Worsening condition of GMA

As reported she has had multiple surgeries since July 2011. On August 2011, the titanium plate was dislodged requiring a second surgery to remove the implant and screws and to place her on a halo vest. A third surgery followed to place a titanium mesh cage, covering her spine, with bone graft from her left hip. Doctors opined that dislodgment was caused by an uncommon metabolic bone disease. Unfortunately, the country does not have any bone specialist that can do a competent bone biopsy.

Since her confinement at the Veterans Memorial, the implants are still moving and a spur formation has developed which shows osteodegenerative changes resulting in degenerative lumbar spine disease. Makati Medical informs that she needs a surgeon who is an expert at repair work in order to permanently fix the slowly moving implants. There is no such expert in the Philippines. 

Pain management was the only recourse at Veterans with therapy and acupuncture as well as analgesics and topical compresses for lower back pain. Because of erratic readings of her heart, she was placed in ICU overnight and now requires continuous monitoring. She also experiences numbness in her hands which is diagnosed as possibly related to her cervical condition. Another recurring and related problem is difficulty of swallowing which resulted in a recent choking incident. The more the implants move to constrict her esophagus, the more choking incidents will happen. Lastly, the doctors report her response to pain management and treatment has reached a plateau with no significant clinical improvement.

Can “self-confessed vindictiveness” yield to human compassion???

Aegis Malaysia: Deplorable business practice

A few days ago, a senior official of the Department of Foreign Affairs sent me a three-minute marketing video of Aegis Malaysia which casts the Philippines in an unfavorable light relative to Malaysia. The video markets Malaysia as an “investor-friendly country owing to flexible policies of the government”, in contrast to the Philippines which was described in the most disparaging manner. As I understand it, this video has gone viral, but with all the negative reaction, it has apparently been removed from Aegis’ YouTube account.

My first instinct was to ignore it and not dignify with a rebuttal. However, with much further thought, I realized that this was a marketing video developed specifically for clients that proactively cast derogatory remarks not only of competition, but of a country where Aegis operates and enjoys special incentives as a BPO investor. As a former employee of a multinational company engaged in technology, I was trained to sell the positives of my company and it was against policy to make derogatory remarks of competition. I found this reprehensible video a direct violation of an age old principle practiced by the majority of global companies, which today is embedded in their practice of good governance.

Further research tells me that Aegis Philippines was one of the pioneers of the BPO industry in the Philippines when it was called People Support.  In October 2008, People Support was merged with Aegis. And about a month ago, Teleperformance purchased Aegis USA Inc. operations in the US, Philippines and Costa Rica from a Mumbai-based multinational, Essar Global Fund Limited. The rest of Aegis’ BPO operations, including Malaysia, continue to be owned and operated by Essar.

Essar is a multinational company involved in the energy, metals and mining, infrastructure (ports, projects and concessions) and services (primarily comprising shipping and BPO businesses) sectors, with annual revenues of $39 billion, operating in 29 countries with over 73,000 people employed.

“The mother company of Aegis Malaysia on Monday said it did not approve the controversial video that promoted Malaysia, but criticized the Philippines as an investment destination. “We regret the upload of the recent video on Malaysia. The video was developed locally by an agency and uploaded in error and the contents were NOT approved by Aegis Corporate,” Aegis Limited told INQUIRER.net.”

I find this difficult to believe. First of all, how can a local agency develop a marketing video independent of its client, Aegis? Why would Aegis risk its branding all over a marketing material that does not have its permission to use? More importantly, this video had a storyboard, and this would have been developed from a brief to the agency given by Aegis management – either by its marketing or corporate affairs team.

Second, I could give them the benefit of the doubt that this could have been uploaded in error by some agency or Aegis staff. This is probable. However, this was on the Aegis YouTube account – not some random website. This YouTube account is an extension of the Aegis brand and its image and reputation should have been guarded at all costs.

Shouldn’t Essar, the mother company ultimately be made accountable for this fiasco in so far as it needs to ensure that their companies all engage in appropriate and ethical conduct?

In fact, their profile on their corporate website says, “Essar is widely regarded as a responsible and conscientious global employer. It has experience in managing businesses in different geographies with a culturally diverse workforce. This is why its people practices are sensitive to cross-cultural nuances.”  

Essar should “practice what they preach”. But first and foremost, Essar must make full disclosure of this incident and issue an apology to the Philippine government. It should also take management action in Malaysia to ensure that such behavior will not be repeated. They may even want to consider adopting a Code of Ethics. 

For the record, the BPO industry in the Philippines already has one million personnel employed in this sector, with projected revenues of $18 billion by end of 2014. IBPAP, the industry association, expects to hit $25 billion by end of 2016 with 1.3 million direct employees. Clearly a lot of global companies disagree with Aegis. 

Perhaps, the Malaysian government (who is certainly not at fault) may wish to enlighten Aegis management on how to be a good corporate citizen which includes refraining from offending the sensitivities of neighboring countries.