?I was called loony for selling the india story?

He hasn?t read One Night @ the Call Centre. ?I did buy it out of curiosity, but didn?t get the time to finish it,? he says. The bestseller by Chetan Bhagat is a story about six call-centre employees who get in a sticky situation and get a call from God, who leads them out of it. For India?s $11.7 billion business outsourcing industry (BPO) loosely referred to as the call centre industry, Raman Roy, chairman and managing director, Quatrro BPO Solutions, is not God, but he is the undisputed father, who helped create it.

The man started his career with a consultancy firm and then moved to SRF, where he set up its financial arm, his first-start up. Things changed when he was offered a job at American Express. ?I wasn?t interested, and was almost forced by my family to go for the meeting. I was anticipating a good lunch at some five-star,? he exclaims. To his disappointment, he was offered an office lunch at the Hindustan House. ?But, by the time we reached dessert, I wanted that job,? he says.

Roy says that he took that job for the sheer challenge of it despite a pay which was lower that what he was drawing at SRF. It is at American Express, many years later, that Roy set up the first captive centre, which used India as a back-end and kicked off the Indian outsourcing industry. Ask him how he sold the India story and he tells you about bulbs he got as presents from his overseas colleagues for many years.

?At conferences, I used to talk about how work could be done out of India. People would run away from me as I would go on and on and was branded as loony. But, to be realistic, I used to also talk about the infrastructure challenges we had at that time. For example, it was not possible to deploy fancy technology here because of the problems with electricity. For years after that I used to get gifts of bulbs from people. They would say, ?Raman, just in case you have electricity, here?s a bulb to light up,?? he reminisces, adding that MNCs had complete lack of understanding about India then.

He finally managed to convince the top guys to set up a centre in India but it had a clause. ?I was categorically told that either it works or I am sacked,? he says. ?When I think of it now, I get cold sweat. Had I been smart, I wouldn?t have taken it up. But, I was consumed by the idea and the only thing on my mind then was: Why wouldn?t it work??

What followed was an excruciating exercise to put things in place. From getting permit to import IBM computers, which were not allowed at that time, dealing with stolen cable lines to breaking into the bureaucratic machinery for making actual calls happen, he did it all.

He shares one such incident that happened many years later, when he wanted to set up a third party call-centre, which have multiple clients unlike the captives that only service the parent company. By then Roy had moved to GE, which headhunted him to set up a similar operation after the success of American Express centre in India. ?I remember going to DoT to get a permit for starting a third-party call-centre. One of the senior officials there rejected my application because he could allow a call-centre but could not allow incoming and outgoing calls. I tried to explain him that?s what a call-centre does, but all in vain. Finally, we sat up all night and printed around 800 pages with definitions of call centres from the Internet to convince him?.

After GECIS, GE?s call centre which is now Genpact, Roy moved out to set up his own call-centre company Spectramind in 2000 and later sold it to India?s third largest software company Wipro. After spearheading Spectramind till 2006, Roy founded another company Quatrro, leaving Spectramind with some of his closest associates who have been with him since the very beginning. Not a public-listed company, Quatrro is a mid-tier BPO firm with operations in six countries.

Coming from a humble background, Roy had never imagined about setting up his own company, let alone starting an entire industry. ?The only aspiration that time was to get a good job in an MNC. I had seen a failed business in my family, so doing business was out of question. The only way to get an MNC job that time was through contacts. My father knew nobody, so I decided to educate myself,? he recalls. A chartered accountant by profession, Roy?s love for numbers is clear when he tells you that he has given 108 professional exams in his life and 33 letters follow his eight letter name if one takes into account all his degrees.

?I didn?t get opportunities on a platter. I had to work hard to grab them. But, when you are in a position to create opportunities for others, it becomes so fascinating,? he says. The never say die spirit of the country and the urge to prove what India can do keeps Roy going. ?It is very easy to talk of successes. But the wound marks and bruises of what we have gone through in the last 17-18 years can be very depressing. It is the learning, the evolution and the sheer joy that keeps me on my toes,? he states.

Quiz him about his ultimate ambition and he says he has still a lot to achieve. ?I am waiting for success to happen. Tomorrow is another day,? he says in his trademark humble style. ?One day I will have grandchildren sitting in my lap and I will be proud to tell them that your granddad helped create this huge industry that you see around you,? he says with a smile. Apart from that, for Roy, one of the most satisfying things is that he helped create organisations that sustained themselves, be the call centre at American Express, GECIS or Spectramind.

That gives a cue about his leadership style. Roy believes in giving space to his employees. Someone who hasn?t let success go to his head, he doesn?t mind handing over the reigns to someone below him if that person is better equipped to handle the job. ?You are as good as your team. At the end of the day, successes are collective,? he says.

According to Roy, the ability to recognise ideas is an art. ?No amount of experience or degrees gives you the right to be the only guy that comes up with great ideas. Good ideas do not come by hierarchy and sometimes the best ones come from people who are on the job,? he says. One of the most accessible people in the industry, he treats his employees at par irrespective of their standing in the organisation. ?If you go and tell a kid that his/her is a good idea, he/she will work 18 hours to make it happen. It becomes important for them and for us too,? he states.

At work, Roy encourages professional disagreements. ?The more the people think, the better it is,? he says, adding that at meetings, they shout, rave, rant, bang tables and fight to keep the creative juices flowing.

Talking about his leadership style, Roy reminisces that when he was not so widely recognised; he would stand in the corridors, or smoke with junior employees and even join the bitching sessions just to get a feedback.

A true workaholic, he has no real interests apart from work and spending time with his family. As a technology expert, he only indulges in gadgets that improve his functioning.

But, does he feel bad looking at the negative image the BPO industry, he helped create, is acquiring? Roy admits that it can be frustrating at times and blames lack of understanding of the industry for it.

?There is certain mystique to BPOs, something sexy about it, an unknown aspect that is why people like to hear or read about it. There is both a negative and a positive connotation to it, depends on how you look at it,? he signs off.