Irishman excels in Asia

Malaysian Business, Jul 16, 2004 by S Jai Shankar

LIMERICK, the Republic of Ireland's third largest city, is a place of

contrasting nature. It is a location of quiet beauty and rural charm,

offering good sport to the angler and golfer and some of the finest

hunting country in Ireland. It is also the home of some of the world's

leading high technology companies such as Verbatim, AST, and Dell.

Similarly, Jack Cantillon, the CEO of Vsource Asia Bhd, who hails from

Limerick, is a man of contrasting nature. A proud Irishman, Cantillon

loves Asia with equal measure. The 40-year-old first started working in

Asia 12 years ago. Prior to joining Vsource in April 2001, he served as

the Corporate Director and Head of the Dell-online E-commerce Group for

Dell Computers' Asia-Pacific and Japan divisions. At Dell, Cantillon, who

holds an engineering degree from the University of Limerick, oversaw the

company's Asia-Pacific, Internet-based e-commerce business.

Now as the CEO of Vsource, he currently manages the company's complete

outsourcing strategy and its execution as well as the overall operations

of Vsource Asia Bhd in Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan.

Vsource Asia Bhd, incorporated in Malaysia in 2000, was formerly known

as Vsource (Malaysia) Bhd. Its main shareholders are US-based Vsource Inc

(60.7%) and Symphony House Bhd (30.34%). The company is one of the largest

independent business process outsourcing (BPO) providers in Malaysia. BPO

is the outsourcing by a company of specific business and operational

functions by hiring third-party vendors such as Vsource Asia to perform

those functions on its behalf.

Vsource Asia, whose revenue has tripled over the last three years,

recently posted RM69 million in turnover for the financial year ended Jan

31, 2004. To date, an investment of over RM75 million in infrastructure

and personnel has been made in Malaysia. As of May 2004, Vsource Asia had

515 personnel, of which 345 are based in Malaysia, 78 in Japan, and 92 in

Taiwan.

The company has four operations centres in the region - two in Malaysia

and one each in Taiwan and Japan. It provides various other BPO services

to many multi-national and Fortune 500 companies, including ABN- Amro,

FedEx, Lexmark and Gateway.

mb-e recently met up with Cantillon to better understand him and

Vsource.

What is your experience operating in an Asian business environment?

I have truly enjoyed working in such a diverse environment, and being

able to observe the development of Malaysia to one of the most successful

countries in Asia has been truly rewarding. All in all, working in Asia

has been very fulfilling but challenging for me. In order to further excel

in the Asian market, I had to realign they way I conduct business to

reflect the Asian culture. For example, I notice that the cultural impact

here at work is much more than in Europe. I have to manage employees from

various countries (Japan, China, South East Asia and Australia) that have

their own unique culture and diverse work environments.

Various Asian countries rival one another - for example, the geographic

competitive nature of Malaysia versus Singapore versus China versus Japan

- which is somewhat different from the business environment in Europe

where corporate competitiveness are more common. Having been in Asia for

the last 12 years, I was able to witness the economic growth enjoyed by

the many Asian countries, which was mainly fuelled by strong demands,

especially from China, South Korea, the United States and the European

Union, for semiconductors, commodities and chemical products.

However I see this growth as very complex due to the fact that Asian

countries are overly dependent on exports to the countries mentioned

above. While we may be smiling when times are good, any slowdown in these

overseas markets will have a dreadful impact on the local economy of the

many Asian countries, which will see a revisit of the 1997 Asian economic

crisis.

Is BPO another K-Economy hype?

The outsourcing model is not hype. In fact this model has been around

for the last 10 to 15 years, originating with the manufacturing industry.

To this day you could see that every industry is outsourcing one area of

its business or another. A good example of this is the automotive industry

where car seats, engines, tyres etc. are made by third party contractors

which are then assembled by the brand owners.

The same scenario holds true in the BPO model, where more and more

companies do not want to get slowed down with their non-core business

areas and are more willing to outsource them to a reliable third party

provider such as Vsource so that they in-turn are able to concentrate on

their primary business.

In fact industry statistics have shown that the local IT outsourcing

industry is set to grow at about 17% a year, compound annual growth rate

(CAGR), between 2002 and 2007, which is higher than the region.

In addition, research analysts IDC reported that worldwide spending on

BPO services totalled approximately US$405 billion in 2003, a growth of

about 8% over 2002 and will increase to US$682.5 billion in 2008, with a

CAGR of 11%.

How do you expect to realise these goals?