What's This India Business?: Offshoring, Outsourcing, and the Global Services Revolution

Davies has good arguments 2005-09-01 Mr Paul Davies gives a good assessment of my country. His guide to cultural do's and dont's is spot on. No Indian should quarrel with those. He also does not hide the many problems in Indian society, as he talks about the benefits of offshoring to Westerners.

On offshoring, I hope you will seriously consider his assessment that this trend will continue and grow. Americans might be undrstandably uneasy about their jobs. But they never seem to question how natural it is that Hollywood should dominate the world film industry, and that their chipmakers and software firms do also in those industries. To Indians, the U.S. still has immense strengths in technology.

Lonely Planet for CIOs 2005-08-19 English is not my first language (even though I scored 720 in my SAT verbal), but I still must say I feel there is an undertone in this book of how on earth did we lose the Raj. There is a grudging acknowledgment of India's excellence but as a fait accompli rather than to understand the organic strengths of India, interrupted for what in its long history, was a short 150-year spell of playing host to the Burra Sahib.
An interesting work as a handbook of the hows and whats of this undeniably violent element of globalization. Like a Lonely Planet for CIOs.
In other words, interesting, but not good for those seeking the whys - in India and abroad.
By far, I prefer Rising Elephant, by Ashutosh Sheshabalaya. This goes to the core of what India was, could have been, and in case we forget, is becoming. And what this means (and could mean) for the West.
Do not forget to note his dedication note. Grandparents Rai Bahadur and a university professor. Parents educated in Oxford, Harvard, Columbia. A different perspective from an Indian aristocrat, but married I believe from the name, to a European or American (and also part of a local motorcycling band in Europe).
In other words, hard to place. Maybe the Burra Sahibs should speak with him. But my feeling is this is a good book for Western CEOs, but all Indians (and Western IT workers) would understand more if they read Rising Elephant.

Read your reviews carefully 2005-05-11 Notice that almost all the negative reviews of this book do not actually review the book, but go off on a personal rant about something else. Davies' book is terrifically well-written and clear. The first section deals with the hard business aspects of outsourcing to India. The middle is

- Nicholas Brealey International