Its time to retire the word offshoring, a term that long ago
lost any real meaning. While were at it, lets add to our global
lexicon a new term-of-art that more accurately reflects the modern
world in which todays best and brightest talent thrives:
Shoreless.
A new vocabulary for a changed world The New Year is an exciting
time for language-loving etymologists.
It is when dictionaries the world over review words new to
the
popular vernacular and decide which among those terms
deserves
addition to their pages. This year we would argue that
Merriam-
Webster, Oxford, and the rest change things up a bit by retiring
a
word that long ago lost any real meaning: offshoring.
Offshoring is now the T Rex of business terms. Mere mention
of the talent-sourcing method conjures unsettling images in
the minds of many. Yet the term itself is now as divorced
from
our present-day reality as the sight of razor-toothed
dinosaurs
prowling the earth. Technology has seen to that.
In the last decade, the Internet has all but evaporated the
oceans separating us, effectively rendering our workaday
world
shoreless in the process. Much good has come from this
redrawing of our global landscape, with resulting shoreless
work
opportunities having rapidly elevated wages and living
standards
in many emerging economies. However, as that trend
continues,
an enterprises ability to tap lower-cost labor in those same
economies will diminish in importance. At the same time, the
ability (and need) to tap talent combinations that are unique
to
one location or another will grow.
The reengineering team we lead
learned this lesson while helping
a Global 500 client site and set up
a Financial Shared Service Center
(SSC). At a minimum, the site that
we selected for the SSC had to
effectively support the 20-plus operating companies and
30-plus
reporting entities our client presently has doing business in
Europe.
This meant the chosen location needed to give access to
local
talent combinations of the type and quality that our client
could
not find in comparable quantities in any other labor market.
This Future Ready article first appeared in
Process Intelligence, the official monthly e-zine for Genpact
clients
Reengineering
POINT OF VIEW
The Shoreless Workforce S. Bala and KP Santosh
To prize the talents of individuals above all The centralized
talent pool from which SSC hires were to be
plucked had to be able to serve the widest cross-section of
geographically, culturally and economically diverse regional
markets. For several reasons, Poland ultimately proved the
ideal
Similarly, to be shoreless is to prize the talents of
individuals
above all; to evaluate their skills without prejudice for the
nation
they call home; to understand how their local living
environment
uniquely shapes them for the better. Etymologists take note:
Shoreless is a word whose time has come.
About Genpact
Genpact Limited (NYSE: G), a global leader in business process
management and technology services, leverages the power of smarter
processes, smarter analytics, and smarter technology to help its
clients drive intelligence across the enterprise. Genpacts Smart
Enterprise Processes (SEPSM) framework, its unique science of
process combined with deep domain expertise in multiple industry
verticals, leads to superior business outcomes. Genpacts Smart
Decision Services deliver valuable business insights to its clients
through targeted analytics, reengineering expertise, and advanced
risk management. Making technology more intelligent by embedding it
with process and data insights, Genpact also offers a wide variety
of technology solutions for better business outcomes.
For more information, visit www.genpact.com. Follow Genpact on
Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Copyright Genpact 2013. All Rights Reserved.
About the Authors
S. Bala heads the Global Reengineering practice for Genpact, a
leader in business process management. KP Santosh leads the
companys reengineering efforts in Europe. You can reach them at
[email protected] and [email protected]
choice to meet this mandate. First, as a former communist
country,
its businesspeople possess a firm historical grasp of the
financial
complexities of managed economy markets worldwide (China
chief among them). That Poland was the first country to exit
the
Soviet Bloc also means its workers are well versed in the
Wests
free-market ways.
Then there is Polands linguistic virtuosity. Being situated
in
Central Europe makes Polish citizens equally familiar with
Slavic
tongues to its East, and Roman ones to its West, leaving it
well
positioned to source talent that can readily communicate with
a
large majority of the worlds populous. Importantly, the
diversity of
language, culture, and economic background that made Poland
a
smart choice is a selling point thats long set Americas
workforce
apart from those in much of the rest of the world. Indeed,
the
emergence of a merit-driven professional path in Poland and
elsewhere outside the US promises to be Americas greatest
21st-century export. This path systematically rewards
success
with upward mobility, without regard for ones beliefs,
origins,
appearance, or current socioeconomic standing.
Mere mention of the word offshoring still conjures unsettling
images for many. Yet like the fearsome-looking yet long extinct T
Rex, this business term is now as divorced from
our present-day professional reality as the sight of
razor-toothed dinosaurs prowling the earth.
