Lack of management talent dogs BPO firms

THE Philippines may be the call center capital of the world, with its vast pool of English speakers, but it lacks the management talent that the business process outsourcing sector needs to fill higher-level positions in the industry.

Larry Jones, president and chief executive of BPO firm StarTek, said the lack of management talent was one of the challenges that the BPO sector currently faces.

“It’s hard to find good and experienced managers. It’s a very competitive environment and everybody wants them,” he told the Inquirer. “Schools are producing only a limited number of graduates with (Master of Business Administration degrees) and the right management skills. Everyone wants the best talents. There’s really a shortage of those with mid-management-level skills.”

He added that there was also a lack of engineering talent, which the sector needed for higher-value services.

Business Processing Association of the Philippines president and chief executive Oscar Sañez admitted as much, but said the industry was addressing the problem.

He related that there were partnerships with colleges and universities for programs that integrated management and the sciences, in a bid to produce more well-rounded graduates.

“This is a start. We have actually already made some major headway,” he said.

But the available management talent, despite their host of skills, still had other challenges to overcome, Jones said.

He noted that Filipinos, in general, lacked the assertiveness generally exhibited by individuals from the West. The fast pace of the BPO sector, and the fact that outsourcers and offshorers were mostly from the West, made this quality almost an imperative for BPO managers.

“There’s a general lack of assertiveness and accountability. I understand that it’s part of the culture, but we have to orient people that in this business, being real-time and metrics-driven, we need those traits. Education and time will fix some of that,” he said.

He said these were things that could not be learned in school, but could be picked up on the job and through experience.

“It’s experiential learning, not classroom learning. You can’t teach assertiveness and leadership in school,” he said.

But the local BPO sector also had strengths it could build on.

Right now, the Philippines ranked No. 1 in the customer care segment, and it had an abundant labor pool that could support continued industry growth, he said.

It also had an open, team-based culture that was perfect for the industry, he added. –Abigail L. Ho, Philippine Daily Inquirer