BUSINESS TODAY

Frustration doesn't work badly as a motivator. Ask Joseph Sigelman, 32, who recalls a stormy night in London that made him chuck up his cushy job at bulge-bracket investment firm Goldman Sachs, and move halfway across the globe to Chennai, accompanied by Princeton crony and fellow banker Randolph Altschuler. ''We were working on an important Powerpoint presentation, and as the presentations went to and fro between London to New York and back, it hit us how difficult it still was to access quality and timely research, especially when pitted against a tight deadline,'' says Sigelman, Co-CEO, OfficeTiger, a firm set up by the duo (its name inspired by their alma mater's mascot).

Four years later, Wall Street firms are rushing to set up their own equity research outfits in India, drawn by OfficeTiger's logic-the breadth and depth of the country's qualified professionals, English-speaking, figure-happy, given to financial circumspection, and above all, ready to work long hours on salaries much lower than their overseas counterparts.

The US-based investment bank J.P. Morgan hired 40 junior analysts in Mumbai six months ago to support its London equity research operations. Not to be left behind, Morgan Stanley now has its own 50-member team crunching data late into the night at the Mumbai suburb of Malad. HSBC, Fidelity Investments and Reuters are also looking at India for this sort of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Be it in-house research wings or specialty resource firms such as Evalueserve, SmartAnalyst, PSi and OfficeTiger that have sprung up in Gurgaon, Chennai and Bangalore, India's lure seems irresistible. An estimated 2,000 people are already busy at the job, and thousands more could soon be.

Equity research is a sign of India's growing BPO sophistication. At long last, Indians are clambering up the back-office value chain to grab the jobs of New York yuppiedom. Sure, much of the research work involves low-end collation of data, basic number crunching and library functions, but much of it is also corporate and industry analysis, market and currency risk estimations, valuation models and the like. ''It is intellectually rigorous, requires a lot of thought and while requirements vary from client to client, contributions often straddle the entire lifecycle from data collection right till desktop presentation,'' says Sigelman, quite impressed.

Research firms are taking on Masters and Doctorate degree holders, MBAs, Chartered Accountants and professionals with functional skills in Finance, Statistics, and Economics. They are valued for their analytical and communication skills. It also helps that globalisation in general has familiarised local analysts with American accounting practices. Yet, the training is rigorous-since it could well make the difference between success and failure. ''There's a lot of hype and talk about the coming boom,'' feels Ashish Gupta, Country Head and coo, Evalueserve, ''but what most people don't realise is that training is something that takes time. It's not possible for a firm to ramp up capacity overnight just because they've been able to bag a plum order.''

What do the jobs pay? Generously, in rupee terms. Base salaries in equity research start at Rs 4 lakh per annum-less than half of what a firm would pay comparable talent in the US. But the job involves working to tight deadlines. And the other demands? Ask 32-year-old cost accountant and MBA Lalitha Ravisankaran, working at a Mumbai unit of a renowned firm, and her response is a loud groan: ''It's not unusual to get a call from a client at midnight saying, 'We're onto a large merger and we immediately need all these numbers crunched and analysed... within the next hour'.'' Most units work round the clock, and staying alert through the night shift means putting the body into permanent jet-lag mode.

The flip-side: attrition rates are low (compared to call centres), a reflection of job satisfaction. The career path doesn't go up a dead-end, researchers claim. This, in itself, is a big motivation. Ravisankaran, for example, has moved up in four years from Manager (Finance) to Vice President.

Future Mapping

If the trend catches on, the jobs could grow in three digits annually over the next few years. The global business information services market was placed at $6 billion in 2003 and is projected to touch $7 billion in 2006. Offshore revenue was placed at a mere $65 million-but is projected to scale $350 million by 2006. If Indian BPO units can combine quality with a cost edge, they could lay claim to a large chunk of that expanding pie.

What could go wrong? American disenchantment with outsourcing is the obvious threat, and may have resulted in claims that it's just the 'grunt work' being transferred to India. Says a source close to J.P. Morgan: ''The work being done in India is akin to the research and analysis any first-year junior analyst would undertake in London or New York, and is primarily a support function.'' At the senior levels, though, outsourcing research to India seems like a good way to make good on the promise of keeping this function 'independent' of other banking services.

Confidentiality and regulatory compliance are the other issues that could turn tricky. Meanwhile, some scoff that these researchers shouldn't dream of breaking into the top league of investment banking. Number crunchers remain number crunchers, they say, unless they can access Wall Street's real nervous system. Will ambitious researchers prove that wrong?

Picture yourself as a supply chain manager? It's more dynamic than you think, with the retail sector racing to get itself all organised, working out the just-in-time logistics, putting all the links in place and yanking out idle stock-the bane of retail efficiency. Time sensitivity is everything, and travel, often short-noticed and frenetic. It's not for the desk-happy, or anyone who wants to belong somewhere. Also, there's no substitute for rolled-sleeves on-the-job learning. According to D.V. Arora, General Manager (HRD), Nirula's, a Delhi-based food retail chain, ''The industry doesn't hire freshers since it is so crucial a job.'' A big slip up, the entire system crashes. A minor one, costs zoom up.

I am a 25-year-old MBA graduate from a well known B-school of India, with specialisation in supply chain management. As of now I am working with a reputed multinational company as a marketing executive. However, I am not happy with things as they currently stand. While I do want to continue in my job, I also want to pursue higher studies. But I am confused about which course would help me further my career. Should I do export and import management, or a course in finance? Please advise.

I don't see any reason for you to be so anxious about your career. You're an MBA from a well known B-school; that's something not many can lay claim to. Such a qualification is good enough to give you a long and successful career. But if you really feel the urge to study, you could do a course in export and import management. That will help you in your area of specialisation, supply chain management, by making you familiar with the rules of the game. Something like an ICWA may help as well.

I am a 24-year-old graduate with an additional degree that qualifies me as a nursery teacher. However I am not working anywhere at present because I am simply not interested in teaching at any nursery school. I desperately want an alternative to that prospect. I am interested in doing an MBA, but my graduation academic record is not good, and I cannot clear competitive tests for the top B-schools. I've applied to a few B-grade ones, but their shoddy state depresses me. Should I do an MBA at all? Or should I do an MA followed by a B.Ed. and enter academia?

At first you need to calm down and explore your options in a rational way. If you are looking for a career alternative, there are several. Besides B.Ed., you can take up courses in advertising, journalism, hotel management, travel & tourism and many others. But before you jump into any of these, you should talk to people you know who are in these professions, and get the real picture. But if you're not interested in these, my advice will be to start on the B.Ed. and keep applying to B-schools for an MBA. That way, you'll have something to fall back on if the MBA doesn't come through.

I am a 37-year-old senior-level manager working with a multinational chemicals major for the past ten years. I have an MBA degree along with a Masters degree in chemistry. Even though my job is stable, I am worried about my future growth since chemicals is a dull sector in India. I am not hopeful of getting into the top management here, since the US headquarters favours global experience and I don't stand a chance for a transfer to the US office. Given my MBA degree, do you think I should switch to the relatively better placed FMCG sector?

You can if you are in any function other than marketing. FMCG companies look at marketing differently, so you will be competing against people who can comfortably sell really bad toothpaste, for one. So if you are in marketing, you should look at companies in similar industries such as paints, building products and so on. But if you are in manufacturing, purchase or even finance, go for FMCG. Your experience will count.

I am a 25-year-old call centre executive. The good news is that my company wants to send me to the US for training. The bad news is that I am also pursuing an MBA from a good B-school. If I go for the training, I lose out on the degree. Given the importance of an mba, I decided to drop the training. But now I see MBAs working with me as call centre executives, and that has made me think hard. Since my company is still interested in the training, should I forfeit the MBA and do what my company wants?

If you are doing a full-time MBA from a good B-school, forget the training. No matter how many MBAs you see in your workplace, a full-time MBA degree can give you much more in future than any training your company can give. After the degree, you can join any industry, not just call centres. And if you go for the training, there's no guarantee that you'll get into a good B-school once you return. However, though you haven't spelt it out, the fact that you are in a job makes it unlikely that you are doing a full-time course. In that case, go for the training. You can always come back and join another part-time MBA course. What you need to do depends on the quality of the course you are doing.

Answers to your career concerns are contributed by Tarun Sheth (Senior Consultant) and Shilpa Sheth (Managing Partner, US practice) of HR firm, Shilputsi Consultants. Write to Help,Tarun! c/o Business Today, Videocon Tower, Fifth Floor, E-1, Jhandewalan Extn., New Delhi-110055.

John Matthai, a Tata economist who helped draft the 'Bombay Plan' of 1944, was a superstar in his time. The star before him was James Wilson-who presented India's first annual budget in 1860. Yet, stardom is not the point. An economist's basic role, rather boringly, is to present an undistorted picture of the economy to enable rational decision-making-on resource allocation and the like. It's a key business input. The Tatas have had one on board for decades, and so have MNCs such as Hindustan Lever. Financial firms, of course, can barely do without them. But what about other companies?

''Interpreting the operating environment is imperative for good business,'' says Dr Siddhartha Roy, Economic Advisor, Tata Services (and former HLL advisor), and so several manufacturing and service organisations are hiring ''trained economics professionals'' as economic advisors. Larry D'Souza, Executive Director, Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, cites the instances of Mahindra & Mahindra and Gujarat Ambuja. But according to Jiban K. Mukhopadhyay, Consultant and former economic advisor with Tata Services, ''the concept is still not as prevalent in India as in, say, Europe''. Change, he sighs, will come only once competition intensifies. Till then, CEOs might blissfully continue advising themselves.

-Ananya Roy

Gulf Bound Engineers
Another round has begun. Bags are being packed.

The lure of the Gulf: Yet again

It's not uncommon to bump into Indian engineers with tales of the old days in Iraq, laying railway tracks and the like. And now, if recruitment ads are any indication, Indian engineers may be getting set for another round of infrastructure development in West Asia. Is there an opportunity in Iraq's reconstruction? Oh yes, says S.K. Verma, a Gulf-returnee currently running Arise Management Services, a headhunter. So, which are the companies on the lookout for Indian engineers? ''Trade secret,'' he quips. The projects have several levels of sub-contracts. ''The demand comes from construction and MNC companies,'' says Ritu Chopra, Consultant, QMA, with equal vagueness.

Anyhow, Archirodon is one name doing the rounds, and there are some others as well. Not awfully well known-a reason, perhaps, why Dhruv Chenoy, Vice-President (Marketing), Monster.Com, sees no exodus to West Asia. However, Swapnil Tripathi, Senior Manager, Operations, Naukri, another placement service, spies a distinct rise in engineers off to the Gulf. There was a lull from March to May 2003. The trend began in June, and July saw a sharp spike. The flow continues in 2004.

-Amanpreet Singh