This morning was bright and sunny, but we hit rush hour traffic. As we got out of the city, we saw some more beautiful temples, including the Lotus Baha'i Temple. I wish we had more time to see those other monuments. And there’s something about the rural areas, which reminded me of my childhood summers in my mom's hometown.
Intellevate India
Our first stop was a subsidiary of an American company that offers back-office services to patent and copyright lawyers. They prepare filings for new patents and provide maintenance support (i.e.: renewals, etc.) for existing patents. Because their parent company is a US company, their “US interface” gives them credibility in the eyes of their US clients.
The first speaker was a retired military commander. He spoke slowly and pensively as though his mind is far away, searching a faint memory – an elder telling a story to the next generation. But he was passionate about political issues like the government's work on social disparities, helping people who are "left behind" by the economic growth of India.
They pick their employees well and train them further. For example, they train engineers with postgraduate degrees, even PhDs, with experience and train them on patent law. They maintain confidentiality and prevent conflicts of interests by maintaining separate teams for separate projects.
For patent infringement research, they simply identify companies and products that potentially infringe on a patent, and submit the information they find to their clients. Because they do not have the technical capability, they leave it up to the client to do further research to confirm if it was an actual infringement.
It was a tedious session. Because I had spoken with a patent attorney at a trade conference during my visit to Seattle last summer, I already knew the answers to a lot of the questions asked. Sometimes, they didn't answer the questions. And when they did, the answers were painfully long. It sounded more like a defensive sales pitch.
A snake charmer. more pics
GenPact
GenPact was a part of GE Services until a couple of years ago. They are still in the same industries that GE is in, and they’ve focused on best practices that they’ve learned while they were still part of GE. For example, if a specific tool or process is developed by an employee assigned to one particular client, that tool or process is not shared with other clients. But if GenPact develop tools and processes themselves, they share it with all client teams.
Their focus is on repeatable and predictable performance, on identifying and eliminating waste in processes, in benchmarking, in driving to process entitlement, and in reengineering.
Observations, insights, and lessons learned
GenPact's HR practices are surprisingly very much like Microsoft's; i.e.: paying at the mid-range of salaries in the area, offering security services to ensure their employees' safety. I assumed it was the GE USA influence and our host Jagjit agreed. They've kept their GE culture and it is working well that their attrition rate is much lower than the industry standard. In fact, other Indian companies are copying their practices. They have also expanded their pool of candidates by hiring other workers besides the typical young techie; for example, they’ve hired retired bank employees as senior underwriters. The practice provides stability and a new way of training the junior employees.
Indian firms focus on training and adding value that way, instead of on the labor cost arbitrage. Jagjit from GenPact says, they are moving from “transactional services” to “knowledge services.” That added value allows them to charge more. When I visited my friend Mukesh at Microsoft last summer, he commented that India is getting expensive. Now, I see how. Rahul from Intellevate India said, “Cost arbitrage is just the entry.”
The Philippines is mentioned a lot in the presentations. The Indian companies acknowledge that the Philippines is an upcoming country, particularly in voice services. Mani had mentioned that the reason is that the Philippines has had American influence in the past fifty years.
Adventure of the day
A large group of us decided to go out for dinner. Mohit hailed several auto rickshaws and loaded us in, three at a time, and gave directions to the driver. We went to PVR Saket, which is the first shopping center that Ebbie, Ayana, Christina, and I went to the first day. I rode with Mike and Amy. When we met up with the other groups at the shopping center, Rohit said that we should buddy up with the same people we rode with and be sure to ride back with them. To get back, we had to tell the driver to take us to the Hero Honda showroom (which was at the corner from the hotel) since most drivers go by landmarks, instead of addresses.
Most of us decided to go to Ruby Tuesday, which is an American restaurant chain. After dinner, Amy, Mike, Ebbie, Ayana and I passed by the ATM downstairs. We got a couple of auto rickshaws to take us back and Ebbie told both drivers to take us to Hero Honda.
Well, it turned out to be not that simple. Mike remembered how we got there from the hotel and we were going in the opposite direction. But the driver didn’t speak English so we couldn’t talk to him. Pretty soon, the streetlights got fewer and fewer, and the driver was taking us to a dark secluded area. We kept saying, “Hero Honda! Hero Honda!” And the driver kept agreeing with us, “Hero Honda.” We were getting really nervous and were already thinking how to defend ourselves, just in case. Then he finally stopped in what seemed like the bad part of town. “Hero Honda,” he said and pointed to a sign above a locked gate. Sure enough, the sign said “Hero Honda.”
Thankfully, Ebbie and Ayana’s rickshaw was right behind us and Ebbie argued with the drivers. I don’t know what he told them but he seemed to have straightened them out because the drivers turned us around and we eventually found our way back to the streetlights and to the correct Hero Honda near our hotel.
We should have said Hero Honda in Adchini, which is the area where the hotel is.
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