Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 10)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: I think you have to start with [an open] mindset as the prerequisite; it is pretty hard to train someone to be open minded if they are not open minded already.

Amit: If you look at Andrew’s background, Andrew was born and brought up in the United States, but you’ve traveled in how many countries?

Andrew: I have always told people, particularly during interviews, that one of the things I have really enjoyed in the 12 years of being with the company is that we are in 27 different countries. I think I have worked with people in each of the 27 countries we have operations in, whether that means having been in the country with them or just spending a significant amount of time interacting and working on opportunities with people in those countries. So, it is a very global atmosphere. Open communication with individuals around the world is part of developing business, and that means getting a lot of stamps in your passport.

Tony: You know you are really using your passport when you have to keep getting pages added to it!

Amit:  When your passport becomes fixed in your pocket.

Tony: When I was traveling so much that my passport was always sitting in my pocket, I thought it was a problem, but now I see it was a good thing. It was a good problem to have, because that is the only way you truly learn how to operate in a global environment – in the new “flat” world that Thomas Friedman’s famous book talks about.

In many ways, I see the outsourcing industry as the forefront of what comes when the world is flat. Now you can deliver services, deliver IT, deliver all sorts of capabilities on a global basis in a very transparent way. There is a positive and a negative side to this, but in many ways the companies that are doing it in the outsourcing world are really at the cutting edge of creating and operating in a flat world. But at the same time, because it is at the forefront of this changing environment, the outsourcing industry has had to create a lot of its own lessons in this regard. Are there other industries you look to in terms of how they have done globalization well, and ideas they have that you can apply, or are you making it up as you go along?

Amit:  Our president is an ex-Dell employee, and the conversations we have when we talk about this internally are that we look at the manufacturing industry. I think for us, the endgame almost is when you go to Walmart and pick up a shirt or whatever, you don’t look a the label and focus on the fact that is says “Made in China.” Where that particular product is made becomes irrelevant to you.   

Tony: But obviously, there is a big difference between selling a product such as a shirt, which doesn’t interact with me, and selling people. It is a much bigger challenge when your product is people.

Amit: You are absolutely right. The ultimate truth, though, is that with people you can accomplish much of what you want from cultural indoctrination, training, and education. Providing people with systems and tools is important, but the ultimate moment of truth is when an agent has been in conversation with a consumer, and in that moment of truth only one thing matters: the transaction, the conversation, the interaction, between two human beings. At that point it is out of our control as managers. It is a human interaction. This is the point you are making: It is true that in a store where you look at the product and it is tangible, it’s different from an intangible human mind interacting with another human mind on the other side.  That’s an important point, undeniably. But what we have tried to do in addition is look at some of the manufacturing industry principles and processes. That’s one of the reasons Six Sigma or Lean Sigma has become prevalent in our industry. It is a manufacturing concept. We are focused on how you get to Six Sigma, to that “moment of truth” that I talked about.

Tony: I would say it is impossible to actually measure it that way.

Amit: But other elements should be measurable at that “moment of truth.” You try to get to that point, and you control the environment as best as you can. We have no doubt taken thinking from manufacturing. We are taking Six Sigma thinking from manufacturing, adapting it, and applying some of those principles to the services environment.

Tony: It sounds like you have gone quite far in what you have tried to accomplish, and with great success. I do a lot of work helping companies to globalize in terms of how they bring in leadership teams. As you pointed out, it is a nontrivial challenge, and it is always nice to see that someone has figured out how to do it well. I really appreciate the time both of you have spent with me and the insights you have shared.

Amit and Andrew: We have enjoyed it, too. Thank you.

[This is the last interview in Tony’s series, but the blog will continue to cover outsourcing trends through Entrepreneur Journeys. Stay tuned!]

This segment is part 10 in the series : Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel
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