King of calls

The Indian business process outsourcing industry is set to see some interesting times ahead, what with the country's leading BPO firm, Genpact, now having successfully completed the listing of its initial public offering of nearly $500 million (Rs 2,050 crore) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). And Pramod Bhasin, President and CEO of the company, will now have to take his company to the next level. But raising the bar is something he has done regularly in the past-he is, after all, one of the pioneers of the industry that he helped launch in India in the mid-90s and that has since evolved into a multi-billion dollar one and generated tens of thousands of jobs.

Name: Pramod Bhasin Age: 55 Designation: President and CEO Company: Genpact

Under Bhasin's stewardship, the Gurgaon-headquartered Genpact, has, in 10 years, grown from a staff strength of 20-something to about 30,000 at present with operations spread over the US, the UK, China, Mexico, the Philippines, Romania, Hungary and of course India and revenues of $613 million. "It's time now to build our depth and expertise, (since) we have lost deals that we would not have liked to," says Bhasin of future plans for the company. Genpact's near cult status in the outsourcing sector belies the fact that its incubation as GECIS wasn't very easy. Bhasin had to use all his persuasive skills to convince GE to outsource a small part of its customer care operations to India, which, in the early 90s, was not the best place to do business. But he succeeded and rest is history.

A graduate of the Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi and later a Chartered Accountant from London, Bhasin has spent his entire working life, spanning 25 years, working with GE and RCA during which he was also posted in the US, where he served as CFO for GE Capital's Corporate Finance Group. He later moved to India as head of GE Capital in India and Asia. With the money raised from the listing, Bhasin, whose 1.93 million shares are worth $32.39 million (Rs 132.8 crore) wants to chart a new future for Genpact, with a reduced dependence on GE (which held 40 per cent stake in the company before the recent IPO) from which it was born in its former avatar as GE Capital International Services (GECIS) in 1997. He specifically plans to use the money to repay debt and finance growth and expansion as well as possible acquisitions. Watch this space.