The Economic Tizzy

And now airlines are demanding a bail-out in UK and Europe for their losses due to the ash cloud. The ash cloud not only sent their balance sheets in a tizzy but also affected the retail, storage, transport and other sectors. The domino effect of the stoppage of air traffic will extend to other verticals easily. The global environment seems to be worsening by the minute. All verticals are interconnected and any unpredictability like the cloud is adding to the woes caused already by the sub-prime crisis. In a nutshell, my line of work entails wooing financial services firms to offshore their middle and back offices to our delivery centers. I am responsible for growing top line revenues. The growing uncertainty across industries is causing havoc to the balance sheets. We are constantly visiting the drawing board to do the snips and edits for forecasts as well as looking at ways to shave costs. For e.g. In capital markets, I target the global custody, asset management and hedge funds quite heavily as the scale of business will come from that sector. But if you look at the sector across US, EU and UK, a lot of banks are looking to exit the low margin custody business as they are unable to support the growing technology requirements warranted by increasingly anal investors and regulators. The focus has obviously moved to the asset side of the balance sheet for the insurers too. Though a lot of people may act like optimists and see the glass as half full, the hard truth is no one can put a hand over their heart and predict anything about the next two years. You can actually see CEO's and CFO's shitting bricks in earnings calls while providing estimates. Can't blame them really but I believe the worst is yet to come.

I was dreaming last night and somehow the economy came into picture and I thought - Going forward, would mergers & acquisitions be possible across countries? :) Perhaps the US or a Middle East country could offer to buy Iceland or some other small country which is in deep shit and solve its immediate latent problems. Though this looks outrageous, 2011 and 2012 could very well see something of this sort happening across the lines. I get some dirty ideas, I tell ye.

Current Music: Pink Floyd - Money

Dilemma

After many days I am sitting late in the office. I've got an offer to migrate to another country but am not sure about the moolah. I am debating whether to take the plunge and figure it out later or negotiate. The risk is that the negotiation may go the wrong path and I might lose the opportunity. There is a trade off here on both sides. The plus side - Very few companies go through the pain of sponsoring a candidate from India and this one chose me over the local candidates. They loved me, period. The could be flip side - They might be short changing me on the CTC and I am not sure of that. A few mentors said that is the price I may have to pay for getting the opportunity to do what I am good at (i.e. sales) and I could look at the upswing a year down the line. I agree with moi mentors but umm. A one day research doesn't help. I'll flip a coin tonight and decide.

BTW, I had a chat with the father of Indian BPO (you can easily find out who he is from Google). One of my ex-bosses met him and casually referred me to him. It was simply amazing and needless to say he made me an offer. My only qualm is that I have been doing these things since the last 6 years and they don't challenge me any more. It's showtime actually and I want to lead from the front. So I am going to have to do a polite refusal. Sigh. A few years ago I would have cut my little finger's nail to work with him.

And then there is another super duper company which is in love with me too. But the CEO needs two weeks to get back to me as he needs to create that appropriate profile. From a career perspective, this company is the best fit for me supposing I get the onsite role. But I am in a quandary. The first company needs an answer right away. Would it be morally right to accept their offer and then chuck it if the super company offers me a role as well? I would hate to let someone down but this is a question of my career. I feel this is an inflection point and whatever I do now will be a quantum leap in either direction depending on the move. Moi heart tells me to go ahead with whoever showed confidence in me for an onsite role but my mind tells me to wait and watch.

Any suggestions?

BTW, I think I am getting good at interviews. Talking to 6 and getting 6 offers is good eh..If things work out, I'll have to make one last trip to aamchi Mumbai and then vamoooose next month.

Current Music: The Cranberries - When You're Gone