How to Stop Culture from Killing Your Offshore Deals
October 20th, 2009Steve Rudderham, VP, Client Engagement, Capgemini: “Problems culminate when customers and providers don’t spend enough time with each other”
Julia Santos, Director, Worldwide Strategic Outsourcing, Johnson & Johnson: “My way of communication and dealing with providers in India and LatAm is different. Because of the culture in Asia – it’s hard to just say no.”
Maurizio Velasquez, Commercial and BDVP Teledatos S.A., based in Colombia: “From a Latin perspective –we like to have the human approach.”
When people talk about “culture” in offshoring, what are they really getting at? It’s a question I’ve been thinking a lot about lately as I listen to people talk about culture as a fundamentally critical issue that has to be managed, watched over and in the most direct way – overcome.
Culture can, let’s face it, really screw up an offshoring deal. When I lived in Japan several years ago, I had my own taste of cultural “adjustment” learning quickly that if you’re out on the street and lost – people would rather give you bad directions than deliver the embarrassing news that the place you were trying to get to is far, far away.
Take that example, enlarge it and install it into a business environment, where both providers and customers may rely on increasingly sophisticated processes and modern technology tools to conduct business, but the sum result of that collaboration is intended to be something the client values and the provider understands thoroughly.
How Widespread are Cultural Breakdowns?
Research released recently by Boston-based Vantage Partners shows that culture is an issue that has to be reckoned with head on. The expanding gap between client expectation and provider service delivery – often referred to as “scope creep” – is at the heart of many deals that go bad.
So far, 2009 looks like a good year for the emerging Honduras BPO community.
The first tenants at Altia business park are planning to move into the state-of-the-art facility in September.
Worldwide outsourcing provider ACS recently announced plans to locate a call center near San Pedro Sula and operators of several industrial parks are helping make the case to invest in Honduras – a country that is becoming well-known for strong English language skills. There are well over 400 English language schools operating in Honduras. In fact, in a story that came out today in the Honduras publication “La Prensa” (click on this link for the Googlized English translation,) the author claims that Honduras has more bilingual speakers per capita …
Full House at IAOP Central America Chapter Event
April 23rd, 2009
Vista Real Resort is the site of IAOP chapter meeting
We are reporting live today from Guatemala City where a group of nearly 100 outsourcing providers from across Latin America, private equity investors, national economic developing agencies and North American client organizations are joining the second chapter meeting of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals.
Chris Disher, of Chris Disher and Associates and former Booz Allen global vice president, is conference chair. Sponsors include ACC, Genpact, Modulares PB, Stratasoft and Transactel.
Conference Vibe: Great networking and very positive outlook for regional growth. The big issues on the table include: raising performance standards, cultivating English-language skills, coping with growth and scaling issues and the special sauce which differentiates Latin America from the rest of the world.
Blogging Live from the Central America IAOP Meeting – Next Week!
April 13th, 2009Caribbean CRM Central will travel west next week – stopping in to shake hands and blog live from the Central America chapter meeting of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, in Guatemala City.
Guatamala City will host the IAOP's chapter meeting on April 23-24
Central America near shore BPO is thriving and we’ll show you why. Speaking at the event will be the vice president of Guatemala, Rafael Espada, IAOP chairman Michael Corbett, as well as Chris Disher, president Chris Disher & Associates, Don Althoff, former CIO of British Petroleum, Estuardo Robles, principal advisor of Roaring Jaguar, Roger Conrado, president and CEO of GVC Partners, Lori Blackman, president of DNL Global, Steve Rudderham, president of Genpact Latin America, Mario …
