Young Americans know better

Young people in the US do not seem to be as agitated about jobs being outsourced to India as has been made out. Or, to be precise, it is not an issue that those poised to enter the corporate world are excessively concerned about.

In fact, many of them feel that it is only natural that companies will go where they get the best, in terms of cost-savings, tax benefits, scalability and innovations.

At least, that's the opinion that came across when chatting with a handful of management students from the SMEAL College of Business at the Pennsylvania State University. A group of 18 students from the programme's first and second years are here to take a look at how emerging markets do business, and explore the cultural and social differences that arise when dealing with a multicultural corporate team.

Just a week into India, the team had visited IIT-Delhi, MDI Gurgaon and Genpact's Delhi office, and was being briefed on the challenges India faces on the education front. They were slated to visit a few companies in Delhi, including Maruti, and later proceed to Agra, Jaipur, Goa and Mumbai.

Discover ways of doing business

“You have to take a global perspective. Companies need to identify who will provide them the best advantages in terms of cost-savings and other benefits and they need to have global teams,” was second-year management student Christine Hubley's response on the outsourcing issue. She had worked on energy and nuclear waste issues in a federal firm for over five years before she decided to pursue the management programme. Christine aims to end up as a senior leader and feels it is imperative to discover the ways of doing business in Europe, India, China and other emerging geographies.

“At Genpact we saw the innovations in IT solutions that the company had created which went far beyond its brief,” she said, identifying this as one of the positive fallouts of doing business globally.

The way to go

Phil DeOrtentiis and Joe Alexander, also part of the group, did not seem perturbed over the outsourcing trend either. Phil did give the example of older family members back home not being comfortable with getting a call and answering questions to someone with an alien English accent. But he felt the young people were more realistic and aware that cost-cutting and cost-saving is the natural way companies have to go. Joe, a Major in the American army, hadn't experienced the fallout of outsourcing first-hand, as no one in his home or neighbourhood had faced joblessness because of it.

Being in the military, however, he was aware of the other side of the coin — India's Defence procurement necessities and how American companies benefit from the demands of a developing society.

And that was the positive. While the rise in unemployment levels in the US is often attributed to outsourcing of jobs to India, and this, in turn, converted into high-decibel election rhetoric, young students from there know otherwise. They seem to realise that the sheer demographic advantage that India offers is enough of an equaliser, in terms of opportunity for countries such as the US, which are eyeing our emerging markets.

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