The Hindu Business Line : Japan steadily taking to outsourcing mode

Hyderabad, Dec. 10 Japanese enterprises faced with the prospect of demand-supply mismatch of technologists with business acumen, are now more open to outsourcing than a few years ago.

And yet, there continues to be some resistance to step up work overseas, according to Mr Kiichiro Ohya, a Management Guru and one of the founders of Jasdic Park and now Chief Technology Officer of Inoac Corporation.

During his visit to the Satyam centre today, Mr Ohya spoke to Business Line about how the Japanese market which is gradually drifting towards outsourcing mode.

Engaged with Jasdic Park, Mr Ohya forged three joint venture alliances with Satyam, Infosys and DCM, during the Y2K days, and in the process brought together many more IT companies to look inward into the Japanese market for business.

Cross functional skills

Traditionally, in Japan most of the technology infrastructure has been built by local engineers and most of them work in silos.

The current technology requirements call for multiple skill sets that help enterprises transform their business. This requires engineers with cross functional skills, including business knowledge.

“This is a cultural issue which I have been addressing since 1997 explaining them the advantages of partnering and growing. As a part of this initiative, we have recently started a bridge course that trains people with business knowledge on engineering skills as this is easier than training engineers on business skills,” he said.

“With corporations such as Suzuki, Honda and Toyota growing their operations in India and proving that partnerships work well for mutual benefit, more enterprises have begun to replicate these success stories. This will kick off the next wave of partnerships and outsourcing,” he said.