User:Harryfozzard

Philippines-based expatriate from Jacksonville, Florida, in the USA. I’ve been traveling to, working in, and living in the Philippines for over a decade. Currently, I split my time between Dumaguete City, in the Western Visayas, and Makati City, Metro Manila.

At various times, I’ve been a blueberry farmer, advertising agency hack, marketing executive, calvary scout, college professor, and an early mover in the development of the Philippines business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. Since arriving in the Philippines, I’ve helped call centers and BPO’s build and launch in the Philippines, started my own BPO, sold it, and then started all over again.

MY PASSION: ATELIER LUMIKHA My company, Atelier Lumikha, manages back-office programs that help businesses support their customers with voice, chat, and email; gathers, organizes and acts on marketing and operations data; and develops systems for process management and performance optimization.

HOW I CAME TO THE PHILIPPINES When I landed in the Philippines in 2002-3, the BPO phenomenon was in its second wave growing from 10,000 seats at the outset of the decade. My job (or so I thought) was to deploy a custom online learning platform on behalf of a growing global contact center.

The platform and know-how were developed at an eLearning company I founded, called LeanForward. At that time, we focused on custom learning for medium-large organizations. When I entered the offshore outsourcing world, I thought I was joining the call center industry to tackle human resource development and performance management across disparate cultures. It turns out; I was mistaken. What we actually did was develop many of the protocols for recruiting, staffing, learning, and operations that are accepted industry norms today.

WHAT I DO IN THE PHILIPPINES Subsequently, I started a consultancy for organizations launching business (BPO) and knowledge (KPO) process outsourcing in the Philippines. This work evolved into incubating captive operations for build-operate-transfer. Eventually, we focused on our own operations to deliver back solutions for SMB’s. Today, at Atelier Lumikha, we deliver a range of KPO solutions from our offices in Dumaguete, Negros.

I also spend a good bit of time traveling around the Visayas for scuba and free diving as well as hiking and climbing. The Philippines is an enchantingly rich archipelago and a wonderful place to be an expatriate. Hopefully, my blog, Fozzard.asia, does a decent job of communicating just how great the Philippines is and how you get the most out of your time here.