The relocation did not work. We did not bring it back — we rebuilt it. And only after the rebuild came the saving that had been promised from the start.
The first setup treated the offshore team as a task factory: loose individual activities, neatly handed over by document, and whoever was free grabbed the next one. That is exactly why nothing stuck — no customer belonged to anyone, no knowledge grew. The rebuild reversed the logic. We stopped shipping tasks and started building teams.
Mirror, don’t scatter
Concretely: we installed a local leader who was actually allowed to lead, not just relay. We bundled the loose activities into job profiles that mirrored the German organization — every role here had its counterpart there. Every German team got one fixed Indian team, so the customer know-how stopped wandering with each rotation. We raised the pay and strengthened the local incentives. None of it is free; it ate margin. But it was the first version that worked at all.
The number came after the rebuild
Only then did the metric appear: about 40 percent less effort per team, roughly €200,000 — and the German people freed for new customers instead of firefighting on a loop. Honesty demands: it was not the final word. Fluctuation does not disappear, and the distance in time, space and culture keeps demanding training and documentation that weighs on operations. We later supplemented with on-site staff leasing — which, with larger, long-tenured groups, brings its own cultural friction. There is no end state here, only better and worse compromises.
When a relocation does not deliver, the first question is rarely „bring it back or not.“ It is: did we ship tasks, or did we build teams? Arbitrage on headcount carries a beginning. Outcome carries the rest.
