The amazing woman who helped BPO in southern Philippines grow

#InternationalWomensDay #BreakTheBias #grateful

#ONETeam #SNAPS #SageandNotableAdvisesfromPatrickSalazar

Once upon a time, the BPO industry had a very tiny headcount in southern Philippines.

News about insurgency and travel restrictions from the state department of some countries at that time prevented C-level clients to travel and visit starting-up BPO centers in the south of the country. Meanwhile, the reality on the ground is that the south has a huge population of world-class talented graduates especially from technical, computer, business and healthcare disciplines.

One of my MBA classmates worked in the embassy. I asked if she can help get our invitation letter to the office of their big boss. We requested if their big boss can please kindly visit our southern Site, meet our talented Associates, help us inform the large corporations from her country that it is safe & we are ready to service their customers. Me and my Team prayed and hoped my MBA classmate’s big boss would read our invitation letter despite her extremely busy schedule and maybe visit our Site.

At 11am of Tuesday, April 29, 2008………. she did.

*About the photo

I hosted the visit of the amazing woman in the photo. The Associates in the Site loved her and she was like a rockstar as she walked across the production floors spreading friendship, love and positivity.

She is the one who helped reassure multinational corporations that the south region is safe, helped thousands of Filipinos find jobs within cities where they reside in the south, helped strengthen families because they are complete & do not need to work in far away places, strengthened ties between our countries, and… she is the reason how the BPO industry in the south of the Philippines started to grow.

She said she is grateful that the Filipino BPO is helping her country during that time (2008). She reassured us she will tell everyone how happy she is to visit our Site, it is very safe and will invite multinational companies to visit.

Thank you, former US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney.