Outsourcers poised for global domination
The Infosys campus in Pune, India
Last week in India, I had the chance to visit the campus of Infosys in Pune, just outside Mumbai, which is home to 25,000 technology workers. It was an eye opening experience.
The reaction from most people I told about this visit was “Infosys? They are the massive outsourcing company?”. Yes, they are but that tells only a fraction of the story of the company which was founded in Pune in 1981 by 7 engineers and now employs over 130,000 staff in 32 countries around the world.
As Mritunjay Singh, the executive who gave us some insights proudly pointed out, the traditional call centere or voice-based business, accounts for just 15 per cent of revenues. He outlined how the firm is no longer just an outsourcer but has “pioneered the global delivery model”. Yes, some of your operations might be run from Pune or Bangalore if you are an Infosys customer, but it also has highly qualified consultants that can come and work in your office and advise you on your strategy. And 600 Infosys staff now devote themselves to applied research on its own suite of increasingly sophisticated products.
The company made the conscious decision to transform itself in 2007 and despite the global meltdown in 2008 is well down the path. Its client list includes 4 of the top 5 aerospace and defence firms globally and 4 of the top 5 US banks. Infosys has annual revenues of $6 billion and is targetting $15 billion within two years.
Infosys also has an interesting ownership, by Indian standards at least. The 7 founders hold 20 per cent of the stock, employees have 20 per cent with the remaining 60 per cent in the market.
My favourite line from Mritunjay Singh: “In God we trust, everyone else must bring data”.
The Pune campus really is in a different league and surpasses in many cases the environment at top employers in Silicon Valley. It was also without a doubt the cleanest place I saw during my week in India.
The 130 acre campus has 3.5 million sq feet of buildings with another 1.2 million under construction. The average age of employees is 26-28 and competition for jobs is fierce – less than 3 per cent of candidates are successful. There’s even a 1,000 room hotel on the campus for staff visiting from other sites.
It was a short visit but I left with the impression that anyone writing off Infosys as “just an outsourcing operation” is in for a nasty shock.
