The ountrepreneurs

The frontpage news of KPO/BPO/LPO companies doesn't tell the complete story about outsourcing. Revenue projections or the tom-tomming of India's leadership doesn't tell it, either. The real story , in my opinion, is unfolding in the small by-lanes of Bengaluru,Hyderabad,Pune,Noida and Gurgaon.

Silicon valley in the early-to-late 90's was probably similar. Everyone , from the retired pensioner to the school going teenager, thought he/she could build a hotmail and walk away with 400 million dollars. People who went through the tech bubble and subsequent bust talk about an invisible force , a certain madness, which had gripped everyone who knew anything about technology.

A similar scene ,albeit in outsourcing, is unfolding in India. "Show me a business model and I will show you where outsourcing fits in" say the ountrepreneurs. From editing to teaching to hiring to intellectual property , everything is up for grabs - for the right price. Having personally seen the kind of talent pool (and growing) we have and the kind of money they are willing to work for - it really borders on the insane. I looked at the Mckinsey report on Indian consumer projections and even by 2025 , only about 2% of Indians will earn more than 10 lakh INR per year. And the average annual income in US is today 16 lakh+ INR at today's exhange rate. Do you see the boom now?

And who is cashing in? Answer - everyone you dismissed as a nobody - housewives, college dropouts, second generation family businesses, also-ran graduates etc etc. These are the ountrepreneurs - who have understood the power of outsourcing and are using it to generate real value. Big outsourcing firms have their place under the sun , but these small operators , with 10-50 employees at maximum, will be the real drivers of the Indian outsourcing juggernaut. And they are distributing wealth much more than the bottom heavy , top light big Indian multinationals. Ironically, the word "outsourcing" still carries a largely negative connotation atleast in the circles I have been - you get into outsourcing because you are not good enough for the top IT MNC's. If you have a degree from premier institutes like IITs/IIMs , outsourcing is a complete no-no. Guess who is having the last laugh now?