On the Road

Just returned from a trip to Paris, Stockholm and Copenhagen.

Across Europe, I see less pessimism among business people, compared with six months ago. Even projects involving offshore work is at least being talked about if not actually awarded. That may be because companies are tightening the belt everywhere in a sort of hangover from the recent crisis.

Denmark and Sweden are natural markets for english speaking offshore services companies. Both economies are having serious shortages of skilled labour and both are easy to do business in, given that most people speak excellent english. However, there is not all always a business case, since offshore productivity often neutralizes the cost advantage. Over in continental Europe, France remains beautiful and tough to do business in, especially for an Indian company. Period.

Thank Seattle for small mercies. Paris is surprisingly cheaper compared with Copenhagen especially if you go  by the price of an average Starbucks coffee (  €4 in the French capital versus an obscene €6 in Copenhagen!). Of course, Starbucks is ridiculously expensive anywhere and rightly called Four bucks!  

Paris, Bidding and Partnerships

I was at an IT partners award evening at Paris (in a place overlooking the stunning Place Vendome) on wednesday. Several partnerships in the IT industry were awarded. There were some small companies partnering with big companies and some others between small ones. There were no big with big, which was probably only a coincidence. Though no one mentioned how they won customers together, the bid manager in me could imagine the trials and tribulations the partnerships must have gone through during the bidding. One must remember, of course, that these were the success stories paraded on the awards night. There must have been plenty of failures for every success story.

Partnering to bid is a topic in itself and I shall devote a future post or two to it later. Now, I must get ready for the long journey ahead. For the next four weeks when I am partly on holiday, I would probably post only little vignettes like this. Perhaps some photos too.