Clear message, clear action

NEW YORK – While waiting for a workshop on the Philippines as a center for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), I was touched by Secretary Mar Roxas’ description of the pride and emotion he felt when our national anthem was played on the White House lawn. Inspired by his mood, I attended the workshop feeling really proud about our country’s effort to market the Philippines to US companies.

Organized by Roberto Romulo and Outsource Philippines, the workshop started with a warm welcome by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and an extremely impressive presentation by Ramon Dimacali about back office services like call centers for customer service or telemarketing, accounting, payroll, data encoding like medical transcriptions and many more. These were followed by enthusiastic testimonials from Citibank, AIG, Procter and Gamble who have regional back offices here, as well as companies like PLDT and others with fairly mature BPO operations.

The message was clear: BPO is the future trend among companies who want to save costs, become more efficient and focus on core competencies; the Philippines has been rated one of the best places to outsource to because of competitive costs, and an English speaking labor force who understands North American culture; and come and outsource to the Philippines before you miss out.

The buzz among the crowd of invited guests was a positive sign of the workshop’s success.

Walking home from the Waldorf Astoria, I realized that the pride and excitement I felt was a direct result of hearing the clear message being given by my country about where we are going. Can you imagine, I thought, how it would be if this clear message were to resonate in our national policy, in the acts of Congress and the Senate, in our newspapers, in television advertising, in the movies, in schools to support our marketing efforts?

The implications of marketing the country as a center for Business Process Outsourcing are serious and far-reaching. This means that the country must have a strategic plan that includes the following:

• A clear message to inspire the youth and labor to embrace this opportunity.

• A national policy and educational system supported by policy makers, politicians, nationalists, media and the public in general that we must absolutely, without angst and internal conflict, speak English as our core competency. (China has embarked on bilingual education from K-12 with Filipino teachers, so we will soon face this competition within one generation.)

• A clear human resource development program and strategy to transform the concept of "labor" to "service." (What do our youth have to learn in schools to perform these services? What work ethics and attitudes should be emphasized to develop responsible service providers? How can we inspire labor organizations to work hand in hand with business and civil society towards a vision to become the best, efficient, competitive, reliable service for BPO in the world?)

• A system of benchmarks against our best competitor and a focused and funded promotions program that will market BPO services externally and BPO careers internally in the near and long term, among others.

Writing this, I realize that BPO services are only one opportunity staring us in the face. What about the Philippines as a food processing exporter, the Philippines as a maritime center serving global trades, the Philippines as a center for medical centers in Asia?

My friend Johnny Lim of Masters Sardines told me that Penang, Malaysia is focused on becoming the plastic surgery center of Asia. Why can’t we have this kind of ambition? With all our doctors and nurses being hired all over the world, what would we need to do to achieve this vision? Imagine how great we would all feel if we were focused on supporting clear messages with clear actions?

Having just celebrated Independence Day, I felt a great sense of pride to see the flags along Roxas Boulevard beautifully rehabilitated by Mayor Lito Atienza. Symbols like our national anthem and flag truly spark in us a great sense of who we are. Having a vision, committing to a clear message about where we are going, and working together to make things happen, provide the fuel to keep the feeling sustained.

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