Forbes has primed a list of seven outsourcing billionaires. These magnificent seven comes from two developing countries of the world, that is, Taiwan and India. Taiwan millionaires are into manufacturing, they are specialized in contract manufacturing with special emphasis in the production of electronics.
However, Indian outsourcing leading lights provide services to the world. They are minting billions by exporting software and IT services.
f you wonder, what made these people successful, Robert Kennedy, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School has an answer, "The economics behind offshoring are really compelling, and customers usually do it for three reasons--they want specialized firms, [they want] to cut costs, and [they want] access to talent or specialized skills."
Lets take a look at the list
Azim Premji: At age 21, Premji took over his family's cooking fat oil company. Since then, Wipro has become the No. 1 provider of integrated business, technology and process solutions. Premji is chairman of the software serv
ices outsourcing company, which acquired a business process outsourcing arm in 2002.
Teri Gou: As chairman of Hon Hai, the world's largest contract manufacturer, Terry Gou has capitalized on the popularity of iPods, cellphones, game systems and other devices the company assembles. His net worth, though, could be vulnerable: Labor costs in China are on the rise, and there's speculation that global demand for the electronics Hon Hai produces might fall.
Shiv Nadar: In 1976, Nadar co-founded HCL Technologies, an outsourcing electronics, computing and IT software company. He has since been awarded one of India's highest civilian honors: the Padma Bhushan. With clients like Cisco, Boeing and IBM, HCL is one of India's leading global IT services companies and emphasizes "transformational outsourcing," or working with clients to re-define the cores of their businesses.
NR Naryana Murthy: With a rank of 843 out of 1,125, Murthy is the highest-ranking of the three Infosys Technologies founders on Forbes' Billionaires list. A software services company started with only seven people and $250, Infosys is now a global leader in IT and consulting. Murthy, who currently holds the title of chief mentor and non-executive chairman, ran Infosys for 21 years and was succeeded by another billionaire, Nandan Nilekani.
Barry Lam: After dropping out of National Taiwan University, Lam set up Quanta Computer with a fellow classmate, who has since passed away. Quanta is the largest notebook computer original design manufacturer and boasts clients like
Apple, Hewlett-Packard and Dell. The contract manufacturing company is the world's No. 1 maker of notebook computers.
Nandan Nilekani: As a co-founder of Infosys, Nilekani ran the company as chief executive and managing director until June 2007, when he became co-chairman. Infosys pioneered the global delivery model of outsourcing. The premise is to take work to the location where the best talent is available; this philosophy helped stimulate the rise of offshore outsourcing and, of course, added to the company's wealth.
Senapathy Gopalakrishnan: Another Infosys founder-turned-billionaire, Gopalakrishnan was president and chief operating officer until last June, when he succeeded Nilekani as chief executive and managing director. He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, as well as a generous donor to his alma mater.
Read: Top richest man of all time after the jump.
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