Ex-Satyam BPO chief in contention for CEO post

Even as the buzz around Vivel Paul's candidature as CEO is still doing the rounds at Satyam Computer Services [Get Quote], insiders say the government is considering a person who was an integral part of the company till three months ago.

The name of Venkatesh Roddam, former CEO of Satyam's BPO subsidiary Nipuna, is being seriously considered, since Paul is not keen to return to India, according to highly-placed sources. The search for a CEO has been following founder Ramalinga Raju's disclosures of financial fraud January 7 and his subsequent arrest.

Roddam, who is taking a break from corporate life and lives in Hyderabad, said: "I'm not too sure what is happening. I am getting calls from close friends and relatives who are asking me about this."

Roddam did not, however, offer a direct reply when he was asked if he was interested in the post but suggested he was not averse to it either. "It is a fantastic company to work with. It's an interesting and challenging role. They have a competent board now, to provide all kinds of support," said Roddam who worked for Nipuna for about three years.

Last week, Business Standard reported that the government had exhorted the new board, whose six members it has nominated, to look within the company or identify a person who knew Satyam's operations well, for the post of CEO and CFO.

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New Rules for the BPO Industry

Essar Group, a smallish Indian conglomerate, acquired a bit of fame earlier this year when Vodafone bought out Essar’s partner in Hutch-Essar, the fourth-largest Indian wireless carrier. Essar now has a 33% stake in Vodafone-Essar in addition to its own many Indian subsidiaries, including steel, oil refining, and shipping business. In the US, Essar causes barely a ripple, yet one of its subsidiaries here could be quietly rewriting the rules for the BPO industry.

The company is Aegis BPO Services, with its headquarters in Texas, which is the 8th- largest 8 BPO operator in India. Essar patched the organization together over the past 7 years through a couple of US acquisitions and some rapid organic growth. It now has about 8,000 employees and $225 million in annual revenues. This is according to Madhu Vuppuluri, president of the Americas for Essar, whom I met at a dinner at the Indian Consulate in New York last night.

The key thing to understand about Aegis is that half of its employees are in the United States—a far cry from the heavily India-centric approach taken by industry leaders such as Genpact and WNS. In fact, Vuppuluri tells me, the company even has a call center staffed by 300 people in downtown Manhattan, one of the most expensive places in the world to do business.

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Discuss Outsourcing With other professionls

BPO Trainer Essential

A BPO trainer has to be an excellent motivator. The biggest challenge for him is to be able to persuade the BPO youngsters to abide by the rules and regulations of the organization he/she works for and also for the laws & regulations of the customer’s country. One of the biggest challenges is to create an interest and positive impression of the trainee’s current job and his/her firm. The trainer also has to make sure that every one in the training batch completes the training successfully. The toughest part for the trainer is to identify weak trainees, provide them individual feed back to improve on all the parameters. The trainer has to share ‘believable’ experiences and provide them with innovative real life case studies.

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