When GE decided to move its back-office operations to India five years ago,
no one imagined that it would go
on to create history. A success story that kickstarted a revolution in India’s
IT-enabled services segment, the company has become a benchmark for others to
emulate
The first thing that strikes you about GE India is its vast scale of
operations and pace of growth. From an employee base of about 600 in 1998 to
12,000 in 2002, the company has expanded phenomenally, especially in the last
4-5 years. Spread across three huge buildings in Gurgaon, GE’s teeming
population is part of India’s hottest industry segment–IT-enabled services (ITeS).
Being the first and the largest in the field, GE has not just contributed
significantly in terms of experience and knowledge, but has also served as a
breeding ground for several entrepreneurs and senior leaders in the industry.
However, like any pioneering venture, GE had to face initial hiccups. Finding
its way through India’s unfriendly bureaucracy and unstable political climate
and dealing with all the procedural hurdles while establishing its businesses,
GE managed to create a path of its own. "When we started, we had no set
business models to follow, no prior experience. All we had was a vision and a
huge amount of enthusiasm and energy to make it work," r
ecalls GE President
Pramod Bhasin.
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Getting started
When the Indian economy was opening up in the early nineties, GE started
operations with its commercial and consumer finance services. The latter, which
was a 50:50 joint venture with HDFC, was a dedicated auto finance company that
provided the much-needed consumer reach. Both these businesses helped GE Capital
establish its presence in the country. The next leap came when the company
entered the credit cards market through a joint venture with State Bank of India
(SBI) in 1998. The first ever tie-up between a multinational company and a
nationalized bank, this boosted GE’s brand equity further.
Once it had established a firm footing with its commercial businesses, GE
began exploring other potential areas for expansion. "India was seen as an
emerging economy. Although we already had a presence in the country, we wanted
to explore more business opportunities," says Bhasin. It was only in late
1996 that GE decided to launch remote processing services to carry out back
office work for a number of GE businesses in the US. The idea, which germinated
at an internal brain storming session, was driven by a simple rationale– The
company wanted to leverage India’s high skilled English speaking, educated
workforce to run a low-cost, back-office operation. The initial plan involved
attacking non-core processes such as data entry and card collections.
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Building the team
The company had to build a team from scratch. Here it faced a peculiar
problem. When it started hiring, it realized there weren’t many people with
relevant experience. "There were some players like American Express and
British Airways, but they were operating in limited areas. They never thought of
running it as a business or doing it at a larger scale," recalls GE
business leader Rakesh Chopra.
The company decided to look for people with at least some kind of back office
experience, either in India or overseas. This could be in finance, insurance
services or the distribution industry. In areas where it couldn’t find the
right people, it looked for surrogates. For instance, if it couldn’t find
people who had managed call centers, it took those who had experience in
managing large teams. If it didn’t find people who knew about dialers or other
relevant technologies, it found others who could read up and learn. Bhasin
explains, "We went to the hotel industry, courier services and airlines to
find out how they worked, how they managed their logistics and how that learning
could be utilized to build our operations."
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A massive effort went into building the team. Hiring over 50 managers and 500
associates per month was a mammoth task. The need for integration and training
of the workforce added to the challenges. People had to be acclimatized with the
global work culture. Allan H Kennel, senior VP-HR, says, "If you are
operating in a global environment, it is important to have a global business
perspective. You need to understand your customer well."
Training and development
For acquiring customers, a team of relationship managers was recruited to
talk to GE businesses worldwide, encouraging leaders to visit India. The idea
was to familiarize them with the quality of people and their capabilities in
terms of handling business processes remotely. The senior managers were sent
overseas and provided with rigorous orientation, etiquette, voice and skill
training, contextual orientation, process, workflow and developmental coaching.
Right from the beginning, GE’s focus on training has been a differentiator.
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The company believes that if it can provide its employees with enough
opportunities for training and career development, they would not need to look
at frequent job changes for growth. "We employ every tactic possible for
retaining our good people, especially at the senior level. These range from
leadership programs and promotions to specific steps to address individual
needs," says Bhasin. A huge amount of money is spent on training and every
employee gets more than a month of training every year.
The company has also created systems and processes for guiding employees
through their career path. This includes identification of high performers or
potential leaders and assessment of the aptitude of every employee to provide
him with the necessary training. Employees are allowed to move to different
functional or operating roles, depending on their interests. "We encourage
cross movement within GE businesses for career growth. Not many companies would
offer you movement from medical systems to commercial to consumer businesses or
anything else," points out Bhasin. For employees who wish to enhance their
professional qualifications, the company has initiatives like the MBA program in
association with IMT and CPA certification through the American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants.
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Pressure to perform
From working in the middle of the night according to US work hours to
dealing with customers from a completely different cultural background, there
are a number of challenges. Chopra agrees, "You have to deal with varied
cultures. But it also gives you so much international exposure."
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If you are willing to put in that extra bit, this industry could offer you
tremendous growth opportunities. Many of the GE leaders, who have grown with the
company, are now enjoying the fruits of their work. "I feel I haven’t
reached that point in life where I can call it quits. It is the pace with which
you do things here and the growth, which keeps you on a high," says Anju
Talwar, GE business leader. Balancing family and work, however, could be a bit
tricky, especially for women. "If you don’t have a strong support back
home, it can become very difficult," says Talwar.
GE, GE everywhere
Success has its own disadvantages. While GE has set an example for other
ITeS players, it has also become a poaching ground for these companies. The
company had faced a bit of setback when Raman Roy moved out with a team of
handpicked GE managers to form his own company, Spectramind. But the company has
to be prepared to deal with such setbacks. Bhasin affirms that besides this
incident, there are very few senior managers who have left the company. Chopra
adds, "Yes, Spectramind is a huge success story. But it is probably the
only one to the best of my knowledge. Not many who moved out have been able to
achieve that kind of success. In fact, some have come back. I am not sure
whether any other company can offer the kind of growth that GE does."
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Whether it is the lure of more money, power or some more excitement, people
will find numerous reasons to move out. Controlling attrition rates while
operating in such a fast growing industry can be an arduous task. Even GE
realizes this.
"Everyone gets the impression that you have GE people floating
everywhere. Sure, this is bound to happen. You should also note that we have
12,000 people and if we assume an attrition rate of even 10 to 15%, you will see
over 1200 GE people in the market," says Bhasin.
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Five years ago, GE was the lone crusader of its cause, trying to prove its
mettle as a back office service provider. Today there are over 100 other
companies operating in this industry. GE has not only contributed in terms of
building an entire industry in India, it has also created brand equity for the
country. It has shown to the world that almost anything can be done in India.
The company is now busy expanding its front-end operations. It wants to
gradually move up the value chain, targeting higher-end processes, exploring
more options in the services arena. The ITeS industry in India is ready to take
off and GE wants to ensure it has a seat in the cockpit.
"We Had No Idea We Would Grow So
Big" -- Pramod Bhasin, President, GE Capital (Asian operation)
SHWETA VERMA in New Delhi