Budapest for the delivery of non-English language in Europe. By 2005, it had become clear that Budapest would not remain competitive – under pressure from an influx in service centers, the labor market was getting tight. By early 2004, the group had already carried out intense studies across Europe, meeting with governments and universities, and scoping real estate. As a result, in 2005, Bucharest, Romania was established as an additional center. Before recruiting had even started for that operation, however, the group was already looking for the next Romanian site.
Explains Tiger: “By staying ahead of the curve in terms of anticipating market needs, and by building in scalable options, we are developing the flexibility to service corporate needs using the best resources of the day.”
Regional options
In terms of what the market offers today, Genpact believes that India, in terms of sheer size of English-speaking population, still offers the deepest supplies.
“For English, India is an obvious choice, and given the size of the population we believe the advantage will be there for many years to come. However, considering wage inflation and being an employer of choice in an increasingly competitive landscape, it is clear you need to keep moving to tier two and tier three cities to maintain your edge. Genpact currently operates about 15 centers in India, distributed across seven or eight cities, and is adding a city a year to this footprint.
China offers everything India does, says Tiger: a large population and deep talent pools. Again, these require training in processing, analytics and IT. English language is not a key strength. Instead, China is able to service other Asian languages, such as