And miles more to capture…

Rajinder Singh, Senior Vice President & Head of Global Analytics Services, Genpact, who has earlier held various consulting and leadership roles in the US, Germany and India speaks to Rahat Bano on the gargantuan opportunities offered by KPO.

It’s a sphere untapped and India, the current leader in knowledge process outsourcing, has a “positive” chance to capture the gargantuan opportunities it offers, says Rajinder Singh, Senior Vice President & Head of Global Analytics Services, Genpact.

Excerpts from an interview with Singh, who has earlier held various consulting and leadership roles in the US, Germany and India.

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What does the future hold for India’s KPO sector?
It’s extremely positive. We have not even scratched the surface. MIS reporting, financial spreading, demand forecast for the manufacturing industry, inventory optimisation, M&A deal valuations, pricing, capital allocation…the opportunities are huge. This is the third wave of globalisation.

On a scale of 10, how much in your view has India realised its potential in this sphere?
Two.

What are the new areas of work being outsourced to India’s KPO units?
Capital allocation, pricing, customer loyalty management are recent.

Where on the value chain is India and NCR? Who are its competitors in the global market?
India has the lion’s share in the world. It has the supply of the right kind of talent and the English language capability. China is a distant second but it’s coming up as Chinese people are learning the English language.

Gurgaon, Delhi (NCR) is as attractive as Bangalore, Chennai or Mumbai and now since recently, Kolkata. Compared to Delhi other metros are equally competitive. And these days people are pretty mobile.

What are the challenges and issues before the country’s KPO sector?
People are not spending enough time to develop their expertise. They work on the technical side. There are two things. One, domain expertise, be it in banking, pharmaceuticals, commercial banking, manufacturing, and so on.

Two, technical skills: can you do good research, financial modelling and so on? People can get good at the technical side because companies provide them training. You’ve got to develop domain expertise. But employees don’t stick around. That’s value lost…

Besides, the quality of people should continue to be high. Institutes should continue to produce high quality people.