A bit old - but nothing wakes me up like Pakistan http://www.pseb.org.pk/bulletin/spet2006/bulletin_details.htm
Pakistan Software Export Board Bulletin I quote only the parts to cause heartburn... > Very few FIRs are registered and hardly any figures of financial losses are > disclosed to the media. But a significant drop in the industry’s growth > rate is surely due to security reasons. India’s unsafe security environment > could be costing its BPO and ITES industry more than $500 million annually > by conservative estimates. According to Forrester Research, the Indian > industry is losing up to 30 per cent of its growth rate due to reasons like > data leakage and unsafe ethos. > Executives at IT firms in Pakistan often have worked and gone to school in > the U.S., which is Pakistan's largest export market. Indian IT firms whose > managers have worked in the West are generally more expensive than > similarly positioned Indian firms, without always providing noticeable > differences in program implementation capabilities. The willingness of > Pakistanis to return home from the West stands in marked contrast to most > Indians who arrive for school or work in the West and never look back. > The personal integrity of Pakistani managers is easy to identify and > appreciate, especially by Westerners with business experience elsewhere in > the region. However, the relatively open and trusting nature of Pakistanis > has made them easy prey for Indian business brokers who have managed to > cheat several Pakistani IT firms by offering to provide them with > outsourcing contracts in exchange for up-front fees. The Pakistanis assumed > that these Indians were open minded and charitable for coming to help less > experienced firms in Pakistan gain access to international contracts, until > the Indians took their money and disappeared. > Fewer holidays in Pakistan means less slippage in staff availability > compared to India. IT firms in India are advised to hire a diverse > workforce so that members of one community can enjoy important festivals > while members of other communities cover the phones and keep production > going. > Pakistan's official language is English. Only Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) > and the Punjabi areas of India can come close to competing with accents in > Pakistan, where many families speak English at home and where accent > neutralization for non-native speakers of English is substantially easier > than in India. Language skills and accents provide Pakistan with a major > advantage over all other Asian outsourcing destinations. > India's top-tier labor force for IT work has been stretched thin in many > areas, especially Bangalore, where escalating wage rates, turnover and > higher outsourcing prices are reaching critical mass at the same time that > the urban infrastructure has exceeded its carrying capacity. Annual > turnover rates reported for most merchant call center facilities in India > at the beginning of November are approaching 100 percent. High turnover > rates are causing a shift to second tier Indian cities and to Kolkata. > Escalating turnover rates are one of the Indian outsourcing industry's > dirty secrets. In comparison, Pakistan's top-tier talent pool is largely > untapped and turnover rates are less than 20 percent. shiv
