The shoreless-workforce
2
It’s time to retire the word “offshoring,” a term that long ago lost any real meaning. While we’re at it, let’s add to our global lexicon a new term-of-art that more accurately reflects the modern world in which today’s 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 enterprise’s 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
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Transcript of The shoreless-workforce
It’s time to retire the word “offshoring,” a term that long ago lost any real meaning. While we’re at it, let’s add to our global lexicon a new term-of-art that more accurately reflects the modern world in which today’s 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 enterprise’s 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. Genpact’s Smart Enterprise Processes (SEPSM) framework, its unique science of process combined with deep domain expertise in multiple industry verticals, leads to superior business outcomes. Genpact’s 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 company’s 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 West’s
free-market ways.
Then there is Poland’s 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 world’s populous. Importantly, the diversity of
language, culture, and economic background that made Poland a
smart choice is a selling point that’s long set America’s 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 America’s greatest
21st-century export. This path systematically rewards success
with upward mobility, without regard for one’s 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.
