Imran and Anwar, great comments-I agree with Imran that we need to change the perception of Pakistan relative to BPO/Call Center work. When my company (ex-employer) was opening a call center in India and Philippines, I pushed Pakistan, but to no avail. Bottom line, at least the initial awareness was created. It is hard to change the entrenched mindset embedded by the foreign news media. Major airlines have exited Pakistan, and AMEX (Pakistan) will soon be closing its operations. These events might seem insignificant at first glance but they just reiterate the notion about outsourcing to Pakistan.
Imran you mentioned that ambassadors visit Fortune 500 companies to sell their countries! I think our respective ambassadors and all Pakistanis working in a call center should be presented with a basic power point presentation selling Pakistan in conjunction with services that are above par than any other call center in North America.
It does not hurt to send an email, click that mouse!!! The idea is to “create awareness” and change the misconceptions. Changing valid misconceptions about our nation is a very hard task and might seem daunting at first… but, hey Pakistanis are hard working, smart/intelligent individuals and have the inherent drive to succeed. To give you an example, a few months back, I had a couple of Pakistani folks requesting me to assign them to a different project; lucky for me my project was in growth mode, and hired them instantly cutting thru HR, etc, to this date they are among the top agents with outstanding quality results.
Lets us take the onus and spread the word, Anwar I know you have a presentation for alt-source, let’s make that a generic one, and start circulating it. Another idea is to form an unofficial committee with like minded people who have the tenure, and a zealous drive to bring business to Pakistan. We can meet on a monthly basis via Skype or conference calls and discuss our progress, exchange ideas and discuss business strategy. We need to be hungry and the same time be smarter then our competition. Remember, the idea is to bring business to Pakistan and not to individuals-that will follow in due time.
Currently I am in Asia Pacific, and I continuously position Pakistan for back office data entry/billing work. Is it working? Not yet, will it work? Yes, it is a matter of time.
Anwar I will be in Khi by end of January, in fact I am moving back, may be we can get together and continue discussion.
Happy holidays and a Happy New Year!
Aamer