India's New Faces of Outsourcing

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/10/AR2006011001687.html?nav=rss_metro/va ^

[Arjun]

India's New Faces of Outsourcing High-Level Technicians Lead a Transcontinental Shift in Business Culture

By S. Mitra Kalita Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, January 11, 2006; Page A01

PUNE, India -- Before he supervised teams, wooed American clients over dinner or sat in a Northern Virginia boardroom alongside U.S. executives, Constancio Fernandes wrote computer code for a living.

That's how it started in the late 1990s -- American businesses ordered up software applications, and Indian programmers such as Fernandes dutifully delivered. But somewhere along the way, Fernandes became more confident and outspoken. He began questioning the Americans and suggesting cheaper, faster ways to run their businesses. They listened.

As Pune -- a fast-growing city near Mumbai -- emerges as an alternative center for high-tech firms and outsourcing by Western companies, it illustrates the clash between India's traditional culture and the rising skyline of its newly liberalized economy.

"Most of the companies in the U.S. used to see Indian companies as sweatshops," said Fernandes, 33, who began as a programmer but is now the director of engineering at Reston-based Approva Corp.'s offices here, supervising product-development teams, tracking projects and improving engineering techniques. "The changes have been phenomenal."

Fernandes represents a generation of Indian workers that is redefining outsourcing from call-center and back-office work into higher-level management and strategy jobs -- areas that Americans workers have often regarded as safe from overseas competition. As they climb higher in the corporate food chain in transnational firms, Indian workers and executives are pushing their U.S. counterparts to take them seriously, taking on greater responsibilities and subtly changing the corporate culture of both countries.

[VeniVidiVici]

The Japanese cleaned our clocks too back in the '80s.

Get in line.