Dreams Rebooted

Meet Manoj Madhu—sudanan. Manoj is a mechanical engineer from IIT-Madras.
After a brief stint of one year at Infosys, he joined XLRI, Jamshedpur in 1998.
In 2001, he joined Accenture and worked in strategy and process consulting for
four years. Now, that's quite a career graph. Manoj is currently a Team
Manager at Evalueserve. Come again. Did I read that correct? Evalueserve, what?

The outsourcing story has unfolded over several episodes, each of which has
been riveting. After mundane and routine jobs, outsourcing has now moved to
high-end jobs, as knowledge process outsourcing becomes its latest face.
Evalueserve, a knowledge process outsourcing company or a KPO, that's how the
company likes to be identified, is the largest in India to identify and capture
the opportunity in the high-end outsourcing space. The ambit of knowledge
services typically spans areas like Business Research, Market Research,
Investment Research, Data Analytics and intellectual Property.

Matching aspirations

Manoj Madhusudanan is not a standalone example in knowledge services
industry. Players, both large and small, employ MBAs, engineers, doctors,
lawyers and top-notch professionals. So what's drawing highly qualified
professionals to the industry? Let's understand Madhusudan's work profile to
find the answer. Madhusudanan leads a team of 15-20 people (the number varies
from project to project) in Business Research, deals with 78 clients on the
delivery side, takes recruitment decisions and handles PR activities for
Evalueserve. Says Ashish Gupta, country manager of the Gurgaon-based Evalueserve,
"Young people like challenges and excitement." Seconds Amit Bhatia,
CEO, WNS Knowledge Services, "Career growth is about speed today."
That's exactly the catch here. It's no longer enough to be working for the
most reputed company that's going to pay you some big bucks. Motivators in the
form of challenges that go far beyond your area of expertise and the ease and
flexibility of climbing the corporate ladder really fast are key
differentiators.

More The Merrier

Designations in the knowledge services industry are superfluous. The nature
of work defies strict hierarchies. Career graphs are well defined. Team
management skills also become critical here as team leaders are required to
manage teams they lead and that's a responsibility that traditional jobs are
not likely to offer so early in one's career. Says Evalueserve's Gupta,
"It is possible for a team manager to rise to the level of the assistant
vice president in just four years."

Most knowledge services companies encourage cross-functional shifts in
overlapping domains. For example, a professional in analytics services can move
to market research; a professional in legal research can move to intellectual
property research; a business research professional can move to business
consulting.

An XLRI-graduate and Accenture-veteran, he leads a team of 15-20 depending on the project he handles. He takes recruitment decisions and handles PR activities in addition to Business Research.  Manoj Madhusudanan, 31, Team Manager, Evalueserve An IIM Calcutta graduate with stints at J&J and Godrej Tea. She opines that traditional marketing jobs are completely male-dominated and too intimidating. B Vijayalakshmi, 29, Team Manager, Evalueserve This doctor and MTech in Bio-medical engineering from IIT is convinced that Evalueserve would help him realize his dream of filing his own patent. Rahul Verma, 29, Senior Research Associate, Evalueserve This management graduate moved from business research to market research, an opportunity that may not be easily available in conservative sectors. Pankaj Bhatija, 27, Associate, WNS Knowledge Services After stints at CNBC and AT Kearney, this Journalism graduate is now in business research, and also handle sales & marketing. She opines traditional consulting is too structured. Sharmila Sengupta, 25, Associate, WNS Knowledge Services

Most KPO professionals get to handle multiple responsibilities. Sharmila
Sengupta of WNS, who quit AT Kearney to join WNS, opines that traditional
consulting is too structured. At WNS, Sengupta is an analyst who also handles
sales and marketing. Says Bhatia of WNS, "Knowledge services are a nascent
domain and most organizations are not rigidly structured." Says Gupta of
Evalueserve, "We try to synthesize individual skills and give our employees
a great work profile."

People issues, no doubt, are critical to these companies. WNS' Bhatia
opines, "Knowledge services professionals need to be treated differently.
We try to put a personal touch to employee management." The industry
especially bears well with women who come from traditionally male-dominated
sectors.

B Vijayalakshmi, a team manager at Evalueserve, did not find her stints at
Johnson & Johnson and Godrej Tea particularly overwhelming, post an MBA from
IIM-Calcutta.

Compensation and perks in knowledge services are comparable to traditional
industries. Says Dilip Srivastava, VP, HR of Office Tiger, that specializes in
offshore equity research, "Compensation has to be competitive enough to
draw people with the right skill sets." Warns Bhatia of WNS,
"Knowledge services companies do not deal with starry-eyed graduates, who
are looking to make some quick pocket money." Entry-level salaries for
someone who can statistically analyze data are around Rs 3 lakh per annum. At
the middle level, salaries depend on the volume of work, the size of the team
and the level of analysis. Someone responsible for the results of an analysis
could draw in the region of Rs 9 lakh. Says Ashish Gupta of Evalueserve,
"Average salaries is in the range of Rs 3-8 lakh."

On The Learning Curve

WNS runs a Knowledge Services University in Pune where every recruit has to
undergo training. Says Amit Bhatia of WNS, "Investment bankers in India are
at most merchant bankers." Questions Gupta of Evalueserve, "How many
CAs in India are conversant with US GAAP?" Says Srivastava of Office Tiger,
"Knowledge services professionals get to interact with international
clients and get exposure to global practices."

For specific client projects, knowledge services firms conduct both onshore
and offshore trainings. Onshore training requires training team leaders at
overseas client locations, which works as a great incentive. Companies also
encourage employees to go on sabbaticals to pursue higher studies which are
sometimes sponsored by the company.

Attrition remains a challenge, but is lower-in the range of 10-15%- than
BPOs. Says Gupta of Evalueserve, "A significant proportion of employees
quit because of personal problems." Adds Srivastava of Office Tiger,
"We are often unable to relocate an employee as most firms operate out of
single locations." Nevertheless, maintaining the demand-supply equation is
not an issue with most knowledge services companies. Asserts Bhatia of WNS,
"People attract people. Our existing employees act as reference points for
the company."

The knowledge services industry is gradually emerging as a platform for some
of the best brains that dare to dream, take up challenges that go beyond
traditional cushy jobs and are always hungry for more. Way to go!

Bhaswati Chakravorty
in New Delhi