Cashless Carnival

After having spent a considerable amount of time in the Indian IT Services Industry and having seen different models, I am tempted to think aloud how life has been at these places.

The Zoo

A captive unit set up by an MNC in India to source low cost solutions which will give them an edge in the market. Life is peaceful in a zoo. You don’t have to fight for your bread and butter. It will come your way; you don’t have to compete with anyone for your piece of meat. Bouquets are easier to get and brickbats may not really hurt so much since the sender is after all a foreign counterpart who knows that the outcome of not keeping the captives happy could mean the public, for who they are being exhibited, getting disappointed. Unorthodox exuberance in a zoo may not really pay off since it is more or less likely to be met with pessimistic discouragement. Captives grow to become supervisors who will take care of younger captives, ensure they are not dissatisfied, give them a chance once in a while to be closer to the public, of course with a coach trained in handling captives in between to ensure that the captives and the public get along well and to cover up for skills which they have not acquired being in the zoo [and never will].

Life is easy, but you may never attain the skills to step out into the wild. If you don’t intend to take life too seriously, since you will anyway not get out of it alive, go for it. But, you may always run the risk of getting thrown out of the zoo if the parent company decides to set up the zoo in a different country where the captives do not demand as much food as you do.

The Wild Jungle

Typically, Pure bred Indian ventures who have pioneered the off-shoring model. Life is anything but peaceful. You will live life on your terms. You will have to compete with the other wild animals to get food which definitely tastes better since there has been a considerable amount of effort and time spent to get it. You’d have spent time strategizing on how you can get the meat and eat it too knowing that the other wild animals out there are equally smart. You may not be as privileged as the zoo inmates in getting visibility and exposure could hurt too. But, at the end of it all you become a smarter animal and are respected for what you are in the jungle. Visits to other hunting grounds could come at shorter intervals, which is a rewarding experience [in every respect]. Being unorthodox in the wild could mean developing special skills to achieve goals which could become a matter of pride.

Wild animals grow up to become the rulers of the forest. The forest may be segmented to facilitate focus of related skills to achieve a common goal. There is a lot of scope in the forest to grow, to learn, to be respected. There could be a little pain at times, but then without pain there is no pleasure. The Jungle is the eventual melting pot.