Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/73199
Editor's Letter Singapore Swings Nearly 200 workplace thought leaders joined us in the cutting-edge commercial capital of Singapore in May. The shared mission was groundbreaking professional advancement via the 2012 HRO Today Forum APAC. HRO Today's third APAC summit was a vital mix of dealmaking, brainstorming, and networking. If you missed this seminal event, you missed a lot. (Though never a replacement for the real thing, you may, thankfully, access the proceedings by going to www.hrosummits.com/hrosummitapac.) Now, so that you don't find yourself in the same situation of harvesting market intelligence virtually next year, we are offering you the opportunity to join our APAC 2013 Campaign. What does the campaign offer? Simple: New business. Ask Calvin Richardson, director of HR service delivery in APAC for Corning Incorporated. When he took the stage in May to discuss "borderless HR," it was the direct result of what had happened the year before. At the 2011 HRO Today APAC Forum, Richardson had begun the negotiations that led to his currently thriving engagement with Talent2. Indeed, Corning has already moved beyond pure recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and begun a transition to a fully integrated talent acquisition model. An important point about Richardson, however, is his seniority and gravitas within his organisation. With no college or university degree, he is a self-made domain expert whose career story we will be narrating in a future edition. For our purposes here, however, it is Richardson's current clout that is both important and anomalous. He doesn't twiddle his thumbs waiting for the home office to green light his engagements. He is the decision maker. Most multinationals in APAC, by contrast, have to jump through multiple hoops (typically digital or telephonic, but hoops nevertheless) in order to get their programmes approved. This was a story we heard time and again in Singapore, and the reality of its challenge is what will inform our APAC initiative going forward. Emerging economies undeniably are poised to leap from first-generation human resources services to HR 3.0. This is why outsourcing has undergone such a surge in APAC during recent years. Only two years ago, the region counted only 6 per cent of all HRO engagements that were struck. As of this writing, that number has risen to 19 per cent. But the progress has not come as robustly as it might have done, precisely because (again, as we heard many times) too many of those holding the purse strings in London or New York do not fully grasp the intricacies and possibilities that the APAC market represents. "I thought we had it all sewn up," lamented one practitioner about a deal that had progressed all the way to articulated service level agreements. "And then I got a call from the States saying, 'We're not ready for this yet.' It was a travesty." Because HRO Today Global is uniquely positioned to convene best-in-class HR service providers with leading multinational practitioners, our developing APAC initiative will offer a clear means to compress the learning curve that has perhaps been too steep for decision makers outside the region. We are currently in deep discussion with many of you about just which forms the campaign can and should take. Whether in person, online, or in print, the efforts will track with our usual conventions: Aggregating best practices in siting and sourcing to help providers and practitioners join forces to get their programmes pre-approved. If you have questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me at dirk.olin@sharedxpertise.com. Don't wait. The market is now. Dirk Olin, Editor-in-Chief [6] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | SPRING 2012