Call Center Mumbai in the news!

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Call Center, India | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Call Center Mumbai in the news
 
Call Centers in Mumbai vs. Rat Catchers
The Chicago Sun Times stated in November 2010 that a rat killer in Mumbai makes $271 while a Mumbai Call Center employee makes $338 as an entry level employee and claims that the competition for rat killing jobs is tough.  Indian call center jobs are now being outsourced to the Philippines, but there is no way to outsource rat catching jobs.  So, unless there is an influx of foreign born cats coming to Mumbai, the rat catchers are safe… for now.
 
“Outsourced” and real Mumbai Call Centers
The TV show Outsourced is really funny.  I watch each episode at least four times on hulu.com and love each and ever character.  Each persona is loveable, interesting, and hillarious.  But a real life Mumbai Call Center would be dull and boring in comparison.  I remember visiting a Vashi call center in Navi Mumbai (over the bridge from the Bombay peninsula). There would be the bored looking security guard in a dull uniform, the gray concrete buildings, the endless honking, unhappy people in a hurry to come to work.  I wish that real call center employees could be as delightful as on Outsourced!  The one call center employee I remember from real life was a girl in the Philippines who was entralled by the fact that I “Flew over her” on my way to India.  She asked me to wave hi next time I fly over the Philippines. I promised that I would!  I think this sort of charm should be integrated into the job.  Adding humor and personality makes a wonderful bridge between far away people.
 
Spiegel online’s article about India by day America by night discusses issues inside a Mumbai Call Center.  Call Center employees are encouraged to develop American accents and personalities. These employees live as Indians by day, and Americans by night.  The article claims that eligible English speaking call center call center employees are in shorter and shorter supply and that Mumbai call centers and Delhi Call Centers are trying to attract Europeans who are recent college grads to work overseas with them for a year. 
 
In the film “John & Jane”, a lady named Naomi is in her final state of Westernization.  She had bleached hair and bleached skin and spoke with an accent that somewhat resembled a Texan accent.  My point is that if you don’t live in a particular culture, then you are not part of it.  I can fake an accent from any part of the world, but I am only part of the cultures that I spend time in, and I spend more time in some and less time in others.  
 
What disturbed me is on domestic flights in India, I am always bumping into these falsely Westernized girls.  There is the fake sounding British accent, and the unwillingness to acknowledge Indian tradition.  Real Westerners who go to India know Indian tradition. We don’t always relate to it or like it, but we don’t pretend not to know what Chai is, and we don’t bleach our skin if we have a dark complexion — except for certain pop singer(s) who recently passed away who do the moon walk. We don’t pretend that no Indians have arranged marriages anymore.  There is a subculture of Indians with foreign samskaras who feel they are “too good to be Indian.” They love the airline, film, and bar industry. Their attitude is completely un-Indian, but equally un-Western and is often stuck-up.  They are in a neither here neither there sort of a cultural niche — the antithesis of being bi-cultural.  If they really want to be American, they should live with us, and become Westernerized in a real way, and stop pretending.

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My worst business mistakes were because of attachments

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

I was thinking about this the other day. Have I ever let a customer down? Have I ever damaged a client? The answer is that there have only been a few mistakes that I have made in my life that cause a tiny financial damage to clients. Perhaps the worst case might have been US$50 which is comparitively nothing. However, I have cost myself a lot of money. And the financial losses came from bad business decisions that resulted from attachments.

If I have been working with someone for a long time, my tendency was to continue with them no matter if they wanted to go farther, if they were capable, or if they didn’t have the right people for the right job. My loyalty or attachment kept me dealing with people who might have been right in the past for certain tasks, but were not necessarily right in the future. I felt like I was committing adultery to use other service providers for tasks that they did. What I learned is that at particular companies, there are some employees who did miraculous work, and others who simply were not worth working with at all.

On one deal, I probably paid US$10,000 more than I would have if I had found a better programmer at some other company. I didn’t realize that the programmer was on their way down and going through some personal issues. The personal issues effected that person’s work. I saw the warning signs but ignored them because I was loyal to that company.

My new strategy is to realize how much there is to lose by letting emotions get in the way. I now have an algorithm to calculate who to hire and why. Loyalty gets 5 points, but not a fraction of a point more. Loyalty has its place, but can not be blown out of proportion.

My advice is — don’t make mistakes by clinging on to your habits, and clinging on to providers that you are comfortable with — make decisions based on a complicated integration of information and calculations instead!

You might need a PhD to understand what I just said. I’m not sure if even I understand what I just said!

Should Americans Provide Outsourcing Services?

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Should Americans provide outsourcing services?
 
I think it would be a great exercise to have Americans set up outsourcing services, or mock simulated outsourcing business models to understand the metrics of land, labor, and other costs involved in staying competitive in a global market.  What people will quickly find out, is that to stay ahead, you have to either be really cheap, really efficient, really good, or really sophisticated.  
 
Its not all about price!
People around the world think that business is mainly about price competition, and nothing could be farther from the truth.  If you go to the supermarket, the lower cost yogurt sits on the shelf while Yoplait gets hoarded.  Yoplait probably costs more than double ounce per ounce, but you can’t get people to stop buying it . Why?   It tastes good, its drinkable, fashionable, and comes in a cool container — thats why.  People want what they want and are willing to pay more to get what they want than a boring bare-bones standardized product.  i-phones are selling off the shelf while simpler phones that could be sold for $10 at a profit don’t even exist at shops anymore.  People want fancy stuff and couldn’t care less about saving money, and that includes the poor too.
 
So, if an American company tried to compete with all of these foreign outsourcing businesses in the international market, how would we compete?  What would we do?  Competing on price would be futile, but there are many other ways to compete.
 
Languages.  Every language known to mankind (and some not known) is spoken in America.  Setting up global services that are multi-lingual with native speakers would be easy here due to the availability of prospective staff members
 
Speed.  Normally Americans go slow and want to be unavailable during lunch, but what if we devised ways to be lightening quick like Domino’s Pizza.  Then we would have a niche.  What if we had a web development system where websites could be designed, optimized, and marketed all in the time frame of 72 hours?  If the system delivered quality work in that time frame, companies would pay through the nose for that type of service.
 
Sophistication.  What if American companies thought of extra features and niceties to add to regular services to make them more attractive?  We might be able to easily compete with overseas companies just because the services were so pleasant to use.
 
Partnering.  What if American companies partnered with overseas companies (many larger ones already do) to take advantage of affordable labor and combine it with American Ingenuity?
 
Land.  What if American companies figured out how to get staff members to be in a place with really inexpensive land and were able to establish low cost BPO services there — perhaps in a place like Tulsa or Memphis which are some of the lowest cost metros in the states.  With such low land and labor costs, companies would easily be able to compete on an international level.
 
Technology.  What if American companies got even better at using automization, robotics and other technologies, so we could compete with India.  If were were twice as efficient as the Japanese, we could compete even with our high labor costs.
 
American salaries are high, and to keep these high salaries in a global market place we have to merit them.  Money is a gift from god, but the gift is not just given without terms.  You have to merit the money (or have really good karma), or god isn’t going to keep giving it.

On a final note, India is getting really expensive, and the general inefficiencies of the country prevent them from competing with America in the long run.  As India gets more expensive, it will be easier for America to compete with them.

The current status of American culture: a lack of work ethic

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The current status of American culture in 2014: a lack of work ethic

America gets a D
I am sad to say this, but America has lost its work ethic. Asia is the place with great work ethic, but due to very unstable economic, political, and environmental conditions, Asia will continue to experience major problems. Americans who I have encountered in the work world are either overburdened, or completely irresponsible and lazy. America will not be able to hold its title of being #1 if these habits don’t change.

My generation born in the late 60’s or early 70’s at least grew up in a time when families were together and people took pride in their work. Although this has substantially fallen apart since the mid-80’s, at least we saw society when it was somewhat intact. The younger kids are part of the A.D.D. generation. I don’t use the terms Z, Y, or millenials. People jump from channel to channel, tweet to tweet, job to job, etc. Education and family values don’t see to be valued as much although a higher percentage of people seem to be going to college. Families are falling apart, and a high percentage of teenagers have sexually transmitted diseases.

When I try to hire people in America to work for me, they either take me on as a client and then don’t do any work, or they just don’t get back to me. It doesn’t matter how much I pay, people are not so interested in working. I also find that standards for quality of work are very low. People don’t respect deadlines either. I tried to hire bloggers, but they want very high prices for what seems to me to be very mediocre work that will not attract traffic to my blogs. So, I am stuck being very busy doing my writing myself.

India gets a D-
Indians want to work. But, most of them lack the education to really be able to do any meaningful work. Most people looking for work make about three spelling mistakes per sentence. Nobody with any standards would be able to hire more than 1% of the applicants. It is very sad. Indian companies tend to be very impersonal about how they handle clients. The focus is on “the requirements,” and contracts rather than tuning in to how the client feels and what they want. If you visit them in person, the boss will be hospitable to you and get to know you, but the others generally will not. By the time you get to know the workers assigned to your project they will either quit or be on maternity leave. The Indian work ethic is there, but it is short-sighted and sloppy. People are out for short term gains, and very little attention is given to professionalism and quality of work.

Eastern Europe gets a D+
Russia and Eastern Europe offer higher class outsourcing. But, I have noticed that it takes them about three times as long as American workers to do the same thing. Hour padding seems to be cultural with them, but it is not acceptable to me as it is not honest or reputable.

China gets F
China has been in a mad rush to make money. They built lots of factories too fast, and now their factories are not close to being fully utilized. It is typical for Chinese companies to put very toxic chemicals and lead in their manufactured goods. Imagine buying children’s toys that children put in their mouths and learning that it is toxic and could lead to brain damage. This kind of recklessness is why China is experiencing a lot of impediments to their growth. Since they routinely fudge their numbers for economic growth, it is hard to know if they are growing or not. They would grow a lot faster if there would be a shred of concientiousness. Additionally, China has salted its soil with chemicals. It will not be able to use a large proportion of its farmland due to reckless use of chemicals. The air is filled with toxic chemicals as very dangerous materials are burned in areas where people live. Additionally, the water is very polluted with dangerous toxic materials. More than half of Chinese over the age of 50 have cancer which is due highly to the toxicity in the area. Why such a highly cultured nationality would trash its own country is beyond me, but I am very sad as I am a lover of Chinese culture and have been since early childhood.

Additionally, China reserves the right to take intellectual property in some shape or form from companies that do business with them. Since they are such a humongous market, companies feel compelled to agree to whatever terms China wants. But, these days, many large companies are pulling out of China because China likes to set the rules of who controls what, and who they will hire, and a bunch of other factors that I am not familiar enough to tell you about. Is it worth it to give up your freedom to get into a big market and be completely at the mercy of a much more powerful entity? Many companies are saying no and are jumping off the bandwagon.

Communication skills at Chinese companies are abysmal. Trying to get programming work done with them is a nightmare. I expect that since Chinese are so motivated to get ahead, that in a few years they will become superstars of the hi-tech world. But, how many years will it take? That is a question that’s answer will unravel over time. I would expect that after 2020, China will be far in the lead for software outsourcing. We’ll see if my prediction comes true!

Does anyone get an A?
Japan unfortunately doesn’t do outsourcing. But, I had the pleasure of having a green tea donut in Little Tokyo here in Los Angeles. I will say that Japanese are the only culture that I would use as a role model. People were very nice to me and engaged me in small talk. The fact that they knew English was a huge perk. But, during our conversation, if a customer walked in, their attention would go to greeting the new customer. There was no delay. It took them less than a second to jump into action. This type of emphasis on being considerate and timely is a huge attribute that only the Japanese have as a culture. I think that the rest of the world needs to learn from Japan. Maybe we should learn to bow too — it couldn’t hurt.

The BPO across the border

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged | Leave a comment

Before the drug war in Mexico, it was popular for Americans to cross the border in search of fun, sun, good margaritas, tacos, and a generally good time. Unfortunately, if you go to Mexico now, you might end up being caught in the cross-fire. Mexico in reality has not really been safe since the 1950’s, but took a turn for the worse with all of the cartels causing so much trouble. Putting danger aside, let’s talk about the long term possibilities here.

The United States has a 1951 mile long border with Mexico. It is hard for workers to get visas to enter the United States. It is easy to get into Mexico. They don’t even check you when you enter the country. Imagine if outsourcing companies were set up right on the Mexican side of the border. You could import workers from India, The Philippines, The Ukraine, and anywhere else you want. Management could live on the US side of the border, but drive across every day to go to work, or stay in a short-term corporate housing situation.

There are countless places along this long border where there is an American city and a sister city in Mexico. San Ysidro, Mexicali, Yuma, Nogales, Brownsville, Laredo, and El Paso to name a few. The majority would probably be in Texas, but there are a few in other areas.

It might be very profitable in the long run to set up these types of operations. You get the benefit of American management and foreign labor, right within yelling distance of comfortable American metro areas! It is surprising that nothing like this has ever been tried to my knowledge. Maybe one day it will be tried. Keep in mind that this is not the least expensive way to create an outsourcing operation. Mexico is not the cheapest place for manufacturing, labor, or anything else (except for avocados). However, Mexico does offer the convenience of proximity, and a culture that is compatible with American culture (to a point), not to mention that their language is spoken by 10% of American citizens!

So, why not start a BPO right across the Rio Grande. It is worth a shot!

Tweets:
(1) Why not start a BPO right across the Rio Grande?
(2) Cross the border for a taco, margarita, or BPO outsourcing company w/a call center?

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KPO India News

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

KPO India News
 
Gujarat IT Growth
According to the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), Gujarat will experience significant IT growth in the next ten years.  The improved IT infrastructure and education are the reasons why this is possible. Land, is also more affordable in Gujarathi metros than the four large Indian metros making it a more cost effective place to do business.  90% of IT services work in India are done in the top six IT cities in India such as Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune.  The indications are that in the future, more growth will be occuring in more modest sized cities in India.
 
India-Russia Forum
The Fouth India-Russia Forum on Trade & Investment hosted many discussions about investment and trade between the two giants.  News regarding India KPO companies cooperating with Russia were that both countries should cooperate and collaborate in the establishment of techno-parks, BPO, KPO, IT, and Tememedicine.   Both countries were pleased with their progress in pharmaceuticals.   Industrial cooperation discussions included the two nation’s long history of cooperation in the steel industry and modernizing their pursuits.  Banking, finance, trade and investment were other issues on the table. 
 
Tholons
Bangalore is still the overall outsourcing city in the world according to Tholons with Manila was called the BPO Capital of the world.  Krakow, Poland and Beijing, China were the leading emerging cities.   Tholons is an advisory for investments and research for IT, business services, and KPO. India has the highest concentration of KPOs in the world.  Another interesting point made was that Tier-II cities in established outsourcing countries are now encountering fierce competition from newer outsourcing countries in Eastern Europe, and Latin America.  Other articles have indicated that the quality of the typical skill sets of workers really vary from place to place.  Some nations have a large workforce with great technical skills, while others are better at communication, or manufacturing.

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Delhi LPO in the news

September 8, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Delhi LPO in  the News
 
Delhi is the capital of the Indian LPO industry.  Legal Process Outsourcing is one of the fastest growing outsourcing specialties in India.  The growth rate is so phenonimal, that American attorneys with many levels of experience are applying for jobs in epic proportions to Delhi LPO companies. The majority of American attorneys applying for work in Delhi are less experienced ones who would be functioning as Junior Attorneys
 
LPO Watch
There is a new online magazine that converns itself with the LPO industry called LPO Watch. This new publication will have articles about the LPOs in Delhi and other parts of India.  This magazine is available from kpoconsultants.com.
 
High End LPO Services
Intellextra is unique in its offering of higher end Delhi LPO services while most other LPOs focus on work typically done by junior attorneys in U.S. law firms.  They specialize in legal drafting and research among other things.  But, now, they are also offering specialized KPO services such as accounting, finance, Legal Process Outsourcing training, HR, and web development.  
 
Global LPO conference
On November 13th and 14th, 2010 there was a global LPO conference held in Delhi, India. 150-200 key execusives from around the world came together to network and discuss ways to enhance the legal outsourcing industry and keep competitive on a global level.

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Do you have a good salesperson at your company?

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Sales | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Hiring a good salesperson can be expensive. And they don’t grow on trees either — at least not the good salespeople. Most of my friends complain that when they hire a new company, the salesperson makes a huge impression on them, and then the workers let them down consistantly. Having a good salesperson alone doesn’t make your company successful. In the long run, it is the quality of your work and communication that will grow your business. But, a good salesperson can give you that turbo-boost that you desperately need.

When people build an expensive house in America, they make sure that the value of the house is proportional to the value of the land. I forget how many percent the land is supposed to be of the overall cost — maybe it was 60%. If you hire a million dollar salesman and have workers who you pay pennies, you will gain great clients and lose them faster than you can say — aloo-gobhi-paratha. On the other hand, if you have great workers and a lousy salesman, you will RETAIN your clients very well, and your company will grow by REFERRALS in the long run. So, pay your sales force proportionately to what you pay your workers. Sales people generally get paid more than workers, but keep it proportionately more (whatever that means to you).

If you can’t afford a full time super salesperson, then perhaps you can get a freelancer, or part time person. What arrangement you make is not even that important. The main thing is that you train someone who will hopefully stick with your company for a long time and get you lots of clients. And you will reward them with great commissions, compliments, and a few samosas as well. If I were the salesperson, you can skip the compliments and go straight for the samosas!

Most companies have nobody good answering their phones if they answer at all. It is important not to have to wait for a salesperson. If I am calling 20 companies, I want a salesperson NOW. Generally, with 20 calls, I can reach 3 salespeople, and get a few return calls. They always return calls when I am too busy to talk. If you want to attract business, be FREE when I am available to talk, so I can call you and get you! Since people are so busy, it makes sense to hire extra people and train them to do sales. You need a crackerjack answering your phone if you want sales.

I have someone really smart answering my phones, and she just broke a sales record of all time. She gets better over the years (9 years so far) and this September beat all other Septembers in a decade. Sales have always been spectacular with her, but now they are in a new level altogether. Does my experience sound like your company’s experience? No? Then, hire a good salesperson today!

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Outsourcing your blog while sipping coffee

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I’m reading someone else’s blog about blogging. He says you can outsource your blogging to freelancers and sip coffee while the profits come in. When I read business books written by others, the theme is often how to make money without doing anything. That is the goal. But, in real life, that goal rarely presents itself at the beginning of your endeavor — which is generally the time you would spend reading blogs for inspiration. Sure, once you have outsourced all of your work and have more time, then you might do more blog reading because you have the time to do so. So, what’s the catch?

To develop a successful blog takes years of hard work, and most blogs don’t “take” so to speak. Most blogs never attract mass amounts of regular traffic no matter what the blog manager does. If you do nurture your blog to fruition and have 100,000 visitors per month, you can consider yourself hugely successful. I am nowhere near that level, but maybe one day. I am in niche markets where big traffic is not possible. But, my new blog is a travel blog which is widely popular in all countries — so, that one has a chance.

After you build your successful blog, which very few people will be able to claim to do, then you can think about outsourcing the work. If you start the blog rich, then you can hire others to build it, but if you are building your way to the top like the rest of us (starting modestly,) then you start by building it yourself.

Building your blog yourself is necessary, otherwise you will not know how to assess the quality of other bloggers, or instruct them in how you want your blogs written. If you hire the wrong people to help you write blogs, you could lose all of your traffic in a few weeks or months. So, before hiring others, assess their work by measuring traffic patterns in your blog while they are posting regularly. You need to take into consideration what happens if your newly hired help quits, or stops caring. You might need multiple tested people to help you out with your blog so that you always have resources. But, if you build your blog yourself, and hire “tried and true” helpers to continue your empire, THEN, you can make money while sipping espressos on your yacht off the coast of the Riviera. Basically what I’m saying is that you can live the dream, but building up to the point where you are riding on momentum could take many years of hard work as well as luck (and good karma.)

Tweet:
(1) Building your blog yourself is necessary, otherwise you will not know how to assess the quality of other bloggers
(2) Building your blog yourself is necessary, otherwise you will not know how to instruct others to help you write.

Diversity — a personal story

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: America | Tagged , | Leave a comment

This story begins in early childhood. It really has a lot to do with my family’s history. Both of my parents lived in very international settings and were a strong influence in my life. Most Americans only know American culture. Even Americans who have been living side by side with other cultural groups for years seem to know very little about their non-Anglo neighbors.

My father grew up in San Francisco and his entire family loved Asian cultures. As a child, I heard many stories about Japanese culture, Chinese cuisine, and my father even knew how to write many Chinese characters. He taught me how to count to ten in two different Southern Chinese dialects. I learned how to use chopsticks early on as well. I “forced” or coerced my father to teach me the ancient Chinese game of “Go” or wei-chi (baduk in Korean). He was an expert at the game, and after many years of struggle, I too became a fairly decent player — although not as good as he was even after 37 years of playing. It is hard to compete intellectually with a father who was an MIT graduate.

My mother incidently also had a lot of family members in the San Francisco area, but had a completely different cultural orientation. I learned about the Arabic culture, as she grew up in an Arabic speaking country. I also became acquainted with Indians (Hindustanis) and Indian spirituality which has been a huge plus in my life. Since my mother lived in New York for many years, she was living very closely to Spanish speaking people at a time where very few other parts of America had any hispanics.

So, the influence of the two sides of the family connected me to a wide variety of very rich cultures — and it was fascinating. As a child, I had the opportunity of meeting people from around the world. This really shaped my life in many ways. In my University days, I had even more opportunities to meet even more people from even more places. I had never met Africans before I went to college, and I have many fond memories of all of the African parties I went to, and how nice the music and food was too.

An interest, or a means for survival?
In the beginning, I thought that understanding diversity was merely an interest. Connecting with cultures that meant something to me was a passion, but I didn’t see it as being important for my life. I thought that America was 90% culturally American, and that the others just lived in separated areas, or were scattered throughout the mainstream. This was 30 years ago when I was having the thought that understanding diversity was merely fascinating. America has changed, and the world has changed. The world is very connected these days. People travel from country to country much more often these days than ever before. International travel used to be the leisure of the upper class, but now it is something even the poor do from time to time. The demographics of America have changed tremendously, and continue to change. When I was a child, whites were more than 80% of the population. NOW, whites represent less than 50% of the birthrate. The diverse people are now destined to be the majority — and understanding them is my key to survival in the world today. As an example, I went to a wine tasting yesterday in Los Angeles — not a cultural event — but, 90% of the people there were non-anglos. Without a thorough understanding of diversity, it would have been hard to interact with anyone there!

Additionally, for my future, my psychic has told me many times that he sees a brilliant career in international trade between various Asian and Middle Eastern countries. I hope he is right. We will find out.

It has not all been a walk in the park
The down side of diversity, is that I often feel lonely. I live in a very diverse place, but find that people are not so friendly to you if you are not from their group. This has been the case since early childhood, when I was often rejected by people from other communities…

My friend came up with a brilliant saying which I will remember forever. He said this to me…

“You like diversity, but diversity doesn’t like you”

BPO Bangalore – in the news!

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

BPO Bangalore in the news
 
 
On Dec 19th, 2010 it was reported on expressbuzz that a Dell Bangalore BPO employee named Payal Sureka was murdered.  The murderer has still not been found.
 
Infosys BPO now has a 24 hour reaction team that addresses their Bangalore BPO employees grievances in real time.  Routes are planned so that female employees are not picked up first or dropped off last for safety reasons. Security will also accompany female BPO employees when necessary. Self-defence classes are also available for employees for a comprehensive safety regime! 
 
Wipro has a transportation plan that is meticulously followed. Drivers are not allow to report to a female’s house without a security escort and may not deviate from their set route. Drivers who break the rules are fired.
 
My experience with India is that there is either complete chaos or fascist style overly stringent and overly enforced rules.  Moderation can never be found.  However it is relieving news to know that women are finally being protected in India, at least if they work for a BPO! Bangalore is wealthier per capita than most other parts of India, but unnecessary tragedies keep happening in the news regarding women traveling alone.
 
The problem is that enforcing rules in India is hard.  Managers at companies will easily overlook safety rules to save time unless they are forced to comply, so force is a necessary component of safety.  There was even talk from the women and child development ministry of jail time for executies who don’t comply with safety guidelines.
 
For safety its good to have the same driver every single day.  The problem is when they need to be replaced due to having a sick day, or leaving the company.  Replacement drivers account for a lot of the harrassment cases. Another issue is that many companies don’t check criminal records or background check employees.  The sensible thing to do is to create an online database of drivers so that input could be added by passengers as to the quality of their service.  The government or private enterprise could easily sponser such a program and hire a moderator for the database.  Databases are not expensive and are highly effective ways to share information on the internet.

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Can you buy initiative?

September 7, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

After trying to deal with company after company, getting people who won’t even return a phone call to save their own lives. I ask myself this question: How do you get people to take initiative? Can a good leader get people to take initiative? Can you bribe people just to do their damn jobs? It is unbelievable how difficult it is just to find someone who does their job. I am not talking about doing a great job, or even being nice about it.

I am surrounded by lazy and uncooperative people on all sides. There are people who do a good job, but will slack off the minute you stop watching them. There are others who rarely do what they said they would do. Then, there are the story switchers. On Monday they claim to have done x amount of work while on Tuesday the story changes.

Some companies feel that to get good workers there needs to be engagement, hope of advancement, fun, good salaries, and more. Statistically, these things work. But, what if you have a boring job with no hope of advancement because you run a small company. No matter how much you pay, it seems that nobody reliable will ever do that job. You will keep going from negligent person to negligent person until you finally offshore the job to Quezon City in the Philippines where at least you have a chance of getting your job done semi-correctly.

I hired programmers. I started with $100 per hour for a programmer who wouldn’t return emails or phone calls no matter what. Then he quit and I hired someone for $120 per hour who left me high and dry because he had another project. Then I offshored my project to India for $20 per hour and got people who couldn’t even function. Then, I tried an older American for $90 per hour who didn’t even start after six weeks. Next another younger American in Arizona for $85 who left four jobs half done and demanded payment. Next, I found someone in San Diego for $140 per hour who quit right after he began. Then, I found someone on Northern California for $145 who is really nice, but also doesn’t return phone calls or call at the appointed times.

For those of you who think that money motivates — money is only part of the picture. I’m not convinced I know what other factors are the other parts of the picture. I think that most people just are not motivated and there are not so many ways to motivate them other than fear of losing everything. Let us know if you have any suggestions for finding ways to get people to take the initiative and just do their job!