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Pramod Bhasin, President and CEO of GECIS Global, has ambitions of making the new-look GECIS the biggest and the best provider of BPO services in the world. He speaks to BT on his plans for the company. Reason for divesting stake: When we started Gecis, it was to build something for GE. Although we said it would create a new industry, we didn't realise how big it would become. Industry also got bigger around us. A lot of companies asked us how they could replicate our model. So we asked ourselves how we could tap into this potential. Also in the future, GE business would taper down. Going 100% external was difficult since it was not a core business for us. For Gecis to prosper and continue to grow and retain best talent, we thought it was best to partner with someone. Therefore GE has also made long-term revenue commitment. We talked about it first 2 years ago, and finally started doing something about it a year ago. We were thinking along the same lines for two other business units (IT help desk and e-learning), but didn't, because they were core to us. How it affects GECIS: The biggest change that this deal will bring: employees should feel we want to build the best, biggest BPO company in the world. We are largest in all the countries we operate in. How we run the company, nothing changes. But we need to be more focussed on customer requirements. GE will not run the company; we will run the company. And we'll get a huge amount of support from GE. Operationally, we don't want to change. We need to make all our employees feel that customers are most important. We also need to add resources to our front-end marketing by 3-5 times. GE is not the 100% owner any more. So this has some implications on how we will work. We will preserve all GE processes, but at the same level we'll miss the governance and financial acumen of GE. The way we use the logo will change. We'll preserve the heritage. Why independent investors, and why GAP and Oak Hill Capital: As we looked at alternatives, we were pretty open to explore, but we were not on a shopping expedition. We came up with a very select group of companies who we wanted to talk to. It was across a wide range of companies. We need to protect GE's interests. It is very important that quality is maintained. Second, value maximisation. We need reasonable money, not just today, but what could help us scale up the most. GAP (General Atlantic Partners) is one of the largest investors in this area, as is Oak Hill Capital. As we worked together, we liked the way these people worked. We also thought they would bring strategic inputs, contacts, etc. Third, we would like to stress on employee satisfaction. What Gecis gets out of the deal: Management has got some incentives. But I get the joy of taking this to external markets and building a world-class BPO company. Over time, we'll hope to get wealthier, but it's still a long way off. I'm a 25-year BE veteran, love the company, best company in the world. It's a sheer joy to work with Jeff Immelt (GE CEO). For a while we're in a unique position. Others will catch up later. Your priorities: 1. Must preserve what we do for GE very well; operational focus must remain. 2. I don't want to change anything about how we run the company. That fact that it's a hard-driving company, low-cost, etc., will stay intact. 3. We need to add capabilities in our front-end sales and marketing 4. Productise processes. Today we're just doing work transfer. One of the biggest goals we have is to take our processes and ask companies to follow our systems. It requires knowledge management, domain knowledge and more expertise. We' wont' specifically be providing off-the-shelf processes, but it'll be as close to off-the-shelf as possible. I can do that in high- and low-end services. You've got to package and productise processes. Next year we'll start to productise processes. We're already working on it. Why not an IPO: Valuations fluctuate enormously. What if stock markets went down? I think a lot of companies go in for IPOs prematurely. We didn't think it was a good idea. The Gecis deal signals that the emerging economies are getting stronger and coming of age. It's also a precedent for the industry. What it means for GE in India: GE looks at India as a base for selling good and services. Financial services, healthcare is beginning to do well. Also we look at India as a great sourcing hub, particularly intellectual sourcing. Revenues from India may be less, but it is a great source of brain power. India is very much on GE's radar.
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