Why is culture competence so important when offshoring? · | Why is culture competence so important...

Karsten Eskelund, Software 2012,

Oslo, 8 Feb 2012

Why is culture competence so important when offshoring?

| Why is culture competence so important when offshoring?

Aim of this session

Karsten Eskelund, 8 Feb 2012

2 © 2012 Capgemini. All rights reserved.

Reflect on what culture is

Examples of differences between India and Norway

Hints on how to overcome cultural barriers


Our Rightshore® Delivery Model − right resources, at the right location, at the right time



Best Quality / Lowest Cost Delivery 4 Elements to Rightshore™ Services

Headcount

(# of FTE’s)

Lev

ers

dri

vin

g e

ffic

ien

cy

Levers driving labor rate benefit Low cost

location

High cost

location

1

3

4

2

Moving to an outsourced environment brings efficiency gains –

through economies of scale etc

1

Services can be delivered from one or a combination

of onsite, on-shore, near-shore, far-shore

At Client

On-shore, near-shore

locations

Services requiring close

proximity

Client interface

Customer facing

Client team

collaboration

Rightshore

Near-shore/far-shore

locations

Low-cost delivery

Transactional processing

services

Remote support

2 Global, center-based distributed delivery brings further

economies of scale

3 With some impact on average labor cost (labor arbitrage)

4 Moving to lower cost and culturally compatible environments to

bring reduced cost of inputs – such as labor and property

What is culture


Culture – like on onion, has different layers. “Practices” are the most noticeable element cutting across the different abstract layers



Rituals

Heroes

Symbols

Values


What culture is the most important for an individual?

Different Types of Culture

Within a national boundary (French or India or Norwegian)

Organizational culture (corporate culture)

• Capgemini, IBM, Microsoft, Toyota, Ford, etc

Professional culture

• Lawyers, military, academic, programmers etc.

Team Culture

• Emerges from bonding through common work experiences, disaster and success, from cliquish

jokes, team symbols or icon

Individual

• Multiple caps

• “I’m more American now than Indian”

Which of these cultural norms is the strongest?

What is the future of a true corporate culture?



Norway and India


What does Indians think about Norway?




Norglish and Hindglish

Norwegians and Indians will use the English language different. This is a source for confusion

Examples

• If someone say “bike”, the Norwegian will think about this:

• While the Indian will think about this:

If a Norwegian don’t know what English word to use, the person might assume that it is the same as in

Norwegian

Examples

• “registrere en sak” – “register a case” – “raise a ticket”



http://bikes.88000.org/r?12


Sport




Business



How to overcome cultural barriers


Culture has impact on our daily business on many levels

76%

53%

44%

44%

8%

5%

Different communication styles

Different approaches to completing tasks

Different attitudes towards conflict

Different decision-making styles

Other

None, have not had any problems

Different communication styles stand out as the most common cultural issue that causes

problems between onshore and offshore workers



Source: Sandy Randoff online study 2006


Communication




Different attitudes towards time becomes obvious in business meetings: “When Indians wake up,

Westerners have already gone to sleep”

Attention diagram for business meetings



Time

High

Low

Attention

Western cultures India


Time

In Linear time culture

Deadline are taken very seriously

Time is structured, sequential and linear

Events are taken one at a time

People plan things in great detail and are very punctual.

Expandable time culture

Consider time commitments to be achieved only if possible

Time is unlimited or simultaneous

Time is fluid, elastic

Delays are less important



How do you handle this difference?


Over all the Indian attitudes can be seen to be very collective and respectful



Belonging to a

community (jati)

Family ties

Gentleness, human

warmth

Tradition

Hinduism, reincarnation, and Karma

Indian attitudes

Key beliefs

Hospitality

Compromise

Respect of elders in

family or in company

hierarchy

Key values

Loss of face

Personal criticism

Arrogant and

disrespectful

treatment

Lack of respect for

religion, tradition

and family values

Major avoidances

How does this affect how you handle conflicts?


The importance of knowing the pyramid in India



Vice Presi- dent

Principal

Managing Consultant

Senior Consultant

Consultant

Vice Presi-dent

Director

Associate Director

Senior Manager

Manager

Senior Consultant 2

Senior Consultant 1

Consultant

Associate Consultant

Senior Vice

President


How to measure progress




The difference between deliver according to expectation and deliver according to a specification




The key is not to change but to be able to adapt



Is about building bridges

and using adapters – not

changing values

Is about curiosity and

flexibility

Most importantly, is

about mutual Trust and

Respect


Align your organization to the sourcing strategy



IT Operations Development

IT

Business

intelligence

Business

solution,

Integration

and

Development

Core

application

maintenance

Back office

and

infrastructure

IT

Global sourcing

IT strategy


Key Message: Cultural understanding is like climbing a ladder



Use the differences in how people think and act as

an advantage in your project

Try to learn as much as you can about the people

you work with and how their culture(s) are

Accept that people do think and act differently due

to cultural differences


More information



With more than 115,000 people in

40 countries, Capgemini is one of the

world's foremost providers of consulting,

technology and outsourcing services. The

Group reported 2010 global revenues of

EUR 8.7 billion

Together with its clients, Capgemini creates

and delivers business and technology

solutions that fit their needs and drive the

results they want.

A deeply multicultural organization,

Capgemini has developed its own way of

working, the Collaborative Business

ExperienceTM

, and draws on Rightshore®, its

worldwide delivery model.

Learn more about us at

www.capgemini.com.

Rightshore® is a trademark belonging to Capgemini

About Capgemini

http://www.capgemini.com/






More information



Please contact:

• Karsten Eskelund

[email protected]

+47 48 13 91 55 / +91 9769 93 1592

• http://nor2ind.wordpress.com

mailto:[email protected]

http://nor2ind.wordpress.com/

Why is culture competence so important when offshoring? · | Why is culture competence so important...

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