Outsourcing: Naresh Lakhanpal And Hiro Notaney Of Patni Computer Systems (Part 7)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: Do you think [this idea of being more about the human touch] is happening now? Because that also changes the way you sell and deliver services overall. Five years in the future, will the mix of delivery people and customer interface people going to change in terms of where they’re located, or do you think it will be similar to what are you looking at now? Most of your delivery capability is still in India, right?

Naresh: Yes.

Tony: So, do you think that there will be other areas that you’re going to expand into in terms of where your delivery resources will be based?

Naresh: Absolutely.

Hero: It’s already happening.

Naresh: We’ve done that here in North America. How many delivery sites do we have in India?

Hiro: I would say eight.

Naresh: Eight, and we probably have seven or eight in the U.S. now. That’s basically doubling the number in the U.S. in less than a year, and it’s because it’s the right thing to do for the market. Forget labor arbitrage, it’s really how about you address giving your customers what they need in appropriate manner. So, near-shore, on-shore, off-shore, off-site and on-site, it’s the customer’s choice. Customers can pick them all if they choose. My job, our job as a company, is to deliver what that customer is asking for in a manner that’s appropriate for them.

Tony: With customers, do you have a mix on-site, off-site, on-shore, off-shore, and near-shore?

Naresh: Absolutely. For some customers, they’re okay with everything being off-shore, some need this whole mix, and some say, I need to be able to pick up the phone and talk to somebody in my time zone. That’s not an issue for us because we have those capabilities.

Tony: Have you seen more competition over the past few years from non-Indian outsourcing companies in places such as Eastern Europe and China?

Naresh: Not really, at least not in this region. If you think about Eastern Europe and China, what you will see is that their legacy is in so-called hard-core engineering – mechanical, electrical –  and we don’t compete with them in that area.

Tony: I’ve actually interviewed a company that does do a lot of their deliveries out of China, but in China probably the biggest area for software outsourcing is around Dalian, because there are a lot of Japanese companies that do their work there.

Naresh: Yes, we just formed a JV in Japan as well, and we’re pretty active in terms of what we’re trying to do in China. I don’t know the details, but we’re not going to leave a stone unturned to do the right thing for our customers. But we’re going to make sure we can actually perform there. I think one of the good things that we as an organization have done is decide that we’re not going to stretch the boundaries of reality to win a deal; it’s never happened. In the end, we want to perform versus just grow. After a while that’s a booby trap. Your reputation ends up getting creamed, and that’s not acceptable.

Tony: If you think about what you just said about your transition as a company, what do you think are the key strengths of your global leadership team, and will you need to develop new strengths to continue to perform in the future? How are the strengths that are needed today different from those needed five years ago versus those needed in the future? How are the skill sets of those people going to be different?

Naresh: Well, in terms of skill sets that are appropriate for the future, it’s understanding what you are trying to accomplish strategically that allows you to align the organization for that next level. You’ve got to be able to craft the architecture of your organization, and then you’ve got to be able to test it.

We do not do things as a knee-jerk reaction at all. There is a lot of thought that goes into it, a lot of collaboration, a lot more than honestly I was ready for. We have regular meetings as a peer group or regional leaders once a month to make sure we’re aligned. There’s no possibility if one of us needs something, needs help, the others will say, this is my territory and that’s yours. It’s not like that. I can say, I need help, help me think this through. We do this for all kinds of issues, from visiting a customer to something that is really a challenge. There’s not a geographic boundary, which is really important because at other organizations I’ve been involved in the attitude has been, “This is my world – don’t get near it.”

Tony: That is quite typical of many large services organizations.

Naresh: It’s not how we want to work, and I think that is pretty clear every day in my interactions. It’s something that I think we all try to reinforce to our people.  My motivation is that I want people to grow, I really do. You’ve got to help folks grow. My job is  to give them the empowerment that will allow them to grow.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Outsourcing: Naresh Lakhanpal And Hiro Notaney Of Patni Computer Systems
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