When you meet the Pramod Bhasin, the outgoing CEO and President of BPO giant Genpact, you are struck immediately by the buzzing energy the man exudes. And this is the energy that drove him about 16 years ago to convince GE to set up its back-office process handling division in India. That was a turning point for India -- it gave birth to a new industry which till date generates one of the largest number of jobs in the country today.

When he talks, he is loud and clear, and you are pulled into listen to the man who in 1995 showed GE's top management the advantages of taking their back-office processes out of the US to India. And in 1997 GE set up India's first BPO GE Capital International Services. Bhasin - he worked with GE as an executive officer - was appointed to lead the company. Today it is one of the largest BPOs in the world employing more than 40,000 people globally.

Bhasin's move years ago set the ball rolling for the BPO industry in India with the emergence of a new set of entrepreneurs, some of whom had worked with Bhasin, like Raman Roy, to set up the call centre industry to begin with. Within ten years of Bhasin's first pitch, India was established as the leading offshoring and outsourcing destination in the world.

Meanwhile, within Genpact, Bhasin successfully led the company to move from strength to strength growing in business, employees and clients. In fact in many cases the company led the way for many BPO players in the country to offer similar services.

And after being 16 years with the company, and driving it successfully, Bhasin has relinquished his position as the CEO of Genpact and moved into the background. He has not only stepped down as a CEO but moved away from the board of the company to become a non-executive vice chairman. While it was expected that at some point of time Bhasin will leave Genpact, which he created, this sudden announcement and the hurried way he has handed over the reins to his long-time colleague and Genpact's COO Tiger Tyagarajan has left the industry with many questions. And this is what Bhasin said in a company statement, "I am delighted to be able to hand over the reins of the company to my long-term business partner Tiger. We have worked together for over a decade to build Genpact into a truly global leader. I am confident that he is the right person to take Genpact forward in its next stage of growth. I have been truly privileged to lead this remarkable company and its employees from inception and to have helped create an industry that now provides employment opportunities to millions of people around the world."

This move is surprising because of the fact that till recently Bhasin has been driving a spate of M&A activities to take the company to the next phase. He spearheaded the acquisitionof Headstrong and Akritiv Technologies that enhanced Genpact's capabilities in the ITO and cloud-computing space. These proves that Genpact is now ready to move from being a BPO company to a more technology-oriented innovative services and solutions company - a trend that is driving many pure-play BPOs to devise more technology solutions.

This also points to the fact that a new direction most probably needs a new vision and new way of directing the company. And that is where Tiger comes in. Even as Bhasin looks forward "to other pursuits", he is not expected to move much farther away from Genpact in the initial stages as Tyagarajan adjusts in his new role from June this year. Bhasin's vast experience in leading the company and transforming it from a mere back office organization to a client-centric, technology-driven services partner means that his expertise still remains valuable to Genpact as the company will continue to look toward him as a guiding force. In fact, Bhasin puts it in his official parting statement that he will be helping Tiger "particularly in areas of acquisition integration, organization development and growth in new geographies". While he might have stepped down from active participation in the company, it will be a long time before Genpact stops buzzing with Bhasin's energy.