For the last year, almost everyone who has been able to has been working remotely. This has been a predominant part of the “new normal” that, almost overnight, became the day-to-day reality across the globe.
But for some, this type of work is nothing new. The adoption of outsourcing kicked off at scale in the United States in the 1990s, and the industry has only grown and matured ever since.
Although many locations, including Eastern Europe, South America, and the Caribbean, have now developed significant capacity to provide a range of business services to U.S. companies, India was the first name in outsourcing — and it remains the global leader.
A number of factors made the country an ideal location. It has an enormous population, labor costs are very low, and English proficiency is very high. Over the years, it also grew into a hotbed of talented developers and programmers capable of delivering higher-value work that went well beyond the early days of customer service.
It is no coincidence that many of the largest firms in the sector were founded in India, and these giant multinationals have continued to expand their scope to focus on IT and wider business services. Names like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCL Technologies, and Tech Mahindra now dominate the IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO) space.
These global brands now have a footprint almost everywhere. The affinity and connection with the United States remains as strong as ever, and women are increasingly rising to the higher ranks of these multinational corporations.
Overall, it remains a male-lead industry — like most in the business world — but it is changing, slowly but surely, and there is now definitely now a place for more women executives.
The following are just a few of the women responsible for making this progress a reality as they climb their way to the top of the field.
Aruna Jayanthi
Aruna Jayanthi has spent decades in the outsourcing industry and grown into a major figure since her start at Tata Consulting Services fresh out of school. After making a few early career moves, in 2000, she landed at French services provider Capgemini and rose to become CEO of Capgemini India. At one point she was the only woman on the industry giant’s global leadership board, and she has since sat on the board of several high-profile enterprises, including Michelin Group. She now stands as one of the most prominent women in the field and has ranked as high as fourth on Fortune India’s annual list of the Most Powerful Women in business in the country.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra
Shiv Nadar struck gold when he founded the early incarnation of HCL Technologies in 1970s. The company grew steadily over the decades into a major force and remains in good hands. Today, his daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, serves as the company’s chair and oversees operations of the subsidiary HCL Corporation as executive director and CEO. Much more than a legacy heir, Nadar Malhotra has been working in the trenches for nearly a decade and has left little doubt among her peers that she earned her spot as the first woman chairperson of a leading IT services firm in the nation.
Vanitha Narayanan
Few have more experience in this space than Vanitha Narayanan. She joined IBM in 1987 and has been around for virtually the entire digital revolution that took over the world and pushed outsourcing squarely into the IT realm. After spending much of her tenure in the United States, she became a major force in India after becoming managing director of IBM India in 2013. With the U.S. mega-corporation placing so much of its focus and footprint on the country over the past two decades, her subsidiary’s work was instrumental in IBM’s seamless transition from a hardware giant to a services colossus. Beyond her role at the company, the proud grandmother has served in high-level board member of various organizations, including her time as executive council member of the prominent industry group NASSCOM.
Neelam Dhawan
Neelam Dhawan knows first hand how many of the biggest IT services firms operate. During her towering career, she has served in various roles for HCL, IBM, HP, Microsoft, and even Compaq. It’s no wonder the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) named her among the country’s “Top Inspirational Women Leaders,” and these days she spends much of her time sharing her impressive experience on boards and striving to become a mentor to others who may hopefully one day follow in her large, long-winding footsteps.
