Category Archives: Of Interest

How to create a new corporate culture in 3 easy steps!

May 3, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Popular on Google+, Popular on Twitter, Semi-Popular | Tagged | 1 Comment

Creating a new corporate culture is easy with our new powder. Mix with water, get a new corporate culture. It is actually, not that much harder than that, but you need good analytics and cooperation from higher level people at your company to pull this off.

Sometimes, to succeed in a particular market niche, or to be efficient in your company, you need a particular type of corporate culture. If you have a few anti-social types, lazy people, or uncooperative people, that can throw the entire corporate culture off. It is much worse than the fact that those individuals are not producing the types of results you want, they INFLUENCE others in a negative way — and you can’t have that!

Or, maybe the corporate culture you have is uncultural. Let’s say that you can not talk to your employees about Mozart or the finer points of Hungarian literature. Maybe those attributes are important to attracting better future staff members, or perhaps attracting more cultured clients. Remember, high class people are impressed by people who are cultured. On the other hand, most rich people in the United States are culturally illiterate, so maybe culture doesn’t matter.

Putting aside what types of attributes you want in your new culture, you should have good reasons for whatever attributes you want, and a sensible way of gaining them.

If you have a corporation with 300 employees, you might find that people fit your new cultural model to a greater or lesser extent. If you have clearly defined attributes written down, you might find that 100 of your employees fit the model well enough to keep. Perhaps another 100 have a few of the attributes you like and would be worth it to TRAIN to meet some of your other attributes. The remaining 100 employees should ideally be let go — but, not all at once.

Step 1: Start firing the worst 33% of your workforce that doesn’t match your new model

If you have to get rid of 33% of your workforce, you need a timetable for doing so. You need a plan of which types of workers to get rid of first as well. You create an algorithm which takes many factors into consideration. How well someone fits your corporate cultural ideal would account for several of the factors, how well they do their job and contribute in general would account for the other factors.

If you fire roughly 1.5% of your least favorable employees per month, over a period of two years, and rehire people who fit your new corporate cultural ideas to a tee while doing great work as well, you have accomplished much of creating a new corporate culture.

Step 2: Hire new people who meet your cultural and work model to a tee.

Step 3: Culturally mold the employees that you didn’t fire, as well as your new hirees to see if they can match your new model perfectly

Training is the second and potentially more difficult part of the cultural change. You need to INSTILL new corporate values into the workers who you are not going to can. If your new values include being knowledgeable about Mozart as you plan your takeovers, then play Mozart all the time. Give lectures about Mozart to your people. You can write lyrics to Mozart string quartets too.

“We’re going to seize your assets…. I’d like to see you try… Your corporate debt…. It makes me cry… We’ll take you over….. You will see… and in the end…. you’ll understand our decree.”

“Oh no you won’t… we’ll call in the calvary… we know investors… that can turn this around… never mind that our lyrics do not rhyme… you will see that we will save our corporation in thyme!!”

You can play Mozart piano concertos in the morning, sonatas during lunch, string quartets in the early afternoon, and then test employees on their knowledge. Those who can’t deal with the new corporate culture would need to be weeded out slowly over time.

Step 4 (of 3): Continue the process for around three years with any necessary refinements.

The end result after about three years, is that you would have successfully converted your uptight and stuffy corporation into a bunch of music loving nuts who do corporate takeovers and sing silly lyrics to Mozart string quartets. All you need is a vision, a very capable HR department who understands algorithms & counter-harmony, plus a really good corporate training division which hires Russian dissidents who know how to teach music (and chess) really well. A good sound system wouldn’t hurt either.

Good luck!

You might also like:

How to create a company culture like Google’s and enjoy doing it
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/03/14/how-to-create-a-company-culture-like-googles-have-fun-while-doing-it/

An Indian company learns Japanese culture to boost teamwork
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/04/01/an-indian-bpo-company-learns-japanese-culture-to-boost-teamwork/

Is Amazon too touch on their workers?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/06/10/is-amazon-too-tough-on-their-workers/

Teaching yourself to think of what you never think of

April 28, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Teaching yourself is interesting. Most of us go to school, and the teachers cram our minds full with facts, procedures, rules, and mostly boredom. If you go to school in India or the Middle East, their narrow minded approach to teaching will not teach you problem solving. You will know how to memorize a bunch of dry and boring facts, and not have any good ideas how to interpret those facts unless you are from a very fancy family. If you can interpret, it will be a very “by the book” type of interpretation. Americans typically learn to think, but don’t know anything. Technical skills are dismally lacking, and 90% of our technical staff in our country is Chinese, Indian or from some other foreign country. In any case, putting aside the intellectual limitations of each country in question, learning how to think for yourself is a critical skill to have when you are running a business.

If you run a business, you will quickly learn that the type of questions, problems and issues you have are usually not covered in that comprehensive course in business you took in school. You learned about crunching numbers, analyzing trends, best practices, and other bookish subject matter. But, what do you do when your employees are talking back to you, your clients are unresponsive, and nothing is getting done on time? Will your book knowledge help you now? In some ways it could, but god forbid you run into something that “wasn’t covered” in your text book. Now it is time to think on your own.

The big question is how to become a master of the art of thinking for yourself? The art is all about learning to think of what you didn’t used to ever think of. Many people will have an answer within reach, but think of everything except for that optimal answer. So, how do you get good at finding answers?

If you are constantly challenging your mind to more and more problems, and solving those problems. If you are always interacting with others and hearing their input (assuming they are intelligent), your mind and thinking will expand, and you will get those good solutions coming to mind faster and better every time.

Maybe we as business people should write books about handling REAL problems. Maybe the world needs to see case studies about handling real problems.

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Traditional Japanese solutions to unemployment

February 16, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

In America, one of the richest countries in the world — we have not figured out how to handle unemployment. I say that the government needs to hire those who are “difficult”, undependable, or hostile. There are plenty of jobs that need to be done, and with proper management, those harder cases of unemployment could be solved. I have tried to hire many people myself for various jobs, and found that the people who are out of work normally have a personality disorder which accounts for their unemployment. Others are missing a few screws, but still can perform many work functions if monitered accordingly.

The Japanese Solution
In Japan, unemployment has typically been low — perhaps around 2%. I am not sure what it has been recently — probably higher. I am not an economist and know very little about these things in any case. But, WHY has their unemployment been so low? The answer lies deep in the roots of Japanese culture. Perhaps if you understand the Samurai tradition — the answer will lie there.

I know what you are thinking, they found unemployed people and chopped them in half using a samurai sword — NO, sorry, that is not what happened, but I like the way you think!

The Culture
Japanese companies have peculiar structures and hierarchies. Loyalty is one of the customs of Japanese employment. I think that if your father went to highschool with the company owner or hiring manager, that establishes a very sacred relationship in Japanese culture. It is partly what you know, but who you know really matters a lot too. Family connections matter tremendously and they define your social class as well in many parts of Asia!

A Pun about Samurais and working your way up or down the ladder
In any case, getting hired and staying hired are two separate things. In Japan, traditionally, it was poor form to fire someone. In many cases, people were hired for life — just like samurais were samurias until death. For the sword wielding samurais, that was not a big deal, because their mistake in becoming a samurai would be short-lived in the best of scenarios. But, what about the rest of the population?

What do you do it a worker simply (no samurai pun intended) doesn’t “cut it”. A worker who wasn’t that great would simply be demoted to a lesser work status. Of course that would bring tremendous shame to the worker’s family and would be a huge humiliation. That is why Japanese are some of the hardest workers in the world — it is about honor, being honored, and status. On the other hand, it is normal in companies for workers to start in the mail room, and work their way up the ladder. In Japan this is no exception.

A trip to Japantown
I used to love Japantown in Los Angeles. It was small, clean and interesting — which is in character for a place that is Japanese. In any case, I used to notice that the same elderly gentleman was serving noodle soup for a decade straight. He never switched his job. Such loyalty. Americans change work frequently and see to have no sense of responsibility for the long term survival of their company. I hadn’t been to Japantown since 2007, and made another visit. This time the ice-cream lady must have hit 95. I asked her if she was the same person who was working there in 2007. Based on the answer I got, she still hadn’t learned English, and had no intention of learning either. But, her ice cream was award winning — so that makes it okay. Who needs English anyway, right? This is America — you have the freedom to live your entire life here without knowing a word of English!

Attracting clientele via 123outsource.net – the 1st step

January 26, 2013 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

There are lots of businesses in the U.S. and elsewhere that would like to outsource to India or the Philippines and hire your company. But first, they want to be able to talk with you. Whether you seek work in data entry or accounting outsourcing, run a call center in India, or do web design, getting work with a U.S. company all begins with how you answer the phone. Business people need to feel you are professional and can communicate well in English on the phone–well enough so that they feel confident giving you their business records and other data. Since we would like to help your company, let’s talk about how to make a good impression.

People calling your company from the U.S. will be disappointed if you just answer “Hello” and do not mention a business name. For example, of the many professional accounting outsourcing companies listed on 123outsource that we called recently, only about 3% answered with a business name or had any kind of phone answering system or protocol. Yes: we do call your company to see how you handle yourself on the phone. U.S. businesses that might outsource to India expect a bright, pleasant, professional man’s or woman’s voice on the phone at the outset, ensuring them that this could be the start of a friendly and stress-free business relationship. They are also expecting someone to answer the phone using a company name. If we have to repeat your business name several times before you acknowledge the name and say, “Yes, this is XYZ Company,” it does not create a good first impression. It sounds funny, but in some cases, the person we talked to on the phone did not seem to know that the number was listed as a business; it’s as if they had forgotten who they were! Even if you are doing accounting outsourcing and you have the very best accountants, you need to be able to speak to us. How you answer the phone is important.

U.S. clients want to hire confident professionals, whether this means a call center in India or another group of workers. When a business plans to outsource to India, the managers are very interested in the quality of your work, what software you use, how long you have been in business, and any stories about the first project you took on and how your company has continued to improve. If your expertise is data entry, accounting outsourcing, or managing a successful call center in India, being able to tell us a bit about your company and your attitude toward your work–being able to talk on the phone and tell a brief story about your company–will show that you are personable and that you are able to engage in a long-term business relationship.

We at 123outsource.net have traveled and lived in other countries, and we understand that life is different in India or the Philippines. In many ways it is more relaxed, and that is a benefit to those of us who want to outsource to India, or hire a call center in India or a company to do data entry. We know and appreciate your culture and your views about life and work, and we would like to be able to have a brief conversation with you about your company and your experience so that we may recommend you to companies seeking to hire you.

How you answer the phone will distinguish you from other companies that are just starting out. There is a lot of work in the U.S. for companies who do data entry, have a call center in India, or do accounting outsourcing in India, but U.S. business owners who speak English would like to be able to have a 3-minute conversation with someone who speaks English and is confident, enthusiastic, and articulate about your company’s work. We would like to encourage U.S. businesses to outsource to India, but we need to be sure you have the skills companies need. People in the U.S. want to have a conversation with you. They will not make a decision to hire you simply on the basis of your website.

Email and Skype are very helpful, but businesses are interested in how you answer the phone and how you sound on the phone. If you understand us and can talk with us for a few minutes about your background and specific accomplishments, and can tell us something inspiring or educational, we will have a better idea of who you are and how you relate to people. If a U.S. business can have a brief intelligent conversation with you, that company will feel good about moving to the next step in any business relationship.

Here are a few questions for you. We would love to hear from you (really!) :

1) Can you commit to answering the phone with your business name?
2) Please provide us with business hours: when can people call your company and have a live person answer the phone in a professional manner?
3) Is there someone at your company who speaks English and is able to have a conversation about your company’s achievements? Who?
4) Is there an interesting story about how your company was started, or about the owner’s background? Let us know and we can call you. (:

Tweets:
(1) Your personal knowledge about your company will always trump info you posted on your website!
(2) People will not hire you purely on how good your website is. Learn to orally introduce your company.
(3) Is there an interesting story about how your company was started, or about the owner’s background? Let us know and we can call you.

You might also like:

Understanding crowdsourcing segments
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/07/understanding-crowdsourcing-segments-for-twitter/

How to attract more software business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2010/12/10/how-to-attract-more-software-business/

Marketing your outsourcing company
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2010/11/24/marketing-your-outsourcing-company/

Techniques for interviewing outsourcing companies

June 16, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Techniques for interviewing outsourcing companies

Don’t be confused reading this post. This is not helping the job seeker interview. This is helping the company boss give an interview to a company that he is considering hiring for some outsourced tasks.

What is the goal of the interview?
You can never know how good an individual’s work is, or how good a company’s work is unless you try them out. But, you can only try one company out at a time (generally), and it is expensive if you choose one who does a poor job or is aggravating to work with. So, asking the right questions is really important.  The problem is that people always tell you what they think you want to hear, so you have to use tricks.

An interview with a customs inspector – trick questions
Actually, I don’t know if this guy intentionally tricked me or not.  He asked what my address was, and I gave him my mailing address, not my physical. He asked if I was the only one at that address, and I said yes, because it was a mailbox that only I had access to.  Then he asked me about my physical address and I said I had housemates.  He raised his voice in anger and said that I told him that I was the only one at that address.  I told him that many people have mailing addresses, and that I thought he was talking about the mailing address, because that is the address I give to people in case they want to send me something.    The point here is that he might have been profiling me as a criminal and wanted to see if I panicked if he raised his voice and accused me of telling him false stories.  I’m not sure what tricks or techniques he was using, but this could have been a sophisticated technique.

Ask probing questions
If you are at a restaurant, and the waitress comes over and asks, “How is everything?”.  This is the most stupid question you could possibly ask — and 99% of waitresses ask exactly this question. Nobody will give you a true answer, so why bother asking? You would be better off asking if they needed anything.  Everyone will say everything is fine unless something is very wrong. If you REALLY want to find out how they gauge the quality of your food and service, ask something more probing.  “Was there enough garlic in the burger?”.  That is a question that brings out the food critic in me.  If you ask a prospective employee, “Do you like your work?”, do you expect him to say no? You can read his body language, because that doesn’t like. If he starts looking at the floor when you talk about work, that is a sign right there. If it were me, I would ask open ended questions that start with, “Tell me about your past work experience and about the programming languages you use”. That forces them to think and create conversation of value. I might also ask, “What do you think are the characteristics that makes a good call center worker?”. That way you can see if they are in tune with what matters, or at least what matters to you. But, what if you want to see how they handle sticky situations?

Catch them offguard!
In real life, some people are honest, some stretch the truth, others are nonsense artists, some are helpful, and some are neglegent. You need to get as good a picture of the people you are hiring before you are “involved” with them.  It is costly to get out of a work relationship sometimes — emotionally and financially.

I was a bit rude at an interview once, and found that I got amazing input about the company from this rude remark. Please keep in mind that when I made this statement, I was not intentionally trying to catch them offguard, it just happened spontaneously.  I said that the neighborhood they were in was scary, and that there seemed to be a lot of drug activity in the area.  The girl said that drugs were everywhere — which is sort of true, but avoided the point that their area had exponentially more drugs than most.  Then, I said that many people outside were wearing winter hats in 75 degree weather, which is indicative of drug or alcohol dependence.  The girl said that the locals felt cold since they are used to much warmer weather.  I learned that the type of answers I got from my off the wall comment were valuable to me, because I got to see how this individual handled controversy — and she handled it politely, but with evasion.

The problem is that conflicts happen when you use a company, and you need to know as much as possible about how they handle conflicts.  You need to know if they keep appointments on time. You need to know if they overbill, or are careless in their work too. Other companies might ditch you in the middle of a big project.  There are many types of debilitating issues that can happen when you hire a company.

The most serious issue I have with companies is that you might work with a different employee every year or two in a company relationship.  One employee might be wonderful, while the other one might be a disaster from hell.  A particular company is only as good as the employee that they have who works with you now!

So, how do you craft probing questions?
Probing questions are easy. Just ask open ended questions that can only be answered with a paragraph. If the interviewee clams up, then you know that the person is really not very thoughtful. If the person has a very thorough answer and peppers it with a few little jokes, then they are very thoughtful.  You might get an answer that sounds like it comes from a textbook in a dull monotone as well which tells me all I need to know.

And how do you craft trick questions?
Hmm. This really depends on what you want to find out. If you want to find out if they bill for excess hours, then you could mention in passing how this “Other” company you heard of gave your friend a crazy bill with all types of inflated figures and unauthorized charges — see how the interviewee reacts.  You might learn nothing from this, or just get a politically correct neutral answer.  They might assure you that THEY would never do that. It is hard to tell what you will actually learn. If it were me, I would pay attention to their level of anxiety when you ask this question, and what their body language tells you.

If you are concerned about being ditched or put on the back burner in the middle of a long project, discuss the topic of time sensitive contracts with incentives and penalties for timely or untimely delivery of work up to specifications. See if they would consider it.  A contract doesn’t really protect you.  Someone irresponsible will fail on a contract very often, and perhaps get sued, while someone reliable will be true to you with or without a contract.  A company’s willingness to sign a time sensitive contract would be an encouraging sign, but there is no such thing as a definte sign — there are only indications.

If you think that many employees are drunkards, you could make a remark about how many people in the neighborhood or at some other company you went to were drunkards.  See how people react.

Summary
You will learn nothing by asking questions that lead people to only one answer. Don’t ask if they like their job, and don’t ask if they are conscientious.  As HOW they are conscientious, and WHAT they like about their job. Ask probing questions, and try to catch people off guard to see what happens.  Prepare a few curve ball questions and take notes on how everyone reacts.  With Indians, this might be a little harder to manage, because there are many people in India who are emotionally very over-reactive and panic very easily.  Have fun, and keep the paramedics on speed dial just in case you accidentally ask someone if they did something bad that they actually did — and then they have a panic attack and have trouble breathing!

Indians who ask a million questions

June 10, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

I was sitting in on a phone conversation between my assistant and some people in India.

Each step of the conversation, the person in India, had a list of questions that were asked in a very unfriendly TONE:

Who is this person? How do we know your address is what you say it is?

How do we know you are in America?

My assistant’s name is Maria, and the person she called thought she was Filipino due to her name. But, Maria is a name common for Christians worldwide.  Mary, Maria, and in Arabic — Miriam, Mariana, all derive from Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Filipinos do not have exclusive rights to Christian names, although they dominate the call center business.

It is confusing, because my assistant is from Vienna, Austria, but lives half the year in Los Angeles, California. Then, she does phone calls to India.  Her global lifestyle can be confusing to others I guess.

So, my assistant said a few sentences in Hindi to the gentleman which proved herself to not be Filipino, since most Filipinos don’t know Hindi.

In any case, when doing business in India, people assume that every claim you make is false, so you have to have evidence that is easy for them to see that everything you are saying is verifiable!

When doing business with people in the West, don’t behave like this guy behaved or nobody will like you!

When to lose your temper at a BPO!

June 7, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged | Leave a comment

When to lose your temper at a BPO

As Americans, when we watch Indian managers at BPO companies or other companies act very politely to us, and then we watch them violently yell at their workers, we are shocked!!! This behavior simply doesn’t exist in America. Sure, American managers threaten, and give ultimatums to workers, but this abrupt yelling is a cultural oddity to us.

In America, the cultural norm is to have a talk with a worker who is not performing adequately. The manager might “write the worker up”, or threaten to. This means taking a note of what wrongdoing the worker did. If the worker gets written up several times, or has low performance in generaly, perhaps they might get suspended or fired. This would depend on the company, and the conditions.

But, India has an almost comical and theatrical way of dealing with these issues at BPO outfits and companies in general. It is so common for workers to ignore the instructions of their boss, and keep ignoring until they are yelled at. Sometimes, yelling is the magical medicine which resolves all problems. In America, a manager might get fired for yelling, but in India, it seems to be exactly what the doctor ordered.

So, if you intend to be part of BPO or other types of management in India, either from an American company, or as an Indian in India, you should practice your drama skills starting today. You can stand in front of the mirror and practice getting really angry. It’s all an act, but you need this skill to survive. Below is an example dialogue you can practice at home when you are feeling bored.

BPO Manager: “Surrendra!! You didn’t get the file to me by 3pm as I instructed!!!”

Surrendra: “Oh…..sorry, sorry, sorry…. right away sir”

BPO manager: “Don’t let this happen again — always be on time — every time — or I will be forced to let you go and you will die of malnutrition for sure!”

Surrendra: “Oh…. yes sir, yes sir, yes sir.”

Please note, that in India, when you apologize, it is normal to say sorry a minimum of three times really quickly!

Disclaimer: If you are going to be with a company that doesn’t permit bad behavior, please don’t lose your temper, or you can get fired yourself!

Working in an office vs. at home

February 8, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Do you work better in an office or at home?
 
Many of us work at home these days. Some of us are disciplined and can churn out hour after hour of work at home.  We never shut down, when we are home, we are always working.  Office folks clock out at a particular hour, and don’t lift a finger when at home.  It is a completely different lifestyle.  I have spent my life working very industriously at home or should I say, “from home”.  However, I have spent some time in offices, or hotels in office areas, and the vibration in those places is so work oriented that I work faster. 
 
So, rather than saying that working from an office is better, I would say, that working in a place with a good “work energy” is fantastic.  Your productivity can go up significantly.  It is hard to measure how much extra work you can do in a good environment, but perhaps we SHOULD measure it.  A good work environment could help you to get more done per hour. While it could also help you have the focus to put in more hours without getting tired or distracted. 
 
Part of it is seeing other people busy around you. That will rub off on you as well. I study feng-shui, so I believe that whether you see these others or not, their feng-shui of being busy and productive will rub off on you.
 
The worst thing that can happen to you is to be in a lazy place. I go on vacation in the woods.  I bring my laptop to the hotel in the redwoods.  This is a place that does wonders for my health and spirits, not to mention all the nice people I meet hiking around.  But, I feel lazy about work in those types of foresty places.  Sometimes I don’t crack open the lap top for days, and if I open it, I might only do two or three hours of work. I always work on vacation, and call a vacation a workation.  I go away to revive my health and spirits, but not to slack off. I am extremely busy on trips, and every minute counts.
 
My concluding note is to meditate in an environment that is condusive to meditation.  Work where it is most condusive to work. Play where it is most condusive to playing too.  There is a perfect environment for everything, you just have to find it.  And if you can’t have the perfect environment, then work with what you have, but do it with awareness!

Choose a company from an area that specializes in what they do?

February 6, 2012 by 123outsource
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Choose a company from a region that specializes in what the company does?

I recently chose a programming company that was in an area that specialized in wine and small farms.  I found that the skill of the programmer was quite good.  However, the attitude about getting things done, and getting back to me was very lackidasical.  Perhaps this is the culture of the area they are in which is famous for wine, and a great place to take a weekend away from home if you live in the big city. The area has wonderful family owned small farms with all types of produce.  There are wonderful small restaurants, bars, seashores, oysters, and much more.  Is it bad luck that I had bad luck with this company, or did I break a rule of life?
 
My last programming company was in suburban Los Angeles.  The head programmer was quite good, and the boss was excellent. But, once again, they were not completely focused on programming, and had only two programmers. Now, they have zero since the market for programming got slow nationwide.  I’m thinking that they are in an area which is not focused on programming. Our area is focused on Hollywood, and the clothing industry, and other things, but not IT work. 
 
I talked to some smart young guys I bumped into at an Indian fast food joint.  They were in the social media and programming business in the management end.  These guys told me that in the Los Angeles area, only one out of ten programmers is good and hard working, while in the Bay Area (silicon valley) which is famous for the computer industry and where the the computer and internet was invented, that 80% of programmers up there were good in their opinion.  I think these two gentlemen summed it up, and proved my point.
 
If you want to hire a wine expert, go to an area famous for wine. If you want to hire a great cook, look for one in an area famous for food.  But, if you want to hire a programmer, hire one in an area famous for programmers.   Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Silicon Valley, and Phoenix Arizona are places that come to my mind.
 
The company I am using now for programming has been working on projects with me for five years. They are in Pune which is an up and coming programming hub in India.  This company has 45 programmers.  This proves how serious they are about the industry in contrast to companies in America that have one or two programmers who are perpetually late completing projects, etc.

What is your management style?

February 2, 2012 by 123outsource
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What is your management style like?
 
I have seen different management styles in action. I have seen managers who keep distant.  I have seen others who micromanage.  I have also seen some who are mean and yell at their workers all the time.  There are others who praise their workers all the time.  Which management style is correct or optimal?  I think it depends on what type of workers you have.
 
Some workers know exactly what to do, and don’t need help. Leave them alone and they will be happier and excel.  Other workers are pathetic, and can’t do anything right unless someone is babysitting them.  Many workers are brilliant, but will never finish anything on time unless you are constantly on their back. Then, they complain that you are always on their back — maybe there is a reason why you are on their back. If they would finish work on time, then you wouldn’t be micromanaging them in the first place — do they realize this?
 
India is an interesting country to visit.  They have a very rigid class system.  If you are a manager, culturally you are supposed to behave like a dictator when you are around your underlings.  You point authoritatively and say, “Do this, do that, and make it snappy!!!”  From an American perspective, it is a culture shock watching these managers in action.  But, maybe the type of workers they have need this type of authoritarian approach for them to perform at their best. It is not for me to say, because I have not had to manage people in India.  I only work with OTHER people’s employees who have always behaved — otherwise they would get fired (gulp!).   I think the Indian work ethic depends greatly on what type of industry you are in.  IT folks seem very diligent in India, while government workers have a reputation of being lackidasical — too much job security if you ask me!
 
America is the opposite, where you have to be nice to employees, while they feel free to have bad attitudes and even talk back to their bosses and customers.  I am not a big fan of the American work ethic in 2012, or the lack of it thereof.  India has it’s problems, but people WANT to work, and that willingness is such a huge plus, that it makes working with Indians a positive experience, even when there are problems. 
 
Regardless of what your management style is like now, if you work in a BPO, KPO, LPO, or other outsourcing company, you can think outside the box to find new and better ways of managing people.  Do you offer bonuses and incentives?  Different people are motivated in different ways.  Some workers see the long run scenario, while others like quarterly bonuses.  Many people can not see more than 24 hours ahead of time.  If you give the wrong incentive to the wrong person, it won’t work out even in the short run. 
 
If it were up to me, I would think about a dozen different management styles, and compare notes with others in management. Try some of your better ideas out for a quarter and see if they are better than the status quo.  The only way to improve yourself is to try new things that seem promising. If they don’t work out, you can always go back to the old way of doing things!

Hybrid binational companies – the way of the future?

January 31, 2012 by 123outsource
Categories: Of Interest, Semi-Popular | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Hybrid bi-national companies — the way of the future?
 
Many American IT companies have a partner company, or an office in India, Vietnam, or some Asian country.  It only makes sense. It is hard to find IT workers here, and they are expensive, and often uncooperative.  It is not worth a managers time to always be trying to overcome insubordination, when you can find able and willing workers in India or elsewhere. One big problem is that many American software companies are tricky, and don’t inform their clients that they use overseas labor.  But, putting honesty aside, many outsourcing companies that are able to grow and succeed, use what I call the hybrid model.
 
Hybrid bi-national businesses
India has great labor resources for medical billing, programming and all types of back office BPO type tasks. I feel that it is foolish not to take advantage of this willing and able workforce.  Setting up an office in India requires a lot of travel and time spent, but in the long run, it seems worth it.  It makes it easy and flexible to get lots of work done as it is needed.  I know many people who work at bi-national companies with one office in America and the other in India.  Or a front end office in Singapore, and a back office in Hyderabad, etc.  
 
Problems with bi-national work relationships.
There are always difficulties in any type of business set up.  In America, the crushing costs of rent, labor, accounting, and taxes put many out of business or drain their cash away, especially if you are located on a coast where everything is sky high!  Try renting an office in California.  You might be paying $2000 for a modest sized room in a high rise that can fit three people.  The problems in a hybrid company are dealing with communication issues between America and India.  Communication styles are different in different countries.  People are in different time zones, and some people answer questions faster than others.  Some people communicate faster than others, and others have a different sense of how long things should take.    But, if you have people in America who enjoy working at night, a relationship with India becomes perfect, and easier than a relationship with an American partner who leaves work at 5pm right when you are warming up!
 
Marketing and management in America?
It is more effective to have your management and marketing in America.  We have more of a command of middle management than India does.  For some reason, I have seen hardly any middle level in Indian companies. You are either the boss or the worker, but customer service reps are only for large companies in my limited experience.  If you have your intermediaries in the states, who are a go-between for the workers and the clients, you might do very well in business if you hire the right people.  In India, it would be much harder to find such people, and they wouldn’t be that cheap either if they were any good!  It seems that different countries have their niches and specialties.  Argentina is good at art and dance.  India is great at programming.  While America and the Philippines are good at interaction — or at least we think we are!!!

Tweets:
(1) Many American IT companies have a partner company, or an office in India, or some Asian country
(2) If you’re a night owl, working w/India is better than a US partner who leaves just when you are warming up.
(3) Binational companies capitalize on American expertise & an Asian labor pool. The best of both world(s).
(4) Having a binational company has its advantages. Office space in Bangladesh is a lot cheaper!
(5) A happy marriage of American management & Indian labor leads to optimal efficiency

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