The LPO industry in India, although still in relative infancy, has seen a few years of fast paced activity and in a matter of few years gained tremendous experience, owing to the recent downturn, which turned to be a boon.

Yet to establish itself on the global map and in the long run, the way IT and ITES has, it has to be prepared to leverage all the positive events and also be prepared to wither any socio-economic-political storm that may head towards it. While the industry owes its roots to free flow of work and capital between countries, this very freedom is under tremendous pressure and attack from many corners willing to snub efficiency and economic rationality for protectionism. The present analysis is aimed towards understanding these challenges and establishing successful strategies to help LPOs cope up with these events.

You don’t need a MBA to understand the importance of long term planning in business, all you need is an understanding of the dynamics that modern day businesses operate in and the challenges they must endure to survive and flourish. Historically, we’ve had umpteen examples of businesses that failed because of managers taking a myopic view of the world around them. We don’t have to trawl through business books to find these examples; a cursory recollection of the events that unfolded in the past two years is more than enough. Some of the most recent business events help us to have a fair idea of how things go wrong and what challenges the interconnected and interdependent markets have to offer.

The events that I refer to in the paragraph above, also have a significant lot to teach us about the importance of long term planning for the now maturing legal processes outsourcing industry. In the subsequent paragraphs, I frequently use these recent events as a reference point as I try and bring to the for some of these lessons.

We’ve all heard the oft repeated and by now clichéd saying about the proverbial silver lining around every dark cloud. However, I take the liberty of referring once again to the silver lining now visible as the global economy steadily emerges from the dark clouds of recession. With the benefit of hindsight, we now see lessons for companies and economies at large.