In Rome, do as the Romans do! This popular proverb has a strong application as corporations expand across international locations. Most of us are aware of the initial failures that some of the top brands in the world have encountered when they have rushed to penetrate a new geography/country without understanding the local nuances fully.

As an example, the Coca-Cola name in China was first read as “Kekoukela,” meaning “Bite the Wax Tadpole” or “Female Horse Stuffed with Wax,” depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent to “kokoukole” translating into “Happiness in the Mouth.”(Source: http://home.globility.com/~superdog/fun/int_mrkt.html) Similarly, as Indian-headquartered IT and BPO companies expand our delivery footprints outside India, there are some crucial lessons that we need to keep in mind to ensure that the delivery center set-up objectives are met seamlessly.

Right Core Team. It is crucial for the new site to have a strong local leader along with a core team including key function representatives right from inception. It is also important that this core team is given a strong induction that includes an extended trip to India, meeting key stakeholders (internal customers, respective function owners, etc.) and given enough time to assimilate best practices across functions and delivery.

This core team then needs to engage in recruitment of the broader team to avoid profile mismatches (typically a larger percentage in the initial set-up of a location). The popular practice of seeding a few members from India into the new site to propagate Wipro’s culture and practices should be continued; care should be taken to ensure that the seed team is handpicked to be able to imbibe and assimilate the local culture and nuances and serve as a coach/mentor to the core team with the explicit objective of returning to home base post a definitive period of time.

Optimal Structure. While it is imperative that best delivery practices from India are leveraged from the international delivery center, it is equally important that we have an optimal organizational structure to deliver these and not necessarily replicate our India organization structure. As an example, in India, it is our expectation that a Team Leader will carry out multiple activities like coaching his/her team, taking escalated calls, working on MIS, preparing rosters, etc.

In international locations, replicating this approach may not work as the workforce is more focused on carrying out the core activities like coaching and taking escalated calls extremely well and may not be able to or not want to handle administrative activities like MIS, preparing rosters, etc. In such a case, we may need to have a lean central team carrying out these activities.

Another example is that while in India, associates may willingly stretch beyond their working hours. This practice should not be expected or encouraged in international locations. Net-net, it is important to understand that not all roles and practices are transferable. We need to leverage the core strengths and culture of the local workforce to its fullest and need to adapt roles and practices as required.

Impeccable Processes. While the ability to set up delivery centers in new international locations within an accelerated time frame has been honed to perfection, it is critical to ensure that all hygiene factors are in place as we onboard new associates/employees (either by hiring from the market or by taking over the customer’s staff). There is zero scope for ambiguity in the offer terms and conditions, roles and responsibilities, location, etc.

Execution to basic items like frequency and dates of pay cycles needs to be flawless, as any errors can highly inconvenience the staff (not to say that in India, these would not) and contribute to significant dissatisfaction. We also need to identify up-front key support processes that will have to be localized while pushing for standardization (with India) of the rest.

Scale Leverage. In India, Wipro is one of the biggest buyers of telecom and tech assets like PCs, laptops, etc. We manufacture the latter category as well and invariably command significant executive mindshare (and pricing power) with our suppliers/partners. We need to leverage these relationships in our new locations to ensure that we continue to get best-in-class pricing, responsiveness, and flexibility.

Even if one of our existing partners is not present in the new location, we need to ascertain whether it has an alliance that can be leveraged so that the benefits of our existing relationship flow through to us in the new location. This is applicable in other areas such as recruitment, administration, etc. as well and should be leveraged to the extent possible.

Spirit of Wipro. Instilling this from inception is key – the embodiment of Intensity to Win, Act with Sensitivity and Unyielding Integrity binds employees from diverse nationalities together as these values are universal and foster the same inspiration and impetus globally.

To sum up, as Indian outsourcers rapidly expand our delivery footprint and diversity quotient, we need to successfully achieve being “glocal,” a term popularized in the recent George Clooney movie, Up in the Air, and referring to thinking globally and acting locally) by successfully marrying our best global practices with contextual local ones.

Keyur Maniar is Vice President and heads the Energy and Utilities vertical and the Transition function at Wipro BPO. In addition, he chairs the Office for Retention, leading a cross-functional team that is responsible for driving attrition control initiatives across Wipro BPO. Keyur has significant experience in leading large-scale BPO and IT outsourcing operations with P&L responsibilities. His experience encompasses the entire value chain of outsourcing/offshoring in a variety of roles in blue chip companies such as Wipro, Capital One, Ernst & Young and TCS as well as at entrepreneurial start-ups in his stint at Connect Capital, a VC firm investing in the IT and BPO space.

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