Monday, June 25, 2007

My take on the BLACK SWAN Theory

Heard about Nassim Nicholas Taleb's latest book- The black Swan. Dint get to read the book though, but found the whole theory of Black Swans so interesting that I could'nt stop myself from posting this. To quote wiki : "The term black swan comes from the ancient Western conception that all swans were white in color. In that context, a black swan was a metaphor for something that could not exist. The 17th Century discovery of black swans in Australia metamorphosed the term to connote that the perceived impossibility actually came to pass."
So a black swan is now a metaphor for all those ideas which seemed near impossible in the past but are very much existent in the present world. Ya you are write all scientific inventions are black swans & so is technology.
No sane person would have imagined wireless communication to be such a norm today, things like globalisation, liberalisation & to be more specific outsourcing to change the world economic dynamics. Indeed it takes quite some time for the world to recognize the genius in insanity. Now that you got a grip of the black swan funda, let me move to what I wanted to actually talk about in relation to this theory.
The IT industry in India, has evolved so drastically & so quickly in the last decade, that the same generation has been a victim as well as the realiser of the black swan. Confused? (well then I have been successful, it has been my conscious attempt to write something complex :) ) Just a couple of years back, single digits hikes were a norm, employer was in short supply - meaning lesser oppurtunities, employee had to be the best at his job to be retained & expect a decent single digit hike. Mind you I am talking about the scene in the industry after the boon called outsourcing happened to India, so this is not very long back. This was the age when the employer was the typical bossy "BOSS", & the employee was an initimidated little creature, always a victim to the atrocities of the boss. No one would have ever imagined that we were again being cheated into believing in the black swan.
But merely a few years & we see a complete volte-face. There is no chance you can give any of your associates a hike of less than 10%, no matter what his merit is :). It is the employees who are in short supply as opposed to employers :). The employer is no longer bullying the employee, infact it is the other way, the employee has a triumph card now - "You dont make me happy & I quit" :) The employee satisfaction is no less than the customer satisfaction.
At this point I cant help but think what is the possibilty we feel is impossible today but will become an indispensible truth tomorrow. If the exponential hikes continue in the time to come India will surely lose its cost advantage. One thing all economists are predicting is that India will have to move up the in terms of value addition. It will have to rely more on its quality of work than mere cost advantage. Well this is one possibilty, but I have another crazy idea - this could be a cyclic process, i.e. India loses cost advantage, hence loses work to other emerging economies. Indians lose jobs, so they compromise to work at lower salaries & hence India gains back its cost advantage & the cycle continues. What say? Sounds insane? You never know this may well be our fate, dont rule this out, else you could be getting trapped into the black swan warp, beware!!!

4 Comments:

Blogger Lyrical Craziness Personified said...

Heya...

I liked both your posts.. primarily coz you manage to come up with teh most radical thoughts....

I mean, I care two hoots about the stimuli... but baap, u rawk!!

Stop time for a while will you.. nay.. don't grin... soon, will be a black swan to my credit

11:14 AM  
Blogger Waterfox said...

Very Well Written.
Early last year HCL CEO Vineet Nayar made news for his concept of keeping employee satisfaction over customer satisfaction. His idea was that satisfied employees will give better service and hence more satisfaction to customers.
But the other idea that you have talked about, the cyclic process, is not a black swan anymore. Several IT companies have laid off employees recently, reduced salaries (TCS!) and so on.
It's not so hunky dory any more!

I really liked your posts! Added your blog in my blog roll. :)

9:46 PM  
Blogger Sravanthi said...

Just happened to read your Black Swan post...

I staunchly differ with you on this coz...India atleast for next 10 years is not going to loose its outsourcing advantage over other countries inspite of hikes or market volatility...

Reason being :
Indian Demographics. No other country is going to beat this aspect. India has a vast knowledge base in terms of resources that graduate every year, proficiency in English language.. n man power etc.,only threat could be China but its totally out of scope due to the above reasons
and with my experience what I have seen is customers are not going for long term contracts anymore...they break up the assignments into short term contracts and employ multiple service vendors which gives them a cost advantage...
the rules of engagement between the client n vendor are changing now..

and one more fact is tat inspite of wage rises do u know onething tat, Indian employee earns just one sixth of western earners...
this feel good exists only when market is booming...once things are not fair companies have realized to adapt to the situations arround..

I know its quite a big post..but then could refrain from posting u..

8:13 AM  
Blogger Sravanthi said...

as long as markets r robust all the stakeholders can grow.. and it is during the good times tat business provides comfortable value proposition to clients... when market changes rules of the game too change..

so the cost advantage remains constant as long as therez no strong competitor n with marginal hike in billing rates..

after all customer is GOD...companies cannot spare loosing even one.. :)

8:39 AM  

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