It’s all about convenience, from whose perspective should you view this issue, and who finally gains or (loses) from KPO.
If you’re a bank or a corporation in the US, in present times it suits you to go set up an office (or several of them) in India or any other “cheap outsourcing location”… as long as it is cheaper than what you’d pay in the US for the same service or “knowledge”. Simply because your overheads will get trimmed dramatically, and that reflects in your bottom-line.
If you’re an employee of either a US bank or a US corporation, and based in the US – although locally raised, educated, even belong to American society – culturally speaking, you may still be laid off by your employer in present times. Your job may be handed over to someone in India. You’ll find it hard to palate this harsh truth – but the fact of the matter is that you are dispensable; your employer does not need your services any longer. Cry out aloud, soak your pillow with tears, protest, or remain silent – yes, you have the right to indulge in any of the above. But for the time being at least, neither the banks, nor the corporations will pay heed to your outcry. While the jangling may rankle you, the sound of money jingling in their treasuries is all that they can hear; all from the profits they’ll be able to show. (Your 6-digit salary replaced by far lower amounts paid to your substitutes in developing nations.)
If you’re an employee of either a US bank or a US corporation, but based in your home-country, say e.g. in India, you’ll be mocking the New York or London-based executives (for the paltry receptionist-like roles they would be assigned in the not-so-distant future), while you will be doing the prestigious work (e.g. closing multi-million dollar deals).
But isn’t it strange? If you had immigrated from India in the not-so-distant past, with those very same degrees that Wall Street (or the ad agencies, or the corporations) seek today among employees based in India, they were not willing to hire you – why, one questioned and all you heard back from them was silence. They just did not want to hire you. Trash your degrees, bury your past professional experience… they didn’t care, they didn’t want you among them. Trim your resume so you can apply for at least the $10/hour (no benefits) part-time job as ‘Teller’ at the bank around the corner. (Don’t bother showing your experience or the professional qualifications you have.) Sorry, but even those doors aren’t open. There’s so much insecurity among people… lest I take their job away, they won’t even invite you to an interview. At your expense, other out-of-job losers posing as recruiters fill their databases by luring hopeful job-seekers like you, with their cheap spamming, phishing or phony email techniques.
In the mean while, young men and women taking on steep student loans still hope that they will land plum jobs on Wall Street, Mad Ave or anywhere in Manhattan by the time they graduate with their finance, marketing, or management degrees. While they’re busy gaining knowledge in local US universities, the banks and corporations are quietly moving the knowledge base to India. Come to think of it, where would these new students like to build their new home, career or life – locally in the US, or will they be compelled to seek jobs abroad, move to other countries as new immigrants of developing nations?
Words-n-Motion 