Posted on 04/18/2007 6:37:19 PM PDT by voletti
When the Indian outsourcing upstarts came on strong five years ago, it looked as if some giants of the $600 billion tech services industry would fall like top-heavy palm trees in a Category 4 hurricane. The Indians' combination of high quality and super-low cost flattened the stock prices and revenues of companies such as EDS (EDS ), BearingPoint (BE ), and Capgemini. Even mighty ibm (IBM ), the No. 1 tech services player, has struggled to rebound.
One Western company has come through stronger than ever, though—and it did so by motoring straight into the eye of the storm. Accenture Ltd. (ACN ) has responded so well to the disruptions caused by Indian companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, and Wipro (WIT ) that it stands as a model for how to deal with the downside of globalization.
Accenture adapted quickly by combining the best aspects of the Indian offshoring approach with the company's primary activity, business consulting. By the end of Accenture's fiscal year this August, 35,000 of its 160,000 employees will be in India, where labor costs are less than half those in the U.S., up from only a handful in 2000. That formula not only allows it to compete with the Indian tech companies on price but also, just as important, combines the company's tech knowhow, outsourcing, business consulting, and expertise in particular industries in a way that the Indians can't yet match.
Even Indian tech leaders are impressed. "At one time, I thought we'd be fortunate, and they wouldn't be able to deal with the shift. But they really embraced it," says Pramod Bhasin, chief executive of Genpact, the top player in Indian business process outsourcing.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Whuddathunkit?
Remember the hysteria in the 80s at Japanese imports etc? US ingenuity and grit beat them at their game. The US ma well find a solution to the China problem and the India challenge too, on its own terms.
Accenture is famous for milking the customer for all they are worth.
They have taught their business practices to the Indians. The ones I had were great at a song and a dance, but less good at actually writing code.
Many of their employees, both here and in India, are glorified salesmen. I had three programmers, a customer-relations rep in India, and a sales rep in the US.
Japan: Honda, Toyota
US: Chrysler, Ford, GM
“Japan: Honda, Toyota
US: Chrysler, Ford, GM”
I see your point. Not sure if you see mine.
Honda and Toyota have de facto US firms now going by the investments and commitment they’ve putin here. The US co-opted the best car companies in the world.
What is happening in Banglore is even further. US firms are co-opting the best value for money IT skills into their own.
That's a victory?
Accenture sent some jobs to India to cut their costs because American labor is expensive. What a triumph.
Japanese car companies may have built factories and created jobs in the US (partly for political reasons), but they remain predominantly Japanese-owned and represent Japanese wealth. Now they are walking all over their American competition because throughout the past 30 years, they have consistently had smarter and more innovative management.
I’ve never been able to figure out how they stay in business - it certainly isn’t by word of mouth!
And their embracing the offshore model gives you the worst of both - slick ‘Leads’ who have Zero depth, and unaccountable off-shore hacks. Went through a 2 year implementation with them using this model. A year later, no one knows what they did.
That same statement jumped out at me, too. I have not experienced high-quality Indian outsourcing. At best, it's only one out of 10 Indian consultants who can measure up, in my experience.
Actually, now that I think about it . . . isn’t Accenture HQ’d in Bermuda?
I agree - Accenture has done nothing for my company other than make money for themselves
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen
“Andersen Consulting saw a huge surge in profits during the decade. However, the consultants continued to resent transfer payments they were required to make to Arthur Andersen. In August 2000 the conclusion of the International Chamber of Commerce granted Andersen Consulting its independence from Arthur Andersen, but awarded the $1.2 billion in past payments (held in escrow pending the ruling) to Arthur Andersen, and declared that Andersen Consulting could no longer use the Andersen name. As a result Andersen Consulting changed its name to Accenture on New Year’s Day 2001.”
I have worked with Accenture (Arthur Andersen) many times. They suck. I made a lot of money fixing their mistakes. I cannot believe people hire these people. The had at least four major projects in Connecticut they failed miserably, but it is Connecticut.
We have had much better experiences with Cognizant. Most of their people seem to be fairly competent.
“I’ve never been able to figure out how they stay in business - it certainly isn’t by word of mouth!
Like I said, they’re all basically salesmen. The important part of a consulting company is getting the contract. If you can get the contract, you can make money. Doing the work is strictly secondary.
OK.
You win.
So Accenture shouldn’t have gone into India and used India’s strengths against the Indian outsourcers.
Doing nothing, or doing more of whatever they were doing here, was smarter perhaps?
The Indian outsourcers were like a few 100 $million 5 yrs ago and are already in the low $billions now. If the IBMs and the Accentures wait another 10 yrs, the Indians will grow too large to trample. They have low costs and decent quality at that price point. Slowly but surely, business would have gone there, whether we like it or not.
But hey, you’d rather have us going protectionist or worse, Luddite, no? You’re welcome to your opinions, as I am to mine.
/Have a nice day.
“That’s a victory?”
Of a sort.
Its better than those 35k jobs going to Indians working for Indian outsourcers, no?
Business will find a way to get to ‘low-cost decent quality’ regions one way or another. So what do you suggest America do about it? I’d rather we go in and use their strengths against them. No?
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