[PRESS RELEASE] New book explores offshore outsourcing challenges and plagiarism scandal in a common global context

In her new book, "Bring Me the Head of Opal Mehta," author and technologist Kay Stoner draws surprising connections between the tribulations of disgraced Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan and the challenges of offshore technical outsourcing.

Boston, MA (September 23, 2006): In the spring of 2006, the book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" was sacrificed to the gods of the publishing establishment. Its author, Kaavya Viswanathan, was thrust into the limelight as a plagiarist and lost her historic book deal. After a few weeks of impassioned online debate, the scandal faded to an uncomfortable memory.

But the drama that set the blogosphere on fire was not an isolated incident in the American publishing scene. Indeed, the events which set industry insiders scrambling and sent Kaavya into hiding for the summer of 2006 are indicative of current globalizing, commercially driven trends also seen in offshore outsourcing.

In the literary arena, a promising new novelist was introduced to a transnational publishing corporation by a connected insider, she was teamed up with trained professionals to produce her book, and a new career was launched with much fanfare. Likewise, based on an attractive price point and industry hype about the next wave of offshore technical producers, high tech management has embraced overseas development outsourcing with gusto, teaming up onshore developers with newly hired offshore staff, and launching projects with a much-vaunted "follow the sun" methodology.

But just as the fundamental quality of Kaavya Viswanathan's work was lacking (more than 40 of her passages bore striking similarities to other writers' works), beneath the surface of day-to-day operations, many in the high tech industry are struggling with issues of quality and competence on both sides of the globe. Process is undermined by cultural conflicts, substandard work is produced by underqualified staff, the resources of an already compromised American high tech work force are taxed even further, and projects are either completed at great expense to morale and quality, or they fail outright.

In worst cases, contracts are ended abruptly, be they fledgling literary careers or service agreements between Western companies and offshore BPO providers. But the author contends that such failures stem not only from the shortcomings of producers, but from the way these producers are identified and integrated into organizations. "It's easy to blame Indian offshore staff for projects that miss deadlines, and it's tempting to blame Kaavya Viswanathan for her substandard novel," says Stoner. "But there are larger issues at stake: business leaders underestimate cultural differences and they fail to provide needed oversight. It may seem easy to send a project to the other side of the world, where people promise to complete it according to plan, but 'tossing work over the fence' and then looking away while it's under construction, is a recipe for disaster. We're seeing the ripple effect on transnational technical projects -- Apple has aborted its plans to set up shop in Bangalore, AT&T is bringing 2,000 jobs back onshore, and the US state of Indiana cancelled a $15 million IT contract with India’s Tata Consultancy Services. Clearly, if offshore outsourcing is going to succeed as a viable business model, it needs to be done differently than it has been till now. Businesses need to consider the cross-cultural challenges of doing work globally, and they need to enforce delivery of work promised by BPO service providers. Most of all, quality needs to take priority over low cost."

Drawing on the author's own experiences with Indian offshore outsourcing, "Bring Me the Head of Opal Mehta" sends out a call to the international technical community to regroup and rise to meet head-on the social and logistical challenges of offshore outsourcing with the same daring and pragmatic innovation that has placed them at the leading edge of rapidly evolving world.

Review copies are available - please send your name and address and the publication you're reviewing the book for to klsinfo@sitebasics.net. Print and electronic copies are available for qualified reviewers.

About the Author: Kay Stoner is a writer and technologist who lives and works in central Massachusetts. She has been involved in building technology for over 15 years, and she's worked with Indian technical colleagues for more than a decade. Visit http://www.kaystoner.com for info about her and her work.


Bring Me the Head of Opal Mehta: Of Art, Outsourcing, Kaavya Viswanathan, and the Narcissus Machine
By Kay Stoner
180 pp Trade Paperback
$14.95 USD (+ $3.50 s/h)
ISBN: 978-1-4303-0987-1
Published 2006 by Thought2Form Productions, LLC
http://www.kaystoner.com