Big, indeed

CEBU–It’s the first of its kind in Southeast Asia. The $5-million International Academy of Film and Television in Mactan has a Dolby studio, Foley stage, six digital editing suites, a computer laboratory with animation and sound design software plus a 600-square meter sound stage. All in all, that’s 8,200 square meters that local filmmakers and international film students have access to.

"Cebu is the pilot. We hope to open IAFT branches in Vietnam, France, and the United States," said John Joseph Mercado, chief executive officer of Bigfoot Global Solutions, Inc. and five other companies under the Bigfoot Group based here.

In the $8-million Bigfoot Center, 25 flat screens are casually placed in the common areas. All employees have free access to a coffee shop called BigBucks and to a spa. The gym occupies one whole floor and boasts of a hip-hop instructor brought in from the United States.

"The whole management team regularly meets at the gym," said Mercado, who works out twice a day, either by lifting weights or boxing, for an hour and a hour. "Even hallway conversations are very productive."

Growth

Bigfoot is the brainchild of its chairman Michael Gleissner, who made his money from handing over the biggest book-selling company in Germany to Amazon and from investments in internet companies.

The company started as an e-mail forwarding and directory search company in 1995. Since then, it has invested $25 million in the country to become a one-stop shop for the communication needs of over two million clients all over the globe.

Bigfoot Global is the outsourcing company for both Bigfoot Communications, which offers fee-based telecommunication services , and CleverLearn, which teaches English and Mandarin online. Last year, Bigfoot Comm generated revenues of $2.3 million; this year, the projected revenue is $3 million.

Started as a 15-man operation, Bigfoot Global’s manpower has grown to over 500, consisting of software developers, marketing officers, administrative and creative staff, customer service personnel, and English language content creators from at least 10 countries.

In 2004, the company established a contact center with 100 agents to give email support and handle calls of portfolio firms to and from the United States and the United Kingdom. United Internet, a 25-billion euro firm listed in Germany and the biggest web hosting company in the world, is among its clients.

The Cebu operation is connected to Belgium and New Jersey, USA by international private leased circuits provided by GlobeQUEST, the corporate business group of Innove Communications.

"The business is growing. We are hungry for data. We have 65 servers in Korea and 47 servers in Los Angeles," said Mercado. "We intend to expand our call center business and marry it with out other services. We will teach Mandarin and English to people in Germany, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and Taiwan over the phone. We’ll have technology- sharing applications and add more value. We love the language learning space."

Language

CleverLearn has built tools for learning English in non-English speaking countries, the fifth biggest business in the world.

For one, its Clicktionary–a tray application that allows users to click on words and get an instant translation–has 130,000 users in Germany alone.

For another, it has married brick and mortar with technology, opening premier English language centers in China, Vietnam, Germany, and Korea. This month, the company will be offering its new concept, Mandarin language for non-Chinese. The price is steep at P65,000 for 32 hours of one-on-one training, but the results are guaranteed.

Already, the company has established a factory for language learning content on various platforms from flash animation on personal computers, web tools, testing facilities, and games on PDAs and mobile phone, animation, and movie DVDs.

Bigfoot has also developed a 25-megabyte program called MovieLearn, which automatically divides a movie into chapters with corresponding subtitles in English. It provides the meaning and pronunciation of every word and sentence uttered in the movie. It also determines the kind of speech of every world while the meaning of a sentence is presented with cartoon graphics.

"It’s a real kick-ass application in the United States and we are launching it in Asia with the movie, ‘Pretty Movie," at HK$320," said Mercado.

Management Style

Despite its many projects, the Bigfoot organization is lean. No member of the management team, for example, has a secretary or assistant.

"We don’t pay the highest salary. To work for us, you have to want to work for us. But we have people who left us to work for others only to come back in four months. They say they missed the environment. We are very informal here. We dress the way we want. Everyone’s on first name basis. We know what we’re responsible for. We combine the creativity of American dot-com with the structure of regular company," said Mercado, who, at 40, favors jeans and the casual shirt rolled to his elbows but who fully intends to grow his hair much longer when his kids graduate from university.