17 January 2012
Cultural Differences
17 Jan 2012

What are the Americans doing that we Europeans are not doing?Wat doen de Amerikanen dat wij Europeanen niet doen?Vad gör amerikanerna som européerna inte gör?Was die Amerikaner den Europäern voraushaben

Bridge Global IT StaffingI frequently speak to people in India that run BPO or software firms and I am always astonished by the numbers. People tell me that they started their software company 5 years back and employ 2000 people today. In Management Team, a famous Dutch magazine, I just read an article about Intelenet. This Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company, started 10 years back with 40 employees and today has 42,000 employees. The biggest part of the work that is moved to India comes from the US. So they are doing something different from us.

Bridge Global IT Staffing

Ik spreek vaak mensen in India die BPO of software bedrijven runnen en ik ben altijd verbaasd door hoe veel mensen er werken. Mensen vertellen me dat ze hun bedrijf 5 jaar geleden gestart zijn en dat ze nu 2000 mensen in dienst hebben. In Management Team, een bekend Nederlands blad, las ik over Intelenet. Dit Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) bedrijf begon 10 jaar geleden met 40 werknemers en heeft er nu 42,000. Het meeste werk dat naar India verplaatst wordt komt uit de VS. Ze doen dingen dus anders dan wij. 

Bridge Global IT Staffing

Jag talar regelbundet med folk i Indien som driver BPO eller mjukvaruföretag och jag häpnas alltid av siffrorna. Folk berättar för mig att de startade sitt mjukvaruföretag för 5 år sedan och idag har de 2000 anställda. I Management Team, ett välkänt holländskt magasin, läste jag precis en artikel om Intelenet. Detta Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) företag grundades för 10 år sedan med 40 anställda och har idag 42 000 anställda. Den största delen av det arbete som har flyttats till Indien kommer från USA. Så de gör någonting annorlunda jämfört med oss.

Bridge Global IT Staffing In regelmäßigen Abständen spreche ich mit Personen, die BPO oder Softwarefirmen in Indien leiten und ich bin immer beeindruckt von den Zahlen, die mir offen gelegt werden. Diese Personen erzählen mir, dass sie ihr Unternehmen vor fünf Jahren gegründet und mittlerweile 2.000 Angestellte beschäftigen. Im bekannten holländischen Magazin Management Team habe ich vor kurzen einen Artikel über Intelnet gelesen. Intelnet ist im Bereich des Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) tätig, hat vor 10 Jahren mit 40 Angestellten angefangen und sich so gut entwickelt, dass Sie heute 42.000 Beschäftigte haben. Der größte Teil der Arbeit, die nach Indien verlagert wird, kommt aus den USA. Dieses lässt mich ableiten, dass die USA etwas anders macht als wir Europäer.

The Indian companies can grow with such speed, because the people are available. Infosys has started 25 years back with 10 people and employs over 100.000 people today. Such stories wouldn’t be possible in Europe. But the work also needs to come in. Apparently, the US outsources much more than we Europeans. In the Netherlands, if we talk about a big software firm, we are talking about 100 people. In the outsourcing industry, a big firm in Eastern Europe doesn’t employ much more than 1000 people. So what are the Americans doing different?

  • One obvious reason has to do with language. They can employ people in India to do a vast amount of work as they speak the same language.
  • It may also have to do with the opportunist mindset of Americans? When they see a business opportunity, they take it. Are we Europeans too conservative?
  • Does it have to do with money? I think that the salaries in Western Europe are at the same level or higher than in the US, so I can hardly imagine that there isn’t enough incentive for us.
  • Availability of people? In the US, unemployment rates are towards 10%, while in many Northern European countries, they are around 5%.
Hugo Messer1Dear readers, it would be interesting to learn some perspectives of Americans and Europeans. What do you believe are the differences in our actions?

 

 

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About Hugo Messer

Hugo Messer is a Dutch entrepreneur, distributed agile team specialist, and author. He is the founder and owner of Bridge Global, a software services provider, and ekipa.co., an agile coaching agency. He has been building and managing teams around the world for the past several years. His passion is to enable people that are spread across cultures, geography and time zones to cooperate. Whether it’s offshoring or nearshoring, he knows what it takes to make global cooperation work.

2 thoughts on “What are the Americans doing that we Europeans are not doing?Wat doen de Amerikanen dat wij Europeanen niet doen?Vad gör amerikanerna som européerna inte gör?Was die Amerikaner den Europäern voraushaben”

  1. I believe that it is in the mindset and the willingness to take risks. We in Europe has fallen back into some slumbering state since several hundred years back and have to wake up from that to do something about the situation. And I also think it has to do with the fact that we educate our children to be workers and not entrepreneurs with a burning desire to create and evolve. Then there are so many more venture opportunists in the United States and not to mention the risk founding and wealth that are actually there, and the lack of that in Europe as a general.

  2. In part mindset, and in part legal and HR environment. In Europe, it’s not as easy to lay those people off that you want to replace through a BPO provider. Many companies in the US have so-called “at will” employment contracts, which allow both sides to terminate the contract more or less immediately – usually with 2-week notice. Yes, severance may be paid, but still, the change can be implemented faster, which gives a larger ROI and larger incentive to grow BPO agreements faster.