| Banks: Knowledge is power |
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| Business India 17/12/2006 |
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Emerging leader
Wipro BPO is looking at increasing its thrust on the knowledge services practice, which includes higher value added activities like research & analytics and has brought in Ramit Sethi as senior vice-president – knowledge services and capital markets. Sethi's focus would be to consolidate and grow these two businesses for Wipro and is expected to help Wipro sharpen its strategy to deliver on these service areas. Says T.K. Kurien, CEO, Wipro BPO: "Ramit has a deep understanding of the business challenges and opportunities in the KPO space. His extensive experience in the finance domain and his expertise in new markets identification and developing entry strategies for KPO services will help Wipro BPO position itself for leadership in the emerging market space."
Prior to joining Wipro, Sethi was with infosys BPO Ltd. where he was vice-president and member of the executive council. Sethi was instrumental in setting up and growing the 'Knowledge Services' business of infosys BPO and managed their research & analytics outsourcing business. Sethi has also been with, KPMG as a partner in their corporate finance and prior to that has worked with Standard Chartered Bank for 13 years, across their India, Middle East and South Asia operations. Says Sethi: "I am delighted to be a part of the Wipro BPO team. KPO is an emerging opportunity for Indian BPOS and the finance domain holds the greatest potential for outsourcing of knowledge intensive business processes with a sufficiently skilled labour pool. I am confident that we will be able to create an industry-leading scalable and sustainable business around knowledge-based outsourcing."
Creating new opportunities
MSN india has created a new role within the organisation – head, business development – and has zeroed in on Samir Saraiya for the position. Saraiya, who has been with the Internet industry for the past several years, will be responsible for leveraging the strengths of MSN India and Windows Live to create new opportunities and relationships with businesses in the Indian market. The early dotcom wave saw Saraiya shifting to Mid Day, where he headed the group's business development portfolio across its digital assets. He then joined The Times of India group, where he worked with the vice-chairman's office overseeing business strategy across the group's media properties, including India-times, The Economic Times and Bombay Times. In 2003, he moved to Yahoo! India, where he was responsible for creating new revenue streams across both the Internet and mobile divisions including launching Yahoo! India's E-commerce initiative and its mobile advertising products.
"The Indian Internet market is flourishing and the growth that MSN India is experiencing reflects that," says Jaspreet Bindra, country head, MSN india. "The appointment of Samir is part of our commitment to strengthen our pool of experience and expertise that MSN customers have come to expect."
Leveraging knowledge
Herbalife International recently roped in Shekhar Sethu as managing director of Herbalife India, the nutritional supplements company that has 13 sales offices and 25,000 distributors. Sethu will replace Manoj Shirodkar, the earlier managing director, who had put in his papers in September this year. Prior to joining Herbalife, Sethu was general manager and country head of Schwarzkopf Professional, and was responsible for the Schwarzkopf business in India. "This is an opportunity for me to leverage my knowledge in the industry for Herbalife in India," he says.
Offshoring initiative
The US-based Knowledge Process Outsourcing firm Integreon recently recruited Matthew Banks as a senior vice-president for its legal services vertical. Banks, who was earlier chief executive officer and co-founder of ALMT synergies, a legal outsourcing company with offices in London, Mumbai and Bangalore, will now relocate to Mumbai. Before ALMT, he practised law at international law firms Linklaters and Eversheds in London. Banks, who holds a law degree from Oxford University and is a member of the Law Society of England and Wales, will now be based in Mumbai, where he will head delivery, strategy and client relationship management for Integreon's Legal Services.
Integreon announced last month that it plans to build a service centre in Delhi to support the administrative functions of Clifford Chance, the world's largest law firm.
Exploring opportunities
Ramnidhi Wasan, who headed Reliance's retail business" at its petrol pumps, has put in his papers. Wasan, who had earlier worked several years with the Oberoi group, has moved to a subsidiary of the K. Raheja group as chief operating officer (development), which runs the Renaissance and JW Marriott properties in Mumbai. It also runs the Shoppers' Stop in Mumbai and the Inorbit mall. In a recent expansion plan, the K. Raheja group is now pouring cement into seven new properties all over India. It is also exploring opportunities in the mid-market segment. |
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