Will Selectivity in Recession help or hurt the Indian IT majors?

It is one thing to be the flavor of the day and quite another to last a lifetime.  Somehow there is an element of risk involved in living a lifetime and not just scrape through.  These are those times.  Many American and European companies are finalizing plans for offshoring their work.  They are looking for the Indian compaines to come forward.  But they are shocked!  Why?  Because the Indian IT companies do not seem interested! 🙂

“I had one client telling me ‘I am at a point now where I need to get more offshore plans together, but why aren’t the Indian companies coming and talking to me?'”

says Partha Iyengar, VP and Regional Research Director at Gartner India.  Karen Guglielmo offers the obvious reason:

Although offshore outsourcing does provide some cost savings to U.S. businesses, it doesn’t guarantee they’ll come out of the recession in one piece.

The concern it seems is if the client will be even there to pay up later.  Some companies like WIPRO choose their clients based on the ability of the company to pay its bills.  I guess none of their sales force come anywhere near a GM executive… lest they be forcibly recruited for doing such work… gratis, as it may well turn out to be!

Such selectivity may be good but it may hurt the Indian IT majors in the long run if the American IT majors like IBM and Accenture take the work over and build their market share.  What do you think?

Reference LInks:
1. Are Indian offshore companies sweating a few bounced checks?
2. US cos eye more offshoring, Indian firms tentative: Gartner