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Country brand matters to BPO investors
Michael Alan Hamlin
Hopefully, whoever is elected president in May will understand why
Executives in the business process outsourcing industry (BPO) are naturally curious about how presidential candidates in the looming May national election view their industry, and what they will do to sustain its growth if elected. But the executives understand why the candidates seldom make public statements about the industry, or the Philippines’ appeal to investors in general. To the voters who will elect the president-mostly desperately poor Filipinos mired in the D and E socio-economic classes-a job in the BPO industry is way too aspirational to matter to them.
Whether elections are conducted efficiently and an orderly transfer of power takes place are the more immediate concerns of executives in the Philippines’ most efficient and productive job-generating industry. According to preliminary results of a just-concluded industry survey conducted by TeamAsia for Outsource2Philippines (O2P) and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P), BPO executives overwhelmingly believe that credible elections are an important factor shaping investors’ perception of the country. (Disclosure: I work for TeamAsia and I am a director of O2P. BPA/P is a client.)
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Posted
3/11/2010 10:53:48 AM | |
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Did Gutenberg make us stupid?
Michael Alan Hamlin
When I was a much younger man in graduate school, my MBA classmates and I were prohibited from using calculators in finance classes. The reasoning was that we would not be able to calculate present value if our calculators broke down and we were forced to make calculations manually. By the time I received an advanced degree-several years later at another institution-calculators were as common as pencils and erasers used to be.
All my children used calculators in school, and did their homework on desktop computers at home. By the time they entered college, they required laptops as well, which enabled them to complete assignments and work on papers and theses anytime, anywhere, but also kept them connected on campus to their then budding online social networks, which evolved from messaging and chat to Friendster, Multiply, Facebook, and Twitter.
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Posted
3/5/2010 10:50:14 AM | |
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Analysis: How did Toyoda do?
Michael Alan Hamlin
CNN International business editor Kevin Voigt asked Asia and communications hands how Akio Toyoda fared before U.S. lawmakers yesterday. Here's the verdict.
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Posted
2/25/2010 6:37:18 PM | |
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Toyoda in Washington: A Clash of Cultures
Michael Alan Hamlin
I talked earlier today to CNN International business editor Kevin Voigt. We discussed how Akio Toyoda might perform before U.S. legislators today. Here's the story.
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Posted
2/24/2010 10:06:42 PM | |
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Tempered economic optimism
Michael Alan Hamlin
A just-released economic snapshot survey conduct by McKinsey Quarterly suggests that most managers globally expect their companies to grow profits this year, and that improved profitability will primarily come from increased demand rather than further reductions in costs. Notably, managers in emerging economies are even more optimistic about 2010 than their peers in developed economies.
Globally, 74% of 1,467 respondents in the February survey expected profits to increase this year, up from 46% in a previous survey conducted in December 2009. Only 12% of respondents expect profits to contract, down from 38%. Sixty percent of respondents who expect profits to rise anticipate an increase in customer demand, and have stepped up sales and marketing efforts as a result.
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Posted
2/24/2010 10:03:41 PM | |
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Campaign 2010: Whither investors
Michael Alan Hamlin
Presidential candidates are understandably focused on the voters who will or will not elect them in May. With voters in socio-economic classes D and E accounting for 90% of the population and close to that many registered voters, candidates’ value propositions invariably communicate promises of education, increased prosperity, and new opportunities. This is the moment for classes D and E, the only time they have a profound impact on the political future of the Philippines.
It is also the moment when the perpetual economic influencers-classes A, B, and C-are relegated to the political backwater. While they can attempt to influence the less economically well off D and E voters, their voices are drowned out by multimedia advertising blitzes dominating both traditional and new media. And if they weren’t there is little chance classes D and E would listen to more prosperous fellow citizens anyway, given the great and historic misalignment in their perceived best interests.
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Posted
2/18/2010 9:54:28 AM | |
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Brand CamSur
Michael Alan Hamlin
“The best way to promote the Philippines effectively is to leave the Philippines out” of the marketing message, Camarines Sur governor Luis Raymund “Lray” Villafuerte, Jr. told 250 delegates to the MICECON 2010 conference in Subic Bay last week. Although Mr. Villafuerte’s remarks were met with stunned silence initially-quickly followed by boos and “No’s”-the young governor was steadfast, repeating his advice at least twice more.
MICECON 2010 is a project of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corporation (PCVC) and is the product of the merger of two precursors, The Philippine Incentive Marketing Conference first organized in 1991 by the informal private-sector Movement of Incentive Travel Executives; and, the Philippine Asian MICE Forum, launched in 2008 by the Philippine Association of Convention & Exhibition Organizers and Suppliers.
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Posted
2/11/2010 2:04:38 PM | |
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