The former. KPO can drive the knowledge
economy. Analytics (which is the top of the
KPO value-chain) is today a proven business
driver (vs. just a cost-saver). The world's
leading firms sustain their competitive
advantage via analytics. It's not just a support
tool it's a strategic weapon.
Organizations like Google, Amazon, P&G,
Cendant, Harrah's, Capital One, and the
Boston Red Sox (a leading US baseball team
that uses analytics to recruit players!) have all
dominated their fields by deploying industrialstrength
analytics to their businesses.At a time
when firms in many industries offer similar
products and use comparable technologies,
analytics is among the few remaining points
of differentiation to wring every last drop of
value. Companies that have expertise with
numbers or trained to recognize their importance are armed with the best evidence
and the best quantitative tools. As a result,
they make the best decisions.
India as KPO destination
-
What is your assessment of India as a
favorite KPO destination? What are its
strengths and weaknesses?
India is a great KPO
destination. There is no
country in the planet that
produces professionals
of literally every type.
You name a sector and
there are a few lakhs
students graduating
every year! Yes, they
have to be trained on
professional client
servicing and leadership
skills but that's an
easier task than
acquiring the
fundamental hard skills
(i.e., domain) and
having the numbers
(quantity of trained
people).
India also has a
reasonably mature
domestic industry that is
professional owing to
the presence of MNCs.
These could further fuel
the manpower required
to drive the KPO
industry.
The high-end KPO
opportunities are
immense for Indians
firms and with its diverse knowledge base and
lower cost will attract global companies
outsourcing their high-end knowledge work to
India. And India with its immense knowledge
base will certainly going to have a big pie of
the global KPO.
Finally, India is already an acknowledged
technology powerhouse (there are more
engineers in Bangalore than the Silicon
Valley). The confluence of technology and
domain expertise/KPOcould throw the Indian KPO industry into another orbit.
-
What according to you is the potential of
this industry? And how much of it is being
realized? Are there any hurdles in achieving
this potential and how to overcome them? Do
you think KPO will replace IT in all the
dimensions (Export earnings, Employment
levels, Salaries, etc.)?
We are scratching the surface. There is no
clear demarcation between IT, BPO and
KPO they are not mutually exclusive and
collectively exhaustive. There will be
overlaps but a domain differentiated, not
necessarily cheaper, value-proposition is
sustainable and scalable.
-
Since KPO is country/industry specific.
What steps need to be taken to impart the
required skills to the industry employees? As the industry is bound to attract intense
competition from many other countries, what
lessons can be learned from the Indian IT
industry's experiences?
Create domain specific intellectual capital.
About scale and scope of company
operations
-
Could you briefly tell us about the
background of your company? Comment on
your operations, expertise, clients and any
M&A plans, adding new services, etc. How do
you see your company in the next 5-10 years?
S Ramakrishnan (Ramki) co-founded
Marketics in 2002 along with Shankar
Maruwada (ChiefMarketing Officer) and Vinay
Mishra (VP-Operations) with goal of
measurably increasing marketing
effectiveness of global marketers.Headquartered in Bangalore, with a team of
170 professionals,Marketics has offices in the
US and the UK. Marketics is poised for rapid
growth through growth in their existing
clientele as well as new client acquisitions in
the US and the UK. Marketics' current clients
include world leaders in the area of Consumer
Packaged Goods, Food & Beverages,
Apparel, Sports& Entertainment, ISP/ Internet,
Travel & Leisure, Retailing, Consumer
Financial Services, Office Products, Telecom
and Technology.
Our clients are the world's best marketers:
