December 2022 - Page 3 of 13

How to Choose a Good Business Process Outsourcing Service Provider

Did you know that organizations that prioritize business process outsourcing services see 12 times higher return on sales than companies that do not? This was observed by the International Customer Service Association. Therefore, it is imperative that you indulge in delegating the work in order to achieve the set target of your business. A provider of BPO services can successfully handle your diverse work areas while you concentrate on the core functions.

Things to Make Sure While Hiring Business Process Outsourcing Services

Businesses that choose to hire business process outsourcing services can cut down their cost of investment to a great extent. Following are the top guidelines to adhere to while choosing a BPO services provider to reap the benefits of outsourcing:

1. Effective Government

The government should not only be supportive but should also actively contribute to the BPO industry. The government of the leading countries, such as India, formulates policies and regulations that help the business process outsourcing economy grow. Make sure that the political structure is stable enough so that the economic structure does not face any threats. Economical threats, low foreign direct investment rate, may shake the stability of the outsourced company.

2. Infrastructure and Technologies

A developed infrastructure and latest telecommunication advances can help your business grow leaps and bounds. Problems, such a congested phone lines, frequent server downtime, outdated software can lead your business to face a hard time. Make sure that you research well and choose a location where there are more numbers of high-tech parks built for smooth business operations.

3. Skilled Executives

Skilled professionals are essential to reflect the goals and values of your business effectively. Customers often feel hostile and frustrated when the customer support executive is not tech-savvy and take more time than expected to troubleshoot. Such inefficiencies in business process outsourcing services companies can make you lose customers in no time. Therefore, ensure that the BPO service provider appoints IT and software skilled personnel.

4. Anytime Service

Businesses do not want to stop their sales at any point of the day. Therefore, hiring business process outsourcing services in countries which offer a smooth flow of your business at any hour of the day will prove useful. Customers calling for support during late evening hours or early morning hours would be effectively entertained. Employees of the outsourced BPO service companies also would not have to suffer with ‘graveyard shifts’. Customers rely a lot in companies that facilitates 24×7 support services and want to deal with the company again in future.

When to Outsource Anything and When Not to

Most people have probably heard the term “Outsource” regarding business. “Outsourcing” is the method of using a third party to perform a task that could be done by employees. Some examples are outsourcing telephone customer service to India, or manufacturing to China. But what about our personal lives? The philosophy of outsourcing has crept into our psych, and how we do it affects our quality of life.

One way to consider how you outsource is to put things into three categories:

1) Things that you cannot outsource.

2) Things that you should not outsource.

3) Things that you should outsource.

The first category, the things that you cannot outsource, include things such as eating, breathing, and creating your own original ideas. Also in this category are drinking, smoking, sleeping, going to the bathroom, following up your doctor’s orders, taking medication, reading to yourself, writing by yourself, meditating, and thinking. You cannot outsource your state, your emotions, your goals, your energy, using any kind of exercise equipment, swimming, giving your own speeches, how you spend your time, what TV programs you watch, or attending a concert. You cannot outsource your personal relationship with God or Christ, or whomever you believe in.

That first category seemed pretty straightforward; although you could argue that you hire someone to read everything for you, as well as write things down for you, and attend your child’s play in your place when you have to travel for work.

The second category, about things that you should not outsource, is more subjective. For example, I feel that you should not outsource how your money is handled; however, many people do outsource this! Some people feel you should not outsource nutritious home cooked meals with fast-food. Others feel you should not outsource raising your own children, whereas for some having a nanny is a necessity. This category is a matter of your personal values.

The important thing is to inspect if you are abiding by your own value system. If you are, you will perceive that you have a high quality of life. If your outsourced shortcuts violate your own values, you will feel you have a lower quality of life.

The third category is for the things that you should outsource if you want to be free to pursue other things. Some examples are cooking, cleaning, fixing things like cars and computers, driving a car, walking a dog, gardening, mowing the lawn, designing your website, fixing the roof, buying anything, taking out the trash, doing laundry, and filing paperwork.

Good things to outsource are ones that give a similar result whether you do it or someone else does. Reasons not to outsource these things are if you can do it better than the average person, or if you want to do the activity, or if you have to meet a need to do it yourself, or if these are items that define who you are or that you enjoy doing.

India Vs. Vietnam: – Why India Is Lagging Behind in Competition to Attract Global Manufacturing

Past few months, in fact past couple of years since the trade war has taken off, there has been much talks and actions in global companies to shift their manufacturing base from China to other countries. India has been thinking of itself as the front runner in this golden opportunity but to the surprise of many, came a country which we never thought of, would give us a very tough competition “Vietnam”.

The competition from Vietnam has been so hard for India that as per the report of Nomura capital, in the last year between the period of April 18 to August 19, around 56 US Companies relocated its manufacturing base from china, but only 3 companies came to India, Vietnam took 26 of them (Vietnam – 26, Taiwan – 11, Thailand – 8 Mexico – 6).

Indian government has been on the path of various reforms, Since last five year. Government has taken various initiatives such as “Make In India” lot of efforts has been taken for improving the “Ease of doing business” ranking by almost 65 Ranks up to come to 63rd position in global ranking from 142nd. What’s not working for India, is a serious matter to look into by India.

Let’s have a analysis at various factors that has led Vietnam to be front runner in taking advantage of the Trade war, to understand if in long term Vietnam remains a favourable destination for the global companies to be next global manufacturer, What India need to do to become global manufacturing leader.

Let’s first have highlight of both the countries and analysis:-

Criteria

Viet Nam

India

Political

Single Party Socialist Republic

Federal Parliamentarian Constitution Republic

Population

96.48 Million

1312 Million

GDP Growth rate

3.82%

3.10%

Per Capita Income

1964 USD

2104 USD

Un Employment Rate

2.15%

23.50%

Wages high skilled

465 USD Per month

143 USD Per month

Foreign Exchange Reserve

80741 Billion

501703 Billion

Foreign Direct Investment

6.70

1365

Corporate Tax rate – Manufacturing

20%

15%

Ease of Doing business Ranking

India and Vietnam both liberalized almost in same time period of 19989-90s since then both countries have grown at an average rate of 6-7% annually. But in past few years Vietnam is leapfrogging mainly due to its proximity with china.

Looking at the above global economic parameters, Vietnams population is very small in comparison to India i.e. almost 1/13th which makes itself a small size market comparison to India, but the argument of being a huge market has not worked for India till now. The most important factor in favour of Vietnam is, it’s a Single party socialist republic which is on the similar line of China. China also has exactly similar political environment, this really gives edge to Vietnam over India, as implementation of any policy in socialist country is not as challenging as it is in a democratic country. The companies moving to Vietnam knows that they will find a conducive environment like China in the country, given the authoritarian nature of the political system.

By opting to setup huge manufacturing base in countries like China and Vietnam the global business companies have clearly shown to have their preference to authoritarian economy as compared to democracy. They want to live in a democratic country but they want to economically promote socialist countries. The long term impact of promoting such socialist country can be seen now with the way china is handling its position on global platform & its responsibility as a global power. This can never be expected in a democratic country like India.

The factors like Per capita income, GDP Growth rates are on similar line for both the countries. The Unemployment rate in India is 23.5% which quite high as compared to Vietnam’s 2.15%. This as an economic indicator is in favour of Vietnam but it also implies that the labour cost would be cheap in India as compared to Vietnam at the same time it also indicates availability of huge manpower for the various industry if this unemployed manpower is skilled well, Government of India has already initiated major steps in this direction by giving major boost to various programs of skill development etc.

Vietnams balance of payment is positive, it has more export then import as compared to India where the balance of payment is negative still the foreign exchange reserves of India are way higher then Vietnam. India has consistently shown very high foreign direct investment as compared to Vietnam.

In measures as economic reform Indian government has reduced corporate tax rate for manufacturing companies to 15% making one of most competitive corporate tax rates in the region.

The enormous work that government of India has done in ease of doing business has led to it position coming to 63rd in 2019 from 142nd in 2014, this is a huge jump whereas Vietnam was on 99th Position in 2014, currently it’s on 70th position in 2019.

From the above economic parameters in the table it can be seen that India has potential to become next manufacturer to the world still we have seen that international companies have preferred Vietnam over India.

Based on my reading of various articles on India and Vietnam, comparing various reforms undertaken by both the countries its very much clear that India has been very aggressive in its reform process since last 5 years with new government be it GST implementation, Demonetisation, easing on various FDI Norms, Major steps on ease of doing business, initiatives like Digital India, Skill development mission and many more. Whereas Vietnam has been working on certain fundamentals like education, infrastructure also establishing themselves as investor friendly country to attract the foreign investment in the country.

Now lets have analysis of the major foreign direct investors in Vietnam comparing with the FDI made by these similar countries to India. Let’s have a look at countries investing in Vietnam in the year 2018 & 2019 comparing with investment by similar countries in India.

(B- Billion)

Investment

Vietnam

India

2018

2019

2017-18

2018-19

South Korea

7.20 B

7.92 B

1.05 B

0.98 B (Prov.)

Japan

8.60 B

8.50 B

1.63 B

2.97 B

From the above table we can see that the major FDI investment in Vietnam is received from its two top investors South Korea & Japan, both have been consistently having major FDI share in the Vietnam economy. The third country who’s share has been rising is china which has been investing through Hongkong.

Whereas India’s major FDI has been coming from Mauritius & Singapore which contributes approx. 50% of total FDI. The key thing for India here is to understand about Japans position for investing heavily in Vietnam. Japan has been a friendly country to India, India has always been a pro japan economy due to its friendly relations, but still India is not able to attract FDI from Japan in comparison to Vietnam. I think this shall be one of the major area on which government need to work on as even after such a good relation India is not able to attract FDI from Japan.

Further South Korea’s investment in India has never been that great, India has never focused majorly on building strong relationship with south Korea, as major focus has always been Europe, USA and Japan. It now time that India shall specifically focus Korea which can work very well strategically for India as an alternative to dependency on china at the same time Korea can play a really big role by investing in India to make India a front runner in becoming a global manufacturer.

Major investment in India is coming through Mauritius, a tax heaven country. Which indicates that globally India is not a low tax country. Gradually Mauritius has slipped to second position bringing Singapore to first position. Further the current decision of Government to reduce overall corporate tax rates specifically to manufacturing companies, We can assume that India will start receiving direct FDI from respective countries instead of routing through tax heavens like Mauritius.

With all the above analysis there are certain major factors for India to work on in order to compete with Vietnam, India needs to learn, work really hard on following factors to find some very important solution for the below factors:-

1. Socialist Vs Democratic structure : This is one of the biggest challenge India is facing due to its democratic setup to attract the foreign investment. The investors prefer socialist environment compared to democratic for safety of their investment and business. As they assume socialist environment is better for their business. But in the long term impact of the socialist economy would be similar to china. While china was looking to become economic superpower and a manufacturing hub for the world things were good but gradually it has reached to a stage of strong economic powerhouse it could not sustain in parallel with world on its socialist policies leading the global community to have very low faith.

Also Vietnam being socialist country has observed having issues with various key matters like Human rights, no freedom to press, citizens are surveillance online etc and many more such matter. These scenario India needs to present these factors to global business community with a long term prospective to bring this factor in its favour.

2. Raw Material availability :- India is full of resource and raw material, whereas Vietnam is majorly dependent on china for its raw material requirement it is not a resource producer. That means most of the raw materials need to be purchased outside of Vietnam, its from China. This indicates that even though the companies have shifted out of china still their dependencies will remain on china indirectly. So even after incurring heavy cost on shifting their manufacturing base from China to Vietnam it is really difficult to comment as their dependency will continue to be on china.

3. FDI share of Hong Kong:- Through the above Foreign direct investment data, we could clearly see that the major FDI in Vietnam are from South Korea and Japan, both these countries has been historically investing in Vietnam. But in past few years there is one country whose share of investment in Vietnam has been rapidly increasing from Hong Kong. Over the years, it has become the seventh largest investor in Vietnam. In 2018, it moved up to fifth, is now fourth place in total investment up to 2019. In the year 2019 Hong Kong has become the second largest FDI Country after Korea to make an investment of 7.8 Billion. It is understood that china is making these investment thorough Hong Kong post the trade war push between China & USA, it does not want Vietnam to become cautious of Chinese investment.

This is again alarming situation for companies looking to shift from china. If china continues to invest in Vietnam through Hong Kong then the whole effort of shift from china to Vietnam might be at stake as many of the business in Vietnam are supposed to be invested by Chinese investors.

4. Business Environment : This is one of the major factors which is required to be worked on by India. Vietnamese government is committed to creating a fair and attractive business environment for foreign investors, this can be seen by the 26 out of 56 companies shifting their base to Vietnam. Further being Single party socialist republic framework there is no boreoarctic lethargy. Whereas India in the eyes of global business community “Despite the government focusing on a ‘single-window’ process, it is still multiple doors that big investors, MNCs’ representatives have to go through. When someone is bringing money to your country, you do not sit on his proposal, waiting for him to approach you again & again; you should just decide, convey a “Yes” or “No”. It should be that simple. But that is not the case right now. Even if a ‘yes’ is given, the company’s representatives have to go to multiple offices, meet several officials.Whereas Vietnam provide only one government official who takes care of every requirement of the Investors.

5. Improvement in legal framework: Vietnam has been very aggressive in continues improvement in its legal framework which has really impressed the global business community. India has also taken major steps in these directors in past few years. The results of the same are expected to come in the futures years if India is able to show these efforts on the international platforms and the reach of these framework implementation reaches to the lowest level of its user. As historically India has many times failed to attract global community with its simplified legal framework & structure.

It’s really a right time for India to work very aggressively towards presenting itself as the only best option to the world to become global manufacturer, it must take care of the above key factors in order to be the next leader in the manufacturing sector. With the above key factor for the government of India to take appropriate action in its policy to attract more foreign direct Investment & make India a hub for manufacturing. The global companies looking to shift their manufacturing base shall consider about key factors relevant to the type of economic & political scenario of country where they are investing before taking appropriate decision.

Cultural Differences: Different Time ‘Zones’ (Part-1)

In the quest of building a strong global identity, organizations are realizing more and more culture related issues which, when used as a covert foundation in policy formulation and planning, would aid in aligning organizational goals with regional differences. Time perspective is one such element of culture, which influences the way members of a culture tend to approach decision-making in consumer as well as business activities. The difference in the time perception leads to the difference in the outlook of the employees towards work and people. The issue of time in the study of culture can been used in International Human Resources Management (IHRM) researches to measure country and group level effects that can be discriminated between countries and groups and thus help explain variance in the behaviors of organization and people. The dimension of time-perspective could be added (Bond, M H et al 1987) as the fifth dimension of culture related to work organization. The other four dimensions are Power Distance, Individualism, Masculinity and Uncertainty Avoidance (Hofstede and Bond 1984), as defined by Geert Hofstede’s most popular framework of studying international culture.

Philip R. Cateora and John L. Graham (‘International Marketing’, 10th edition, Pg. 130) define the classification of perspective of time into Monochronic and Polychronic time. M-time or monochronic time perception of a culture implies that people tend to concentrate on one thing at a time. It is typical of low-context cultures like that of North Americans, Swiss and Scandinavians. They divide the time in to small units and are concerned with promptness. M-time is used in a linear way and is experienced as being tangible, in that we save time, spend time or waste time.

The concept of polychronic time or P-time is characterized by simultaneous occurrence of many things and by “a great involvement with people”. P-time allows for relationships to build on and context to be absorbed as part of high-context cultures like that of India and other South Asian countries. The completion of human transactions is considered more important than holding to schedules.

The author has made an attempt to analyse the HRM practices of USA, India and Japan, in the context of cultural-differences in the perception of time. The choice of these cultures have been based on the fact that traditionally USA is recognised as a M-time culture, India as a P- time culture, while Japan is a mix of M- time and P- time behaviour. However these cultures do not exist in isolation, and the time perception in these cultures is being influenced and changed by cross-frontier trade and other interactions.

The implications of the difference in the perception of time in different cultures can be organization wide, individual directed or task centric.

Influence on Organisation

Those issues, which effect planning, scheduling and unionism have an organization wide effect and are in turn influenced by culture based perception of time.

The P – type culture takes short-term view of organization and its goals, while an M-time culture takes a long term view and emphasizes long term organization planning. For an organization that is planning to set up operations in P-type culture, it would have to acquaint the employees with its long-terms goals and align them with their personal goals to introduce a long-term vision.

Reworking the reward system to emphasis on attainment of long term planning goals would also reinforce the same. A culture having a mix of P and M type behavior shows long term planning and a strategic role of HR in planning. Rules are codified and decision-making is allowed adequate time.

For any organization with international operations unionism is an essential part of its external environment, which is often guided by the law of the land. M-type culture takes an adverse view of unionism. On the other hand, P-type culture has cooperative unions and collective bargaining and worker participation is the norm. A mix of P and M type culture shows enterprise unionism, which is positive and cooperative in nature and worker participation is encouraged.

The information about prevalent unionism is of use to both employees and management since this defines their interaction and extent of worker participation in management.

Decision making is another aspect of organization which in M-type culture, perceived as more bureaucratic with rigid rules, is appreciated if it is quick; while P-type culture is more flexible and accepts a long decision making process. In contrast, the mix of P and M type culture emphasizes the role of HR in the decision making. The rules are formal and codified and decision making is allowed adequate time. By acquainting its expatriate managers with these perceptions an organization would gain in situations like negotiations.

Influence on Individual

Aspects like individual’s performance appraisal, reward and perspective towards employment are some issues, which are influenced by culture-based perception of time.

Performance appraisal can be based on individual achievement or it can emphasis group performance. An individual in an M-type culture concentrates on his own performance since group achievements are not the primary goal, while in a mix of P and M type culture, group performance is an important criteria for performance appraisal. In this issue the organization can be guided by societal norms and values. The interval between performance appraisals is also dependent on perception of time and a culture with long decision making cycles might require a longer performance appraisal cycle.

The issues like career planning, hiring policy and succession planning are dependent on average employee tenure in the organization. In both P-type and the mix type culture, employees presume a lifetime employment. This leads to easy succession planning and a need based hiring policy, which relies heavily on personal interviews as a selection criteria. In contrast, an employee in M-type culture would in all probabilities work for more than one employer in his lifetime and hence a structured hiring policy. Another area of difference between different cultures is wage determination. In P-type culture wages are based on industry-cum-regional parameters, and seniority is an important parameter in determining wages. Wages in M-type culture is skill and merit based. In a mix of M and P type culture wages are based on both seniority and merit. To avoid dissonance this factor is to be kept in perspective to draft an effective compensation policy in different cultures. Since most organizations want to avoid a geography based pay differentiation, a non-monetary remuneration can be offered.

Influence on Task

Task definition and task related skill development is also influenced by culture related perception of time.

Tasks in P-type culture are loosely defined giving flexibility to the employee while M-type culture has rigid definition of task. In the mix of P and M type culture job definition is simple and broad. This difference could mean job dissatisfaction in organizations operating in different cultures but following a uniform job definition.

The perception about training is also culture based. P-type culture considers training to be of little importance and training is on the job. In M-type culture formal training is imparted. In the mix of M and P type cultures, train-ability is emphasized with both on-job and off-job trainings being imparted. Thus the issue of training and skill development in different cultures will have to be tackle differently, more so because cultures also promote multi-skill or specialization development. P-type culture and the mix of M and P type culture, associate job rotation with job satisfaction hence employees are multi skilled. In M-type culture employees are specialists in specific tasks. This difference would be specially emphasized in case of blue-collared workers.

Comparison

A good case for comparing the three cultures is the statistical comparison of importance of company breeding in the US and Japanese managerial labour markets by Takao Kato and Mark Rockel. It states that there is a clear difference between the time taken for new recruit to reach the position of CEO in the two countries. On an average, in USA it took 20 years while in Japan it took 27 years in. Seeing that most of the CEOs in India reach that position after 25 to 30 years in the organisation we can extend the study to aid in comparing the three cultures.

This difference in promotion is quite apparent in terms of real time. But another criteria to be considered is that Japanese organisation stress on hands-on on-job-training for the development and training of a CEO hence the emphasis remains on the long-term objective.

The survey points to the fact that the managerial labour market of Japan tends to nurture more long-term relationship between managers and the firm than that of USA. The CEOs in USA laid lesser emphasis on knowing the firm and its employee, owing to comparatively lesser stress on consensus building.

In the traditional Indian firms with the emphasis on relationships, the promotions were typically based on seniority thus often the CEOs were appointed even as they were just a few months away from the stipulated retirement age.

Conclusion

The deeply entrenched perceptions, which have even shaped cultures, would be difficult to melt to mould together in one universal time-perception. But the desire to seek or introduce homogeneity in these matters are uppermost in the minds of a managers dealing with various issues of international HRM, ranging from managing of subsidiaries to training of expatriates. The slow progress towards acceptance of similar mixed time- perceptions at least in the place of work is visible.

While on one hand the Japanese promote dynamism, future-orientation, hard work and adherence to rules, on the other hand importance is placed on relationships, broad job descriptions, decentralization and respect for seniority.

HRM practices in USA are showing a similar trend, be it in greater tolerance of trade unions or in forays in building corporate loyalty. Similar trends in India are being forced towards a more monochronic approach to wards work, by advent of competition for the state owned enterprises from the private sector firms, including MNC.

Software Development Outsourcing India

Outsourcing software development to India has become more and more popular over the last few years, and picked up even more momentum lately. Corporations in the USA have followed this path because a technology worker costs some five times less in India than in the USA. Motivation for Outsourcing Corporate executives started seeing software development and support, and the whole of Information Technology as a cost, and not as a strength, nor a differentiator. So they started thinking of it as something they can subcontract, just like security guards, janitorial, landscaping and snow removal.

Objections to Outsourcing

However, this is not always the case, and there are hidden costs, and some pitfalls, such as difference in work culture, communication styles, and time zones, not to mention the long term safety and security concerns of giving everything to a foreign country, and a foreign jurisdiction. The analogy of janitorial and landscaping is not an accurate one though. The reason being these services, although they are outside the company, they are still within the city or the country. This gives some soft of control, being under the same jurisdiction, and there is no danger of political tensions, wars, or the international scene affecting the service. Moreover, low risk, and not core to the business. Software and Information Systems in general contain many functions that are vital to the company doing business, and in many cases it is part of the “Intellectual Capital” of the company.

Offshore outsourcing has been popular for several years. Countries like India are popular offshore outsourcing locations which offer cost effective solutions. There is a wealth of articles and write ups about the cost advantages of offshore outsourcing with a majority claiming anywhere between 40-50% savings.

Security and Privacy Issues is now stronger than the Past in India. Both Government and Private Sector are taking various steps to maintain the Peaceful atmosphere in IT Sector. Even small and medium Software Development Outsourcing Enterprises like Encodex Technologies India are very disciplined and careful to verify their Employees. The yearly turnover is increasing for total Outsourcing Sector in India.

A lot of people focus on India for lower costs. What is remarkable in India is the caliber of the computer engineers. The cost savings were an additional benefit. The work culture and Atmosphere of most of the Indian Software Development Company’s are now CMM or CMMI level Standard.

India’s workforce also offers the largest pool of technical skills in the world, and the country’s universities add 220,000 engineering graduates to its ranks annually. The world is discovering the fact that India is a super power when it comes to developing IT solutions. Swept by the current of the latest trend “IT outsourcing to India”, we find many fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Wal-Mart, AT&T, General Electric, Reebok, General Motors, Sony, Boeing, Coca-cola, Pepsi, Swissair, United Airlines, Philips, IBM, Lucas and British Aerospace beneficiaries.

Following Factors are the Reasons why Offshore Outsourcing is coming largely in India?

o India’s human resources

o Cost efficiency of IT outsourcing in India

o Standard quality that firms doing IT outsourcing in India guarantee

o The reliable communication facilities

o Technologically advanced outsourcing firms in India

o Galloping growth in Indian economy

o Stable government facilitating IT growth

o Indian government policies

o Positive and Encouraging Policies by Indian Government

So the Ultimate Outcome of Offshore Outsourcing in India is Developing Outstandingly.

Offshore outsourcing involves a great deal of thought. One should not be spurred simply by expectations of rapid cost reduction. The new mantra of offshore outsourcing to India is quality solutions. When processes are off shored to India, companies not only get the advantage of low cost but also experience improvement in productivity and quality. These are the reasons that should motivate offshore outsourcing to India.

Top MBA Colleges in 2016

With better career opportunities providing higher salary, holistic perspective over the business world, high-level networking, leadership opportunities etc, students resolved that MBA can help them to escalate their career at one go.

MBA, the most sought post graduate degree program to persist in the business world, indeed has a wide range of criteria to be taken care of before opting for it. Criteria such as the MBA specializations, whether to opt for 1 year or 2 year MBA, which college to go for; have certainly put students in a plight.

MBA degree can be done as a 2 year traditional degree or as a 1 year MBA program which is an accelerated choice for students having crystal clear career goal as their dream. Some of the most popular specializations chosen today in MBA are Finance, Human Resource Management, Marketing Management, Operations Management etc. The expansion in the global business economy has given rise to new MBA specializations like Rural Management, Information Technology, Supply Chain Management, International Business (IB) etc.

Even if the specializations are chosen, another dilemma that takes form is whether to choose a government college or a private college. Keeping in mind the value of the degree offered, facilities, placements and career options the colleges provide, you should go ahead opting for the colleges best for you.

In order to help you grab a seat in the top B-Schools in India, various entrance exams like CAT, MAT, SNAP, XAT etc are conducted across India. List of top 5 B-Schools in India are categorized below with their exceptional qualities that made them to be on top:

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore:

Located in India’s high technology capital, IIMB is in close proximity to some of the leading corporate houses in the country, ranging from information technology to consumer product companies, giving it the added advantage of integrating classroom knowledge with practical experience. IIMB is the only Indian business school to feature among the Top 50 B-schools on the Financial Times Executive Education 2015 Rankings, alongside the London Business School, Harvard School of Business, University of Oxford and several others.

IIMB has also been ranked among the Top 30 Business Schools in the world on the Financial Times’ prestigious Master in Management Rankings for 2015. IIM Bangalore has recently topped the list of best management institutes in the ‘India Ranking 2016’ – the first-ever national ranking of universities by the Government.

Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi:

FMS is among the few Top B-Schools of India, where every permanent faculty member is a Ph.D degree holder. Every student in FMS is a part of Management Science Association (MSA), a student body comprising of different panels that focus on distinct functional areas of interest.

To encourage entrepreneurship, FMS provides a placement holiday to students who wish to pursue their own ventures and allows them to participate in a subsequent placement process for up to two years, in case they want to avail the opportunity. Nestled in a strategic location that is at the crossroads of busy corporate and student activity, FMS hosted over 200 business leaders in the last year to facilitate a comprehensive learning curve for its students.

Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA):

IIMA is consistently rated as the Top B-School in India by reputed national agencies. The institute has been ranked 16th in the Financial Times (FT) Masters in Management Rankings 2016 as well as ranked 24th in the Financial Times Global MBA Ranking 2016 in its top 100 list of B-Schools, announced in January 2016. The enviable record of the entire batch getting placed year after year, over the past 20 years, also points to the quality of the students admitted and the quality of training they receive.

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai:

NMIMS is located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a private university one of the leading MBA College since last 34 years and has awarded as 13th top Business World B-School Survey in 2014. The placement programs of 2015 included MBA, MBA HR, MBA Banking and MBA Capital Markets. The average pay offered is Rs. 16.51 lakh per annum, which is around 8% higher than last year.

NMIMS School of Business Management (SBM) is ranked 12th in top 100 management schools & 5th place in top 10 Pvt B-schools in Outlook Drshti B School survey 2014, 9th rank top 25 B-schools, 3rd rank top 35 Pvt. Colleges, 2nd rank top 25 Pvt. Colleges in West Zone in The Week Hansa Research B-School Survey 2014 etc.

Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi:

Department of Management Studies (DMS), IIT Delhi is known for its 100% placements record which is the reflection of the timeless ties and relationships with their corporate partners. DMS, IIT Delhi has been ranked in the top 2 schools in the “Business and Management Research” category of the “Stanford Ranking” for 2015. Outlook has ranked IIT Delhi 6th among the top 10 B-schools in India 2016. DMS, IIT Delhi shares top three ranks in India for business and management studies along with IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore in QS India University Rankings 2015.

Outsource to India Or China? Let the Great Debate Begins

Let the debate begins. Outsource to India or China? I am not going to bore you with the typical cliche that India is better at IT and China is better at manufacturing. I will only focus my arguments on 2 areas. I predict India is going to win the cost saving competition in the next decade. However, China is going to blow India away in one particular software outsourcing. That is mobile application development.

So, why am I arguing India wins the cheap labor game? Didn’t cities like Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad experience sky rocking wage increases in the last few years? True, however India’s GDP per capital still stays at the bottom of the world ($1,016 USD). Besides major urban areas, the country lacks modern infrastructure through out most of its states. In comparison, China’s GDP per capital is already at $3,315 USD by 2008. It is quickly going into second wave of urban development inland. China also started a series of land reform making its farming structure more capitalism. These will have major impacts on overall national income level in the near future.

Perhaps the bigger story is Chinese currency. Recent global recession is quietly reshuffling the country’s reserves. With rumors like US is going to be downgraded due to enormous fiscal deficits, it certainly makes Chinese RMB look quite promising as an alternative. RMB has already hit all time high several times against dollars since subprime crisis began in late 2008. Therefore, this is actually good news for India. Chinese labors will soon become relatively more expensive for Westerners. For pure labor arbitrage, I predict outsourcing in India wins.

So how can China compete better in service oriented outsourcing? Well, not BPO, not ITO, maybe CRO, but most definitely mobile application outsourcing.

China has been the ‘world’s factory” over 20 plus years. It sure became a dominate force in high tech manufacturing powerhouse. The official statistics of 2008 from Chinese government indicated high-tech products has an export volume of USD 347.8 billion. Such astonishing number makes China second place worldwide for high tech manufacture scale, and first in global market share. Also, by April 2009, there are total of 678.8 million mobile phone subscribers in China. It makes me believe China has better overall ecosystem for mobile application development with Smartphone manufacturing know how, talents, user base and also infrastructure.

China is laying out massive infrastructure to meet its growing network demands. Starting in 2009, 3 largest mobile operators in China will invest combined of $30 billion dollars on 3G network over the next few years. It will certainly stimulate the entire industry value chain. Downstream software vendors can ride on the trend and strengthen their mobile technology capabilities. They can not only profit from domestic opportunities but also build up domain knowledge and talent base over Indian providers. More over, technical talents who live and work in China get to enjoy much broader 3G access as end users. It helps them to further innovate when it comes to providing mobile application development services to oversea clients.

In short, my prediction is that India will win the cost effective programming competition over China in the next decade. But, China will emerge as leading country for mobile application outsourcing. Should you outsource to India or China? Let the great debate begins!

The Best of Online Indian Astrology

At present times, online astrology is very common and real astrologers are behind most of the astrology software and websites. The Indian astrology online is within easy reach if you have the computer and internet. Here you will be able to access the forecasting in a comprehensive way and based on the ancient principle of scientific Indian Astrology. You will be able to get what you want through online such as predictions of your future in different categories of life like love, marriage, relationships, money, family, health and career. The Hindu system of astrology is also known as Indian astrology, Hindu astrology, and now the Vedic astrology.

The Indian astrology online will give the Vedic astrology and horoscopes report created by an expert Indian astrologer through your Email in about 3-5 working days. Their predictions are based on moon signs. The online astrology does claim to give the answer to everything but the analysis of your horoscope can help you guide in the right path. The online astrology provide free daily online horoscope for 12 Zodiac signs. By the Indian astrology online, the astrologers can help you find your love by matchmaking compatible zodiac signs. You can also use the services of the Indian astrology online as to what is the best time for opening a new business or what exact date and time is best in moving into a new home.

All online astrology services ask the fee for services through online by using your credit card. Each type of services has the corresponding price. The easier the service, the lesser the price and prices is higher for those requiring intense services. Through their website, you can even chat with the astrologers. You can directly ask about love connection and to understand the influences of your relationship. The astrologers can help you about problems of you and your love mate or potential mate. Sessions with your astrologer is possible for 15 – 60 minutes via internet chat.

According to J.P. Morgan, “Millionaires don’t use astrology, billionaires do”. The billionaire J.P. Morgan asks the astrologer for advice and obviously it is about his business and finances. The online astrology reading and consultation is considered nowadays the most effective and practical method. You can ask the help of astrologers from other countries through internet. The Indian astrology online is more accurate in prediction of events with time frame. It can give the answer of what is going to happen in your life, and when it will happen.

Through the website of Indian astrology, they offer services of astrologers who have many experiences in astrology and remedial measures. The online astrologers can help your career problems and can also forecast your job promotion. The astrologers will thoroughly analyze your horoscope and your partner’s to predict the characteristics and recommend marriage accordingly, since astrology plays a very important role in conjugal happiness.

India Has The Potential To Get More And More Outsourced Software Development Jobs

India is a country of vast culture and various communities as Information technology (IT) outsourcing exports of India getting a boom in business. If India would focus on multi-dimensional projects and have the motivation to grab all the outsourcing jobs. Services like software development, transcription services, management outsourcing, legal, editing and writing services, data entry services and various ways that would be implemented in various ways.

It brings the jobs at large scale. It might potentially accelerate only IT Outsourcing exports by an enormous twenty billion dollars by three fiscal years starting from 2007 to 2008.

U.S. accounted that India has the potential to get more and more outsourced software development jobs. The continent like North America and Europe are the main outsourcing continents. About thirty five percent of Information Technology export services by India and sixty five percent of the exports form Business Process Outsourcing as from the news.

Call center and related services to these sectors such as Knowledge process outsourcing which outsource legal, human resource services, medical services financial services that came from entirely owned operations in India by MNC(Multi national company).

Business companies want to concentrate on their core business so they outsource.

As MNC companies want to concentrate on their core business. They want to outsource the jobs profile or projects. Number of multinational organizations, technology firms and user companies has set up Software Development, KPO, BPO and Call center franchisees in India while at the same time Indian IT Outsourcing companies are offering services to Europe and American based organizations.

India’s BPO industry is employs more than hundred thousand people and it is the fact figure according to survey taken under business news and those jobs were not created only in the mega cities but in smaller towns too like Pune.

As the Quality being concern the demand rises and less expenditure on the pay scale makes the platform for the it software industries. Due to high demand of Indian KPO, quality software, BPO services, Call center the industry faced a shortage of employees that is particularly sensitive in an industry of BPO & call center.

The industry will have to improve its process and services to add greater value and after sell services to the clients and improve the productivity in IT Outsourcing industry.

For jobs in data entry.

The 5 Killer Myths For Any Business

The era of Globalization is penetrating every nook and corner of the world. The warfront of today is the marketplace wherein people buy or sell products or services. Everybody wants to achieve the highest volume of customers and the largest market share. However, the same phenomenon is now making the ride rough for entrepreneurs across the world.

With my numerous interactions with entrepreneurs from South Asia, Europe and North Africa as an academic, researcher, trainer and consultant, I have been able to observe some deep rooted problems associated with failing businesses. Most times such failures are blamed on market, competition, and several other external characteristics. When I started researching about the same phenomenon in India in late 90s I found some interesting psychological barriers within entrepreneurs’ minds which I call ‘the 5 killer myths for any business’. Recently, in a similar study in the UK we found similar myths prevailing within the entrepreneurial community. Interesting enough, the Indian entrepreneurs were largely goods oriented manufacturing unit owners and the UK entrepreneurs were service oriented organizations. Here are those 5 myths as I have observed across the board:

1. The Product Growth Myth: The belief that as our product is doing well in the market regularly for some years, there will not be any problem for the coming years.

2. The No Alternative Myth: The substitute of our product has such features that the market will not accept.

3. The quality myth: The market accepts quality first and cheap products will not be accepted by the market.

4. The no change myth: The growth would continue even if we don’t change as the market has accepted the product.

5. The Friendly Environment Myth: The environmental factors will not affect us much.

Let’s look at them in little in-depth with some examples.

1. The Product Growth Myth: While working on an EU funded project I came across this industrial cluster called ‘Rajkot Diesel Engine Industry Cluster’. The cluster had observed phenomenal growth since 70s and it started losing out in early 90s due to Chinese and Korean competition in the market. However, it took the cluster 10 years to realise the same mistake and guess what, it is still struggling to catch up to earlier levels of growth. Will it ever get it back is the question and we all know the answer. When the entrepreneurs start getting complacent about innovation, we know the cycle of decay (or sure fire failure) is not far away.

2. The No Alternative Myth: In Egypt, in the period of Eid, children use Fanoos (lantern), made up of paper and it is attached with a stick. They go to the houses in neighbourhood and ask for sweets and stuff. This kind of celebration is also observed in other parts of world at different times such as Diwali times in India or for that matter the ‘trick or treat’ at Halloween. Well, till 2003-04 these Fanoos were made in Egypt only by local craftsman. However, as the Business with China grew a Chinese businessman saw the opportunity and did some changes to the concept of Fanoos. He used a small battery powered light instead of the candle and change the paper Fanoos to a plastic Fanoos. Result, as one can imagine, a durable, safe and easy to handle Fanoos which is far better than its earlier incarnation that was used for centuries. The local industry is nearly wiped out within 2 years time. If you think market will not accept your substitute, it is one of the best ways to fail.

3. The quality myth: This myth is so omnipresent that at times it is easy to overlook. Every entrepreneur I have met has talked to me about how their product is a great quality product and what great care they take in production processes. My only question to them is, does your customer really care about it? And every time the answer has been a big YES. Somehow I rarely get the same answer from their customers. If customers really cared for quality, why M&S in UK was struggling as a retailer while Tesco and ASDA were growing like never before. How come Primark (low end clothes retailer) is one of the most successful retailers in the UK? How come George (another low end clothes retailer) became the fastest selling apparel brand in the UK? Consumers don’t understand an entrepreneur’s obsession with quality. They want VALUE FOR MONEY. As Wal-Mart does that day-in and day-out it is now world’s largest company and bigger than all its competitors combined in the US. How could have one imagined this just 40 years ago when Sam Walton started in Bentonville, Arkansas. Remember, quality lies in customers’ minds and however good or bad you are is decided by them in their minds. In fact, discrepancies between company’s perceptions and customers would not be at all unusual. However, even if the company is working itself to the proverbial bone on the quality regime, if customers view it as cheap, then it is cheap – in their eyes and that matters the most.

4. The no change myth: This is another classic myth. I call it the bread-winner symbol. Once a product or service has become a bread-winner for more than two year, entrepreneurs become obsessed with it. Buddha said 2500 years ago ‘change is the only permanent constant’ and this statement is truer today than ever before. All the examples, I have quoted above fit in this area. Furthermore, while talking to some service firms in the Essex area of the UK, I asked the entrepreneurs when was the last time s/he or their employees had been to some kind of training to improve their skills. The answer was shocking. In 90% of the case it was never. In the other 10% of the cases it was more than a year. In today’s world, if we don’t update ourselves not even God can save us.

5. The Friendly Environment Myth: I have observed this myth mostly in developing countries like India, Egypt and such others where entrepreneurs are quite dependent on local, state and national government for subsidies and protection. As the waves of globalization has hit the shores across the world, there is very little the local, state or national governments can do to avoid the global competition and if entrepreneurs are not prepared for it, their fate is already known to us. This myth also is observed in other parts of the world very much through market phenomenon. It was in late 2005 or so I saw an interesting concept pet shop in Brighton, UK. All pink décor an it looked lovely from outside, however, the first questions which came in my mind after seeing that shop in the town centre that how long will it survive? The logic of the entrepreneur behind it was quite sound, as 7 out of 10 British pets get presents just in Christmas itself. However, within two years time the shop has been shifted for many environmental reasons as one would imagine. Another programme on BBC called Dragon’s Den really captures this phenomenon to the core.

Well, when considered these myths may seem a product of environment however the starting point may be different than what seems obvious. Most times when the environment is blamed for failure, it is actually the person behind the business who fails to observe such changes. My suggestion would be for every entrepreneur to take a ‘thinking vacation’ and observe as to is any of these myths is present in their minds or business? If so, the time to act is sooner rather than later.