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| Primentor's Phaneesh: "Don't
emulate IT services" |
Whether it was
to get a glimpse of the man who resigned from Infosys under peculiar
circumstances, or to hear from one of the finest infotech marketers
India has produced, one isn't sure, but at a recent industry gathering
in Mumbai, people thronged a session Phaneesh Murthy was to address.
Whatever the reason, attendees got their money's worth (most had
shelled out Rs 18,000 to participate): Phaneesh, former Chairman
of Infosys' fledgling BPO business Progeon (apart from being head
of sales and marketing at the company) offered his own unique take
on Business Process Outsourcing. Rubbishing the cost arbitrage model
that most Indian BPO companies have been banking on, he drove home
the point that costs in the US were dropping so radically that anyone
banking on cost arbitrage would be dead in the long run. ''Annual
per employee costs are dropping by about half in the BPO sector
abroad so where is the cost arbitrage?'' Cautioning companies against
blindly following the it services model where there is ''no framework
for investment and an expectation of return from day one'', he prescribed
a different route to success: partner customers, show them you are
willing to share the risk, help them improve their processes, all
the while lowering per-transaction costs. That's sage counsel.
-Priya Srinivasan
RERUN
3D's Second Coming
The man who started it all in India is back
with a 3D motion pic. Will this one click too?
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| Magic Magic: Can it work
its spell on the audience? |
When your first
try at an innovation nets a return of 2,500 per cent, it's hard
to restrain yourself from doing it again. Navodaya Films, a company
promoted by 80-year-old film maker Appachan has held itself back
for 18 years: in 1985, it produced India's first 3-D motion pic,
My Dear Kuttichattan (My Dear Goblin!). It cost Rs 2 crore to make,
generated Rs 50 crore at the turnstiles, and encouraged other production
houses to try their luck with an extra dimension-with no great success
because, claims Jose Punnose, Appachan's son, they did not train
theatre technicians adequately. Punoose is now trying his luck with
Magic Magic, a Rs 15-crore film in four languages (Hindi, Telugu,
Tamil, and English). ''Today's generation isn't exposed to 3-D,''
says the still-fiesty Appachan. Will the spell work 18 years after
it was first cast.
-Nitya Varadarajan
HYPE-II
Tech And The City
Years after it was hyped as the next most important
Indian IT destination after Bangalore, Hyderabad may actually be
it.
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| Hyderabad's Infosys campus: Bangalore,
here we come |
Fine, Hyderabad
has an efficient administration and is the capital of a state that
has a laptop toting powerpoint-friendly chief minister, but for
a long time, barring an odd Microsoft or two, that was all it had.
Now, circa 2003, the city may finally be able to live up to the
hype that was built around it. In January this year, Infosys opened
a 30-acre facility, (3,11,000 square ft of built up space) in the
city. Now, there's talk of Boeing and Bombardier exploring options
of touching down in erstwhile Hyperabad; Oracle and Dell are hitting
the city soon; and Hyderabad has emerged a favourite destination
of it-enabled services companies. Oracle, for instance, is acquiring
7.5 acres of land to build its largest campus outside the US-an
official at the state it department says the 8,00,000 sq ft centre
will dwarf the company's 2,50,000 sq ft one in Bangalore. And Dell's
ITEs operations will soon start in Hyderabad's HiTec city. ''There
are some other big names as well but it is too early to mention
names,'' says Col M. Vijay Kumar, the Hyderabad Director of the
Software Technology Parks of India, displaying a reticence that
is uncharacteristic of the city. Still, coming in the wake of the
recent entry of Cognizant Technologies and Capmark, the recent activity
could be indication of Hyderabad's growing attractiveness as a destination
for it and ITEs companies. At last!
-E. Kumar Sharma
EXECUTIVE TRACKING
A Bad Idea?
There is a lot of unrest among senior
executives at Idea Cellular. Here's why.
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| Graham Burke: It's a difficult
market |
In 2002, it was the
vacancy of the year. Head hunters jockeyed furiously for the mandate,
which apparently carried a fee of Rs 1.5 crore. But barely four months
after Graham Burke was roped in from Mobilink Communications in Pakistan
to head Birla-AT&T-Tata's Idea Cellular, his appointment is proving
to be a cause of concern. Why? Not because Burke is incompetent, but
because he is said to be impatient in dealing with his senior executives.
Chief Marketing Officer Jayant Bakshi has already put in his papers,
and some other executives have been calling up head hunters with stories
of Burke's short temper. Burke could not be reached, and the company's
VP (HR) refused to comment. Meanwhile, Chinese white goods major,
Haier, is believed to have snagged T.K. Banerji as CEO of its India
operations. He was previously the Director, Marketing at JK Tyre.
-Seema Shukla
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