SUJIT BAKSI: First on the bandwagon

What is it about BPO (business process outsourcing) that charms HR head honchos? We may never quite figure it out, but the chemistry is working overtime. First it was Sujit Baksi, the group HR head at HCL Technologies, who made the leap, when his company decided to foray into BPO with E Serve. And now that Hughes Software Services is joining the shaky it enabled services bandwagon, it has decided to second its HR chief, Aadesh Goyal, to the top job at its BPO division.

Hughes will be starting its BPO operations in November, and a 40,000 sq ft office has already been taken. Finding the first customer won't be a problem for Goyal; he has one already in parent Hughes Network Systems. But according to Goyal, the plan is to scale up rapidly. Having been part of Hughes Software's rapid expansion since its start-up days that's something Goyal shouldn't have any trouble handling. Says he: "It is a new challenge for me. It involves making a task that is repetitive and monotonous into an exciting career for people."

AADESH GOYAL: Opportunity knocks

Baksi has been on the job for one year already. He's been shuttling between the company's Northern Ireland operations (it has a JV with British Telecom there) and India, logging 20 days of travel each month. Having recently signed a big deal in the UK, Baksi is enjoying the new role. As he says, "Earlier I never sat in front of a customer to get orders. But in this business, given the people intensity, HR is very useful." Probably that's also what makes managing some 500 Irish people in an Indian company easy.

Time was when HR man joined as HR men and retired as HR men. But BPO is helping them find a shortcut to the corner room. Whether people skills alone will help these men steer their course on BPO's treacherous waters is a moot point. Meanwhile, Satyam Computers has repurposed its chief flak S.V.L. Narayan as the marketing head of its BPO venture. The CEO slot is still vacant. Is the Satyam HR head listening?

The Cheer Bringer

Ken Pringle: All for new flavours

Like your morning cuppa of tetley? Be sure to let Ken Pringle know. He'll appreciate it. The 52-year-old, who heads the Tata group-acquired English tea brand's operations in India, is a die-hard tea and India fan, who wants to serve up some more stuff to the world's largest tea-drinking nation. "It's a market ready to explode," says the golf enthusiast and Manchester City (no, it's not the same as Manchester United of Beckham's fame) fan. "The range of opportunities is almost embarrassing." For starters, Pringle wants to roll in herbal and fruit-flavoured teas. Then, he wants to use the Tata experience to make it big in packet tea, and use India as a springboard to launch the Tetley brand-the largest tea bag brand in the UK and Canada-in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Russia. "It's an opportunity no marketer will miss and certainly not Tetley," says he. The Tatas can drink to that.

ANJAN CHATTERJEE: Oh, Manchurian!

Taste of India

Does it take an Indian to take Chinese cuisine to America? Anjan Chatterjee seems to think so. Come December, the 40-year-old will take his Mumbai and Kolkata-based fine dining restaurant Mainland China to New York for a Broadway debut. Chatterjee isn't stopping with the Big Apple, though. He's planning to give his other brand of restaurant, "Oh, Calcutta", an address on Westminster Avenue, London. "I have always dreamt of setting up a world-class brand of restaurants," says the man, who also owns an advertising agency and recently made his debut as a composer for Bollywood playback singer Kumar Sanu's recent album. While Mainland China is Chatterjee's flagship brand, he's also excited about ''Oh, Calcutta'', which seeks to capture the best of Kolkata's swinging sixties, and offers Anglo-Indian food with as much panache as classy Bengali delicacies. Now to see if the curry-crazy London will lap up what Chatterjee's got cooking for it.

Contributed by: Seema Shukla & Debojyoti Chatterjee