NEWSMAKER: Neeraj Bhargava

No longer captive

From being a subsidiary of a UK-based firm, British Airways, to buying out a captive unit of another UK-based firm, Aviva, the around Rs 2,000-crore business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, WNS Global Services, has indeed come a long way under the leadership of Neeraj Bhargava "" its co-founder and Group CEO since 2004.

July has been very eventful for WNS. For the second year in succession, it has been ranked the second-largest BPO by software body Nasscom. Besides, it's on the verge of acquiring Aviva Global Services "" the UK-based insurance giant's captive BPO in India and Sri Lanka "" for around Rs 950 crore. This would go down as one of the largest buyouts of a foreign captive BPO in India.

On July 2 this year, it formed a strategic alliance with the Airlines Reporting Corporation to extend its penetration in the travel industry. It provides a comprehensive suite of revenue and process management and customer care services to the travel and leisure industries, including 18 global airlines.

Mumbai-based Bhargava's schooling "" MBA from the Stern School of Business, New York University, and graduation in Economics from St Stephen's College, Delhi University "" appears to have lent him good business acumen.

His work experience as managing partner of eVentures India "" an India-based venture fund developing businesses in offshore services "" and as Partner at McKinsey & Company, has only served to hone it further.

His first decision to change the company's captive status and become independent with venture capital funding from Warburg Pincus has worked well in retrospect. In fact, he's ended up buying out a captive. The second was to look beyond the airlines vertical.

Towards this end, it was only this June that WNS acquired Business Applications Associates (BizAps) "" a provider of SAP solutions to optimise ERP functionality for finance and accounting processes "" for an undisclosed sum. And in April, it acquired UK-based Call 24/7 "" an auto insurance claims processing services provider, for Rs 77 crore.

The company has adopted both organic and inorganic initiatives to grow its business despite a challenging environment in the US which gives it 50 per cent of its business, the other half coming from the UK due to its legacy.

WNS has adopted some unconventional approaches too under the leadership of Bhargava. For instance, he signed on Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga as the BPO's brand ambassador, thus becoming the first Indian BPO to do so. Accenture has ace golf player Tiger Woods as its mascot, but it's a multinational.

Second, Bhargava and his team voluntarily decided to forfeit their bonuses if they are not successful in getting the attrition rates below 30 per cent. This is probably the first such move of its kind in the industry. Bhargava had told this paper: "Our attrition rate is just not acceptable. We want to get it below 30 per cent. Our bonuses are on the line if we do not."

WNS has over 15,000 employees, and its current attrition rate stands at 43 per cent. Given his recent moves, he may have more employees wanting to join the company, and end up getting a fatter bonus.