Amit’s e-world

December the 5th & 6th were two very important days in my life. Those tracking my blog would know by now that outsourcing advisory is one of my passions. On these two days, I had the opportunity to speak about my passion & also be recognised for it.

I landed in Netherlands a little after noon on the 5th. A quick cab to the University & then some self-rehearsals before the presentation in the evening at 6. One of the surprises I had, around 4 hours before the presentation was that the format of the 20-minute slot we had with the jury was now hard-bound to 10-minute presentation & then 10-minute defence. I was initially prepared a 15-minute script, so had to shorten it somewhat.

In its campus, Nyenrode has a castle that dates back to the 15th/16th century & is used for key events such as these. Our presentation was in one of the chambers of the castle. I was scheduled as the first in the order (in all there were three finalists, one from IE business school in Spain & another one from Cass business school). The 7-member jury member was truly high profile: It had the director of the business school, the President of an Electronics company, a Senior Advisor to the Conference Board, a TV presenter who also moderated the discussion, an eminent professor from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore & also a former Dutch ambassador to India. My presentation went very well, just as planned without any significant faux-pas. I think I may have overshot my time limit, but I didn’t bother trying to wrap up fast as the judges apparently looked interested. There is always the advantage of capturing the attention of the jury better if you go first. If there’s one thing the Cranfield MBA done to me, it is to make me fearless in making presentations to any audience. The presentation was followed by a series of questions the first of which was: how can innovation outsourcing happen given the age of multi-sourcing & declining supplier margins. I did not have trouble with this question. This was followed by another one from the ambassador where he asked me to cite an example of an innovative function, again that was quite easy to do. The more tricky question was around the definition of innovation outsourcing & also whether captive offshoring or third party outsourcing is the way to go forward with, in case of innovation outsourcing.

December 6th was the big day, when Dr. Abdul Kalam arrived on campus. I was stunned by the humility of a person of his stature, and it wasn’t difficult at all in getting into a conversation with him. He had a brief handshake & a short conversation with each of the finalists. He talked to me about my organisation & some of the CSR initiatives that my org has launched in India. After a few other talks & panel discussions, the former Dutch ambassador to India announced the GSIA award at around 4 p.m. The suspense before the actual award was quite unnerving, but to be honest, inside my heart I was confident of getting it as well. After I heard my name, I went to the stage to receive a crystal / glass globe from the ex-ambassador, followed by the prize cheque in the hard bound format. Holding it, I almost felt like I had won a man-of-match award for a cricket match. Then the European CEO of TCS announced the invitation for me to see the innovation labs in Europe & India. Then, it was my turn to thank everyone who have been a source of support to me & sum up in few minutes what my paper was all about to an audience of around 200.

Following this, there were photo sessions in front of Nyenrode & TCS hoardings. Alongside me, were Dr Abdul Kalam, the former Dutch ambassador, the European CEO of TCS & a senior official from the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Kalam was also interested in knowing the process by which I wrote the report & asked me to e-mail him the same. It was an exciting experience.