Genpact boss at ruthless best during Townhall meet
By Sameer Ahmed

Genpact is the largest and most successful BPO in India. Genpact is credited with laying the foundation of the booming BPO sector in the sub-continent.  It has more than 36000 employees operating in 12 countries. Genpact founder and current President and CEO Pramod Bhasin is widely credited for being the biggest reason for its success. 

It was a bolt from the blue that left the Genpact employees in a state of shock and fear. Techgoss had exclusively learnt that unlike his earlier sugar-coated Townhall addresses, Pramod Bhasin, the president and CEO of Genpact, this time round was direct and ruthless. Right at the beginning of his townhall address on August 6, he told the employees that going forward “non-performance will not be tolerated.” He also cited the example of two Genpact employees who were asked to go recently because they “failed to do a basic job assigned to them.” “You are paid to do a job. Do it. There is no tolerance for non-performance,” he said.

He also said that employees can no longer take their job for granted as there are many experienced suitors in recession-stricken US who are ready to work at a lesser pay and that too from home.

Pramod was equally ruthless in emphasizing the necessity for adherence to the dress code policy. To the amusement of the audience, he asked them not to come to office as if they have “attended a soccer match”. 

Many of the employees attribute the hard hitting tone to the news that WNS, India’s second largest BPO organization, has maintained its revenue target for Q2, unlike its competitor – Genpact - which slashed its revenue guidance by half for the year 2009. According to media reports post the Genpact Q2 results, Genpact has reduced its revenue target for the rest of the year and now aims to grow at 6 to 9 per cent.

However, Pramod in the way only he can, quelled the critics during his address. “We are way ahead of anybody in the industry.  We are leaders in what we do,” he said thus signing off in style.

(Techgoss had published the following on July 31, 2009)

Genpact changes venue due to security threat
By Sameer Ahmed

Genpact is the largest and most successful BPO in India. Genpact is credited with laying the foundation of the booming BPO sector in the sub-continent.  It has more than 36000 employees operating in 12 countries. Techgoss had exclusively learnt that the location for this year’s edition of the Platinum Awards at Genpact has run into bit of a rough weather.

While a couple of mails were earlier sent by Genpact HR Leader, Piyush Mehta, stating that Bali was the venue for this year’s Platinum Awards ceremony, a email sent last week mentioned the change of venue to Beijing. The email also had the reason behind the change of venue. According to the email, the decision to change the venue from Bali to Beijing was taken due to “security reasons”.

Genpact’s highest honor, the Platinum Awards, is given to outstanding employees for their exemplary performance, commitment to excellence and for the business impact they delivered in a year. In the hierarchy of performance, the winners make up for a mere .1% of the entire workforce of Genpact.  Started in 2005, the Platinum Awards were conceived by the Genpact leadership to reward top performers and honour them with an experience of a lifetime.

However, the change of venue may cause heartburn among the top executives as Bali is widely believed as a much classier tourist destination in comparison to Beijing. And when one looks at the history of Platinum Awards at Genpact, the reason of the heartburn becomes more obvious. The first set of winners and their partners were gifted an all expense paid trip to Greece. In 2006, the venue shifted to Spain followed by French Riviera in 2007 and Istanbul in 2008. Interestingly, this year the awards will be hosted in a country which has considerable Genpact presence. Genpact has two operating centers in China –Changchun and Dalian. This is also a first of sorts.  

The Platinum Awards at Genpact involves around four-days of non-stop partying coupled with sight seeing, the best of local cuisine and an awards night.