It is on the third floor of the spawning Genpact complex that Pramod Bhasin?s office is. Manoeuvring through the many cubicles (done in all colours), one reaches the corner, all-glass cabin of Bhasin? president and CEO. The room is sober and simple, quite a contrast to the rest of the surroundings. Between talks, Bhasin repeatedly looks out towards the wide expanses of Gurgaon, on the outskirts of Delhi, ahead and down under. ?When we started here, nothing existed.? He adds ?literally? and repeats the statement for emphasis. ?We came here in 1996-97 and since then it has taken off,? he says. Now, that?s in no way an arrogant statement, for it?s coming from the country?s Mr BPO (as Bhasin is referred to, often).

For the uninitiated, Bhasin is credited with pioneering the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) boom in the country along with Raman Roy. But, his sense of pride goes beyond just that.

?It has been an incredible journey, more because it has unleashed an industry in developing nations, which has the power to employ millions and is driving the consumer boom in India,? says the head of Genpact, which has just turned ten.

Ask him if all this was part of a grand vision and he laughs. ?I wasn?t very ambitious that you would imagine someone like me would be. Ambition came late in life for me.? Having spent 25 years outside India spearheading various divisions of GE, Bhasin wanted to return to his country, which was in the midst of reforms. ?I was tired of being a foreigner. Moreover, I wanted my daughter to grow up here. So, it was more mundane than grand vision.?

Back to India, Bhasin had a rendezvous with the harsh realities of the country, ?We built an excellent team and I felt constantly frustrated by regulations that wouldn?t allow you to build your business the way you wanted to,? he says.

For a moment, his vision again drifts to the road below, but he returns quickly and says that the idea came more out of necessity as ?we wanted to be in a market, which is global, not impacted by local ups and downs, every quarter. ?

The result was a call centre in one room with 20 people. ?The power of the idea was driven by a company like GE, which had done a lot of outsourcing of software before. It grabbed it with both hands. Remember, others had done it before.?

What is absolutely unmistakable is Bhasin?s style of playing down his achievements by adding a dab of humour to them. ?I thought of the idea, bounced it off to my boss Gary Wendt and he said yes go ahead.? Over ten years down the line, Bhasin says that it wasn?t very difficult to convince the bosses at GE headquarters as, ?nobody had any idea what the hell I was doing.? And once the idea clicked, it just exploded, he says. Having come a long way since then, Genpact is today India?s largest BPO and was listed on the NYSE in August 2007. Though Bhasin says that once the idea took off, he did not have to do a lot after that, but that?s again him playing it down. If infrastructure was a problem then, it?s a problem even now. Add to that rupee appreciation, high attrition rates and talent crunch. And it seems Bhasin must be losing his sleep everyday. ?My tendency is to go deep into certain areas rather than go everywhere. That?s why you hire great people.?

Talk about his leadership style and he says, ?We are not very different from the culture at GE, very high-charging and very extreme.? Has Bhasin?s high-energy rubbed onto Genpact or is it GE?s gift to its one time captive? One can?t make out. ?I am a very demanding boss and I like to be one. This is not a democracy and I am very clear about it,? he says, revealing his stricter side. It doesn?t take him too long to list his weaknesses, too. ?There are somethings about my style that I should change. I should have changed them 10 years back. I lose my patience very often. I can also be very irritable, unnecessarily. But, we have set very high benchmarks,? he explains.

For Bhasin who relies heavily on putting together a good managerial team, it is also one of his strengths with the other being thinking new business ideas. ?Probably, that?s one area where I have done the best, always,? he says. Not only good at thinking new ideas, Bhasin is good at pulling them off too, despite everything. ?Before we started (GE Capital International Services, as Genpact was formerly known), I consulted five senior people, I knew. They all said it wouldn?t work. ?Nah, too complicated, too difficult, they said.? But, I knew it wasn?t a matter of whether it work or it won?t. It was a matter of when will it work,? he reminisces. ?I have never seen an economic proposition so compelling, even today,? he adds.

For the man who travels extensively and has too much on his plate, travel is a good way to take time off and catch up with one self. ?Cricket is my first love. I wish I had more time for it,? he says. Two years back, Bhasin broke his leg while playing a match with his colleagues. A picture of his with team (rather boys) still adorns his office. Bhasin is also a voracious reader. While John Steinbeck is his favourite author, he has just finished reading Bill Bryson?s The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and Falling Man by Don DeLillo. Bhasin says that he like to read all kinds of books and picks them up at random. ?Because if you get set, you tend to lose out on everything else that?s in the market,? he concurs.

Ponder a little more over that simple statement and one can get a sneak peep into Bhasin?s mantra for life and work. A paperweight kept on his table has something very similar inscribed on it too, ?There is an infinite capacity to improve everything.? ?If you can get people to stretch beyond what they thought they were capable of, then you have done something,? he says. He adds that one thing he and his team will always do is to challenge the notion of the static. The statement is anything but hollow. Genpact not only ushered the BPO boom in India but was also the first to venture into China and Eastern Europe.

Having achieved so much, which he mildly puts as an ?incredible surprise?, the innings for Bhasin, 55, is far from over. Apart from the day-to-day worries and joys of being at the helm of Genpact, Bhasin has a bigger dream tucked away somewhere in his heart. ?Yes, we have built an outsourcing company, but is there is a way to build a fully virtual global company,? he asks, more of himself. ?A company, which is not in any outsourcing/ offshoring business, but in the core business. It could be anything from insurance, to investment banking ? he goes on.

It is the disruptive business model that seems to impress him for he says that ?I would like to go where no body has gone before and build a truly unique proposition, propelled under the brains that are here.? Giving examples of companies like Google and Bharti, he says that India hasn?t done a lot of that for reasons like lack of funding, regulations, etc. ?The worst thing we do is not to take risks,? he thumps. ?I have no fear of failure. Though, it comes out of sheer ignorance, not driven by any great intelligence,? he laughs.

On a more serious note, for the man who ventured into something unthinkable and not only managed it well but also unleashed a whole industry around it, it is no big deal. ?I keep noodling it. I hope someday something will gel,? he says. ?It could be the biggest blow-up of the century.? Ah, there he goes again.

Fact File

* Pramod Bhasin started GE Capital International Services (GECIS) in 1997 and it was a captive BPO company of GE.

* In the year 2003, 60% of GECIS was sold to Genreal Atlantic Patners and OakHill Capital Partners and the company was renamed Genpact

* Pramod is a chartered accountant from Thomson McLintock & Co, London.