The Five Failure Factors
The following figure illustrates the five major Failure Factors that impede a captive center’s growth:
The Five Failure Factors
Here is a brief summary of each of these factors:
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Cloning Onshore: This is the approach of trying to re-create an onshore (US or European) development center, offshore. This involves hiring comparable people and transferring existing ways of working (i.e. processes) to the offshore center.
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Remote Management: This is the approach of having onshore managers manage an extended team including members from the offshore development center.
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Skills Expectation Mismatch: This involves looking for a skill mix offshore that resembles the existing skill mix onshore (referred to already as “hiring comparable people” above).
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Absence of Scale: This in primarily a cautious, doubtful approach to the offshore center that pretty much kills the center as it is started.
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Apartheid: This is a conscious plan to relegate the offshore center to play a secondary role with the onshore centers playing primary leader roles.
Each of these Failure Factors by themselves can be crippling to the health of a captive center. Good news is, each of these factors can be addressed with relative ease by borrowing a few leaves from the play books of successful Indian vendors!
In succeeding posts, I will discuss each of these Failure Factors and the approach to mitigating them.
