In Nov. 1997, exactly ten years and one month ago, GE set up its captive outsourcing center in Gurgaon, near Delhi in India. That was the beginning of American corporates’ business practice of sourcing technology and business services from low-cost destinations.
Ten years later, the GE center has been spun off, and is today a $613 million listed independent third-party player (called Genpact), and Gurgaon has transformed from a dusty suburb, where if you woke up early enough you could see camels and sheep going out to graze, to a cluster of glass and chrome high rises.
The transformation of Gurgaon is just one example of the macro economic changes that have come about because of globalization. While in the past, across industries, multinational companies had carved up the world amongst themselves, much like the colonial imperialists had two centuries ago, in the last few years $50 million companies have competed with $50 billion companies for global markets. Ten years go, for instance, who would have thought that the Indians would acquire companies in the U.S.A.?
The West-East, North-South divide is fast fading as American, and increasingly European, corporates actively look both to the East and South for business and technology services that will help them keep their costs in rein. At the same time, the erstwhile “third-world” countries, by servicing companies in the U.S.A. and Europe, are contributing millions to their countries’ coffers.
At a micro level, companies are taking bold steps to survive and thrive in the new economic world order. Cisco, for instance, set up a Chief Globalization Office — not in the Valley or in New York, but in far off Bangalore. And, IBM filed (and later withdrew) a patent on “outsourcing.”
Such changes in just 10 years are nothing short of dramatic. If the history of the last decade is an indicator of what lies ahead, then the pace of change going into 2010 and beyond will be more fervent as companies and individuals will have the confidence of the success of the previous decade.
The following links discuss how some specific elements of global sourcing are likely to contribute to globalization by 2010.
The Future of Offshore Wages
The Future of Innovation
The Future of Deal Structures - TPI
The Future of Deal Structures - EquaTerra
The Future of Investment
The Future of Contact Centers
The Future of Temporary Immigration
The Future of Foreign-currency Fluctuation
The Future of KPO
The Future of HRO
The Future of IT Infrastructure Outsourcing
The Future of Captive BPOs
The Future of BPO
The Future of Regulation
The Future of Outsourced Product Development
The Future of Outsourcing by Energy Sector
The Future of Tech Jobs
The Future of Niche IT Service Providers
The Future of Buy-side Sourcing Careers
The Future of Engineering Services
The Global Services' Guide to Sourcing in 2010
