India Poaches U.S. Executives For Tech Jobs
For 12 years, Doug Bettinger was a senior finance executive at Intel Corp., working at the U.S. computer-chip maker's offices in Silicon Valley, Arizona and Malaysia. In November, the 37-year-old jumped ship, becoming chief financial officer of Bangalore-based call center operator 24/7 Customer.
"The growth India is experiencing is crazy," says Mr. Bettinger, who now splits his time between 24/7 Customer's offices in Los Gatos, Calif., and Bangalore. "There are lots of opportunities there that you couldn't get at Intel."
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Mr. Bettinger is among a growing number of U.S. and Western executives being poached -- not to mention well-paid -- by Indian technology companies trying to globalize their software and outsourcing businesses. In recent months, Indian businesses have hired dozens of executives from companies including Electronic Data Systems Corp., Deloitte Consulting LLP, McKinsey & Co., Accenture Ltd. and Ernst & Young LLP.
Indian software giants and other Indian outsourcing companies are becoming more profitable as demand for their low-cost services increases. Tata Group's Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Technologies Ltd. all have had annual revenue growth of around 50% in recent quarters and are hiring thousands of new workers each quarter.
Such growing financial clout is allowing Indian companies to woo Western executives -- especially with higher salaries. "Six or seven figures are often involved, and equity is also in play," says Rohit Ambekar, an Asia-based partner with Morgan Howard Worldwide, a Stamford, Conn., executive search company.
Headhunters working for Indian companies say their clients have to pay a premium to attract U.S. talent due to their companies' lower profiles and limited track records. In one recent case, an Indian company offered an American executive a base salary of $350,000 plus a potential bonus of $2 million over two years to join its U.S. operations, according to an executive with knowledge of the deal. The executive's salary at his U.S. company was $300,000 annually plus stock options equal to around $1.2 million over four years.
U.S. companies, meanwhile, say they are competing aggressively with Indian companies for both talent and market share. EDS has nearly 3,000 workers in India focusing on software development and back-office duties, and expects to add 2,000 more this year. Intel says it is growing its research and development facilities in India and has been investing in Indian companies through its Intel Capital unit in a bid to boost its business in Asia.
Many Indian businessmen say these Western executives can help their companies penetrate overseas markets and help put in place systems to manage their growth. "Doug comes from a company ... where he's seen scale," says P.V. Kannan, chief executive officer of 24/7 Customer, who hired Mr. Bettinger. "Only a limited number of Indian executives have this type of experience."
Mr. Kannan says his company is close to making an acquisition of a call-center operator in the U.S., which could more than double his company's revenue to around $100 million. 24/7 Customer is also adding 2,500 workers in the coming months and expanding into Europe and Asia.
Bombay-based Patni Computer Systems Ltd. is another Indian company aggressively hiring Western executives as it tries to expand in the U.S. and Europe. Patni, like many Indian software companies, started posting strong growth in the mid-1990s by supplying low-end software products and services to multinationals such as General Electric Co.
But little attention was paid at that time to developing Patni's name outside India. Today, Patni has offices in 26 countries and a U.S. headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. Early last year, the company hired business consultant Bill Budde from EDS in an attempt to compete with the Plano, Texas, company and others that provide software and services to the global insurance industry. Patni also recently hired former Motorola Corp. executive Tony Viola to head its North American marketing operations as it seeks to become a $1 billion company in sales. Last year, Patni had net profit of $58 million on sales of $327 million.
Mr. Budde and Mr. Viola today lead peripatetic lives. The 44-year-old Mr. Budde describes his office as "wherever my laptop sits" as he shuffles between the Indian cities of Bombay, Noida and Madras, and Patni's U.S. offices, trying to increase the company's U.S. presence. The majority of Patni's nearly 10,000-strong work force remains in India, with only 250 employees in the U.S.
Mr. Budde says Patni is more nimble than large American consulting and software companies in responding to client's needs. He says much of his six years at EDS was spent dealing with bureaucratic issues and colleagues, rather than clients. "Now I can focus on what we do well," he says.
Greg Young, formerly of Australia's telecommunications giant, Telstra Corp., is among those businessmen Mr. Ambekar recently placed. In December, Tata Group, India's second-largest conglomerate, named him the chief technology officer of its telecommunications arm. The 42-year-old says he received a "very complete package" -- including housing and transportation -- and the opportunity to oversee the attempts by Tata Teleservices Ltd. to win a sizable share of the cellphone industry.
Indian companies are recruiting at a time when Western workers are worried about losing their jobs at U.S. companies as their positions are outsourced overseas. In recent months, companies such as Accenture and International Business Machines Corp. have hired locals in developing countries including India as they seek to reduce costs to compete with the likes of Infosys and Wipro.
Indian companies are now offering a degree of job security that's harder to come by in job-short Silicon Valley. "There's never been a better time to be hiring," says Stephen Pratt, a San Francisco-based executive who left Deloitte Consulting last April to head Infosys's new global consulting arm in Fremont, Calif. Mr. Pratt has helped Bangalore-based Infosys recruit more than 70 executives. "We're hungrier than other firms."
西方管理人才“孔雀东南飞”
在英特尔(Intel Corp.)担任高级财务人员的道格?贝廷格(Doug Bettinger)先后在公司的硅谷总部和亚利桑那、马来西亚办事机构工作了12年之久。去年11月，37岁的贝廷格跳槽到印度班加罗尔的呼叫中心运营商24/7 Customer，出任首席财务长一职。
贝廷格表示，印度的经济增长令人兴奋不已。贝廷格现在经常往返于加州洛斯加托斯和班加罗尔之间。他表示，在印度工作能获得许多英特尔无法提供的机会。
那些希望让他们的软件业务走向世界、承接全球外包业务的印度科技公司从美国和其他西方国家挖到了越来越多的管理人才，为此他们提供了丰厚的薪金待遇。贝廷格只是众多来印度企业大展宏图的西方管理人士中的一员。近几个月来，印度企业从电子资讯系统(Electronic Data Systems Corp., EDS)、Deloitte Consulting LLP、麦肯锡公司(McKinsey & Co., Inc.)、埃森哲(Accenture Ltd., ACN)和安永会计师事务所(Ernst & Young L.L.P., EYG.XX)等知名的西方企业挖走了数十名管理人士。
财力不断壮大的印度企业现在可以提供越来越具有吸引力的薪酬待遇。猎头公司Morgan Howard Worldwide在亚洲的合伙人罗比特?安培克(Rohit Ambekar)表示，印度公司经常能够开出6位数甚至7位数的待遇，另外他们还会提供股票类报酬。安培克表示，近几个月来他已经为两家公司搜罗了2位西方的管理人士，并准备在未来几个月内再安排8位西方管理人士来印度任职。
印度管理人士和国际猎头公司认为，可能会有更多“海龟派”回到印度就业。塔塔咨询服务公司(Tata Consultancy Services)、Infosys Technologies Ltd.和Wipro Technologies Ltd.等印度信息技术巨头近几个季度的收入增幅折合成年率均达到50%左右，每个季度都会招募数以千计的新员工。
许多印度企业家表示，西方管理人才能够帮助他们拓展海外市场，并在业务飞速增长之际给公司带来先进的管理系统。24/7 Customer的首席执行长P.V.卡纳安(P.V. Kannan)表示，贝廷格来自一个已经从规模效益中获得好处的企业，只有为数不多的印度管理人士具备贝廷格的管理经验。
卡纳安表示，他的公司准备收购一家美国呼叫中心运营商，公司收入将增加一倍，达到1亿美元左右。未来几个月，24/7 Customer还准备招聘2,500名新员工，并拓展欧亚地区的业务。
位于孟买的另一家印度企业Patni Computer Systems Ltd.也在积极招募西方的管理人才，旨在藉此扩大在美国和欧洲的市场占有率。和许多印度软件企业一样，通过向通用电气(General Electric Co.)等跨国公司提供廉价软件及服务，Patni从上世纪90年代中期以来业务就一直在迅猛扩张。2003年度，Patni的净利润达到2.50亿美元。
当时，Patni对在海外市场打造自己的品牌形象并未予以太多关注。而今，Patni的业务已遍及26个国家，并把美国总部设在了马萨诸塞州的剑桥。去年年初，该公司从电子资讯系统挖走了业务咨询师比尔?布德(Bill Budde)，旨在同电子资讯系统以及其他向全球保险业提供软件及服务的企业直接抗衡。Patni最近还将摩托罗拉(Motorola Corp.)的前管理人士托尼?维奥拉(Tony Viola)招致麾下，委以全球营销总管一职，希望他在公司销售额扩大一倍至10亿美元的道路发挥影响。去年，Patni实现了5,800万美元的利润和3.27亿美元的销售额。
布德和维奥拉如今成天在天上飞来飞去，由此可以看出外包行业正在迅速地改变著全球商业文化。现年44岁的布德只要打开手提电脑就可以在任何一个地方办公。为了从实力更加雄厚的咨询公司抢走客户，他经常往返于孟买、诺依达、马德拉斯和Patni的美国办公室之间。
布德和维奥拉表示，为了协调北美和南亚的业务，他们工作起来往往是24个小时连轴转。Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America和英国的Virgin Mobile Holdings PLC以及通用电气如今都是Patni的重要客户。
这两位美国管理人士表示，他们当初之所以选择来Patni是因为相信印度企业在开发一种全球交货模式，以较为低廉的价格向客户提供软件及服务方面享有明显的优势。
Patni近1万名员工的大部分都在印度工作，负责为跨国公司开发软件，提供后台服务等。但布德和维奥拉表示他们准备将美国的业务迅速做大。
如今，Patni在美国拥有250名全职员工，另有2,200名员工为某个具体项目经常往返于美国和其他地区之间。
布德表示，应对客户需求时，Patni比美国大型咨询和软件公司要灵活得多。他表示，在电子资讯系统的6年中，他的大部分时间都放在了与行政部门以及同事打交道方面，而不是和客户的交流沟通。布德表示，离开电子资讯系统使他获得了更充裕的时间，为他施展才华提供了自由的空间。
颇有诱惑力的薪资待遇在吸引西方管理人才方面也起到了重要作用。不过，Patni和24/7 Customer均不愿透露他们为招揽西方管理人才所开出的薪金价码。和印度公司有业务往来的国际猎头公司表示，股票期权也是一大诱惑之处，因为许多印度公司正在迅猛扩张。
为印度公司服务的猎头公司表示，由于知名度不高和成立时间不久，这些印度企业为了吸引美国的人才往往需要支付高价。一位关注职位信息的管理人士表示，近期一家印度企业为招聘美国管理人士给出了这样一个报价：每年35万美元底薪，外加2年最高可达200万美元的奖金。而他在美国公司的底薪为每年30万美元，外加四年内大约120万美元的股票期权。
澳大利亚电信(Telstra Corp.)的前员工格雷格?杨(Greg Young)就是近期被安培克挖走的一位管理人士。去年12月，印度第二大企业集团塔塔集团(Tata Group)任命他为电信子公司的首席技术长。
现年42岁的杨表示，他收到了一份非常全面（涵盖住房、交通等多个方面）的就职合同，外加一份难得的契机，帮助Tata Teleservices在全球增长最迅速的移动通信市场上获得举足轻重的地位。
杨表示，Tata Teleservices每月的新增客户可能高达100万人。这无疑会带来令人兴奋不已的巨大挑战和压力，在澳大利亚日趋成熟的电信市场上是不可能有的。
一些美国管理人士还表示，印度招募海外管理人才的时机选择再恰当不过了。如今，就业机会向海外转移已经令西方IT专业人才忧心忡忡。
近几个月来，埃森哲、国际商业机器公司(International Business Machines Corp)等企业掀起了在印度等发展中国家招聘员工的热潮。他们这样做是为了大幅降低成本，以便同Infosys和Wipro展开竞争。
具有嘲讽意味的是，印度企业现在提供了一定程度的就业保障感。而在硅谷，就业保障感似乎已经成为过眼云烟。去年4月离开Deloitte Consulting、担任Infosys新成立的全球咨询部门掌门人一职的斯蒂芬?普拉特(Stephen Pratt)表示，印度企业现在从西方国家招募管理才人可谓是恰逢其时。
过去1年间，普拉特帮助Infosys从包括麦肯锡、埃森哲、Capgemini Group在内的多家公司招聘了70多位管理人士。
普拉特表示，“人们想知道Infosys是如何提高其竞争力的，原因就在于我们对人才的渴求超过其他公司。”
