{"id":1251,"date":"2013-05-26T13:17:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T13:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/gautams-thakkar_052613\/"},"modified":"2013-05-26T13:17:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T13:17:00","slug":"gautams-thakkar_052613","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/gautams-thakkar_052613\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to Gautam’s city"},"content":{"rendered":"
I always like it when the nice guys get the top jobs.<\/strong> \u00a0Too frequently providers put in a suit with good P&L skills, an upwardly mobile corporate persona, amazing PPT builds, is always “selling” and never letting any cracks appear in the glossy fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n Gautam Thakkar is Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Infosys BPO (Click for bio)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n What’s wrong with a down-to-earth guy who’ll sit down and share a beer with you to give you the no-frills run down on his challenges and\u00a0opportunities? What’s wrong with an executive who has shed blood dealing with a decade-plus of transitions and tackling real client pain-points?\u00a0So I was pleasantly surprised when my good pal Gautam Thakkar got the nod to take on the reins at InfosysBPO last month.<\/p>\n Gautam has actually sat himself through one of our HfS sourcing executive council meetings to hear close-up how clients are\u00a0dealing\u00a0with the world post-transaction. \u00a0What’s more, Gautam doesn’t live in a world of PowerPoint – he lives in the world of the tough realities of the business we are in – long decision cycles, complex change issues, challenging economics…<\/p>\n So we managed to “drag” Gautam away from the squash court and his collection of Malbecs (which is probably fairly pitiful at the rate he drinks it) to learn a bit more about how he intends to take on the next chapter of the InfosysBPO story…<\/p>\n Phil Fersht, CEO HfS:<\/strong> Good morning Gautam! Could you share some background on yourself, where you came from and how you got into what you\u2019re doing today?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Gautam Thakkar, CEO InfosysBPO:<\/strong> Hi Phil… I\u2019ve been working with Infosys for about 13 years. At that time the company was trying to grow an upsteam business – hiring consultants to work with clients and starting other transformation initiatives. I was in the middle of some projects and someone came up to me and asked, \u201cWould you like to be a part of something Infosys is starting up, spend a couple of months framing a strategy for our BPO business?\u201d I said sure, I\u2019d do 2 months, but then 2 became 4 and 4 became 6 months. I went in kicking and screaming, saying this isn\u2019t something I want to be doing for a lifetime! But as you now know, it\u2019s become something I\u2019ve done since 2001, before Infosys officially got into the business. I was one of the first employees\u00a0 at Infosys BPO and have been through almost 10 years of the company\u2019s BPO journey, played different roles along the way and ended up in this position. I\u2019ve lived and worked in the US, India and Europe. It\u2019s been an interesting evolution to see a company that was conceptualized from the grassroots and growing to where we are today, at 25,000 people globally, 23 centres and more than 60 nationalities.<\/p>\n Phil: You\u2019d been heading the F&A practice for a long time, and that\u2019s now broadened into a CEO role. What will you be doing differently now?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Gautam:<\/strong> As I mentioned, since I was one of the early employees, we were pretty much doing everything in the beginning. Then I was responsible for the entire Europe business, which morphed into the F&A role. Subsequently to that, in the last 2 years I\u2019ve been handling all horizontals outside of F&A as well. This is what we refer to as the entire enterprise business BPO, accounting for 65% of revenues today. So yes, F&A was the largest part of the business that I was looking at directly, but other businesses were also rolling into me. The transition has been smooth, as I was running 65-70% of the business already and was connected with most clients. The agenda that my predecessors saw for the company was growth, differentiation and people. This is the foundation on which we have grown the business and will continue in the future. From a client standpoint, we follow the 3 Rs \u2013 being Relevant to our clients & employees, Respected as and as the best place to work for employees and one of the most profitable businesses and having strong Reach with clients \u00a0and drive sustainable businesses globally. I\u2019m taking it upon myself to be connected to most CXOs, clients and otherwise. So directionally, the transition has been smooth because I was a part of leadership team earlier and will be taking forward these principles to engage with clients.<\/p>\n Phil:<\/strong> Looking back ten years ago to when you first formed InfosysBPO, what\u2019s different today?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Gautam:<\/strong> \u00a0I think there are some things that are different, while others remain the same. Cost is a focus area and has stayed true as a favorable driver for clients to engage in BPO. When companies look to us, cost is still one of the drivers. However, what has changed dramatically is the way that we engage with clients. They are now looking at it from a revenue standpoint – how do we offer agility, flexibility and scale? So the conversation has moved from a cost focus to a growth focus in BPO. For example, we\u2019ve moved with clients to different geographies. We recently opened a delivery center in Costa Rica where we are giving a client nearshore scale and flexibility. Last quarter we talked about creating 200 jobs in Atlanta. So ten years ago, the value proposition was largely cost. Now it has shifted to cost and growth as well \u2013 growth-led BPO. This is reflected in our revenues as well, where 40% of it comes from global centers outside of India. The headcount still remains largest in India, but we have 6,000-6,5000 employees working outside India in these global centers.<\/p>\n Phil:<\/strong> One of the things that impressed me about InfosysBPO is that you\u2019ve gone after different markets, beyond F&A, from the outset (read our earlier discussion<\/a>). For example, you\u2019re the largest and most successful Indian provider in procurement BPO, and you\u2019ve got tentacles in customer management and insurance as well. Can you talk a little bit about the broader portfolio and where you\u2019re going to double-down in the next 3 years?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Gautam:<\/strong> Phil, the way we\u2019re organized today, we\u2019re centered around industry vertical solutions and the horizontals where we\u2019ve made a lot of investments. There are certain areas where we\u2019ll be spending a lot of our time and expanding on these investments. Sourcing and procurement is continuing to hold our attention because it is where we are having value based conversations with clients. We also acquired an insurance platforms specialist, Mccamish Systems in 2009 – insurance is another business we are spending a lot of time on, from a vertical solutions standpoint. Overall, sourcing and procurement, insurance and healthcare are the key areas we are being fairly aggressive on. F&A continues to be a staple, even though it is the most competitive service area. I believe its there for the taking, and is the easiest conversation to have with a client since the area is relatively mature.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n