Business Success — Philippines for the Rest of Us

Where Did You Wake up this Morning?
It's not North America only cheaper and populated by Asians. It's different here, so stop acting like business in the Philippines is business in North America or Europe. It's not. People will withhold warnings about the stupid thing you're about to do so as not to embarrass you or themselves. No one will tell you to duck.

Figure you won't know what you don't know for the first three years you operate in the Philippines. During that time keep your eyes open and your mouth shut until you know the game.



Partner Well
If you are setting up and you're not a big mahaca of a call center or Korean ship-builder, you'll be incorporating as a Philippine company. That means you will be in business with your wife, in-laws, or some group of locals you know in some fashion. As with partnering anywhere, be very careful about this arrangement.

Take extra care because the Philippines' culture is different. It may seem very approachable (compared to working in Sri Lanka, it probably is), but that does not mean that cultural difference is not significant. Spend some time getting to know your prospective partners and make sure everyone has skin in the game.



Cutting Corners? Don't.
Often, smaller guys like myself wind up taking the fast path, buying into someone's connections as the easy route, using fixers for everything, etc. My advice is adhere to the high road as much as possible. You will glad you did.

The reasons are varied and numerous: you will wind up incurring personal debts you don't understand (for favors that will be called in, trust me); something thought long resolved will rear it's ugly head at an inopportune moment; the short cut winds up being a far more lengthy and expensive process that you imagined, etc. Everyone has a relative or an inside connection. Stick to knitting, play it straight, and wait your turn just like everyone else.



Doing It for the People
Chances are you plan to set-up in the Philippines to conduct operations that are people intensive. People intensive with what Peter Drucker called Knowledge Workers. That is to say you are here for the classic labor arbitrage. Drucker also pointed out that you have to "Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer."

What does that mean in the Philippines? Treat your people right. Look after their interests (the government won't). Accept the fact that managing people requires a lot of attention to HR practices: screening, learning, setting expectations (with exhaustively documented processes), well-defined policies and procedures, etc. While it can be quite cumbersome, dig in and invest some time here at the front end to create the right documentation and learning materials. If you need help with this, give us a shout (shameless plug).

Do What You Say Say What You Mean
If you are doing business in Asia, be scrupulously honest. You are held to a higher standard of behavior in the eyes of your business associates and your people. Business being (small) business, you'll be challenged to follow through on your plans, commitments, obligations, etc. Do so as much as possible.

From Manila: Looking at 2008

As part of the predictable New Years resolution packet, here is a new blog announcement that trumpets a set of blogs that signal a selection of blogs that segregate my musing into a few categories:

• Business in the Philippines with a bent toward Outsourcing from the Provider Perspective: Manila Comment
  
• Observations on the talent variable of the offshoring equation: Talent Philippines
• Stuff I wish I'd known setting up here in the Philippines: Boutique Offshore
  
• Still more commentary on everyday life in Manila and Southeast Asia: Manila Muse
  

These concepts had been jumbled together in a basket of observations in Manila Muse, a project I had unfortunately abandoned as my time in 2007 became more consumed with the project growing a business through its delicate second year of life. That was a year of surprising growth and, as I reflect upon it, a year of multiple revelations in the endeavor of management and operations as a supplier to the BPO industry.

The rationale for the activity is pretty straightforward — Blogging provides an opportunity to solicit global input on ideas that have global and (increasingly) local relevance. As much as the notion that accessing other's input, I suppose I wish that someone had appraised me of the specifics of running this kind of business in the Philippines. Plenty of consultants will provide insight into the world of large business here, but few offer relevant insight for companies that either operate here or source a portion of their business offshore but at a smaller level than large outsourcers. More importantly, on a personal level, writing about these ideas helps me to more effectively explore them than almost any other method.