Talent Philippines

Global Village Goes to the University of Makati

2008-04-03T15:15:00.021+08:00

February 16, 2008. It was an early start for half of the Global Village team. At 9 am, Shannon Borntrager and Bong Fernandez, educators and trainers for Global Village Academy, were headed to the University of Makati to teach three junior accounting classes.

The two educators were there to give the students a preview of the Global Village workshops—the Campfire Series, Interview Preparation, and Professional Communication.

The preview classes consisted of parts of the Campfire Series, Professional Communication and the Interview Preparation. It was during those classes that we saw how Global Village’s workshops enlightened and helped these students.

Although it took the students a bit of coaxing before they spoke up it was evident that they were eager to learn and quite enthusiastic. Shannon and Bong fielded dozens of questions a
bout interview myths and tips and it was apparent that the students wanted to know more.

The highlights of the day were the screening of some very keen students, the Campfire Series video presentation, and ice-breaker activities.

The looks and smiles on the students faces showed how successful Global Village was at helping out and touching the lives of the Filipino youth.

Around the Campfire — Telling Stories About Knowledge

2008-01-27T12:16:00.000+08:00

After a week at the entrepreneurial grind, Friday doesn't necessarily translate to a cessation of work, but it does mean you can celebrate another week in the game and a few deliverables out the door, etc. Before the stampede to the local tavern (back near the PC Supermarket), the instructors downstairs at Global Village had spent the day deconstructing the previous week's classes (following Peter Drucker's dictum: "Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action".)

What they came up with is as cool as it is simple: a series of events (I won't call them classes since it won't the same old boring structure where someone stands up and drones on punctuated by a few games and exercises) that tell stories about knowledge. Interactive, multimedia, facilitated, fun. We're calling them Campfire Stories and we're setting them up like this:

Organized around themes that matter to people
Highly interactive and media-centric
Focused on impact that transmits valuable, living knowledge vs. than desiccated data
Short duration (we have free elearning modules online to support the rote portion)
Priced so anyone can come (php200)

Global Village Ignites!

2008-01-14T09:36:00.000+08:00

While our cousins over at TDS (see below) are all about Call Center and BPO training, we take a different approach where we emphasize a more generic approach to learning. We figure not everyone wants a call center job so we've been hatching courses designed to help people succeed in any professional endeavor they may decide to pursue.

Global Village is a little different than other outfits since all of our instructors are TESDA certified (as is our shop), we have about 20% native English speakers on staff (and they actually teach class), and we are all about the learners. We believe learning should be engaging, fun and relevant.

Our first two classes are Interview Prep for the Real World and Business Communication for Professionals. Each course is designed to help you get ahead in a flattening world led by people who instruct from experience. (stay tuned for instructor profiles this week).

Interview Prep for the Real World — You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Interviews are your opportunity to showcase talent and demonstrate your abilities as well as assess a potential employer. Global Village provides you with a week of inside information on how interviewers operate; assessments designed to identify and help you emphasize your strengths; and a portfolio of information to keep critical items at your fingertips so you can focus on the interview.

Business Communication for Professionals.— In a globally connected economy, communication is the key to success. Knowing what to say as well as how to say it can make the difference for your career — wherever that may take you. Working with native English instructors, our workshop will prepare you to speak, comprehend and write with the confidence to move ahead.

Come on down for a quick assessment and talk to us. We're near Ortigas on Shaw Boulevard near the corner of Pioneer & Shaw. Unit 304 Emerald Place Building, 604 Shaw Boulevard, Pasig City. Give us a call at 02.638.4819.

To Global Village Academy from Commonwealth:

Take a bus going to Shaw. (e.g.Crossing Ibabaw, Megamall, Boni, Mall of Asia).
Get off at the EDSA Central Pavilion side of Shaw Boulevard.
Ride any jeepney going towards Pasig or Antipolo.
Tell the driver to drop you off at the Caltex gasoline station.
Count down 4 buildings from the gas station.
Our building is located right next to Pan de Manila.

To Global Village Academy from Cubao/North EDSA

Take a South bound bus or MRT from North Edsa Station and get off at Shaw Station.
Get off at the EDSA Central Pavilion side of Shaw Boulevard.
Ride any jeepney going towards Pasig or Antipolo.
Tell the driver to drop you off at the Caltex gasoline station.
Count down 4 buildings from the gas station.
Our building is located right next to Pan de Manila.

To Global Village Academy from Makati

Take MRT and get off at Shaw Station.
Ride any jeepney going towards Pasig or Antipolo.
On your way, you’ll pass by a Caltex gas station.
Count down 4 buildings from the gas station.
Our building is located right next to Pan de Manila.

TDS' 2nd Annual Training Conference - Industry Knowledge Funnel

2008-01-13T11:11:00.000+08:00

Another year has somehow passed — I'm marking the passage not with the New Year (which always seems a bit hazy), but with a professional event. TeleDevelopment is ramping for their next learning about learning confab called "Tomorrow's Trends in Todays Training".

What's makes TDS's event a standout is that it's largely the consequence of the Company's work in the field of teaching people how to work and succeed in the Call Center/BPO environment. This platform of expert knowledge supports a cast of industry experts that will be sharing info on three major tracks:

Needs — Understanding the demands of instruction in our industry's high-velocity environment
Techniques — Best practices for corporate education in the call center context.
Results — Where the proverbial "rubber meets the road:" What makes training programs create impact? How can training departments meaningfully interface with operations teams?

The industry's growth to date and the anticipated ramp over the balance of the decade mean that corporate educators will be challenged in ways that will demand faster, better, more accountable learning. TeleDevelopment's 2nd Annual Call Center Training Convention, Tomorrow’s Trends in Today’s Training, means we will be better prepared to do just that with learning that impacts performance for bottom-lien results.

Plan to attend the 2nd Annual Call Center Training Convention, Tomorrow’s Trends in Today’s Training, February 19 and 20, 2008 (Tuesday and Wednesday)
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Ballrooms A, B and C of the Renaissance Hotel in Makati

For booking arrangements go to the TeleDevelopment website to sign up.

If you're looking for additional information, just contact Abby of ArdentComm at telephone numbers (02) 328-8841 or 328-8842. Telefax (02) 328-8843. E-mail address tds_convention@ardent.com.ph

Rocking for Hope

2008-01-03T16:26:00.000+08:00

These past few days I've been attempting to celebrate my advanced age and the New Year with a little contemplative activity. One of the things I'm most proud of from 2007 was our planning and execution of a free, charity rock concert dubbed Rakaza!.

This event supported Childhope Asia Philippines where we raised money and in kind donations as well as exposed the charity to hundreds of Manila denizens — most of whom work in the the BPO world (we picked up over 1,000 names for our list). Childhope Asia Philippines is a not-for-profit NGO operating in Metro Manila assisting over 1,500 street children annually through its Street Education Program.

A quick look at the rotating banner next to this post show some shots of the night's line-up that included Urbandub, Radio Active Sago Project, Sinosikat?, Spy, Iray, Epic, Badburn, Rubberpool, Funkarival, Brightclub, Valve8, Basilica, Oyatoya, and MOI. The event was hosted at the Decagon in Sliver City Mall, beautiful Pasig City (we were the second group to use the facility).

Skarlet hosted the affair and she rocked the house. Likewise, evening faves were Radio Active Sago Project (my favorite Manila band) and Sinosikat.

Exhumed and Noted

2007-12-24T20:57:00.000+08:00

The End (of the year) is nigh and I'm frantically excavating all the stuff buried in stalagmites of paper that populate my home, office, and/or home office.

Item 1: Lawrence Casiraya of Inquirer.net noted that Carol Dominguez, President and CEO of John Clements Consultants, believes that there is a "more pressing" need for management skills in the country's business processing outsourcing industry. This she identified as a the critical item for the industry to address based on a series of focus groups wherein 50% of the respondents "cited bad management as a reason for leaving a company."

This highlights an area of talent development that is under-served at the moment: front line managers who have risen through the ranks quite rapidly to accountability for spans of control that wildly exceed their life experience, emotional maturity, and overall ability to cope with the stresses of management pressure to achieve more with less (especially as the dollar loses value and margins are compressed).

Item 2: In a postscript to Flattening and Topography, I ran across a WSJ OpEd piece by Michael Lynton, the CEO of Sony Pictures. He notes that American cultural hegemony is giving way to localized culture as it elbows onto the world stage (using the forces of globalization). His cites popular Chinese films such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Kung Fu Hustle as well as that prolific font of whimsy: Bollywood.

Without commenting on the rapidly dominant countries' economies or the widely dispersed nature of their cultures (or Mr. Lynton's interest in position Sony Pictures as an organization promoting global cultural diversity) — he does have a point: "...Hollywood is not simply a place in Southern California. It is a symbol of an entertainment culture which is becoming as diverse as it is universal."
What this means to people devoted to corporate education in locales outside their served clientele (like North America and Europe) seems to be opaque at the moment but this trend of cultural heterogeneity creeping around the edges of the dominant paradigm bodes well for a global business community where culture is not lost, but remains a practical tool to study and learn the art of the polyphony.

Item 3: Delving deeper into the stack of Wall Street Journals mouldering in the corner yields an article by Ravi Venkatesan, the Chairman of Microsoft India discusses business responsibility in an emerging nation where economic inequity is quite prevalent (as in much of Asia). His July, 2007 opinion piece offers some prescriptions for how to think about ways to guarantee a future defined by economic advancement rather than instability and lawlessness.

In particular, I'm drawn to his ideas on education and its delivery over large distances to people with disparate backgrounds. He notes that Microsoft is working on ways to learn English using a computer or a cellphone. At one of our organizations, we are exploring the same goal — although we are focused more on the combined face-to-face and eLearning approach (a mobile interface could be extremely valuable as well).
I believe that the Philippines remains a largely un-tapped source of talent with much of the population locked in labor and unskilled work (32% of the employed population). With tools that allow people to collapse distance and access best practices, we unlock opportunity and provide the foundation growth and prosperity.

Compensation Conundrum: 13th month

2007-12-23T18:13:00.001+08:00

One might surmise that The Philippines is widely thought to be something of workers paradise if you spend time in the Mabuhai lounge at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. There is some truth to the this idea — the Department of Labor (DoLE) does tend to presume employee complaints against management are valid and in the absence of definitive evidence to the contrary will often rule on a worker's behalf.
I suspect that this derives from an attempt to level the playing field in an economic environment where the gulf between rich and poor can be immense and the lack of meaningful government social intervention means that people are often at the mercy of their employers. See the quoted decree below (tough to find, by the way):

Presidential Decree No. 851: Requiring All Employers to Pay their Employees a 13th-Month Pay
WHEREAS, it is necessary to further protect the level of real wages from the ravage of worldwide inflation; WHEREAS, there has been no increase in the legal minimum wage rates since 1970; WHEREAS, the Christmas season is an opportune time for society to show its concern for the plight of the working masses so they may properly celebrate Christmas and New Year. NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby decree as follows:
Section 1. All employers are hereby required to pay all their employees receiving a basic salary of not more than P1,000 a month, regardless of the nature of their employment, a 13th-month pay not later than December 24 of every year. (Note: The salary ceiling of P1,000 was removed by President Corazon Aquino in 1986 through Memorandum Order No. 26, which provides: "Section 1 of Presidential Decree No. 851 is hereby modified to the extent that all employers are hereby required to pay all their rank-and-file employees a 13th-month pay not later than December 24 of every year.")
Section 2. Employers already paying their employees a 13th-month pay or its equivalent are not covered by this Decree.
Section 3. This Decree shall take effect immediately.
Done in the City of Manila, this 16th day of December 1975.

While computation approaches vary somewhat, the fact of the matter is that you have to pay this for non-managers (and expatriates aren't entitled either), and you need to pay before the 24th of December to stay legal in the Philippines. Many companies leave this for late in the year or simply go into denial. It pays to plan ahead since missing this important payout will create internal chaos with managing your people (since most count on this to make Christmas) and the legal impact could far exceed the outlay for extra salary.

Flattening & Topography

2007-12-23T12:03:00.000+08:00

Leafing through my new favorite local business intelligence tool, BusinessWorld, I ran across a review of the book Redefining Global Strategy. Although I've not read it (yet), I am intrigued by Eddie Evans' review wherein he contrasts the work of Pankaj Ghemawaht, with that of Thomas Friedman, the author of The World is Flat. The reasons for my interest should be somewhat self-evident: as a self-professed expert on certain things indigenous to the Philippines, I believe that the difference in locale matters in a deep and abiding way.

Moreover this position interests me since the nuances of location and all that it implies can compound themselves adding up to differences that, in sum, are significant. This year will necessitate greater efficiencies than ever as a variety of factors conspire to complicate what used to be a simple labor arbitrage a scant eighteen months ago. The dollar's increasing weakness, energy costs, familiarity with the outsourcing model, and talent sourcing challenges all conspire to force organizations to become more efficient to protect their margins.

The World is Flat

I've seen mistakes that cost time and money as they made assumptions that made entrée into the Philippines more arduous than necessary. Indeed, I'm guilty of a few of them myself. These typically fall into two major buckets:

Underestimating the local business environment or, more accurately, assuming that prior knowledge in one geography/culture/industry translates with algebraic ease to the Philippines.
Managing people using the same techniques and cultural biases prevalent in their original business location. In most cases, it translates into forcing "Western" biases onto local talent who have a very complex world-view that emanates from a unique history.

We intend shed some light on these matters for those that are looking for some insight on activities that require engaging personnel for service delivery. As an organization that traces its own development to the second wave of BPO growth here, we focus most intently on sourcing, managing and educating people who are remote knowledge workers.

Call Center Listing

2007-10-31T13:44:00.000+08:00

A list of Philippines call centers posted here looks a bit thin to me, but it's a start. Feel free to post your updates — perhaps among all the listings of local centers, we can take a run at a comprehensive and current version:

24Care Inc.
3i Q2 HR Solutions
Accenture Call Center Solutions
Acquisix
ACS (Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.)
Advanced Contact Solutions
Alorica Philippines
Ambergris Solutions
AOL Member Services
APAC Customer Services, Inc.
AscendAsia
AskMeNow
Branders.com
CallBox
Cinnovation
ClientLogic
Convergys
Cyber City Teleservices
Dell International Services
Dynatec
ElectraServ
ePacific Global
ePerformax
Epixtar International Contact Center Group, Inc
ePLDT Ventus
eTelecare Global Solutions
Global Sky
GlobalStride
HSBC EDP
IBM Daksh
ICT Group
Infonxx
InteliRisk Management Corp.
iTouchPoint
Link2Support
Logicall
Mindbox Solutions
NCO Group
Orchid CyberTech
OSRP PC Mall
PacificHub
Parlance Systems
PeopleSupport
Pilipinas Teleserv
Pivotale
Siemens Business Services
Sitel
Source1 HTMT
SUPREMNET Solutions
Sutherland Global
SVI Connect
Sykes
TeleConnect
TeleDevelopment
TelePerformance
Teletech
Touch Asia
TRG
Vision-X (VXI)a
Vocativ Systems, Inc.
West Corporation
WinSource Solutions

Desitination English

2007-06-29T13:15:00.000+08:00

According to an article I recently read on The Philippines Travel Blog, Koreans — as most Asians — favor the Philippines as a destination for English language instruction. The author cites our Tourism Secretary, Jospeph "Ace" Durano, telling a group of Korean academics that "the Philippines is one of the leading education destinations in Asia, particularly in learning the English language."
This confirms my anecdotal observation that English language is a big business in other areas outside of the BPO domain — I see applicants to Epixtar's education department that come from English schools all the time. These applicants (and we have a few on staff) are both fluent speakers and accomplished instructors of the language.
It's great to see this kind of information getting a little airplay instead of the constant dire predictions of dwindling English skills and a lack of available talent.

A Brief History of BPO in the Philippines

2007-06-15T13:17:00.000+08:00

A brief overview we developed for a Brand A client engagement:
Business Process Outsourcing started (meaningfully) in the Philippines with Accenture in 1992 thanks to Frank Holz, the Partner responsible for developing and marketing the first Global Resource Center in Manila. Currently its main facility (one of eight) is located at the Robinson’s Cybergate 2 Tower in Mandaluyong City, the facility houses around 5,000 seats of a total of 10,000 seats currently in the country.
With 15 years of operations, Acccenture expects to have a total of around 15,000 Philippines employees by the end of its current fiscal year in August. The majority of these are IT professionals performing system design and software application development, as well as application management and maintenance. The Company has recently built out a teleservices group to support clients with voice requirements.
SPI, recently acquired by ePLDT, entered the picture in 1983 founded by New Zealand expatriate Alan Fraser. The Company confined its activities to simple data entry work until 1997, when the new CEO Ernest Cu started making acquisitions and increasing SPi’s service portfolio. Cu is by far and away the sharpest operator on the Philippines BPO scene.
The firm provides Content Editorial and Production; Content Coding, Abstracting and Indexing, and Electronic Data Discovery; Content Transcription; and Transaction Processing for the Healthcare, Legal, Publishing and Transaction markets. SPi’s software development is dedicated to creating common platforms for its other practices.
Acquired in July 2006 for $158.8 million by the call center unit of the Philippines PTT, PLDT, the combined subsidiary placed ePLDT Ventus at the forefront of the local BPO game with 11,000 employees distributed across 26 locations in North America, Europe, and Asia.
The Company formerly had a stake in one of the early call center players, eTelecare Global Solutions, which it subsequently divested itself from in April 2004 as a publicly listed company (with SPI holding a majority share). eTelecare was founded in November 1999 by Jim Franke and Derek Holley, two McKinsey alumni of its call center practice. Currently the Ayala Corp owns 11% of eTelecare. Ayala is the considered the first conglomerate in the Philippines and controls Ayala Land Corp, Globe Telecom, Bank of the Philippines Islands, Manila Water and Integrated Microelectronics Inc. Ayala and its subsidiaries account for a third of the Philippine Stock Exchange’s Index.
eTelecare launched its first program in Q3 2000, and currently focuses on complex transactions for American Express, AOL, Cingular Wireless, Dell, Intuit, Sprint Nextel Corporation and Vonage delivered from four delivery centers in the Philippines and seven in the United States, with approximately 9,800 employees.
With revenue of $195.1 million and operating margin of 9.9% eTelecare is considered one of the founding call centers in the Philippines and its vice president and general manager Benedict Hernandez is widely respected and credited with the firm’s operational success. Hernandez is also on the Board of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) and has been an articulate advocate of BPO growth in the RP.
In 1995, President Fidel Ramos signed legislation creating the Philippine Economic Zone Authority to promote “the establishment of world class, environment friendly economic zones (ecozones) all over the country to respond to demands for ready-to-occupy locations for foreign investments.”
At the heart of the legislation lies fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to developers of economic zones, export producers, and I.T. service exporters. The focus is on developing “ready-to-occupy locations to foreign investors who are export producers or IT service exporters in world class and environment friendly Economic Zones and I.T. Parks / Buildings. “
SYKES entered the Philippines two years before eTelecare, in 1997, and is considered the first multinational BPO player to enter the Philippines. SYKES’ entrance was the result of its acquisition of 19 seats from McQueen LTD. Prior to acquisition, McQueen was headquartered in Galashiels, Scotland focusing on inbound call centre support, software fulfillment and customer service application and foreign language translation and localization.
Another early mover was PeopleSupport, co-founded in 1998 by David Nash and Lance Rosenzweig. The model was very similar to 24/7 Customer’s — email and chat support for dot-com clients. After struggling from their Los Angeles outsourcing center PeopleSupport, in 2000 and 2001, restructured its business by relocating outsourcing operations first to St. Louis, Missouri and then to the Philippines. Subsequently the company closed operations in St. Louis and completed the migration of operations to the Philippines. and closed their facility in St. Louis. Essentially the move to the Philippines not only rescued the Company, but invigorated them into a significant “local” player with eight outsourcing facilities and, roughly 8,400 personnel in the Philippines, 400 people in Costa Rica and over 150 in the U.S.
At the outset of operations in the Philippines, PeopleSupport employed 40 employees. This move was executed at the behest of Rainerio (“Bong”) Borja President of PeopleSupport Philippines and Vice President of Global Operations since May 2000. Bong is widely regarded as the most articulate and consistent voice of the Philippines BPO industry and the architect of much of the industry’s growth.

Teledevelopment Training Conference

2007-03-04T13:01:00.000+08:00

Last week I was privileged to speak at my friend Jon Kaplan's Call Center Training Conference hosted by his company, Teledevelopment Services. Obviously the topic of conversation was Training and how to do it more effectively and more economically. Talking about how BPO people learn seems to be the trend of late.

No wonder: Discourse on the lack of qualified candidates for BPO positions is considerable (with justification). Mushrooming call center academies and English training centers have recently created an industry paralleling the BPO scene.There is even an English-is-Cool initiative in a bid to attract hipsters and tastemakers archipelago-wide. Growth has created a real sense of urgency amongst recruiting staffs and industry pundits.

Urgency is just what the industry needs. That and with thoughtful ways to deal with the challenges that stand before us. These challenges pale compared to those faced during the early days of the industry when, for example, eTelecare secured an exemption to Article 130 of the Labor Code of the Philippines to allow women to work at night.

One way to address these obstacles is effective communication within the industry. Group-think about how we can cohesively build upon government initiatives like TESDA's recent scholarship program to provide subsidies for prospective BPO employees that require additional education to qualify for entry-level positions in the industry.

I think Jon neatly summarized this during the closing remarks for the speakers of the Philippines' first BPO training conference after-party. The notion that professionals can put aside competitive differences and openly address common concerns of learning engagement and organizational management is truly gratifying. His observations — how cooperation transpires within a group of competitors so tightly concentrated — speak well on the relative harmony of the Philippines BPO industry.

Philippines 2.0

2007-02-19T13:14:00.000+08:00

Lately I've been thinking about Social Networks, Web 2.0, and all that stuff. One of Wikipedia's (many) entries on the topic describes the phenomenon as "... embracing an approach to generating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and re-use, and 'the market as a conversation." Indeed the trend seems to be shaping up into something of a bubble in itself with the profusion of redundant and/or pointless 2.0 networking sites clogging our mailboxes with invitations from people who we don't know.

Why am I interested in this well-trod topic? Because I'm keen to use some of these tools in the interest of attracting and educating call center agents — I'm a big advocate of self-service solutions as the talent market becomes increasingly competitive. Moreover, I believe there are contextual factors that make Web 2.0 a part of life in the Philippines like few places in the world — of the top fifteen popular sites in the Philippines as rated by Alexa. Eight of those site fall under the Web 2.0 moniker.

Social networks, cyber or not, are a fundamental part of life here as anyone who spent time in country will attest. In an excellent survey, A Short History of South East Asia, edited by Peter Church and published under the auspices of the Asean Focus Group; an anonymous Filipino business man is quoted observing, "We have no institutional loyalty, only personal loyalty." In the context of the Philippines this bias toward personal relationships is extended to encompass online relationships.

Like the Philippines' "natural" language advantage in call center services and BPO delivery, the capability to deliver content within what is becoming understood as the Web 2.0 is of significant interest to potential BPO operations in the web marketing arena. From another angle, there is a great deal to be gained by developing social networks in the pervasive recruiting project. A blog that comments on the life of an agent just starting out, for example, might be a great way to simultaneously elaborate upon and personalize the experience of the people coming to work at our call center. Perhaps a networking site that lets agents network their friends into position for evaluation and screening would be worthwhile since staff referrals provide the balance of quality agents for any center.

More broadly, this trend opens up opportunities for enterprising types (read BPOpreneurs) to develop services and support functions riding existing 2.0 services or using the underlying tools such as Ruby on Rails. If the world has moved to a relentlessly networked world of interactions fostered through shared interest, nationality, desire, or profession; then those that can fluently navigate (as a majority in the Philippines can) these spaces are the site of new services like high-trust marketing through blogging and social seeding much as many organizations are using YouTube to accomplish.