The Aegis Malaysia Ad that singles out the Philippines

There was much furor yesterday in Social Media when an alleged ad from Aegis Malaysia circulated.  The video commented on the Philippines's business environment, inadequate infrastructure, less security and lack of government support.  According to the video, "...to make things worse, the place could be falling in the Ring of Fire", citing typhoons and cyclones while visibly showing the location of the Philippines on the map.

In my 20 years in the IT industry, I have never seen anything like this.  Not even close.  What the video does is attempt to promote one company country location over another, by practically trashing the latter.  Something you would see in a US softdrink commercial in the 80's.

In 2010, it has been reported the the Philippines overtook India in terms of call center employees.  Late 2013, the Philippines also overtook India in terms of "employee numbers for shared services and Business Process Outsourcing."
http://www.spi-global.com/blog/think-tank/factors-philippines-overtook-india-world-call-center/

In the Overall Outsourcing Destinations ranking published by Tholons in 2013, Bangalore and Mumbai are at #1 and #2, while Manila dislodged Delhi for the #3 spot.  Cebu City also moved up 1 place to #8.  Kuala Lumpur, while at #19 was the outsourcing city destination with the biggest ranking jump.  It moved up 9 spots from #28 in 2012.  Another outsourcing city in Malaysia is Penang at #73.    On the other hand, the Philippines has 8 cities in the Top 100 list.  Apart from Manila and Cebu, Davao is at number #70, Laguna is at #84, IloIlo at #93, and new entrants to list Bacolod and Baguio at #94 and #99 respectively.

http://www.tholons.com/TholonsTop100/pdf/Tholons%20Top%20100%202013_Rankings%20and%20Report%20Overview.pdf

Clearly, there is currently no contest within the South East Asian region in terms of Outsourcing destination.  While it is expected that countries or locations on the #2 and #3 spots will fight for the top spot, Aegis Malaysia's video leaves much to be desired.

The video was point blank in terms of painting a grim picture of the Philippines.  It did not even attempt to mask the name of the country.  One can break down all the items in the video against the Philippines and could find out that some of it may actually be true.  No one can deny that the country indeed falls in the Pacific Rim of Fire, and that really strong typhoons and cyclones hit the country in the last years.

But the criticism on the video is not about whether facts are straight or not.  It it about the intent and the integrity of the video.  It is outright unprofessional for a company to malign not only another company nor a city, but an entire country.  The video said a lot about the Philippines but it said a lot more about Aegis as a company, willing to trash an entire country's outsourcing capability just to promote itself.  Interestingly, Business Mirror reported in 2012, that Aegis has more than 14,000 in the Philippines.  So it is odd that the company may be cannibalizing its presence in the region.

We are expecting that the Call Center Association of the Philippines(CCAP) or the Business Process Association of the Philippines will issue out a statement soon.   And of course, we are expecting that Aegis Malaysia will be speaking soon.  Nevertheless, the video does a lot of damage not to the Philippines, not on Malaysia, but on Aegis as a company whether in Malaysia or in the Philippines.

The video has been removed from the original Aegis link.  But newsgra.ph got a hold of the video and posted it on you tube, it is embedded below.   We feel the link may disappear soon.