The company operates its business through four segments: Application Outsourcing, Knowledge Process Outsourcing, e-Business and TeamSourcing.
The article is based on field research and framed in the literature on international outsourcing, knowledge economy and technological learning.
With industry being outsourced and knowledge being outsourced, the best investment is in yourself.
Bharat Desai is chairman and CEO of Syntel Inc., a U.S.-based provider of IT outsourcing and Knowledge Process Outsourcing solutions.
Most scientists interviewed did not seem to know what other research institutes were doing, nor were there institutional mechanisms to outsource their knowledge to the private sector players like venture capitalists.
Instead, they outsource the knowledge-gathering to Li & Fung, which has an army of 3,600 staff roaming 37 countries ("a machete in one hand, a laptop in the other," as Victor Fung likes to caricature them) for the purpose.In this sense, Li & Fung is itself a product of specialisation.
"You can't outsource the Washington knowledge to external lobbyists or your in-house government relations people," says Bill Green, chairman and former chief executive of Accenture.
But if you cut too deeply and outsource things like knowledge, strategy and architecture, you can hurt a company.
The following are regarded as problems associated with outsourcing: lack of knowledge of the patient data and local circumstances; licensing, accreditation and legislation issues; the question of quality, and follow-up.
Bank executives call this shift "knowledge process outsourcing," "off-shoring" or "high-value outsourcing".
