Value Leadership Group Website

New Value Leadership Group Strategy Paper

India: An Emerging Research Cluster

By Professor Srinivasa Rangan

Professor Rangan provides cutting-edge insights into the strategies companies are applying to leverage the emerging scientific research cluster in India.

This paper is based on a global Value Leadership Group next practice strategic research project involving the research centers of more than 20 companies in India including Philips, ABB, Motorola, HP, GM, and the Tata Group.

Professor Rangan’s paper builds on his work of almost 10 years with Professor Michael Porter at Harvard University.

Click here to download the complete study in PDF Format

The New Competitive Paradigm in European IT Services – Global Strategy Conference
in Stockholm

In June 2007, the Swedish investment bank, Handelsbanken Capital Markets, and the Value Leadership Group, hosted a global strategy conference in Stockholm. The theme of the conference was – The New Competitive Paradigm in European IT Services.

The Value Leadership Group provided exclusive analysis and CEOs from industry leaders gave important new insights into the competitive dynamics and likely future direction of the European IT services industry.

More than 125 senior executives from 18 countries and a cross section of industries were in attendance. Delegates and speakers gave this event the highest ratings.

Click here to download a 1-page anaylsis of the conference

Does your Offshoring
strategy create differentiation
and greater business value?

Read an exclusive interview on offshoring strategy with Peter Schumacher.

Best practice companies – regardless of size – are those that leverage offshoring to do things they would not be able to do otherwise. You can entrepreneurially rethink your business and implement organizational and service innovations.

Companies that are not thinking about offshoring strategically are likely to miss this opportunity.

This interview was released in Belgium in July 2008 in “Offshore Update” a publication of Applied Development, continental Europe’s first venture funded offshore services firm.

Click here to download the 1-page interview in English Language

Click here to download the 1-page interview in Belgian-Dutch Language

Value Leadership Group in the news

'Indians are more than implementers'
By Niranjan Menon

Monday, September 25, 2006 21:08 IST

Peter Schumacher is the founder, President & CEO of the Value Leadership Group, an independent management consultancy with offices in India, Europe, and theUS. Schumacher, involved with offshore strategy and operational issues since 1999, holds an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University . He is also an Advisory Board Member of the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore . Schumacher explains to Niranjan Menon the pros and cons of the heavy offshoring phenomenon from Europe into India . Excerpts:

Currently, mostly voice and customer facing process are being offshored to India . Isn’t this the most difficult area to outsource given Indian accents, cultural issues, etc.

Today, voice-based call center services account for only about 15% of the Indian offshore BPO market. Offshoring of voice-based services to India is difficult precisely for reasons you have mentioned. Several US and UK companies even pulled out voice-based services from India.

While these involved only a small number of workers, the signaling effect was huge. Companies cannot find solutions for all their requirements in India.

It is becoming clear that higher-value non-voice services offer a more compelling bundle of benefits for overseas customers. These services leverage effectively the strong analytical capabilities and work ethic of the Indian workforce. Indian firms that understand this can develop differentiated propositions and unique business solutions that are difficult for firms outside India to imitate. Indian companies must strike a healthy balance of voice and non-voice offerings.

Indians have skill sets for several knowledge processes that do not involve voice-based processes. Isn’t this the better area for BPO operation when it comes to Europe ?

Pockets of the international publishing industry have been very active leveraging the India advantage. Many of the publishing and media companies on the vanguard of the offshoring trend are European firms. Bangalore has become the largest overseas location for Reuters.

In the scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing sector, Springer Science + Business Media, is shifting to an India-centric operating model. Springer is the world’s second-largest specialist publishing group in the STM sector and the top specialist information provider in the German-speaking countries. Today Springer employs about 1,200 in Chennai.

One of the largest US dailies with more than 1 million subscribers has shifted its display ad production to a vendor in India.

The newspaper has achieved a step change reduction in costs and the opportunity to develop a radically better value proposition for its commercial advertising clients. Based on these terrific results, we believe more newspapers will be looking at offshore for step change improvements.

With China emerging as a global contender, why is India still favoured by many European companies?

What China offers is just the possibility of arbitrage. You tell Chinese workers to manufacture something according specifications and they do it well. But Indians move a step further. Their suggestions often add value to an existing proposition. Indians are more than just implementers.