Dyson decided to outsource most of its core technology and financial processes to Accenture India with open eyes to “COST SAVINGS” and we are now 2 years in and guess what... it very well seems as if it has ended up costing way more to outsource, so they keep "cutting budgets" and "looking for cost savings elsewhere", and hiring 20-something year old’s who don’t know any better. An easy fix to the 50% turn-over? Our Global CIO has left the organization. Coincidence? I think not. He saw the fast-moving train to destruction. Our Vice President of Human Resources? Well she left too. Our Vice President of IT? Well she left too. Our Vice President of Legal? Oh, he found a new job. Countless Directors and people with 7+ years vested? Oh, they are gone. Again, Coincidence? I think not. I’m certain they were all privy to seeing the train to destruction. My point here is that many key people have left the organization on their own over the last year and it’s a completely different culture. Everyone is frustrated, burnt-out, or spending endless hours venting to their co-worker about how much they hate their job. Dyson will never admit the idea of outsourcing was a horrible one. Fake it till you make it, create more “redundancies” or “restructure” again when it all comes crashing to the ground? Outsourcing to India is not bad, it is ABHORRENT. Every time I get an India IT person assigned to help me with issues, I know it is doomed. They just suggest “fix” solutions instead of getting to the root of the issue. They keep dragging and delaying the issue hoping it will go away on its own. With the operations team, it’s worse. They will never voice out any problems until the magnitude becomes so huge that they can no longer sweep things under the carpet; then they expect YOU to solve it for them since they have no freaking idea what to do about it. Sloth, refusal to take ownership of problems, incapacity to think etc., the attitude problems are abundant. Hiring cheap labor workers to fill the gap of the so called “labor shortage”. This was an epic decision and the wrong one. “COST EFFECTIVE SOLUTIONS” Allow me to destroy that statement. At face-value, the costs turn out much less. That fact is completely negated when it you realize how much time it takes Accenture to get ANYTHING done. Days turn to weeks and weeks turn to months. I had a team of 6 take 2 months to fix a simple error. I use “fix” lightly, because the issue was not solved it was disposed of. The time difference with the United States is the worst possible. They are disorganized and extremely difficult to motivate. “Yes” can have a different meaning. What once took 5 minutes now takes 5 days. They have a difficult time taking responsibility. They are very good at “excuses”. Accenture Excuse Example: My associate told me once on “Monday” that he will be sick on Friday. I asked: “Are you getting sick right now [on Monday]?” He said: “No.” I asked: “how do you know then you will get sick on Friday?” No response and then he said: “I have to go to a party on Friday.” I said, you just lost your trust in 30 seconds which you built in 6 months working with me. I asked him: “why did you lie to me?” He said: “this is the way things work in India with Indian managers.” When productivity is very low, making excuses for missing issues have very little effect or even no effect on the already low output. They make once happy people miserable.
Time to be realistic Dyson. Reality always wins, and any argument made will not change that reality. Also, it is wise to keep jobs in your own country if you want to have future economic growth and a good work culture environment. What these white collared Execs in the land of Malmesbury fail to realize is how much extra work it is for us to try to coordinate efforts with people that do not have industry experience. We end up having to coach these offshore “managers” along and re-coach them and re-coach them (insert broken record). Most days, you end up feeling like a teacher with an incompetent student who will not listen or simply cannot comprehend the needs of the business.
Do I think anything I wrote here will change the likely outcome of this company riding along on this train-wreck of an idea until it derails? No sir or madam. At the end of the day, Indian outsourcing is a 200-billion-dollar industry. Put that number into the perspective “cost savings”.
