There are a lot of takeaways that I have brought back to the US with me after such a great trip to see Accenture in Bangalore, India:
- Accenture is a people-oriented culture. They have an enormous program to identify, train and retain the best talent in India.
- The team members are young, energetic, and ambitious. The average age of the folks on the team is 25. Our job is to harness that energy and focus it.
- A great idea might be to implement a grass-roots continuous improvement program. This will give team members a feeling of ownership and pride.
- There are over 50 different Centers of Excellence (CoEs) that are available along 3 dimensions: technology, industry, and type of work. This is how Accenture manages knowledge. We need to take advantage of these more. This is particularly true for the Application Outsourcing, Quality, and Usability CoE.
- The Technology Lab is exploring tools that will streamline Accenture’s process. What tools do they have that we can take advantage of?
- Take your team lead with you to India. They need to meet the team too, and it is great for team-building. The whole trip I wished my team lead was with me.
- One week was not long enough. The first week we got to experience Bangalore, and Accenture, and its organizational structure, but I did not get to spend enough time with my team leads and all the team members.
Overall, I had a fabulous time in India. My hosts were extremely gracious, the food was great, the traffic was always entertaining, and I learned a lot about Accenture and my team. I can’t wait to go back. I hope I get an opportunity to go back soon.
Pixelated Blog 
The average age is 25??? Now that explains a lot, but it still does not explain the lack of common sense.
I think the "lack of common sense" can be attributed to a number of things, not the least of which is cultural differences. It's all about using their strengths IMO – and there is a lot there to be had.Would I recommend outsourcing like this? It would strongly depend on the situation (obviously). But there are ways to make this kind of relationship work to your advantage.