Get It Right!

Slick campaigns need the right image to make an adequate impact. If you really want your 'copy' to scream, be sure to get your visuals right. Ideal campaigns ride on a healthy mix of words and visuals, grabbing a larger audience. Some people react to strong sentiments woven into interesting text and some just need a picture to move them. The Best bet is to spend time in selecting or creating the right image for your ad, complimenting it with a powerful message and letting people decide if it gets them in the gut or not. For easy access to high quality Indian and international images, log on to www.photosindia.com

Business Process Outsourcing and its Indian story

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What really is Business Process Outsourcing or BPO? Nope, it’s not the evil giant that swallowed all the jobs from the west, its just a sector that’s making waves in India and making hell of a difference abroad. This sector has now become so specialized that India offers high end work referred to as Knowledge Process Outsourcing or KPO and other variants such as Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO). Unlike what most people think, this industry did not take shape in the last decade, this process of outsourcing back end work actually happened way back in the 80’s. This is when biggies like British Airways and American Express started looking for cheaper business venues. Cheaper didn’t necessarily mean there was a compromise on talent, India always had plenty of talent to offer. At this stage the telecom boom was starting to happen as well, realty was on the rise and suddenly there was all these personnel that wanted to come back home. With them they brought their jobs, it was a simple relocation that clicked. Next came GE, Jack Welch always knew potential when he saw it. GECIS was their baby and that was just the start of the nursery India was to become.



By the year 2000, several BPO companies mushroomed all over Sub-urban cities like Gurgaon, Pune, Bangalore etc. MNC (Multinational companies) were awed by the working ethic of Indians as well as budget goodies like tele-services, office rentals, relatively low pay packages, it was glorious all the way. The industry grew at a rate of 38% in the year 2005. For the financial year 2006, the projection was of US $7.2 billion worth of services provided by this industry.

Today the global BPO Industry is estimated to be worth 120-150 billion dollars, of this the offshore BPO is estimated to be some US$11.4 billion. The Information Technology sector that comprises of ITES (IT-enabled services) and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) entities has driven India into an economic boom. Today India is a much sought after destination for global offshore outsourcing companies because of its track record. This is an employment generating sector, the BPO industry alone created job opportunities for around 74,400 additional personnel in India in the year 04-05. The last headcount stood at 400,000 which was 40% of the approximate one million workers estimated to be directly employees in the IT and BPO Sector. Nearly 75% of US and European multinational companies now use outsourcing or shared services to support their financial functions. As per the estimates on ‘Wikipedia’ - 72% of European multinational companies have outsourced financial functions over the past two years. Additionally, 71% of European companies and 78% US companies plan to use these services in the next 12-24 months. Overall, 29% of US and European companies expect to increase their use of outsourcing of financial functions, with spending expected to be nearly 16% higher than current levels.

India is truly Shining!

The Indian Connection

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Doing business in India has never been easier. The markets have opened, the government has taken serious economic stances to encourage foreign investment and ‘globalization’ isn’t a scary word anymore. Gone are the days when ‘Amul’ butter felt threatened by the attractively packed imported ‘fats’. Screaming ‘Fat Free’ off their labels, but the good old Indian wasn’t easy prey. There was a skewed kind of brand loyalty that had ‘nostalgia’ written all over it and the average Indian needed a bit more than just great packaging in multiple languages.

Thus started the media frenzy. ‘Tang’ came back with a bang, images of young Indian’s lolling about with sweaty glasses of ‘Tang’ made for the picture perfect West. After all in reverse Indian companies had invested over $2 billion in the US in 2006-07 and completed a total of 48 deals with the firms there. Suddenly, everybody knew us and we found retail heaven. Indian companies went on to announce 115 foreign acquisitions worth $7.4 billion, and it wasn’t always done by large business conglomerates but also by several small and medium enterprises of India.



With this kind of attention, India went on to become the hot spot for the $42.7 billion telecom giant Motorola’s production base for coming out with new technologies for emerging markets. The Indian economy was expected to grow at the rate of 8% this year and this would have been the fourth year in a row for 8% GDP growth. Then the other day we have Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram expressing supreme confidence that GDP growth will touch 10% in the current fiscal. It seems to have a lot to do with the age profile in India as compared to the global working population. This has to be a better dividend for the Indian economy. Our core working populace is young Indian’s adding significantly to the country’s growth. They are the big earners and the big spenders. They are the target audience for every sector possible because now they can afford their dreams. Websites like orkut.com have young Indian's congratulating each other over new houses bought in foreign countries, imported cars bought in local cities and European holidays every summer. With pockets this deep, aspirations this huge and limitless possibilities …it is India all the way.