Move to 'China for China' business processing

After joining in Genpact Asia as CEO in January 2002, Mitsuru Maekawa converted the company's operation into the biggest service exporter from China to Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia as its number employees increased from 400 to 2,900 in seven years. He recently shared his values with China Daily.

Q: Genpact was one of the first to establish a business process operations (BPO) company in China. When did it begin operations?

Mitsuru Maekawa: We are the pioneers in China and set up operations in Dalian in 2000. Today, we have 3,000 people serving clients in Japan, Korea, China and Southeast Asia in four languages.

In 2006, we also began operations in Changchun and started delivering software services from our centre in Shanghai.

Q: What kind of support have you been getting from the Chinese Government?

Mitsuru Maekawa: We received active support from the Chinese government right from the start. In fact, we believe its "10-100-1,000" initiative to promote the services industries in China was triggered by our success as a pioneer in the BPO arena.

The government has also honored Genpact China with a number of prestigious awards, the most recent for "Best Business Model" at the 2008 International Forum of China Outsourcing Development & Cooperation.

Genpact China continues to contribute to the cities where it operates by providing employment opportunities and supporting local community initiatives as a responsible corporate citizen.

Genpact was also named Best Information Technology Outsourcing Service Provider and Best ITMS Provider in the 2009 Chinese Enterprise Informatization Top 500 Conference held in Beijing that brought central and local government officials together with members of the media and CEOs of the country's leading IT companies, known as the iPower500.

Since 2003 these awards have recognized companies for their ability to provide clear, concise and positive results to clients in the Chinese market.

Q: What are your key focus areas for delivering value to Genpact's customers?

Mitsuru Maekawa: As a pioneer of the industry, we believe that being at the forefront requires expertise in a wide range of processes, excellence in applying superior analytical capabilities, process expertise, information technology and operational insight and experience to deliver business impact.

Towards this objective, we are working on enterprise-level processes, a proprietary approach with the goals of bringing science to process and assisting companies to reach their desired business outcomes.

The results are improved efficiency and increased effectiveness, which can improve performance two to three times.

We believe this is the next wave in business process management. Another focus area is to drive our "China for China" business, dedicated to serving customers in China from China.

Q: How are your China Operations positioned in Genpact's overall growth strategy?

Mitsuru Maekawa: China represents a key component of Genpact's long-term growth strategy.

We look forward to building on our record of success within the country, enhancing our service offerings and expanding our ability to support Chinese businesses.

In addition to supporting domestic businesses, Genpact's operations in China are an integral component of its global delivery capability, which enables the company to serve clients from geographies best suited to meeting their unique needs.

Q: What is value proposition for your clients in China?

Mitsuru Maekawa: As China's economic status continues to rise in the world economy, Chinese enterprises have started becoming more globalized.

They are starting to seek global best practices to enhance their competitive edge and this is where Genpact brings in its expertise in offering them the roadmap on how to become best in class.

We do this by applying our DNA from the Lean and Six Sigma approaches and through a science that we have developed which brings together the benchmarks and best practices that we have built over a decade of servicing global companies across the world.

Q: What are your key differentiators for driving employee satisfaction?

Mitsuru Maekawa: People are our greatest assets. Genpact China has been awarded the Dalian City Top 10 Employer of Choice Award two years in a row and this reiterates our resolve to attract, retain and nurture quality talent through our employee-centric work culture.

We do this in several ways, which include recognizing and rewarding employee contribution, offering distinctive opportunities to grow personally and professionally, soliciting and implementing on feedback and employee opinion, demonstrating care through various initiatives to enhance work-life balance and health and wellness.

Most importantly, Genpact is a meritocracy where every idea, every employee counts.

(China Daily 09/10/2009 page58)