Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The last fortnight- what about the future?

It has been an amazing fortnight!

Almost on a daily basis-the headlines in the business dailies have been regarding the recent financial upheavals. And before we knew only 2 of the big 5 IBanks existed-and just as you were wondering what went wrong, they too decided to become traditional banks !! There have been some landmark decisions-and amendments made.

So, I had to get to the first principles-and tried to research. I must say, there have been some excellent reports in the media -summarising the saga. I particularly liked a graph that Forbes carried- but among the best reads-apart from of course, the wikipedia, was the one  The New York Times carried,   and the chronological study by  Rediff in India!

Well, to me-it seemed that if most people in the US had followed my grandfather's  simple dictum " live within one's means"-then some of these issues may never have happened. We are most fortunate that we Indians have culturally been doctrinated through generations -and also that our Central Bank-the RBI has had a firm grip.

In fact quite a few pals have been debating how it could affect a recruiter's life-of all the perspectives ;-)!

Well, as I have articulated on my earlier blogs, a slow down or a recessionary situation-does not just remove a bunch of jobs- it also creates another set of opportunities for those with some special skills! For one, in the last fortnight, while almost all our IT clients have 'frozen' further hiring of 'programmer/manager' positions, they have actually asked us to accelerate on the selection of 'sales or business development' positions. All unmarked territories are now being attended to-and more emphasis given on key accounts! 

Coming to cost cutting, I am positive, there could be a lot of gains for the off shoring industry;

-especially in IT support, systems management, network management and other aspects of technical infrastructure support -that can be easily be transferred to lower cost centres in India.

-transformational IT projects where Indian companies have had a good track record -being involved in M&A among finance firms -to handle the complex integration and separation tasks!

Yes, for the average recruiter, there would not be any easy pickings-of the 'low lying fruits' as was there in the hey days-but for those -who have been working on niche skills, or adding value by getting passive job seekers.

I somehow feel most clients are missing out on some of the best candidates- by just shutting out hiring! I would like to believe, there are a lot of good talented & qualified people available-in the market- who are now willing to transplant their skills and leverage on their analytical acumen.

PS- Ironically-if one were to look back in the recent times, the best and brightest -not just from the Whartons and the Harvards, but also our IIMs and the IITs(!), were lapped up by companies like Worldcom, Enron, Arthur Andersen not to long ago-apart from Merill Lynch, Lehman Brothers. Are we trying to say that ' great talent in isolation' is just not adequate?

Am I missing out something larger? Please feel free to reach out and I shall be glad to correct myself!


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I read the article today and you made a good point that you have mentioned the candidates from IIM'S and IIT's who were employed in other countries rather than in India. The software companies have to concentrate on the domestic projects and also other countries instead of US.