'Global footprint of Indian cos to grow'

Meenakshi Ganjoo

SILICON VALLEY: Indian companies intend to step-up offshoring, reflecting the growing global footprint of many Indian companies, according to a latest McKinsey survey.

According to the just released Global Survey of Business Executives : Confidence Index, January 2007, the number of Indian firms intending to hire staff in a different country to the company’s headquarters has increased by 12 per cent from 30 per cent in September 2006 to 42 per cent in December 2006.

By comparison, 61 per cent of all executives globally say the majority of their hiring will take place in the same country as their headquarters, a figure that has remained almost unchanged over the past three months. “In India, executives seem to be looking to offshore some of their own operations, after years of benefiting from Western companies doing the same,” the survey says.

Executives are notably likelier than three months ago to say that new hires working in a different country from headquarters will perform functions identical to those performed at homeyperhaps indicating year-end assessments of efficiencies and costs. Overall, the survey shows that executives’ relatively high confidence in economic conditions remained unshaken during the final quarter of 2006, despite the upheaval, and executives are hiring. Approximately 81 per cent of the executives in India say their company plans to hire in 2007, while 56 per cent of executives in China expect to see growth in hiring.