The drive back home from the Bangalore airport after a return flight is never much fun as it typically stretches well over an hour, in good traffic, that is. The last time though, on my return from Singapore, it flew by, because of an interesting conversation I had with my neighbour, who coincidentally happened to be on the same flight, and with whom I car pooled, partly in the interest of being environmentally friendly. This neighbor happens to work for a large IT consulting company and he told me some interesting things about their philosophy which made me think.
Essentially they use automation (ie information technology) as a key tool to bring down cost. Additionally they use intensive training to allow junior staff to become productive and take on higher responsibility roles early on. Further they use high- end consulting as an entry point to new business with offshore back office operations to add capacity. No rocket science here, but all interesting strategies worth mulling over for any organization that is in the services space.