Other countries' losses are other countries' gains

Do not be surprised if there's a hiring frenzy or various global corporations haggling for some office space in Makati, Alabang, Fort and Ortigas. Ironically, unlike some people who are migrating to the West for greener pastures; wealthy and powerful corporations from the west are seeing the East as their own version of greener pastures. Thanks to the continuous success of outsourcing through cheap and competitive labor, Eastern countries are now the answer to the needs of these corporations to recuperate from global economic crisis.

Big financial institutions such as Citigroup, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank (2003) have allocated their operating units in Asia, majority in India, Singapore and the Philippines, as their primary plan to cost cut and be financially smart about the eco situation. I remember when I was still in Accenture, Deutsche Bank started to establish its operations here in the Philippines. Hiring was massive and processes were fast. It only took various trends and patterns for team leads and associates to be pirated by the new institution promising higher pay, benefits and growth. It was a tough playing situation for other 3rd party outsourcing companies to lose valuable resources to the migrating global corporations. It doesn't help that opportunities in Singapore and Dubai continue to flourish. I remember a rumor one time that some outsourcing companies requested Shell Shared services or Chevron to freeze hire candidates coming from their organizations to prevent massive pullout of resources. Everything from IT, Call Center posts, BPOs, Back office work and operations are slowly being migrated in Asia. I too have experienced and became a player of such. Admittedly it served me and most of my colleagues well for numerous opportunities in global corporations.

I hate to sound like Gary Cole in the play Avenue Q singing "Schadenfreude" (Taking enjoyment of someone else's misfortunes). But whatever fortune we may have now should be maximized and put to sustainable use, because when the time comes the West might think of pulling back or inevitably pulls back, we have now the capability to initiate our own gains.