FundBPO - Case Study
From the Asialink Business Singapore Country Starter Pack
After losing an opportunity to a competitor because his company lacked an Asian “footprint”, FundBPO CEO Martin Smith knew it was time to make a long-term move to the region. He had been operating on a fly-in fly-out basis for the Sydneybased fund administration company for a year before setting up a Singapore office in 2012.
“During the fly-in fly-out period people were saying ‘what’s your commitment to the market, how can we rely on you to remain here?’. We felt we really had to bring an owner to the market,” says Smith. “We’re selling a service and people want localisation, familiarity and they want commitment. I think there have been some bad experiences with offshoring and regional processing.
“We’ve been really successful with a range of institutional clients, both government and nongovernment, and the thing that has swayed their decision and made them feel more comfortable is I say ‘well I’m a major shareholder in the business and I’ve made the commitment, I’ve moved my family here, I’ve been living here three-and-a-half years, it’s my base’, so when it comes down to that decision-making of market commitment and longevity, it’s as if we’ve been here 10 years.”
Smith found it relatively straightforward to set up in Singapore, finding its systems similar to Australia’s. “Also, 150,000 Singaporeans went to university in Australia so you’ve got some alignment and consistency,” says Smith.
There are, of course, differences.
“One of the challenges we continue to face is it’s very competitive in Asia, both in the number of competitors and price sensitivity,” says Smith.
“Clients also like to be engaged and that includes face-to-face time. In Australia we would meet with a client once, give them a proposal, have a final meeting to nut out the details, then close it off. Here the engagement is longer. The selling we do in Australia is more on trust and alignment, price is secondary, here it’s price and relationship, but the pitfall of that is you have to make sure you agree the scope as part of the fee negotiation, otherwise not only have you reduced your price, you could also potentially increase your work.”
In the workplace, Smith advises expat managers to check that staff are happy in their work. “The job market is very competitive for good people, people do get poached regularly, so you need to constantly monitor how staff are feeling so you can respond to their needs. Local staff are very stable and reliable as long as what they want and what they’re getting are aligned.”
Smith says that as long as a product is marketable or a service is sustainable, Singapore is a valuable market, and for companies with a global footprint its position is unbeatable.
“I can be in Hong Kong in four hours, Australia in seven and a half, and Europe in 11 to 13, and I can be there tomorrow if I have to. I’m in the centre, that’s the number one advantage for Singapore.”
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