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Guest: Mike O’Hagan

Presenter: Wayne Bucklar

Guest Bio: Mike was born a Kiwi moving to Australia at the age of 17. For the next 10 years Mike moved around Australia, doing a wide range of jobs. At the age of 34 he started and grew an Australia-wide short distance removal business – MiniMovers. This business topped $30M turnover with 500 staff.

In 2007 Mike exited the day to day of this business (still retaining full family ownership) and started educating himself. He completed a 3 year Masters in Entrepreneurship programme at MIT in Boston USA; he became a Commissioner on the Fair Pay Commission charged with setting the Minimum Wages in Australia; and he took up several Board positions.

In 2010 his Australian business was affected by the GFC. It plunged into a +$1Million a year loss. Using Offshoring strategies – his own people, in his own space – trained and managed to his processes with his work culture – Mike turned the loss into a substantial profit – within a few months. He followed this up by using his Philippines team to build a new way to market to new customers and added new services to the business, which were possible due only to the lower costs.

Mike returned to Australia and shared this with other business owners. They didn’t “get it.” Until an informal group of 10 business friends asked Mike to show them the opportunities in Manila. During a rather disorganised week Mike showed his business friends the Offshoring Opportunities he was seeing and using. At the end of the week everyone raved about what they had learned – Mike’s Business Tours was born.

Segment overview: Mike O’Hagan has structured a 3 and a half day business tour that goes through all sorts of different businesses where in they visit about 20 different businesses. They have 3 to 4 long structured lectures around different structures that business owners could use, why they would use each structure, why they wouldn’t use each structure. They also talk about locations that tour participants can operate in, some work better for certain things, some for other things, and they talk about managing them and setting out the management processes and then how to extract a lot of productivity out of it.

The tour gets the full range from everything coming here and participants are curious about the Philippines and that is why they have decided that they need to learn what to do before they do it which is highly advisable.

Mike has seen a lot of train wrecks here from people that are trained to outsource here. Tour participants have no idea what they’re doing and they want to learn before they do it, and they find Mike’s Tours an all-around source that teaches everything they need to be able to go about it in the right  way. It’s across the board, all sorts of businesses, entrepreneurial, sometimes the participants have growth pains, sometimes they’ve got margin squeeze, sometimes they’re just simply looking for new ways, for new opportunities to sidestep the massive growth changes that are coming their way.  

To know more about Mike’s Manila Tours, listen to the podcasts below.

The interview will start at the 12:00 of the podcast episode.

The interview will start at the 20:10 of the podcast episode.

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Guest:  Malu Borja and Adrian Stephen Cabuhat

Presenter: Henry Acosta

Guest Bio: Malu Borja is a graduate of De La Salle University and is a Certified Public Accountant. She’s currently the President of Prople Inc. and has been through a lot of work mainly focusing on operations, technology, and business processing. Malu has 23 years of experience in banking focused on operations, technology, customer service and audit, of which 16 years were spent with foreign banks and 7 years with local banks. Adrian Stephen Cabuhat is a graduate of the University of the Philippines and he is currently the Manager of their Business Development Group.

Segment overview:  Prople Inc. started in 1996 as “Motivation Asia” and was relaunched as “Prople” in 2006, which stands for “process and people”. It is a business solutions provider  with offices in the Philippines with expertise and in-depth experience in the areas of Finance and Accounting, Tax Services, Human Resources/Payroll, and Data Management Services. They are rooted on key competencies which is being proactive, being industry specific, and being current as far as technology is concerned.

Address: 23rd Floor, Robinsons Cybergate 3, Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City

Contact Number: LOCAL +632 772-7272

Website: www.propleinc.com

To know more about Prople Inc, listen to the podcast below.

The interview will start at the 41:15 of the podcast episode.

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Guest: Donald Felbaum

Presenter: Henry Acosta

Guest Bio: Ambassador of Goodwill or “The Don”, this is how people affectionately call Don Felbaum, Managing Director of OPTEL, and past President of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (AMCHAM). He is well known in the ICT Sector for his expertise, his friendly style and “go to guy” for anyone seeking personal or professional advice. Don is the Managing Director of OPTEL, a boutique ICT Advisory firm started in 1989, which supports its clients in outsourcing, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, government interface and advocacy assignments. Don is active in Directorships and on Advisory Boards with more than ten (10+) companies and his business experience covers more than twenty-five (25) countries worldwide. An American who has lived in the Philippines for more than twenty (20+) years, Don believes that the Philippines, with its young and vibrant workforce, will continue to play a key role in the Asia Pacific Region over the next few years.

Segment overview:  Don Felbaum is the Managing Director of OPTEL, which is an ICT Advisory firm that started back in 1989 that supports its clients in outsourcing, strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, government interface and advocacy assignments. Don talks about his business ventures and experiences in the Philippines for the past 20 years.

Address: L29 Joy Nostalg Centre
17 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center
Pasig City, 1605, Philippines

Contact Number: LOCAL +632 633 9755 – 56

Website: optel.info

To know more about OPTEL, listen to the podcast below.

The interview will start at the 14:35 of the podcast episode.

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Guest: Almira Absin

Presenter: Henry Acosta

Guest Bio:  Almira Absin is a co-founder of Azpired Inc and her realm of expertise is training and workforce. She has transformed Language Schools and Institutes’ number of students to hundreds in just a short period of time thereby increasing the academes’ revenue. Her accomplishments challenged her to transition from a university setting to the corporate world in 2007. Almira is a very result oriented leader. She believes that SUCCESS is a combination of perspiration and inspiration thru strict discipline with emphasis on the company’s mission and vision.

Segment overview:  AZPIRED is a world-class outsourcing service center in the Philippines that specializes in Inbound Customer Service, Technical Support, Accounting Services and more. They have been certified PCI compliant by the PCI Security Standards Council and ISO 27001:2013 by QAS International.  The company originally started in the US, which then moved to the Philippines in 2009 with just 1 employee and has expanded greatly in a short period of time. These days, the company has 1500 employees with 4 buildings located in different cities.

Address: 16/F Cebu IT Tower 2, Cebu Business Park, Cebu City

Contact Number: LOCAL +63 917 308 3868 / INTL +1 (805) 708 5656

Website: http://www.azpired.com/

To know more about AZPIRED Inc., listen to the podcast below.

The interview will start at the 1:00 of the podcast episode.

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Guests: John Manzano

Presenter: Henry Acosta

Guest Bio: John is the Philippine Country Manager of TeleDevelopment Services (TDS). He oversees the formulation and execution of all strategic and tactical plans for TDS, driving the company’s sales performance to ensure bottom-line profitability. John possesses 20 years of experience in all aspects of start-up operations, corporate management, service delivery, digital transformation and account acquisition. He previously served in leadership roles both captive and outsourced companies in QBE,Cognizant, 24/7 Inc., TRG, Convergys, DHL and HSBC.

Segment overview: For over 25 years, TeleDevelopment Services, Inc. has been providing clients with global outsourcing and back-office solutions. They have offices in the United States and the Philippines, they deploy experienced professionals to help organizations succeed from any location – domestic, near-shore, and offshore. Among the solutions they offer are Consulting, Executive Search, Healthcare Training, Language Assessment, Managed Services Specialized Recruitment, and Lean Six Sigma Training. Their global experience, local expertise, and client-centric approach to finding creative solutions to business challenges have given their BPO and contact center partners a significant edge in establishing, building and optimizing their global operations’ performance, capability and success.

Address: Unit 3502-35 35th Floor Robinsons Equitable Tower, ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City

Contact Number: LOCAL (02) 631 8230

Website:  www.teledevelopment.com.ph

To know more about TeleDevelopment Services, listen to the podcast below.

The interview will start at the 43:50 of the podcast episode.

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Guest: Joselyn T. Capistrano

Presenter: Patrick Reyes

Guest Bio: Joselyn T. Capistrano is a quality and service process improvement guru with more than twenty years of work experience with multinational companies, such as IBM, Citibank, HP, Accenture and Fujitsu. A renowned advisor in project management, software engineering, and software development, Capistrano is, so far, the only the only Filipina with a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) license to be a Lead Appraiser in the Philippines. Joselyn’s entrepreneurial journey dates way back in 2001 when she founded SQME Professionals, Inc., a software engineering and quality management company that focuses on providing business enhancement services that are guided by the principles and methodologies of CMMI, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and Six Sigma.

Segment overview: Software Quality Management in Engineering Consulting and Managed Services (SQME) Professionals Limited is a global player in Project Management Consulting and Software Process Improvement. As a Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Transition Partner, SQME provides for extensive Capability Maturity Model (CMM®) services. Having developed a strong client relationship with clients from different industries, the firm, under Joselyn’s leadership, proved to be one of the most successful providers of business enhancement services in the Philippines—expanding its operations in Hong Kong, while growing its services in other business sectors. Capistrano combined the expertise of these two companies, SQME Professionals and BPSource into one solid brand, which is now known as Service Quality Management Engineers—a full-service process improvement and outsourcing firm internationally recognized for transforming companies into high performance organizations.

Address: 3201-C West Tower, Philippine Stock Exchange Center, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, 1605 Philippines, Exchange Rd, San Antonio, Pasig, Metro Manila

Contact Number: LOCAL (02) 687 0133

Website: www.sqme.com

To know more about SQME Professionals, listen to the podcast below.

The interview will start at the 47:45 mark of the podcast.

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Guest: Frederic Joye
Presenter: Henry Acosta
Guest Bio: Fred has many years of experience in growing international businesses. Fred has been leading the sales, marketing and business development arms of Arcanys from day one. Fred has a passion for innovation and entrepreneurship, enabling to solve global issues at an unprecedented scale, through technology. Working with, and being part of startups that one day will change the way people live and do business is the reason behind the creation of Arcanys Labs (the investment arm of thé Arcanys Group).

Segment overview: Arcanys is one of the most respected software development companies not only in the Philippines but also by the startups it supports in Europe, the US and Australia. Their mission is to help businesses to do more with less money and help them generate revenue quicker. Their vision is to keep on helping those companies, but also for start-ups. They have recently launched a venture capital back program where they invest technology and money for equity in these start-ups. Arcanys staff goes through a training program where they are taught how to work with clients following the company’s specific methodology. What they are looking for are experienced developers that are also fast learners that is why they are looking at their abilities to grow over time because the projects they work on are usually pretty challenging.

Address: 7th Floor, CFI Builing, Capitol Compound,, Cebu City, 6000 Cebu

Contact Number: (032) 416 5414

Website: https://www.arcanys.com/

To know more about Arcanys, listen to the podcast below.

The interview will start at the 26:30 mark of the podcast.

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Guests: Pargad Biteng
Presenter: Henry Acosta
Guest Bio: Pargad “Jack” Biteng, Chairman of Fountainhead Technologies, Inc. earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of the Philippines and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He was put on hold his studies in PhD in Economics at the London School of Economics in order to focus on running Fountainhead Technologies, a company he and some friends founded in 2001. His background included several roles such as programming, sales and service delivery.

Segment overview: Fountainhead Technologies, Inc. was established in 2001. The company is a Tier 1 Gold Partner of Oracle Corporation with specialization in the installation and management of the Oracle E-Business Suite, the most comprehensive suite of integrated, global business applications enabling organizations to make better decisions, reduce costs, and increase performance. Fountainhead primarily focuses on delivering Enterprise Solutions and Oracle E-Business Suite implementation and support.
Their Oracle Certified Professional consultants bring with them an average of 10 years extensive business and technical experience acquired from deployment of complex business applications based on leading practices and standards from various industries in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. This allows Fountainhead to maintain seamless end-to-end service while dealing with multiple clients.

Address: Unit 1100, 88 Corporate Center, Sedeno Street, corner Valero Street, Salcedo Village, Makati, 1227 Metro Manila

Contact Number: LOCAL (+63) 2 908 2546

Website: http://www.fountainheadtechnologies.com/

To know more about Fountainhead Technologies, Inc., listen to the podcast below.

The interview will start at 48:10 mark of the podcast episode.

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