Preface
Our journey in the fast growing BPO industry over the last five years has been a roller coaster ride. The beauty of this industry is that it gets you so involved that at times you feel you have spent a lifetime here. Every day has its own share of excitement and challenges. We have been through all the upheavals, walked the path of structure and chaos, and tasted its fun and agony. During this time, we have interacted with thousands of 'BPOites' from all over the country, candidates wanting to join the industry, a wide array of people in the age group of 18-55 years, people supporting the industry from outside, the press, our customers, and thought leaders. And these were the people who helped us with their views and ideas in putting this book together.

BPO today is front-page news-pick any magazine, newspaper or switch on a news channel and you will find one view or another about the BPO industry. However, not all of them are always positive, or depict the true picture of the industry.

The industry is unique and attracts people from a wide cross section. It has acted as an inclusive engine of growth expanding beyond metros to smaller towns. People joining the industry come from a wide variety of backgrounds. There are many who have joined from the hospitality, transportation, airlines, and manufacturing industries, from sales, banking, retail, the armed forces, and so on.

We realized that most people joining and working in the industry had limited knowledge about the full world of a BPO. Their perspective was sketchy, based on hearsay, and what they had read in magazines and newspapers. The most important aspect of BPOs is that every year about 150,000 fresh graduates and undergraduates join the industry, earning their first pay cheque from the BPO industry

This book attempts to present the world of BPO in a simple manner; it can be read and nderstood in 4-5 hours; it contains information that is useful and thought provoking. We are hopeful that we will be able to fill a void that exists today. We realized that the opportunities and challenges of the nascent BPO business were unique and were keen to look at this in-depth. So, not only have we compiled and illustrated the issues that affect the industry, but have also provided solutions to address them.

We started this book with a view to creating a guide for every person who wanted to join the industry. The book looks at the structure and issues in a BPO from the perspective of the employee, employer, and the customer. There are also some misconceptions and myths associated with the industry. It was important to provide comprehensive information in order to dispel these misperceptions.

We expect this book to be of great use to every new recruit. It seeks to provide a complete and easy comprehension of the industry and help her get a better perspective. And this would be the first step towards right-selling a career in the BPO industry.

It is an attempt to present the ground reality-a guide for anyone wanting to get initiated into the BPO world. It is a good simple read for every parent who wants to see their children work in a BPO. We met many customers who were contemplating setting up their own BPO centres or entering into a partnership for outsourcing work to India. And like most others, they too had scarce and patchy information about the reality of the Indian.

BPO industry. They wished for exhaustive information-a bible on the Indian BPO industry-and we wanted to ensure that we could provide them the information that they were looking for, so that they could take a conscious and well-informed decision. Prospective customers wanting to outsource work to India will find this book insightful.

This volume will help people working in the BPO industry to understand how to improvise on the functioning of their organizations. It is a guide that will help educate the press about the positives and challenges of the industry. We looked at the positives and the opportunities thrown up by the industry. We wanted the industry to be proud of its achievements and be conscious of its weaknesses. This book is an attempt to create Brand BPO.

Oh! BPO presents a balanced view of the industry from the perspective of an insider. It explains structured chaos. Most importantly, we wanted industry leaders and companies to stop and think about the road ahead. The game has just begun. There is a need to step back and reflect on the changes that need to be made to make the business healthy and robust. The core message being-think long term versus short term, be profitable, beat global standards, but do not let avarice get the better of you, invest for the future, invest in human capital and technology.

The industry has a social responsibility in ensuring that the youth of today lead productive and fruitful lives 15 years from today. It is time we mix the rational rush for growth and profit with an emotional thought about the workforce and their future.

Starting with a detailed industry overview, we look at the issues in managing a BPO and the changes in the last seven years. We then move on to the employee perspective where we elaborate on the real life of a young BPO employee. In the chapter on 'The Future of BPOs' (Chapter 5), we look at the possible upsides and downsides of the industry. And finally, the last chapter on 'Points to Ponder'' (Chapter 6) throws up debates on fundamental issues in running a business and their correlation with BPOs.

We have included interesting data and pointers that can help readers define their strategy, and have enumerated varied examples from different industries, which we have bridged with the BPO industry. This volume is not a moral science text on 'do's' and 'don'ts', but a book with a good mix of the rational and the emotional. With this caveat, read on…