Easy, Entertaining, Informative Read - Check It Out!

One of my favorite books of the last 12 months is Bangalore Tiger by Steve Hamm. I bought it when it first came out and couldn't put it down. Well written, it describes Indian Outsourcing firm Wipro (specifically) and gives a detailed review of what's behind Outsourcing / Globalization (in general). I definitely recommend reading it. I'd consider it required reading for anyone providing Outsourcing services to customers, and am disappointed when I see that it's lessons aren't applied.

One of the best takeaways I enjoyed is how Wipro pragmatically applied disciplined approaches to production and quality, and saw great results. Were there failures & setbacks in their approach? I'm sure - but they learned from them and re-adjusted their approach. The examples they highlighted really aligned with what I have seen first-hand from Wipro consultants CMM, Six Sigma and Lean Sigma provide a good framework and set of tools (much like ITIL does), but it takes some skill to understand when and how to apply what tools for what effect.

There are other great points conveyed throughout various chapters in the book - "Growth: Keep a Thousand Fires Burning", "Adopt Ultrastrict Ethics to Build a Sterling Brand", "Reward Employees with Recognition and Respect", "Measure Everything Constantly", "Plan Three Years Ahead to Prepare for Rapid Growth", "Adopt the Best Ideas, Then Make Them Your Own Way", "Be Obsessive About Customers"...and there are others...

It's not so much that there were a lot of new or novel insights in the book - and that's the point! Much of what I read I have read before elsewhere - and so has Wipro. Wipro has tried, applied and "refried" these ideas to affect a positive force for consistent growth at their company, growing from $500 Million USD in 2000, to realizing a market capitalization of more than $20 Billion USD 6 years later - surpassing EDS' market capitalization of $13 Billion at that time (now at $10.91 Billion USD, as of this writing).

"We have a feeling that the platform we're on, offshoring, with price arbitrage, is a burning platform. It's only good for a few more years," says Chief Strategy Officer Sudip Nandy. "We need to do things differently to compete against international competition." (p. 69)

Well said, and a point that is easily lost on American Nationalists worried about "offshoring of work" - which (I believe) is itself a myopic, misanthropic term that prejudices the speaker into an inaccurate way of thinking about how the nature of work is changing.