Expats, the new land of opportunity

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theAutumn45
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Joined: Oct 28, 2005
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Posted: Jan 30, 2007 - 09:16 PM
Post subject: Expats, the new land of opportunity

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/IA31Df02.html

India, the new land of opportunity
By Indrajit Basu

KOLKATA - It is not unusual to find foreigners crowding Delhi's tourist spots on a typical winter morning during the year-end vacation days. But foreigners on a Christmas-New Year holiday thronging a recruiter's office in the central business district in Delhi? Ask Uday Chawla, the India-based managing partner of the global executive search firm Transearch, and he will tell you that the holiday week this December was his busiest.

"We were flooded with queries and meetings during the holidays,"
he said. "This season, we received a record number of inquiries from expatriate professionals, including those of Indian origin exploring opportunities in India while on a vacation."

According to Chawla, with India proving to be one of greatest economic stories of the world today, the country has not only emerged as an important destination for doing business for global corporations, but expatriate professionals from around the world are increasingly flocking to India in pursuit of gaining experience here instead of working in more developed countries.

Chawla said that until recently, he had to use a considerable amount of his networking skills to persuade expatriates to take up assignments in India. "But with the country's impressive economic growth and investments pouring in from almost all the Fortune-listed top companies, expatriate professionals from across industries in developed countries like [those in North America and Europe] and even Asian countries like Japan and [South] Korea have started turning to us on their own these days."

To many, even the perceived hardship of living in India is hardly a deterrent. India has emerged as a land of opportunities and an imperative for climbing up the corporate hierarchy.

Crafting the future of global business
Indeed, working in India has gone beyond being just a fad as it used to be; it has now become strategic for everyone. "That's where the growth lies for the long term," said Delhi-based Amitabh Sharma, a consultant at the global search firm Egon Zhender that claims typically to "accept mandates at the critical leadership level".

There are two basic reasons behind this surge. First, India is gaining credibility as a nation that is developing very quickly and is not seen as a hardship posting anymore. Second, companies in India are increasingly willing and able to pay the salaries these expats are looking for. "Let's face it," said Sharma, "whatever opportunities a country may provide, few expat professionals worth [their] salt will accept a salary cut."

But according to Sharma, there's another important factor that makes India very attractive; the country is also siring the new business models in the globalizing economy. "The models for the future for many industries [such as information technology, telecom, airlines, steel, automobiles, and many more] are being built in countries like India and China."

For these sectors, the West is now a mature market, where growth is not only stagnating, but the markets may also be fast heading toward saturation. In contrast, the challenges in, for instance, the telecom and aviation markets in India are not much about how much new businesses companies can grab, but it is more a question of how companies can handle growth and competition in such dynamic circumstances.

"Consider the high-tech industries," said Sharma. "It took 15 years for these industries to attain maturity, but in India it will happen in just six years. There are very few companies in the West that operate at the kind of growth rate that is represented in India and China. There are also very few countries that have the kind of potential in terms of number that India and China offer."

Expats now a must
But just as work experience in India is important for expat professionals seeking a career in the global environment, expatriates have become critical for India as well.

"As the Indian market is emerging and developing, a lot of international companies have started outsourcing and setting up international operations in the country," said Timothy Bond, a consultant with London-based recruitment firm Launch Offshore, which specializes in placing foreign nationals from Europe and North America in India.

"So naturally by default a lot of knowledge that has existed in the United Kingdom and United States have to be transitioned into India, and that requires a number of people from [the] UK and US to come down and transition it."

The change in customer base of Indian companies is yet another reason creating the demand for foreign nationals. For instance, until about two years back, the US and the UK together accounted for nearly 80% of information-technology and business-process-outsourcing offshoring revenues for Indian IT companies. Similarly, for the drug companies it was primarily the US.

However, Indian companies are creating markets all over the world and thus demanding newer kinds of skills and experience that India does not possess in adequate numbers. This is why, say experts, almost all top technology, telecom, aviation, pharmaceutical and even many progressive old-economy companies such as those in steel, finance and insurance have crafted well-defined strategies for employing foreign workers.

Nevertheless, working in India comes with problems, too.

"It would be naive for anyone to believe that someone who has never traveled to India is not going to face problems in the first three months," said Tim Bond. Top on the list is adjusting to the climate. "Getting to know the difference in how Indian people interact and converse is also an issue," said Bond. "It takes a while to read between the lines, and that can often cause problems, because expectations that are mismanaged can lead to a breakdown in trust."

Moreover, working in India is different; Indian companies tend to be autocratic compared with Western companies. Decisions made by the middle management in India can be turned over by the senior management, and Indian employers tend to be more reactive than proactive.

"These can be very frustrating for a Westerner," said Bond, adding that "the work ethic is so strong in India that Westerners get plugged into working long hours. They forget the importance of taking holidays and taking time off, and many almost burn out in the process."

Salary levels catching up
Nevertheless, the upside is that expatriate workers can hope to get a lucrative deal now. According to both Sharma and Chawla, the top salaries for top-level executives have surpassed the international salary scales, and often companies in India are willing to pay more.

"In some industries the CXO [chief executive officer] level compensation, including hardship allowances, and other perquisites like international school allowances, can be even 20% higher," said Chawla.

While hiring an expat for an Indian company was an expensive proposition until a few years back, with Indian professionals moving up the capability levels, local salaries for skilled professionals are going up too, leaving little difference between local and expat compensations. In fact, said M D Pai, the human-resources director of Infosys, India's top IT company, "hiring expatriate professionals often makes sense for Indian companies - IT companies in particular - because it helps ensure the right mix of people who can help a company command higher billing rates".
However, according to Uday Chawla, not everyone can hope for an international-level salary in India, since the compensation at the junior or middle level is often much lower.

"The trick is not to convey to a company that one is desperate to come to India," said Chawla. "For instance, when expatriates of India origin return to India on their own, they are generally offered a much lower salary, but if the same person is brought in India to expand or explore opportunities, payment is at par with international standards."

There is little doubt that the demand for foreign professionals in India is huge, and it is slated to soar. Still a big issue, say headhunters, is making the decision on where to go; should it be China or India?

"China often scores because it offers comfortable living conditions," said Pai of Infosys. According to Alan Choi, a Shanghai-based consultant with the international placement firm Korn Ferry, "India is probably higher in the food chain; however, India is less developed in terms of infrastructure."

But the fact is employment naturally flows to sectors or geographies where there is a mismatch between supply and demand. Clearly, the gap - both in India and in China - between the skill sets sought and what is available locally is huge.

Indrajit Basu is a Kolkata-based journalist.

underh20
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Joined: Sep 27, 2006
Posts: 9641
Location: EOA Seminar

Posted: Jan 31, 2007 - 10:15 AM
Post subject: Re: Expats, the new land of opportunity

theAutumn45 wrote:

Still a big issue, say headhunters, is making the decision on where to go; should it be China or India?

More than one big MNC has decided against India because they thought the critical issue was should it be bombs or pick-pockets. India lost.

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bougie
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Joined: Nov 20, 2004
Posts: 13285
Location: Wuhan Hubei China

Posted: Feb 03, 2007 - 09:27 AM

The branch of my company will build two plants in India starting next year ... I am not very interested to go over there.

Unless they paid me buckets and truckloads of gold. Then of course I would consider