The man, who is considered a role model for entrepreneurs in the industry, thought about hiving off non-core activities way back in the mid-1980s when outsourcing was not even a word let alone a buzzword.

Raman Roy, CMD, Quattro BPO showed American Express the way to offshore non-core activities and utilize the abundant talent pool in India to handle business processes in a cost-effective manner without ever compromising on quality. And so it was that he quit the accounting department at American Express to head the travel and financial giant's BPO business in India.

It was a whole new concept for the world and for India - to handle incoming and outgoing calls for US clients sitting in India. In fact, Roy was often heard joking about the fact that when he did presentations for US companies he often started the presentation with the line "You probably think I travel to office in a bullock cart". He recalls the early days when he actually had to point out the locations on the map to prospective American clients. But all that has changed now. The world knows about Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon.

A chartered accountant by education, Roy moved from the BPO business of American Express to work with PramodBhasinat GE Capital. Bhasin says Roy was hired as the CEO of GECIS because of his excellent operational skills and his knowledge in running captive BPO operations. In the five years (1994 to 1999) that Roy worked with GECIS he was able to push it to become the largest BPO in India employing over 10,000 people by the time he left.

In fact during his tenure at American Express and GECIS Roy was one of the persons responsible for changing the government's viewpoint on internet bandwidth usage, call centers, and women employees. Raman Roy recalls that he and his team at American Express had a tough time convincing the bureaucrats about changing the laws that allowed international calls to be made over service provider lines.

However, what really shifted the focus on to him was the pioneering concept of creating what are today known as players providing third-party BPO solutions. Through Spectramind, he practically created a new market segment and ten years later the third-party BPO players accounted or the largest section of this multi-billion dollar industry.

Referring to change in perception about the Indian market, Roy said in an interview with Forbes Magazine, "In the US, we were considered dangerous when software and services was a 300,000-strong industry because people saw what a potential threat we could be. Some of those fears have materialized in terms of the growth of Indian firms. But with our companies rapidly expanding abroad, now there's also a realization that outsourcing doesn't hurt the economy. Indian businesses are far more self-confident today, so there's the ability to experiment and move up the value chain. And they're willing to make large investments globally."

Within two years of setting up SpectraMind, Royhad expanded the company to include 9,000 staff spread across most major cities of India.It was around this time that Wipro bought him over and appointed Roy as the CMD of the new entity. He piloted the company’s growth as one of the largest third-party BPO solutions providers in the country.

However, the entrepreneurial bug continued to bite Roy. He returned in 2005 after quitting Wipro BPO, sought VC funding, and took some of trusted colleagues from his erstwhile employer to set up Quattro. This time round, the differentiator was the promise of providing ‘value through innovation’.

Today Roy talks of providing knowledge services and becoming the business transformation partner to Quattro’s clients rather than simply offering business process solutions. The company one among few BPO players that actively pursues small and medium enterprises by offering them services on a flexible pricing model.

Roy devised this strategy because he believes that the time has come to move away from the traditional cost arbitrage model to focus on improving the client’s overall business. The mantra for success for Roy starts from listens to customers and customizing business models and solutions offerings to match their requirement.

Roy has once again proved that innovative thinking alone can create success stories. He did so by creating tremendous flexibility in an industry that swears by standardization.