him with the experience in leading large teams, recruiting a large pool of engineers and handling complex people issues. When the first Motorola facility in Bangalore were filling up, the team was asked to move to a new location in Bangalore, which provided him an additional opportunity to learn about the challenges of starting fresh. As he grew to become a member of the senior management team of Motorola in Bangalore, he addressed operational issues like crisis management, setting up the right compensation and benefits, adherence to government regulations and execution challenges.

This experience prepared him for his current role as the head of India operations for Infinera--a startup in digital optical networking--a position that he took in early 2003. At that time, there were few people on board, and he was responsible for reinforcing the company culture and its policies, ramping up the team in number and in skills, and over the past four years, he has achieved a smooth execution with ownership and drive from India. He understands the Indian Government's regulations and operational compliance, and setup a new facility in line with the expansion plan. The single largest success has been in managing and developing the greatest asset-people.

Infinera went IPO in June 2007.

All these experiences triggered Utkarsh to write a book on India operations, which he sees as a great way to share his knowledge and experience with wider audience.

From the Back Cover

"While many have read about outsourcing in India and China, Utkarsh truly 'owns' the experience of establishing multiple, successful, operations in India and speaks from both his mind and his heart in this book. Utkarsh is a wise advisor when he creates case studies to put you in the other person's shoes to understand the environment that person or work group lives in." Mr. Gary Rieschel, Founder and Managing Director, Qiming Venture Partners, China

"Utkarsh has experienced off-shoring himself, that is evident from the way he writes this book. From that experience, he provides a full spectrum of all the important aspects of an off-shoring operation, in great practical detail." Dr. Bob Hoekstra, Opportunity India Management Consulting, Holland and former CEO Philips Innovation campus, India

"Utkarsh's book, drawn from his substantial experience in working in this industry and then steering a start-up to success. This is an excellent primer not only for those intending to start operations in the already overheated IT industry in India, but also for those who are already running operations and are facing numerous challenges to be successful." Mr. Sammy Sana, Managing Director, Motorola Software Group, India Design Center

"While guarding a reader on the likely pitfalls on the way, the author systematically takes a reader through all aspects of implementation; be it hiring an office space, recruiting staff, or managing cultural differences. How to manage expectations of the parent company while simultaneously addressing local issues have been dealt with in great detail."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Foreword by Vinod Khosla The 21st century has witnessed a spurt in the growth of many organizations that chose to open their own India operations in the hopes of having better control on the quality of the products and people, intellectual property and execution of various state-of-the-art projects. Today, managers face extreme adjustments as each local economy transforms into a global economy, which in turn, causes changes to the work environment. The most significant issue facing offshore organizations as global competition increases is the concept of sustaining a successful operation.

Plenty of articles explain outsourcing and its impact on the global economy, but very few tackle the challenges of offshoring. Utkarsh Rai recognized the common problems behind running a successful India operation. I have not come across any other book, wherein a true insider writes about "HOW" to build and administer a successful operation.

This book outlines the environmental changes within an offshore organization and its management consequences. Offshoring is increasing dramatically in India, but a company wishing to setup an office or delegate a project to an India offshore organization should understand and anticipate potential management issues. The management needs to set up a practical and logical framework to understand offshoring - Utkarsh explains just that.

I have seen organizations that have struggled to survive, took time in becoming productive, have been unable to breakeven in the stipulated timeframe, or have had a difficult time to inculcate the same culture in the new setup and experienced other issues, which are all equally responsible in hindering the growth of India offshore center.

This book is an exceptional mix of offshoring theories and practices, helping companies understand the reasons for what management in both the parent company and offshore counterparts are facing today. If the management from both parties were to be better educated on the perception of India offshoring, any company can succeed in running an offshore entity.

This book not only provides many insights, but also contains an excellent set of case studies, which companies and individuals currently experience in day-to-day operations and provides possible, yet provoking, points to solve them. Utkarsh provides a clear understanding of offshoring developments, offering new approaches for management to achieve more flexibility and greater efficiency, which in turn, provides greater cost-effectiveness.

I have interacted with Utkarsh on multiple occasions. I am convinced that his experience and concept of offshore management will help many companies and individuals - both setting up a new offshore center, or those already running an offshore organization - to learn and apply relevant management practices that could ensure successful operations daily.

As a venture capitalist, I will be the first to recommend this book to my portfolio companies, even as we look for economizing our operations. Each chapter of this book could stand on its own, but the flow of theory and logic results in a practical appreciation of the issues we face in the India offshore center. Enjoy this reading, and, hopefully, you can apply the management practices and theories Utkarsh has written for the success of your own business enterprise.

Vinod Khosla

Edition details

• Publisher: Happy About
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1600050611
• ISBN 13: 9781600050619
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 151