One Night @ The Call Center

I read One Night @ The Call Center a few months ago, when the American  

publisher sent me a review copy. Some parts were so bad, they made me  cry. I was particularly bored by the chapters detailing the protagonist’s unrequited romance, which are set off in bold type for some reason a(though the fact that they are set off in bold is actually useful — the font makes it easier to identify the chapters to skip!).

Topless Meetings are more Productive

“In this age of wireless Internet and mobile e-mail devices, having an effective meeting or working session is becoming more and more difficult. Laptops, Blackberries, Sidekicks, iPhones, and the like keep people from being fully present,” he wrote in November 2007.  ”Aside from just being rude, partial attention generally leads to partial results.”

Wanted: Indian Chefs

Finding them is increasingly difficult due to the second issue – that  of the growing demand for chefs in India itself.  

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Monsoon is pleased to announce our latest service offering. See below:

As a loyal Obama supporter, I’m prepared to withstand a bit of political pandering during a tough primary. Hillary’s not going away without a fight.

But, Obama’s latest appeal to the blue collar workers of Ohio - the “Patriot Employers Plan” - sounds as ridiculous (and misguided) as the Patriot Act.

Basically, the plan rewards companies for keeping jobs in the US - something I personally believe is admirable (after all, he’s not running for President of India).

However, the problem is that the plan is, well, stupid:

Mr Obama’s plan met instant scepticism from otherwise sympathetic Democratic economists who said it would require a large regulatory apparatus to put into practice. They also said that companies could “game the system” by spinning off overseas subsidiaries in order to reduce the offshore-onshore workforce ratio. ‘

“I would say that this plan is borderline unimplementable,” said a Democratic economist in Washington. “It is also puzzling. Normally presidential candidates only come up with plans that are unrealistic when they are losing. But Obama is now the favourite.

Mr. Obama, it’s better to stick with strong US training programs, the elimination of tax breaks for companies that have offshore labor (we don’t need them and shouldn’t get them), and most importantly, to stop the hypocrisy that is American economic policy. You can’t lecture others about buying your entertainment, agricultural goods, and Coca Cola, if you won’t give them a fair shot to sell to you.

Read the FT article >>

Why did we change our name? 

On January 1st, we officially became Monsoon Company (after 7 years as BCM Digital). 

There was no obvious business reason for the name change.  We didn’t get acquired, change strategy, or get sued.   Instead, we changed our name for a much simpler (and perhaps more important) reason.

For too long, ‘outsourcing’ has being stigmatized as new and disruptive.  Due to political rhetoric and cultural biases, many of our competitors mask their Indian roots under an ambiguous identity (what’s an infosys?). But, the rhetoric doesn’t make sense.  

Global trade is as old as the monsoon winds that used to carry spice traders to India.   With our new name, we choose to celebrate our Indian team. 

And why not?  Their work has lead to long term relationships with Fortune 100 clients, dozens of innovative software products, and industry-leading expertise in development platforms like Vista, Ruby on Rails, and Facebook. 

In an article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Jim Breyer, managing general partner of the Palo Alto venture firm Accel Partners puts it bluntly:

“There isn’t a board meeting that goes by that we don’t ask, ‘Why aren’t you being more aggressive (with software development) in India and China?’ ”

It’s been a few years since the article was first published, but, given today’s economic climate, a team in India may just be what you need to impress the investors.

oDesk posts a map that highlights the cities, fees, approval ratings, and language proficiency of developers around the world.  

Although there is some skewing going on (I believe English proficiency is self-reported), the infographic is fascinating.  

the map

the full oconomy 

With the LA Times article running today, we’re getting a lot of new visitors.  If it’s your first time here, don’t waste your time reading everything.  Here are a few of the best posts:

• Outsourcing is Dead
• Look for no
• The world is not flat
• Save now, pay later. 

Our comic, Doubtsourcing, was recently featured in TechCrunch:

Something that you don’t often see a lot written about in new media is the strong trend by startups to outsource a lot of their work. Digg for example was originally designed by Kevin Rose outsourcing the job on elance, and sites such as Slideshare, illumobile.com have gone down a similar path.    

 This post lead to a 100+ comment debate about Indian IT.  Overall, the TechCrunch community had a lot of interesting things to say.   It’s clear that a significant percentage of Web 2.0 entrepreneurs have tried working with an Indian team.   While the results are mixed, most of the community agrees that, when managed well, the cost efficiencies and scale that a global team can bring are worth it. A few of my favorite comments from the post are below. 

Mr. Recycle tells people to get over the fear of getting their idea stolen: 

I’d say outsourcing (or offshoring) is more of a fortunate reality than an unfortunate one. And should you really care about the protection you get in third world countries? Do you think your idea is that original anyway? Guess what, it isn’t. It is your execution and vision as a business that matters, not your code base. You could hand Facebook’s codebase to 100 entrepreneurs today and you would probably get 100 failed start-ups.   

Fabio Rosati (CEO of eLance) talks about low bidders:

 A more appropriate generalization supported by our data, is that buyers who consistently hire the lowest bidders for a particular class of jobs tend to have lower success rates.   

Raza Imam stresses Fabio’s point about highvalue vs. low cost. 

Outsourcing is tricky, but it’s like anything else in life. It takes practice to get it right. Outsourcing is about high-value, not low cost. If you pay someone ten bucks an hour and expect great code, you’re kidding yourself.    

We’re about a year, 500 attack ads, millions of dollars, and dozens of celebrity voicemails away from next year’s election. Yet, it feels like the right time to begin covering each candidate’s position on ‘outsourcing’ (r.i.p.).

It’s only appropriate to start with the current frontrunner.

Recently, Hillary’s stance adapts like time. IST, she’s pro; EST, totally against. PST, and we’re back to pro again.

Roll some context: the 90s The Clintons have a long history of support for free trade. NAFTA and increases to the H1B program are probably the strongest examples.

“Clinton’s positioning on outsourcing dates to the 1990s, when her husband’s administration aggressively pursued free trade agreements such as NAFTA that union workers today consider the start of a huge exodus of U.S. jobs to cheaper overseas competition.

During the rise of the Internet, the Clinton administration also distributed temporary-worker visas to hundreds of thousands of Indians who came to the United States for jobs at high-tech companies.”

source 1999 Clinton realizes a new-found love of the Indian community to begin the millenium:

“As Clinton pursued a Senate seat in 1999, the Indian American community stepped up its giving. Indian businessman Sant Singh Chatwal raised $500,000 for her in his Upper East Side penthouse, including $210,000 from 14 entities connected to him.”

Chatwal and the Indian community have continued to support Clinton’s presidential run:

“Chatwal is now a finance co-chairman for Clinton’s presidential campaign, and Clinton aides said they have counted more than $2 million in contributions raised at Indian American events.”

CONTINUE READING

Working with a global team is hectic.

If you run a small business, your work now transcends both the job description and the time zone. You spend days meeting with customers, refining requirements, pushing sales, and cleaning up finances.

At night, your team wakes up, and it is time to manage projects, have strategy meetings, and enforce (nag about) deadlines.

Somehow, you find time for a few hours of sleep before waking up to do the whole thing over again.

If you’re in the Bay Area tomorrow (Thursday), come find out why we still think it’s worth the effort (or not).