For Brandt Business Services, CX + EX+ DX = consistency, speed, efficiency, and business impact. With technology as a universal function, CEO Dato’ Dr. Munirah Looi tells RACHAEL PHILIP that it is vital to push for real human connections.
Brandt Business Services Sdn Bhd, the outsourcing outfit based in Bangsar South, has got it right with the adoption of its new tagline: The Experience Company. While business value and operational excellence are important, what brings these to life in today’s context are customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX) and digital experience (DX). “Today’s economy revolves around experience. A positive customer experience is more valuable than just a good product or service. Likewise, it is important to empower and engage employees to make them feel valued and heard. Digital experience is like the icing on the cake, providing personalisation, speed, and seamless, frictionless and real-time information to empower CX,” said Brand Business Services CEO Dato’ Dr Munirah Looi.
While customer experience is much talked about, Munirah said that employee experience and satisfaction must not be neglected as employees are the frontliners dealing with customers.
“The millennials and Gen-Zs – digital natives for whom the internet is ubiquitous – is the powerhouse of the GBS business. It is important to understand their profile and needs.
“They have different expectations from the organisation. They thrive on flexibility; they want to be involved, they want an enriching and empowering job. They value recognition and rewards besides
a monthly salary,” said Munirah, sharing her insights on the topic. Prior to founding Brandt, Munirah was a corporate executive for 25 years. At her peak, she held the New York-based global role as Customer Experience Director for Citicorp.
Last year, Munirah received the Distinguished Women Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award by KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific. In February, she was conferred with the degree of Doctor of Law from the University of Nottingham Malaysia.
THE NEW WORKPLACE
In today’s workplace, it is common to see four generations in the workforce. A large portion of them are millennials, followed by Gen Zs. Munirah said it is their job to manage these different generations.
“Both these generations are digitally savvy people. We want jobseekers to come to us not just looking for a job but for a career. “When employed, we want to make sure that it is easy for them to carry out their tasks. All of them are provided with laptops. We have automated and digitised all our human resources and back office services to the cloud. The more digital the workplace is the more connected we are.
“The contact centre job can be very demanding. It requires mental strength and focus. Our employees face complaints every day. It is easy to get stressed and burned out. As such we organise meaningful and stress-busting activities.
Our team leads have budgets for team building activities that are fun and help us connect with one another. As a team, they celebrate festivities, go out for movies, trips and food outings.
She said on average, employees in this industry have a two-year tenure while the annualised attrition rate averages 35%. However, because of the investment made in their employees, Brandt scores a low attrition rate of between 8-10% annually.
AN AGILE MINDSET
Munirah also attributes the success of Brandt to the company’s flat organisation structure and the agile mindset of its leaders. She explains that agility – to be able to pivot and transform under short notice – is what saw the company through the challenging financial, economic and pandemic times of the last 20 years.
Brandt, founded in 2004 as a CX and business transformation consulting firm but, looking at emerging trends in the industry, evolved into customer management outsourcing and HR solutions provider to support the needs of the time. Prudently, the company invested in emerging technologies including RPA, AI, chatbots and automation in a bid to digitise its entire business just before the pandemic hit.
In the past 11 years, Brandt achieved a CAGR of 29%. Its two BPO sites serve clients from Malaysia to Singapore, Hong Kong and China. In 2020, it recorded a revenue of RM45 million, a 35% YOY revenue growth, its highest ever. By 2024, the company expects to double this figure.
Workforce, meanwhile, has swelled to 1200 from 500 just three years ago, while its clientele base doubled in the same period, prompting management to increase its operational floor from two to four, in addition to further investments into emerging technologies and process improvements. On average, it records 50,000 customer interactions daily, that’s 15 million per year.
“We carried out an organisational alignment prior to the pandemic which helped greatly and in the pandemic years. We constantly adapted, quickly pivoted and grew because the team knew what they needed to do. They felt empowered to do,” said Munirah.
Within the next five years, she expects Brandt to double down on its BPO services, especially in the higher value customer experience and robotic process automation category, targeting high-growth Internet sectors such as e-Commerce, fintech and health tech.
ENHANCED EXPERTISE
With the upgrades in IT infrastructure and emerging technologies, Brandt has also appointed a handful of new leaders, one of them is Cheah Kok Hoong, its new Chairman.
Cheah is the former CEO of Hitachi-Sunway Information Systems and Group Chief Information Officer of Sunway Group. A household name in the ICT and GBS community and a thought leader, he will also serve on Brandt’s Board of Directors.
He is also the Chairman of Digital Vision Group.
This appointment is strategic for Brandt as the company is looking at enlarging its ecosystem by collaborating with Digital Vision companies.
Cheah said the GBS sector is finding it increasingly difficult to find and develop talent.
“The GBS sector performs the function of people, process and technology. The workforce post-pandemic requires new skills to get the job done. Training, skills upgrade and talent management are crucial,” he said.
“A big part of Brandt’s GBS work comes from MNCs. These three years, MNCs are looking at cost reduction and right sizing. “If the last two years saw rapid technology growth especially with e-commerce, today businesses are normalising. Companies are looking at cash preservation especially with the uncertainties caused by the Russia-Ukraine war and the China and US situation.”
He said MNCs are being astute and are looking at multi-location, cross border outsourcing as a strategy to manage costs. Malaysia has a resilient workforce and world-class infrastructure allowing workers to quickly pivot and work from home if the need arises. The country is ranked as the third most competitive GBS location behind India and China, he noted. “Malaysia is definitely on the radar. We are a good alternative to the top 2 countries.
Here is where experience becomes a defining moment, a key differentiating factor for companies in the market. Our clients, echoing the needs of their customers, want humanised customer experience and interaction,” he stressed.
EXCITING TIMES
The GBS industry is growing exponentially. The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the global market for offshore-based Business Process Services will hit USD17.5 billion in value by next year, with a five-year CAGR of 6.6%. In Malaysia, the industry market size was valued at USD4.95 billion end of 2020. The IDC anticipates a healthy five-year CAGR growth of 6.2% for the local industry.
Munirah said government policies should take into consideration domestic direct investments as well as foreign direct investments for a more sustainable growth. “I’m optimistic because Budget 2023 emphasises on investing back in local businesses.” 0GBS companies in Malaysia are bent on firming up their business development capabilities by strengthening infrastructure and value-added service offerings. Munirah supports the 1% levy imposed by the Human Resources Development Corporation as it further strengthens local talents though it may cause profit erosion in the short term.
“The cost of doing business is increasing. Hence it is important to foster dialogue going between industry players and policy makers, and improve processes and adopt more automation” she suggests.
She said that while the country has benefited from good investments in digital infrastructure, it also needs governance and regulatory bodies to pivot to the digital age.
“For example, insurance, retirement benefits or medical insurance for gig workers are now being looked at. Flexible working arrangements are also becoming the new normal so it is important to study other aspects of development in order to grow the digital economy. SMEs form the backbone of any economy and more investments such as grants, growth funding and incentives can help.”
OUR BEST YEARS
Early last year, Brandt obtained the ISO 27001 certification – a step towards better process improvement, structure and governance. Munirah said that Brandt has always peaked in the face of difficult times.
As a “transformational leader”, continuously learning and staying in the know is important in order to adapt to the changes in the workplace and to remain ahead of the curve.
“Staying close to industry-specific news, online sources of information, studying global trends are things which a leader should be doing constantly. Networking with colleagues and industry players are also important.”
HELPING SMEs GROW
Most of the clients of Brandt Business Services Sdn Bhd are multinational corporations. But founder Dato’ Dr Munirah Looi feels that SMEs too can benefit greatly from Brandt’s offerings.
“Looking ahead, SMEs have great potential but also great challenges. They stand to face more uncertainties and volatility but also much success if they can remain agile and pivot quickly in the face of uncertainties. This is where outsourcing can help SMEs to grow with minimal risk,” she said.
“We have some SME clients who are able to pivot, adjust their costs and deliver great customer service with minimal investment. Customer experience is often overlooked in this sector so is training.
“Many SMEs see training as a cost but we believe in investing in people as they are ultimately your best asset and your unique value. It’s easy to copy a product or service but tough to copy good people.
Brandt is creating awareness among SMEs on the benefits of outsourcing. According to Dato’ Munirah, they are also relooking at their business and pricing model of their services to attract SMEs. By Q2, they hope to have some products ready for SMEs.
Munirah is currently the Vice-Chairman (Outsourcing) for Digital GBS Malaysia, a chapter of PIKOM. She is also an elected councillor for PIKOM and member Board of Trustees of Yayasan Tunku Abdul Rahman, a foundation set up under the Tunku Abdul Rahman Foundation Fund Act 1966 to assist underprivileged Malaysian students. She is also an appointed Director of MyDigital Corporation.
A highly accomplished leader and entrepreneur, she has plans to realise Brandt’s aspiration to go regional and global but stresses that her focus now is on value creation. “There are lots of opportunities in this sector. While our clients are currently mostly multinationals, we are keen to support the local SMEs too. We are also looking at expanding delivery centres in preparation for US and UK markets.”
