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November, 2007

Nov 11 2007   12:27PM GMT

The future is for global managers



Posted by: Yusuf Salwati
Project management

As my experience as a global manager increases, i see the growing importance of global managers in the coming years. The world is moving rapidly towards globalization which leads to an increasing demand on goods and services world wide. Even smaller companies are looking at global markets which are no longer the domain of multi-national firms.

Globalization lead to a rapid market expansion, which in turn lead to a growing need for global managers who are well adapted to work in various environments.

Major universities are offering courses in the field of global management. One of the courses that got my attention and I believe deserves closer examination, is EXECUTIVE CERTIFICATE IN INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT, by the school of global management at the University of Thunderbird.

Program Content
This program is open to business professionals determined to advance their organizational management tools and skills. Participants can expect to:
• Gain an increased understanding of the role and function of the international manager in today’s global organizations
• Understand the forces that affect and are affected by decision making in the global business environment
• Learn to tap into their own global leadership competencies and manage effectively across cultures
• Develop practical tools to help position their organization for global success.

The Executive Certificate in International Management is comprised of three 8-week online courses:
• Global Management
• Global Leadership
• Global Strategy Implementation

As a global manager, I think this program is worthy of your consideration, if you are serious about global markets, global strategies. The future for any serious manager, is on a global scale with global management. The advancement in technoligies, especially in the IT field, almost demands it as a criteria for management positions.

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Nov 11 2007   12:24PM GMT

Has outsourcing lead to poor customer service?



Posted by: Yusuf Salwati
Project management

In the past few months, I had several pressing issue with a few service providers, which resulted in many calls to their customer service dept.

My first issue was changing my phone service from one carrier to another, but trying to keep the same phone number which I had had for few years.

The phone company was not able to port my current number from my old provider within the time frame they promised. After many calls to the customer service dept and waiting patiently for over two months, the phone company was not able to port my old number and I settled with a new number.

My many calls to their customer service dept, left a big question mark in my mind, about the benefits of outsourcing call centers. Most of the customer service representatives I spoke with were located outside of the US, mainly Asia. Although everyone I spoke to were very courteous, almost no one was able to understand my frustration or give me solid feedback on the issue I was trying to resolve. All I would hear was, “oh I am so sorry to hear that”, the representative didn’t have the right knowledge or training to guide me to the right solution, he or she would put me on hold each time I demanded action.

I made it clear to the representative, I didn’t want to hear them say “Oh I am so sorry to hear that”, that wasn’t going to help me.
I came to realize the cultural differences between some Asian countries and the US. Most of the representatives I spoke to were polite, but were not able to take the initiative and make decision which, I believe, reflected their cultural background ,where traditionally the decision must come from the top.

At the beginning of the outsourcing boom, the service was excellent and the representative would be well trained to understand the expectation of callers from US, but over time, I experienced a drop down in quality and I feel like most of the customer service representatives were hired to be courteous to the customers and repeat these words “Oh I am so sorry to hear that.”

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