In more recent times, metaphors about the world have even more sophisticated iterations. In 2005, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote the book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, in which he argued that technology had “flattened” the word by eliminating barriers that once separated markets from each other. His concept of globalization, the “interweaving of markets, technology, information systems, and telecommunications networks in a way that is shrinking the world from a size medium to a size small” (Friedman 2005) accurately reflects the way the Internet has made it possible for people to exchange products and services from all over the globe. One need only to examine items in retail stores to see the familiar tag, “Made in…” bearing the names of countries such as China, Mexico, Pakistan, Taiwan, Japan, or Brazil. It is also noteworthy that India has become the outsourcing capital of the world, most notable for the many international call centres located in that country. Changes in society have clearly accommodated globalization. Marber (2007) alludes to the impact these changes, including longer life spans, higher literacy and education rates, improved production technology, and a rise in middle class populations in nations even where great wealth disparities once prevailed. These evolutions have ushered in an era which popular management scholar Peter Drucker called the “ultimate consumer,” resulting in an enhanced information-based society in which “the most important implication is probably the impact of information on mentality and awareness” (Drucker, 2007 p. 8). Drucker’s statement suggests how deeply the technological environment in the contemporary world influences how we perceive and react to our world – and he is right. It indeed seems that McLuhan’s vision has come to fruition; the ease of trade across the global marketplace has indeed made the world a big commercial “village”. Globalization has made it possible for companies in smaller, poor countries to become competitors in markets which have historically been dominated by larger, western economies. Yet companies both in wealthier and less wealthy countries still face the same basic set of challenges: to overcome the constraints of the geographic, economic, political, and regulatory environments that frame the global business context. Thanks to developments in communication technology, faster intercontinental travel, and improvements in international banking and law, more opportunities now exist for international business than ever before. Companies engaging in forms of international business transactions are frequently referred to as Multinational Companies (MNCs) or Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). These organizations have operations, facilities, materials, or personnel in more than one country, and often maintain subsidiaries – smaller companies owned by larger ones. Others operate under their own names or their parent companies’ names. Some popularly known MNCs include Walmart, AIG, ExxonMobile, Volkswagon, and Toyota (CNN Money, 2014). While many MNCs are concerned with the manufacturing and distributing of their products, many others engage in the simple buying and selling of goods, which is known as Exporting – the sale and shipment of goods to other countries – and importing, the purchase of goods shipped from other countries. Such opportunities exist today for all types of businesses, including companies that ship agricultural products – which, because of increased ability to be transported, can make it from another continent to your table in a matter of days or even hours.
Today, organizations such as The United Nations, the World Bank Group, and the U.S. Department of State each identify their own classification systems of the world’s regions according to various geopolitical criteria, such as location, political structures or ideologies, economic systems, or culture. Extrapolating from these sources into an international business context, we can look at the world by regions:
North America: Geographically, the North American continent includes Canada, the United States, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. From a cultural standpoint, however, The United States and Canada share the most similarities among business practices, political structures, legal systems, and communication norms.
Latin America: This region refers to all of the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Western Hemisphere, including Mexico, Central America, The Caribbean, and South America. Societies of origins other than Spain and Portugal – including many indigenous cultures – fall within this general region.
Europe: Although the European continent is the smallest land-wise, its 47 countries constitute a great deal of diversity. Northern European countries, such as Finland, Norway, and Sweden, are often referred to as Scandinavian, or Nordic countries. Western Europe includes countries such as France, The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Eastern Europe refers to Russia and many of the former U.S.S.R. states, and are still called “Eastern Bloc” countries, or, more recently, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS); countries in the Northeast area of Europe – such as Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia--are often referenced as “Baltic” states. Southern Europe, which can be defined loosely as those countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, including Spain, Italy, and Greece. In general, the cultures of Western and Southern Europe were most heavily influenced by the Roman Empire during its campaigns during the first century (AD) and are historically characterized by their democratic forms of government and the prevalence of Catholicism.
Middle East/Northern Africa: While most of the Middle East is geographically considered to be part of Asia, the region is best understood by its cultural attributes, also includes a great deal of the African continent. Together, this mostly Arabic-speaking region is often referred to as MENA. It is strongly characterized by its Islamic culture, which influences much of its business practices. Part of this region may also be considered Western Asia, particularly countries such as Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey.
Sub-Sahara Africa: This region includes the African countries south of the Tropic of Cancer and the Sahara Desert, including Western Africa (Mauritania, Guinea, Mali), Central Africa (Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of The Congo), East Africa (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia) and Southern Africa (South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia). The region is one of the most linguistically rich in the world.
Southwest Asia: This area is sometimes called “West Asia” and includes India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. India is frequently referenced as the “Indian Subcontinent.”
East Asia: Often characterized as “Confucian Asia” due to the cultural influence of the historic teachings of that philosophy, these countries are Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan.
Southeast Asia: Refers to the area South of China, East of India, and North of Australia (New World Encyclopedia, 2014). Including the mainland countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and the countries of Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Oceania: The principle countries of this region are Australia, New Zealand, but also include Micronesia, Polynesia, and Macaronesia.
The HLD-IPC{20th March 2019} was successful in the sense that, as the first high level meeting about Indo-Pacific, amid all of the complexity and sensitivity, it managed to: (a) facilitate a dialogue in a positive tone; (b) assure that all parties agree on the importance of ASEAN centrality, ASEAN unity, and ASEAN-led mechanism; (c) start finding synergy for concrete cooperation. Jakarta believes in in ensuring peace, stability, and mutual prosperity, the role of a renewed cooperation framework amongst countries in the region is crucial. A peaceful, prosperous, and inclusive Pacific and Indian Oceans and Rims - or Indo-Pacific region shall be based on mutual trust, respect, and spirit of cooperation. In his opening remarks at HLD-IPC, Indonesian Vice President Dr. (H.C.) Drs. H. Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, underlined the potential possessed as well as identified the challenges faced by the Indo-Pacific region. He underscored the importance of maintaining a peaceful, stable, and economically sustainable Indo-Pacific region. Such cooperation should be based on the principles of openness, inclusiveness, transparency, and respect for international law. The HLD-IPC in Jakarta also discussed three scopes of cooperation: (a) maritime cooperation, (b) connectivity and infrastructure cooperation, and (c) SDGs cooperation. Other areas of cooperation, including smart cities’ network, digital economy, south-south cooperation, and the 4th industrial revolution, were also explored.
BPOs in Jakarta are built around these principles as stated by Indonesian Vice President Dr. (H.C.) Drs. H. Muhammad Jusuf Kalla. A BPO Business process outsourcing (BPO) involves using a third-party provider company for any business process that could otherwise be done in-house, especially those considered “non-primary” business activities and functions. Examples include the outsourcing of payroll, human resources (HR), accounting and customer/call centre relations, as well as various kinds of data gathering, front-line service work, among others. In a considerably basic sense, most types of Business Process Outsourcing can be separated into two major categories – front office and back-office services. Back office services, in general, are things like accounting and research, as well as various types of IT support services. A lot of the human resources types of BPO would go into that category, too. Front office services involve things like customer interaction services and the use of third-party companies for things like on-site demos and selling to customers or answering questions, in person, on the phone or through digital media. Within these two bigger categories, there is any number of different types of business process outsourcing. There are also things like payroll outsourcing, the outsourcing of employee records analysis and the outsourcing of business intelligence, which we will discuss a little bit later.
Covid-19 pandemic had hit the BPO sector quite hard. Within managed services, information technology outsourcing (ITO) declined 10%, to $4.8 billion, and business process outsourcing (BPO) was off 34%, to $1.2 billion but the government is trying hard to bring the economy back on track.
Top ten BPO companies are as follows:
1. TheCall.online
2. Telin
3. INFOMEDIA NUSANTARA
4. Heroleads Indonesia
5. PT NEC Indonesia
6. PT Outsource Indonesia
7. Asia Outsourcing Services
8. Transcosmos Indonesia
9. PT VADS Indonesia
10. ATI Business Group
Apart from these companies there are several others that can be contacted via search-engines on the internet.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
