RuralShores: Evaluating Growth Options and Recommendations for 5 Years

This report provides an in-depth analysis of RuralShores, a Bengaluru-based BPO company operating in rural India. It examines the company's mission to integrate rural youth into the knowledge economy, focusing on its growth strategies and the challenges it faces. The report evaluates various growth options, including the Center Partner (CP) model, which allows local entrepreneurs to manage centers, and the company's ambitious plans to establish numerous centers across rural districts. It analyzes the company's three-tier structure, training programs, and its focus on innovation to maintain a competitive edge. The report also highlights the company's efforts to empower women and provide a supportive work environment. Finally, the report provides recommendations for RuralShores' business development and growth over the next five years.

Global rules of the
game core
1

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Evaluating various growth options that are available to RuralShores in 2016 and
recommendation for improvement in upcoming five years.........................................................3
References........................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Global rules of the game core include various laws, rules and norms that are focused on
shaping international economy including various global institutions as well as agreements and
several disputes as well as differences across nations that affect business opportunities. Such
rules of game core involve trade contracts, tax laws, anti-corruption policies, agreements related
to climate change, laws of intellectual property and various national legislations. These all topics
related to golden rules of game are included in the management course so that students can learn
more deeply about all the policies as well as laws (Sedera and et.al., 2014). By considering the
global rules of game core, the present report will focus on evaluating various growth options that
are available to RuralShores which is one of the leading business process outsourcing (BPO)
companies located in Bengaluru, India.
Evaluating various growth options that are available to RuralShores in 2016 and
recommendation for improvement in upcoming five years
RuralShores is BPO based company in rural India which was established in 2008 with an
aim to provide better job opportunities to the youth of rural areas in the country. Further, it has
objective of integrating the rural people of India into knowledge economy so that they can move
towards the path of growth as well as development. The idea of operating a rural BPO came into
the mind of Murali Vullaganti which is now the CEO of company and several co-founders of
RuralShores are C.N. Ram, G Srinivasan, V.V. Ranganathan and Sudhakar Ram. According to
the study of Sourav Mukhergi (2013), for achieving its ambition based on scaling 500 to 5000
human resources, company’s recruitment team was focused on searching people in small villages
and cities of India in 2003-2004. It was the belief of this company that adequate amount of talent
are available in these areas. In the starting, it was difficult for the management of company to
retail employees because rural people were not preferring to leave in urban areas and due to
which, most of the employees had leave the job (RuralShores: Service Excellence at the Indian
Hinterland, 2016).
In order to overcome this situation, management of the company decided to establish
their operations in villages instead of migrating rural people towards urban areas. In the way of
business expansion in villages, its first center was established in Bagepalli which is one of the
small towns of Karnataka and it has population of around 20000 people. At first, it started its
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center by taking a building of government on long-term lease and after sometimes, it opened four
more centers in 2011 that were located in government buildings. As business was started to get
success so management of the company decided to open more centers in small villages as well as
towns which have population of around 40000 (Dzever and Gupta, 2012). With population, they
also ensured about the availability of proper internet connection as well as electricity at least for
five to six hours. As company focused on establishing more centers on time to time so now days,
it has become one of the leading and growing BPOs of the country and it focuses on rendering
job opportunities to the thousands of rural people in India. Due to having the objective of
generating more opportunities for rural youth, it has been awarded in several categories by
various organizations including NASSCOM innovation award in 2009, social catalyst of the year
in 2010 and Asian innovation award in 2012.
As company’s main aim is to ensure the development of rural youth by generating more
job opportunities to them so management of the company is focused on adopting various growth
options as well as ways by which their aim can be fulfilled in an effective manner. In order to
achieve the same, business entity has an ambitious plan and by considering that, they are creating
hub in every ruler district and as per their mission, they have focused on the way by which they
must have 500 centers in rural areas so that development of rural people can be enhanced. By
establishing five hundred centers, company has vision of generating jobs for 100000 youth living
in the rural areas of India (RuralShores plans, 2016). As per their planning, 50 centers will be
came into excess as per the yearly basis. In the present era, main focus on company is to enhance
its operations in the field of BPO by which knowledge and process services can be provided to
various Indian corporation and with the enhancement in the level of services, they focus on
enlarging their business so that more employment can be attained.
RuralShores is a type of IT based company and in such type of firm, adoption of
innovation on the regular basis is very essential. So, in order to focus on the same, management
of the company has an innovative synergistic formula for the purpose of ensuring the growth of
center and keeping the cost of company down. Along with this, they have partnership with local
social entrepreneurs who focus on investment to ensure the development of center in an effectual
manner and in the return of that, such entrepreneurs charge monthly fees from company. Most of
these entrepreneurs are High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs) who have an aim to make
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improvement in their district or town as well as they have ambition to achieve the vision of
RuralShores that is based on the development of rural poor by integrating them in knowledge
economy (Bliss, 2011). Furthermore, business entity also focuses on Vaatsalya model which is
related to get entry into new markets by making partnership with current doctors.
After establishing five centers in the rural areas of India, it had been realized by the
management of company that it would be a very challenging task to set up center the place with
whom they are completely unfamiliar. After realization of this, center-partner (CP) model has
been adopting by them and according to this, they can give contract to local entrepreneur for the
purpose of establishing center and managing the whole infrastructure of it. Due to availability of
this model, RuralShores is only responsible for delivery services and management of other
facilities such as telecommunication, building, electricity, housekeeping and infrastructure is
done local partners of company (Carmel, Lacity and Doty, 2014). Further, such center partners
also help in performing practices related to recruitment and selection of new candidates as they
are more aware about the availability of potential sources. As per the company’s vision, 80%
centers of the company are managed by the local entrepreneurs but when management does not
find any suitable center partner at any place so they focused on establishing center themselves.
Further, such partners are also focused on ensuring the availability of financial resources so that
investment can be done in a better way and financial need of business can be achived with full
effectiveness (Lacity, Carmel and Rottman, 2011).
Due to availability of CP model, RuralShores has no pressure related to accessibility of
human and financial resources as well as other facilities regarding infrastructure. Now days, this
is a leading and successful rural BPO of India so most of the organizations are eagerly ready to
become the CP of it. Availability of more CP is the best opportunity for business entity by
which they can conduct their business practices in an effectual manner and as they have more
options related to CPs so it leads to enhance the bargaining power of them (Eichengreen and
Gupta, 2011). Further, other organizations also influences RuralShores to establish centers close
to their location so that more employment opportunities can be generated for the families of their
human resources. By providing employment to the families of their workforce, their main aim is
to enhance the level of loyalty among employees. For that, they are also ready to make
investment and due to availability of this, management of the company can make more focus on
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the business expansion (Sharma, Rathore and Sharma, 2010). For the purpose of business
expansion and ensuring the welfare of society, RuralShores focuses on developing centers near
to such organizations and rendering job opportunities to their employees.
According to its mission, main preference of company is to recruit poor youth of rural
area which have qualification related to 12th standard. In order to make them able to work
properly, 2 month training is given to them by which their English writing and reading skills,
computer skills as well as other soft skills are improved. Along with this, main focus of trainer is
on increasing the level of their understanding regarding various client’s processes (Mann, and
Graham, 2015). By rendering training, company tries to maximize the confidence level of such
people so that they can move towards the path of career growth as well as development. In such
training, they are also familiarized with various technical and practical knowledge along with the
use of several elements such as ATM card, computers etc. In case of 90% people, this training is
completed in 2 months and 10% candidates who need more training so their training period is
enhanced. As rendering training is not an easy task and too time consuming so management of
the company is focused on third party training (Eiche, Eichengreen and Gupta, 2010). According
to this, NIIT foundation gives training to employees and for that, they have to paid a fees but
rural people cannot afford this fees so it is provided by the management of company and such
fees is deducted from the first salary of them. As this foundation also renders certificate of
training so it can be beneficial for candidates to get better job in future and also for their growth
as well as development.
In order to perform all the business practices in an effectual manner and ensure the
availability of growth as well as development, structure based on three-tier is adopted by the
management of company. This structure involves center managers, process leaders and
associates. Here, a process leader is responsible for handling the work of 15 associates and a
center manager has authority to make control every eight process leaders. At the workplace of
RuralShores, associates are the local youth of rural areas while center leaders and process
managers are the persons that have good experience of urban BPO (Combs, Clapp‐Smith and
Nadkarni, 2010). Further, all these professionals are responsible for reporting the regional
managers. Due to cleat understanding of responsibilities and authorities as well as availability of
proper structure leads business towards the path of success and makes them able to gain
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competitive advantage. Further, RuralShores uses novel business model and creates positive
environment at workplace due to which more process mangers and leaders get attracted towards
it and thinks that working with this company is the best opportunity for them.
As human resources of company are satisfied with its structure, culture, environment and
policies so goodwill as well as brand image of business is too high and due to which, more
investors are ready to make investment with this company. However, most of the people are
ready to work with it even they have to deal with rural areas of country. As working and living in
rural areas is very critical for every person so RuralShores focuses on ensuring the availability of
proper services related to food, clothes and shelter for them in order to maintain their living
standards (John, 2012). Along with this, girls of rural areas are also selected and trained for the
job so that they can become able to deal with their necessary needs and can also make
independent. By doing this, company’s main focus is to ensure on women empowerment so that
their level of development can be enhanced.
However, management of the company has also appointed various business development
managers (BDM) in Delhi and Mumbai for the purpose of fulfilling the demand of clients. These
managers have responsibility to discover BPO companies which are under pressure of decreasing
cost and because of this pressure, they are ready to conduct outsourcing work with RuralShores.
Here, both the companies start to perform bidding jointly so they can gain more profit in the
local market and can become able to maintain as well as enhance their positions in the
marketplace. With the help of BDM, company focuses on linking their work with many other
BPO organizations and due to this, almost 30% business of RuralShores is performed by other
entities (Messner, 2008). This has led to maximize the productivity of business as well as its
performance in the local market. As this BPO is focusing on the growth of villages as well as
towns so it has many opportunities in future. Further, government also renders incentives for
establishing its centers in each village or town.
Main reason behind the success of RuralShores is the availability of high customer
satisfaction. Management of the company provides high quality services to its business clients by
adopting different business models on time to time and ensuring the accessibility of skilled as
well as trained staff members (Dzever and Gupta, 2012). Along with this, it focuses on
establishing new centers on time to time so that services can be rendered to customers with full
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effectiveness. In India, there are so many business entities that render services related to
telecommunication, retailing, insurance and banking. Due to their establishment in urban areas,
they are not able to sell effectively to their products and services to the people of rural areas. In
order to overcome this situation, RuralShores provides them an opportunity to sell their products
and services to rural people as it has more presence in villages as well as towns and has potential
to render complementary services to various business entities by developing a gateway in rural
India.
These are the various opportunities that are available to RuralShores and with the help of
these, management of the company can move towards the path of growth as well as
development. Furthermore, there are also some options that can be used by this company for
performing its business practices in an effectual manner. One of the best possibilities of business
entity to enhance the level of training so this in turn can maximize the level of rural youth
development. While rendering training, management of the company needs to focus on
improving the leadership skills of candidates so that they can be promoted as process manager
and center leader in near future. Along with this, reducing the cost of company is also necessary
and for that, it is essential to adopt new and latest technology on the regular basis. With the help
of new technologies, company will also be able to enhance the effectiveness its business
practices. Now days, unethical practices are adopted by the management of commercial entity to
enhance the productivity of business. But, it is essential for RuralShores to eliminate the
availability of unethical practices from workplace and necessary to ensure that there must be
non-availability of discrimination. By this, they can satisfy its all stakeholders including
government in an effectual manner and lead to increase its brand image as well as goodwill.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bliss, S., 2011. INDIA: Call centre of the world. Geography Bulletin. 43(1). p.22.
Carmel, E., Lacity, M. C. and Doty, A., 2014. The impact of impact sourcing: Framing a
research agenda. In Information Systems Outsourcing. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Combs, G.M., Clapp‐Smith, R. and Nadkarni, S., 2010. Managing BPO service workers in India:
Examining hope on performance outcomes. Human Resource Management, 49(3),
pp.457-476.
Dzever, S. and Gupta, B., 2012. Business process outsourcing industry in India: Additional
benefits of a CSR approach. Asian Business & Management. 11(3). pp.273-289.
Eiche, B., Eichengreen, B. and Gupta, P., 2010. The Service Sector as Economic G.
Eichengreen, B. and Gupta, P., 2011. The service sector as India's road to economic growth.
National Bureau of Economic Research.
John, D.R., 2012. The Offshoring Industry in India: Moving Up the Value Chain. In Innovation
in India. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Lacity, M., Carmel, E. and Rottman, J., 2011. Rural outsourcing: Delivering ITO and BPO
services from remote domestic locations. Computer. (12). pp.55-62.
Mann, L., and Graham, M., 2015. The Domestic Turn: Business Processing Outsourcing and the
Growing Automation of Kenyan Organisations. Journal of Development Studies.
Messner, W., 2008. Working with India: The Softer Aspects of a Successful Collaboration with
the Indian IT & BPO Industry. Springer Science & Business Media.
Sedera, D. and et.al., 2014. The Future of Outsourcing in the Asia-Pacific Region: Implications
for Research and Practice—Panel Report from PACIS 2014.Communications of the
Association for Information Systems. 35(1). pp.317-331.
Sharma, L. N., Rathore, D. S. and Sharma, A., Indian Service Sector & Economic
Growth. AZwH $ _oUH $ m/Index.
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Online
RuralShores plans. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toireporter/RuralShores-plans/speednewsbytopic/
keyid-1575342.cms >. [Accessed on 28 April 2016].
RuralShores: Service Excellence at the Indian Hinterland. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://caseism.com/ruralshores-service-excellence-at-the-indian-hinterland-44382 >.
[Accessed on 28 April 2016].
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