Thursday, October 16, 2008

Intersection of consulting & interactive business has given Sapient an edge.

Although the two divisions of Sapient may look to be very different from each other, the company has ensured they are integrated to one another. In fact, it is only at the front end level that these two divisions are positioned as consisting of two separate units, but at the back end the company is not broken into two halves as the delivery engine for both is the same. Sapient feels that this formula helps it to take the skills from the interactive side to the consulting side and vice versa. And as Sapient India offers a business model of fixed time-fixed price – which fixes a time for the completion of a particular project; the risk of the delay is not borne by the company but by the vendor; which they feel gives them an edge too.

However, this integration of the two core businesses – Sapient Interactive & Sapient Consulting – does add to one problem and that is to find people that would be able to do justice to both the roles equally, and even Dhar admits that acquiring the right talent pool for the organisation is one of the major challenges. As the company does not have separate work force for its two businesses, so prospective employees, besides being tech-savvy, also need to have strong business acumen. So much so that, at Sapient, the cost of hiring a person at any level is $1500, which is double the amount spent by its other competitors in India.

The current online advertising market size of $18 billion presents a compelling bouquet of opportunity for Sapient, as the market is growing at a record 18-30%. However, the current slowdown in both US and Indian economies might hit Sapient, as companies are fast curbing their advertising spends. According to Julio Quinteros, Analyst, Goldman Sachs, “The current financial & credit market turmoil will likely persist through at 2009. Against this backdrop, Sapient is amongst the most exposed within the US IT Services coverage group, and there are high chances of them taking a beating.” However, Dhar optimistically asserts, “We started at the time of one recession and this situation is far better from that and both our businesses are presently offering equally exciting opportunities and we are confident that the revenue streams from both sides will continue to flow equally in the times to come.” He also feels that the companies, rather than cutting advertising spends, tend to move towards avenues that permit them to gain better returns for every penny spent. Going with this philosophy, marketing heads prefer online marketing because it can be tracked in a much better manner when compared to traditional media. So in that sense, Sapient’s presence in both segments also provides it with compelling advantages, even though it could find itself vulnerable to a downturn in either of them.

For Complete IIPM Article, Click on IIPM Article

Source :
IIPM Editorial, 2008

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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