At this point I lost my shirt. There was not clue of the UK investor and now some folks who had no previous background in the Industry thought they could just saunter into our floor. We deal with confidential client data and we therefore have strict data security norms and do not normally permit anyone who shows up at the door into the floor without a strong reason.

And here was someone whom I had hardly met suggesting that they be permitted to access our facilities.

Data Security concerns aside, when folks who know nothing about the business start getting interested, to my simple mind, it means we are in the thick of the Hype Cycle.

Venkat

For those of us with grey hair we have seen many such cycles. In India we know of the stock market booms of earlier era. The granite hype, the plantation hype and the last one…the dot com hype. American readers will easily understand the dot com hype since it affected both sides.

The BPO industry in India and the US has all the makings of being caught in the hype cycle.

My own opinion in all such situations is that there is a core business in any sector which is not hype. And built on all this possibility is a superstructure of expectations that can never be met. Granite for example is mined, excavated and used for various reasons. In my house as well as in many homes thorough out the world. Same with teak wood. Same goes for the dot com industry. I books my tickets and do all my hotel bookings for my travels using the Internet.

But the Investment bankers and other specie of the financial jungle soon start grabbing media attention from the actual players, create the hype, siphon off the cream and then skate over to where the next happening party is.

So here is a question to ask yourself, “Are you in the Hype segment of BPO or are you in the Real segment of the BPO industry.”

Venkat