Welcome ...

First go through this:

Captive centers are those centers that are operated for servicing their own clients and not third party clients.
Industry analysts say that a captive operation like GECIS should not expect a Daksh-like valuation.

"GE's expectation of 3-4 times revenues is out of sync with reality. It is a captive unit with 15-20 per cent higher costs than third party operations," says the CEO of a Bangalore-based BPO company.
A captive unit will not look to increase its business and who wants to pay a premium for such a stagnant business? "No buyer would like to be saddled with work that does not grow,'' says another industry watcher.

Buying GE back office work means that you are buying a single client with bloated operations. Since GE has never had to compete in the market, its costs are higher and it has more people as compared to third-party BPOs with similar revenues. Since the beginning, the management had not looked at GECIS as a profit centre.

Now that we have a feel of what a captive unit is like, we come to problem at hand: How to make a captive unit profitable?

Though it may not make sense, shrewd business acumen demands profits from all quarters (all nooks and corners). This is what determines the greatest businessmen from the great ones. Fire up your belly, ramp up innovation and strive to have a go at it. Once you fuel your appetite, half the job is done. For the remaining half, I am here. Come and explore the tips and tricks.

The theme central to the article, as well as, solution is a highly demanding methodology called Sick Sigma.
What is this? Wait! It is totally different and revolutionary than all other, sheer mediocre �SOUNDS LIKE� methodologies.
This methodology works on the principle of fatigue. Both mental as well as physical. It tries to exploit this human vulnerability to the most fruitful extent. Yes, we are heading towards redefining the fatigue as a �necessary evil�, much on the lines of Freak-tion.

The capacity to extract from this vulnerability is quantified on a scale of 0 to 6. This gives the measure of the sick sigma value.
In an ideal scenario, this value can go as high as 6. This is practically impossible though.

This value can be directly correlated to the extent of profitability of a captive unit. Higher this value, more profitable is your unit.
To make it comprehendible for lesser mortals, we must make it more explanatory:

Suppose you have a transport department to cater to the needs of employees. For some reason (most probably high profit margins and low commutation allowance), you begin with highly subsidized monthly fares, to the tune of almost 50%.

Here comes the acid test for real business acumen:

1. If you don�t feel like controlling (rather reducing) the subsidies, you�re mediocre in the most encouraging analysis.
2. If you want to reduce the subsidies through efficient management, you are doomed to be confined to a pretty stagnant business.
3. If you are willing to eliminate subsidies using any means, you have the will, enterprise and fire-power to build a flourishing business. No more no less!

If you don�t belong to any of the above, you are the one!
What do you want????
Yes, I know.

You want to control, reduce, eliminate � subsidies and hate a full stop even after that. You would like to reverse the trends by making profits through this unit. You are a gem of a businessman. You only buy into profit making and profit makers.

You are my target audience...
Please join me at Bon Profits with the same eagerness (eagleness) ...