Where should my center go?
A Geographical Choice
You work for the Everything You Want To Know Company. With corporate headquarters in Denver, CO, your
company allows people to either call in or get on the Internet to ask questions between 5:00 am and midnight,
central standard time. There is a small fee for each question asked and your company promises to supply the
answer within 1 hr, or give a full refund.
Business has been good and the company is ready to expand.
The company’s goals are:
 To expand into global markets
 To offer answers within ½ hr, shortening the time the customer needs to wait
 To use steadily more highly educated staff members to answer questions
You are in charge of making the decision about the expansion.
You have 3 choices:
I. Open a new center somewhere in the southeast United States.
Things to consider:
 46% of your business is currently coming from the East Coast
 Depressed markets in the southeast will allow you to hire 120 people
II. Open a new center somewhere in India
Things to consider:
 India is one of your biggest overseas users so far
 Lower pay scale and overhead cost will allow you to hire 160 people
 You have very little global business, so there might be a lot of employee downtime
III. Expand the center you have in Denver
Things to consider:
 You have a good base in Denver and should be able to easily expand
 Because you’re already established in Denver, pay scale and overhead cost will allow you to hire 130
additional people
Part 1
Answer the following:
 Get out a map and considering what you’ve learned about time zones explain what each choice will do
for your coverage times. Assume that the people working at each location will only work between 5:00
am and midnight wherever they are.
 Which location do you think you would select in the southeast United States? Explain why you picked
that location.
 Which location do you think you would select in India? Explain why you picked that location.
Part 2
Read each of the 20 statements below.
 For each statement, decide whether it is relevant to your choice.
 For each statement, explain why this does or does not this influence your decision about where to put
the center.
Example Statement:
There is steadily improving access to elementary public schools in India.
Below are 2 possible answers:
 Relevant: This means that there are more possible educated workers available to work in the overseas
center
 Irrelevant: My company wants more college employees and an elementary education won’t impact who
is hired
Notice that both of these answers are acceptable because they have been supported.
Where should my center go?
A Geographical Choice
You will decide if each of these is relevant or irrelevant (NOT BOTH) and explain why.
1 Workers in India $60 a week. An equivalent worker in the United States would earn $350.
2 A teacher in India earns $40 a week
3 Bangalore has a population of over 6 million people and is the fastest growing city in Asia
4 Indian call centres are 40% cheaper to run than ones in the United States and Europe
5 2 million people a year graduate from Indian universities and technical colleges
6 One third of India’s population lives in absolute poverty
7 The Indian center has promised that all employees go through a 4 week training to teach
them to have an English accent
8 The Bangalore region is called the ‘byte-basket’ of India. There are 1154 I.T. companies
based there
9 There has been a big drop in infant and child mortality in India in recent decades
10 The single biggest cost for a call centre is labor
11 India gained independence from Britain nearly 50 years ago
12 Workers uses the Internet every day to check what the weather is like in the cities they’re
contacting
13 In the last two decades GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in India has grown significantly
but there are higher rates of unemployment
14 Indian call centres recruit only university and college graduates
15 Workers in India often have to work through the night
Where should my center go?
A Geographical Choice
16 Call centers in the US are often located in areas of industrial decline and
high unemployment
17 The University of Bangalore has 300,000 students and is the largest in Asia
18 Many Indians speak English well
19 Call center staff in India are educated to a higher level than their US counterparts
20 Workers are allowed to watch US soap operas during their lunch breaks
Part 3
Create a short presentation that answers each question and explains which evidence you used.
 Where will you put your center?
 Why did you make that selection?
 Which pieces of information influenced your choice the most?
 What will be the benefits and problems of your choice on your company?
 What will be the benefits and problems of your choice on the economy of the United States?
 What will be the benefits and problems of your choice on India?