Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

Thursday, July 28, 2011

THE business process outsourcing sector may be one of the fastest growing in the country, players admit there are just not enough qualified personnel that would allow them to expand even faster.

Butch Sison of Convergys said they remain “hopeful and passionate” about the industry’s growth in Cebu but admitted that some two-thirds of clients wanting to acquire services from their Cebu branches had to be turned down because of the lack of talent.

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Sison said that this could have meant 1,500 jobs. He said the sad part is, these required skills from level one agents.

“The inavailability of talent is critical,” he said, adding that the smaller BPO companies end up “keeping them afloat” by accepting new graduates and training them before they leave and get accepted to Convergys with better capabilities.

While Sison noted that most regions in the world can barely keep pace with the industry’s growth, he fears big companies will want to start looking around for other areas if Cebu doesn’t act quickly.

Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP)’s Jojo Ligan said the industry could grow easily at 50 percent if only there were enough qualified applicants who could fill these positions.

Instead, they only end up hiring 20 to 30 out of 100 applicants because not all of them meet the qualifications.

The good news, Ligan said, is that this problem is not unique to the Philippines.

BPO executives, however, find it an advantage that Cebu is a small area and that most managers know each other, making employees hesitate about jumping from one company to the next.

Accenture’s Ray Marañon assured they are satisfied with their location in Cebu, as they recently opened a second facility.

“We are bullish about our growth for the next five years,” he said.

While Cebu’s entry-level salaries are much higher than other cities beginning to open up to BPOs, Sison said challenges that prevent other cities from scaling up will prevent them from considering them as alternate locations and that they would rather stick it out in locations like Cebu.

Aside from a specific set of skills, Sison hopes the academe will produce graduates who can actually converse well with foreign clients.

He said the problem is not grammar of having flawless accents.

He noted that many cannot seem to converse with clients properly without sounding rehearsed.

What is important, he said, is to be able to connect to other human beings they are speaking to and let their personalities shine through the call.

He said teaching the traditional way of speaking may not be the right way to train students and suggested that the academe challenge traditional ways of teaching that would enable them to communicate effectively.

The token lip service shown the other week in arresting owners, patrons and staff of only Foreigner Owned bars in Angeles city has brought about talk of increasing the age limit for licensed staff working in these bars from 18 to 21 . That would be a very positive move and lessen the chances a 16 year old (or younger) could bribe her local officials into issuing a city ID claiming she was 18. At the very least it would make it easier for owners to insist on more proof for the really young looking applicants. Will this make much difference overall? We doubt it.

In the Filipino owned bars that cater mainly to the local trade it will make no difference whatsoever if the owner chooses to hire 14 year olds. He will rely on his barkarda, his connections and his local clout as always. It is all so obvious to those who understand the psyche of the Filipino, especially when it comes to getting one over on the foreigner. One can’t really blame them, given how they were messed around for so long by the Spanish in the name of the church, then the Americans just took over even after the Filipinos had beaten the Spanish in a fair fight called the Kapitunan Revolution of 1896-98. They have to put up with a culture that idolises anything from overseas as being superior to the Pinoy version, has half the population doing whatever they can to have lighter skin tones (whitening cream is the No1 selling item in drug stores everywhere) and of course people throwing in English phrases amidst their Tagalog just to show they are upscale enough to speak Taglish.

All of which is fair enough. It is their country and if one moves there and operates a business then one must expect the playing field to be less than level. Regardless of how it might be level for them back home should they come to your country and set up shop, this isn’t your country, it is theirs. This is how it is, get used to it. The thing is, you can play the game their way, too. You will never be as good at it or as well connected but you can use the same two faced set of ‘rules’ to your advantage. Always pick your battles carefully and make sure you have more money and connections than the other guy. Don’t hesitate to treat people like dirt and use them to your own advantage and never, ever feel remorse or pity for anyone less fortunate than you. That’s their lot in life and not your fault so ignore them if you can and use them if you can’t. Remember, this is a catholic country so you will be forgiven your sins and the lot of the less fortunate will be much better when they go to heaven so why worry? See, they’ve got it covered.

Either follow those simple rules or don’t compete with locals for the peso. Go back to your own country and run your business there or enjoy living in the Philippines and make your money online, offshore or somewhere other than the Republic of the Philippines. Walay problema, di ba!

If you run a business over here one of your biggest headache creators will be staff. I used to think it very cruel and neo-colonial, the way many Pinoy and Chinoy (Filipino and Chinese-Filipino) employers treated their staff. Like a cross between recalcitrant children and indentured slaves. Now I can appreciate why.

I have learnt if you give them a fair go as you would back home, too many will take unfair advantage of you. Our last IT staffer started out like a nipa hut on fire. As she realised we were decent blokes she took advantage, turning up later and later, missing whole days and eventually not even bothering to apologize. She’s gone now.

Looking for a replacement has been a challenge to my Angeles City based partner. Our office there is in residential premises so we usually meet clients at their offices or somewhere neutral like Starbucks at the Mall. Seems too many Filipinos must feel the job isn’t legit if we have to meet off site. Of course back home we do that if we want to interview in a neutral locale or if there is still someone in the role who will soon be fired.

Eventually my partner used his network of business contacts to hunt down some hopefuls and, with an introduction from someone they trust, we had several actually turn up to be interviewed. One will start monday and hopefully be able to hit the ground running, as they say. It’s all fun and frolic in the Philippines!

The anti-discrimination regulations in force in most western countries often seem like a politically correct joke in many ways. Especially as we know that even if they don’t specify X in the ad, if you don’t have X then you won’t get the job. Yes, they have just discriminated against you but then we all ‘discriminate’ every time we choose one thing over another, when we buy this brand over that and so on.

Personally I think the rules for advertising jobs are a good indicator of where political correctness can get it wrong, but then I read the job ads in Philippines newspapers. Here are a few taken at random:

Admin Assistant Female, 5?4? in height, excellent in oral and written english, keen to details and able to work independently, knowledgeable in microsoft word, excel and powerpoint.

I thought English, the language, deserved an upper case E? Maybe why they need someone ‘excellent in oral and written english’. But why 5’4”?

Japanese Speaking Guest Service Associate for Front Office Female, 27-35 years of age, 5?4? in height, fluent in japanese and english with strong customer service skills, willing to work in shifts, With at least 2 years experience working for a 5-star hotel is an advantage, college graduate.

At least they are consistent and leave out the J along with the E. What if the best candidate is 26 and 5’3”? No point sending in the resume as they will ask for a birth certificate and do a height check. OK, same employer (a five star hotel in Cebu);

Media Communications Manager Female, college graduate at least 5?4? in height, preferably single, related working experience in marketing, advertising, or journalism is an advantage, has established contact and linkages with counterparts in the city, excellent in oral and written english, customer service oriented.

And this one:

Banguet Sales Executive Female, college graduate, at least 5?4? in height, preferably single, preferably with 2 years relevant experience with a reputable hotel, excellent leadership, selling and communication skills.

Four out of eight job vacancies require females 5’4” in height. Why? Low doorways to the Ladies toilets? Only one uniform size? Of the other four job openings, one didn’t specify gender, two allowed the candidate to be either male or female and the last one wanted a female for the role, height unspecified but she had to be between 21 – 30 years old.

Trawl through any job listings for Filipino positions and you will be told how old they have to be, what gender, marital status, age and even that their personality must be ‘pleasing’. In some cases they even stipulate ‘attractive’. That means light skinned by the way.

That is the way it is here and just one more thing you will have to accept if you plan to live here. It is their Rome, they are doing it the ‘Roman’ way and you know what they say about ‘When in Rome…’

There is a new classified ad site for all things Philippines. Philippine Finder is the place to go for real estate, cars,  items anything that is up for sale for the expat or retiree. There is also a personals section where you can find friends, activity partners or seach for romance.  You can advertise there free of charge. Right now it is a little light on for ads, but so was the Yellow Pages the day the first telephone was installed! The more people who use it to advertise and respond to ads, the better a service it will become.

If you were unable to run a successful business back home in Glottal Stop Pennsylvania, what makes you think you can make a go of one here in the Philippines?

So many people think because they can get something started for a lot less than back home they can become a tycoon overnight. Many go for the food industry and try and run a bar or a restaurant. This is probably the hardest industry to be in, even if to those who have never worked in the game it looks fairly straightforward.

Don’t forget you will have to hire Filipino staff. It may sound cruel but there is truth in the humorous observation that if you train the staff well, don’t let them go to lunch or else you’ll have to give them a refresher. Good staff with initiative and the oomph to use it are almost impossible to find. Most of them have gone overseas where they earn a more realistic remuneration for their abilities and efforts. If you do get a good one, holding on to them may be impossible because as soon as they can, they’ll be off to greener pastures too.

In any business anywhere, staff are usually your biggest cost and your biggest headache. Here in the land of lip service, it gets worse. If you are trying to run something in a provincial backwater, you have my sympathy. If it is going to be a Filipino style affair and have nothing more technologically advanced than a banana leaf for a plate, give it a whirl. Otherwise, think twice, then find something else to do.

I learned the hard way my socialistic leanings to giving the working class stiff a fair go don’t work in this country. Instead, if you are nice to the employee they simply feel it will be even easier to steal from you as you won’t get upset and angry and scream at them. These people are not westerners and they have a different set of values and standards to those of us from western countries. Accept it, it’s neither good nor bad, just the way it is. If we start expecting Filipinos to do business as we do it and to have the same ethics and standards we prize, pretty soon the reasons we came here in the first place will disappear.

If this country does beat its culturally ingrained, rampant, endemic and systemic corruption and incompetence, then things will get rather expensive very quickly. Dare I say it may no longer appeal! Think about it, just like you should think about any business venture that costs more than a hundred bucks or so.

There are hundreds of ‘penpal’ sites, introduction agencies and lonely hearts sites on the web nowadays. Many of these showcase Filipinas, as well as women from Latin America and the former Soviet Union. This article is not about the moral or ethical side of this industry (and it is an industry in more ways than one) but about how you could become involved in it in an ethical and moral way.

The reality is that people are out there looking for each other. We will discuss why in depth another time. Let’s look at the introduction agency. Until the IMBRA law was introduced in the USA a few years ago (International Marriage Brokers Act) many sites charged the man a fee to belong and to get the details of the women members so they could correspond. The view was to meet, marry and live happily ever after. However some men (and some women) abused this and lured unsuspecting partners to their graves in extreme cases and horrible lives of virtual slavery in others. Not all and no doubt a very tiny minority but even one sad story is one too many.

The Philippines government introduced a law to prohibit the running of introduction agencies from the Philippines however providing you did not promise marriage and did not charge the female a fee you were not breaking the law. All the same most people didn’t trust the local judicial system enough to risk it. Those introduction agencies that offered Filipina names and addresses were often run by Filipina wives of Americans, living in the USA. These went from catalogues mailed to the man (hence the term ‘mail-order-bride) and required months of patient snail mail correspondence to the instant gratification of email and online viewing of photos and details (her profile). It also meant that the Filipina could become more pro-active and hunt for a ‘kano’ to call her own.

This technological advance gave unscrupulous people the chance to abuse the system and make money or take other advantages. Men could lure women to their home country and abuse them as sex slaves, Filipinas (and all too often Filipino transsexuals posing as women) could induce men to send them money under false pretenses. The IMBRA law was tagged onto other legislation and passed late at night prior to a holiday and was brought about by the tragic deaths of two women from Russia, not the Philippines. While no one can condone such abuse, the law while well intentioned has been unfairly passed and applied. Large web sites such as yahoo are exempt as while they do have many foreign members, they are not exclusively about introducing foreigners to Americans. Religious sites are exempt due to the power of the religious lobby no doubt and so many sites have suddenly become ‘Christian Dating’ sites.

Basically the law requires the web site to ensure the American supplies full personal particulars to any foreign member (such as financial and criminal records, full address etc) BEFORE they are able to open correspondence. When the couple finally decide to marry the fiance is questioned by Immigration if the law was complied with and if not then they will not be granted a K1 visa. Or a K3 if they married overseas. It is no doubt well intentioned but it is a recipe for disaster and it forces otherwise law abiding people to lie and find ways around the situation or open you up for identity theft or worse.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. For those living overseas who want a Filipina partner, simply come here on vacation and travel around. Read ‘Filipina 101-How To Meet The Filipina of Your Dreams’ for all the information you need to know about how to correspond or meet her in the mall. It also tells you how to detect a scammer and how to avoid her as well as new information on chat cam scams.

But if you live in the Philippines and wish to make a living helping other people find happiness together, this is how I would do it. First of all you must have your Asawa on your side. She is vital as she will be the one to choose and vet the Filipinas. You will find and vet the Kanos. You need only about ten local girls from your Asawa’s home barangay. Relatives and girls she knows personally. Girls she knows do not have current boyfriends and she knows if they have babies or husbands or any of the other surprises that can be launched on the unsuspecting Kano.

Then you set up a web site offering a guided vacation in a barangay locale where the holiday maker can meet real Filipinas and learn about the culture and the community with no pressure or obligation to make any promises at all. For all the details of how to set up a business in the Philippines, check out ‘Making A Living- The Streetwise Philippines Guide To Employment, Business and Investing’. You meet the holiday maker at the airport and guide them to the barangay, arrange their accommodation and site seeing and act as a friend and guide for a set period. During that time you introduce them to the vetted girls in a casual, relaxed family BBQ type situation and let things take a natural course.

You promise only this:

You will meet the client at the airport and guide them to the locale.

You will show them the local sites and hold a BBQ in their honour at which several local Filipinas will be present.

All of the Filipinas will be known to you or your Asawa and in your opinion be genuine and not already married (unless stated).

You will escort the client back to the airport or wherever you both agree to ‘release’ him.

No promises of marriage are made and no online introductions are made so neither sets of laws are infringed, US or Filipino. You charge a modest fee for your time and costs and only from the guest. I would suggest US$100 a day depending on costs and length of visit. You could charge a two day minimum with half in advance (give a receipt) and be clear about your trading and refund terms. Be professional and fair and you will be surprised at how you attract more people of the same nature than bad ones.

Be aware there are some unscrupulous people offering similar services already. They have slick web sites and convincing text but they take the deposit and then fail to produce the service. If you are active on the Yahoo groups for expats and people interested in the Philippines then you will build up a clientele that can vouch for you; word of mouth and reputation is crucial to long term success in this country as anywhere. This idea of mine is for a service that helps Kano and Filipina find each other. You facilitate the possibility only. No promises are made and for $100 the Kano can’t complain if he was shown a slice of real Filipino barangay life not usually experienced by tourists and then sent safely on his way. A date with an American woman will set him back more than that.

Be diligent and find genuine Filipinas. Devise a set of questions to ascertain the bona fides of the Filipina and the Kano and after a while you can sort the wheat from the chaff. Deliver as promised and keep in mind this is a customer focused service. Most Kanos who will pay for this service tend to be genuine in their endeavours to find a Filipina they can trust. The scum tend to know it all already and have their own Modus Operandi. The customer helps you live in the Philippines so take good care of him and ask for referrals.

If one of the girls turns out to be a scammer, deal with it. If the Kano turns out to be less than genuine, again, deal with it. Problems occur in all business ventures, the secret is how you deal with them. Always aim for a Win/Win/Win outcome. Thats the Kano, the Filipina and you all being winners. It can be done and in the long run it is far more lucrative than the rip off or scam could ever be.

We Make The Clown Change His Tune! (Or At Least His Clock!)

There is a train of thought, and not without merit, that when in Rome, one should do as the Romans do.  Another way of interpreting this is that if they do something differently to how we do it “back home”, who are we to change them?  What right do we have to even comment?  I say it depends on the situation but if it is something so intrinsic to life, so basic to one’s survival, then you are duty bound to bring it to the local’s attention and suggest how it should be done!  So if it relates to breakfast at McDonalds, then it falls within this critical “life or death” category.  Right?

I have been consulting to a school way over on Cordova island, which is at the far end of Mactan.  It requires me to leave home early to beat the morning rush hour and try and minimise the evening drag for the return in the afternoon.  Some mornings I just don’t feel like having breakfast before leaving the house, I just want to get out there and mix it with the Dongs on the road.

Luckily, my old cobber Ronnie the Clown has one of his establishments near my route.  It is the work of a few seconds to hang a left instead of a right when I exit the old Mactan Bridge, pick up some Macca’s and then chuck a u-ey (Buy McDonald’s food and make a U-turn in Aussie speak) and resume my journey.

So the sign on the wall boasts the place opens at 7am.  It is 7:10am and it is still closed.  I bang on the door, point at my watch and make the usual signs of agitation.  Eventually a manager type opens the door.

“The sign says you open at 7am, it’s nearly 7:15, how come?”

“We go by the McDonalds clock, Sir.  The same time used all over the country.” the manager said, pointing over his shoulder to a large clock on the wall of the kitchen.

“So because that clock is slow or needs a new battery, you open 15 minutes late?  Can you imagine how much business you are missing from people driving past  in that time and turned away because you are following a clock set for Manila?”

“Yes Sir.” Was his open reply.

“Well how come the other McDonalds stores on Jones and Cebu South road open on time? Should we tell Ronald they are not following his clock?”  No answer so I pressed on.  “What is your personal opinion about a store that runs to it’s own clock? I mean, the entire nation of 85 million work to GMT plus 8 hours and you people use GMT plus 8 hours 15 minutes.  Doesn’t that seem a little ridiculous to you?”  Still no answer but I could see the dawn of comprehension starting to break over his physiognomy.

The next day I returned and they were still closed until 7:15.  I reminded them of the fact they were a joke and how did that feel? Shouldn’t someone tell the owner his store is a laughing stock and so on.  I returned the following week and they were still living in their time warp.  Then on the Tuesday, a week after my first attempt to make even one of them see sense, I arrived at 7:10am.  They were open!

As I walked in I saw right away there were already customers sitting at tables, eating.  Cars were in the drive through, their occupants buying breakfast!  Just like I had predicted!  What was even more amazing was the atmosphere!  The staff were pumped!

They were so proud of themselves for having been told they could reset the clock to GMT +8 and open at 7am.  The owner admitted it was silly to open 15 minutes late every day and the staff were rapt!  Now that nasty foreigner wouldn’t be pointing out how stupid they were, even if they were just following orders!  The change in the staff was amazing to behold and quite contagious.  I felt so positive as I left, maybe there was hope for this country yet? Maybe common sense and persistent complaining could make a difference?

A few days later I came again for my breakfast only to find the rope used to block off the carpark and drive through was still up.  I ignored it and drove under, parked and walked in.  The store was open but one of the Dongs had forgotten to lower the rope.  A day or two later the same thing except just across the drive through entrance.  Must have had brain fade that last few feet of rope lowering!  Still, at least they were open on time!

The manager told me they were making between P2000 and P5000 each morning in the first fifteen minutes from 7am to 7:15am. They had been following the late clock for nearly a year, so I figured that roughly they had lost about half a million peso’s just by losing that crucial first fifteen minutes of trade!  That’s nearly ten grand real money, not to be sneezed at in any currency!  Of course it begs the question how much more money is being lost or opportunities missed due to nobody having the bottle to speak up?  I think I figured out what happened to the clock, too.  Some Dong wanted a few extra minutes in bed each morning so he turned the clock back.  Simple!