From Pakistan Call Center Agent to Founder of 400-Person Outsourcing Firm – with Shahzad Yaqoob of IdeasUnlimited

This week’s episode of the Outsource Accelerator Podcast sees Derek joined by Shahzad Yaqoob, CEO and Founder of IdeasUnlimited. 

IdeasUnlimited will celebrate 15 years in the industry this year thanks to Shahzad’s persistence through challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and remote work adjustments. He shares how his company grew from a collection of gig workers to a 400-person firm. 

IdeasUnlimited

Shahzad introduces IdeasUnlimited. 

“It’s a global BPO [that] provides six different main services in the BPO industry. And under those main services we have different sub-services. 

And we’ve been providing this for the past 15 years. We’ve completed over a thousand projects with different clients.” 

He says that a number of factors allow IdeasUnlimited to stand out from the competition. 

“The first thing is the variety of services that we provide, and that’s because of the abundance of experience that we’ve had.” 

He attributes their background in the gig environment, allowing them to jump into different industries. Additionally, they offer flexible pricing and 24/7 coverage. 

Shahzad describes the year 2017 as “a pivotal point” for their business. 

“It was basically the second chapter of IdeasUnlimited, where we naturally evolved into a call center. I registered call centers in the Philippines, in the US in Houston, Texas, and in Pakistan.”

Managing and scaling an outsourcing business

Shahzad tells of how, early in his career, he found himself at a low point and stuck at home, until he discovered remote work. 

“I stumbled upon an online opportunity. I hadn’t heard of work-from-home or any remote opportunity at the time, but [this] opened my eyes to a whole world of freelancing.

Why not introduce this to others who are going through a rough patch and who may be going through a dark time in their life, [to] offer them remote opportunities and help them gain confidence back in life as well?” 

Shahzad notes the inconsistent nature of the outsourcing business, including his own experience as a leader. 

“It’s been sort of up and down, twists and turns. Things have evolved over the last 15 years, [but] COVID was a very tough period.” 

While the shift to remote work hit other companies hard, IdeasUnlimited was able to withstand it better. 

“We were already working remotely since 2010. So we had a remote structure in place. We already had all the SLAs and the SOPs and the processes and all that for remote work.

We lost some of the projects, but not the structure.” 

Despite observing changes in service offerings, Shahzad maintains that call center operations are still their way to go. 

“Call center offerings is our flagship service, and we’re still doing pretty well in that. We’re gonna continue to evolve in that manner. 

He’s not worried about major competition from larger firms, instead letting their experience speak for itself.

“We’ve compiled all the technology experience, the SOPs, the processes that we’ve developed, the human capital that we’ve gained, and we present it [to] our clients.” 

A people-centered philosophy

When it comes to new technological disruptions, Shahzad says that they’re “definitely incorporating AI.” 

However, he’s more vocal than most in retaining the human component. 

“I hope that as human beings, we make the right cause. We don’t look at short-term profits, but the long-term goals and we make our decision off of good. 

The intention for IdeasUnlimited was on something good as well. And that’s what I believed in the beginning, make good choices and promote good people, and good will return to you.” 

If you want to get in touch with Shahzad, you may email him at [email protected] or visit IdeasUnlimited’s website to contact their sales team.

For any questions about Outsource Accelerator, you may email [email protected].