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October - 2003 - issue > Cover Feature
Intel India A Global Arm
si Team
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
The Intel India Development Center (IIDC), located in Bangalore, India, is Intel’s largest non-manufacturing site located outside the U.S. Since its opening in 1999, it’s not widely known how significant and how many activities are now performed at the IIDC.

Paul Otellini, Intel president and chief operating officer (COO), recently described the IIDC as a microcosm of Intel–a site that hosts multiple Intel business units. While most of the initial work performed at the IIDC supported enterprise software projects, a well-known forte in India, the work mix at the IIDC started to shift substantially in 2002 to support hardware projects when Intel’s Enterprise Platform Group (EPG) announced plans to establish a team to develop the Intel® Xeon™ processor at the IIDC. This move laid the foundation for core Intel business groups to locate to the IIDC to perform core business activities there. All core Intel business groups now have a presence at the IIDC, including EPG, Mobile Platforms Group (MPG), Desktop Platforms Group (DPG), and the Intel Communications Group (ICG). Intel’s e-Business Group (eBG), its enterprise software group, also has a large presence at the IIDC.

It is important to note how Intel structured the relationship between IIDC-based groups and U.S.-based groups. Instead of an “outsourcer-outsourcee” relationship, each IIDC business unit is an extension of its respective parent group. This type of relationship has many of the following advantages:

Consolidated One-Business Plan: Allows Intel business units to develop one consolidated annual plan and then apply its worldwide resources to deliver on that plan.

Work Mix: The work mix at each site is similar to the overall work mix of that particular business unit. As a result, the issue of the remote site doing “maintenance” or “low-end” work goes away.

Participation and Team Development: The entire worldwide team gets to participate equally in overall planning and organization development.

Q: Several hardware companies have spoken about India’s shortage of suitably-qualified hardware and silicon design professionals. Do you think that staffing is a concern?
A: Intel is a global company and has extensive experience in starting and operating sites around the world. We draw on our past experience to build our staffing strategy to staff these challenging projects with qualified professionals at the IIDC. Intel’s staffing strategy consists of:

Seeding a few experts at the IIDC from existing Intel locations to initially help build the team and the expertise at the new location

Encouraging and supporting experienced Intel professionals who wish to move permanently to India to work long-term at the IIDC. These professionals act as the catalyst for the quick adoption and proliferation of Intel culture and values. Intel also hires qualified professionals from outside Intel who are willing to relocate to India as an international local hire.

Hiring experienced and recent college graduates locally in India and integrating them into Intel culture, values, and work.

There are also many workers of Indian heritage based in the U.S. who are not only experienced in hardware, but want to return to India to obtain new and exciting job opportunities that have become available. In combining this resource pool with a system of rotation where people from the U.S. and other Intel sites come to the IIDC and stay long enough to help set up a team, the IIDC should be able to staff projects involving technologies that are totally new in India.

And this is not an India-specific issue. When Intel set up its facility in Malaysia, there were several Intel employees from the U.S. and other facilities who moved to Malaysia until a team was created there.

Also, there are a number of educational institutions in India that are turning out graduates with education and experience in VLSI technologies. These graduates will form the core of Intel’s development team. While I agree that staffing is very critical to the success and credibility of the whole program and that it must be carefully planned, it can be accomplished without too much concern due to the staffing strategy we have adopted and the large number of graduates coming out of India

Q: What are some of the issues you face at Intel in attracting employees to move to the IIDC?
A: Several people are motivated to move to India for personal reasons. However, they want to ensure that:

The quality of work done out of India is similar to the work they have been doing in the U.S , such as chipsets for the Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology-based systems platform.

The IIDC has Intel’s long-term commitment. Craig Barrett, Intel chief executive officer (CEO), and Paul Ottelini, Intel president and COO, have often expressed their commitment to globalization. Their commitment is published for employees through Intel’s corporate intranet site, called “Circuit News.” Opportunities for growth are similar to those in their current job.

Opportunities are available to increase their technical skills base and training. At frequent road shows that the IIDC sponsors to attract employee talent, I am often asked about opportunities at the IIDC for training, while compensation is usually asked last due to Intel’s reputation paying its employees well.

Moving offers compensation and an affordable lifestyle. Intel has a reputation for offering a competitive compensation package for the local market, which includes stock options, employee stock purchase plan, and an employee cash bonus.

An understanding of the effect of their move to India on their U.S. immigration status and stock options and other benefits that they already have.

Q: How do you address these issues?
A: Basically, Intel holds periodic road shows where we try to increase awareness about the IIDC and available assistance for relocation to India, providing them with as much information as possible in advance. In most cases, we also refer potential employees to employees who have already moved to India so that they ask questions about the working environment and living conditions in India. To find out how preserve their immigration status, we encourage them to seek external immigration experts for guidance.

Q: Typically, when an individual is relocated to India, is he given a promotion due to his or her U.S. experience?
A: Within Intel, a promotion is given to acknowledge that an employee is handling a job with higher responsibilities or more technical complexities. A promotion is not solely triggered by or tied to a job transfer and the same is true for employee transfers to the IIDC in determining if a promotion is justified. Most job transfers are likely to be lateral job transfers.

Q: What about salary differentials when an employee is relocated to India?
A: Invariably, Intel pays compensation that competitive for the local market and consistent with local practices. As such, the components of the compensation package that Intel provides in India include retrials like provident fund and gratuity Whether we relocate an Indian-American or hire an employee locally, a competitive compensation package that is consistent with his or her job is determined and offered.

Intel has long designed tools and processes to determine equitable pay for all employees, regardless of where they are brought into the group or the company. Intel does offer both financial and information relocation assistance to employees who are relocating to India.

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