Quality-Focused Outsourcing – with Michael McRitchie of Satellite Office

About Satellite Office

In this episode, Derek talks to Michael McRitchie, the founder and CEO of Satellite Office, an outsourcing company in the Philippines.

Soon to celebrate its 10th anniversary, Derek and Michael talked about how Satellite Office began, and how it has been providing high-quality service.

They also discussed the challenges of AI and automation, and how the outsourcing industry and talent in the Philippines have improved.

Reminiscing the past from eight years ago before Satellite Office, Michael was a chartered accountant who worked mostly in mergers and acquisitions and advisory.

Fast forward, he became a CEO of an online retail business called Deals Direct. From there, he builds a team in the Philippines consisting of 50 persons.

Michael recalls that his team then had improved metrics across all structures—which he views as a success. This success is what led him into setting up Satellite Office in the country with 1600 staff—and still growing.

How Satellite Office ensures quality services

“Who we are is a high quality, consultative client partnering service provider,” Michael tells Derek.

Michael firmly believes that their firm offer “a high-quality threshold on every touchpoint”  that resonates across: 

• “The people that [they] recruit for [their] internal team”
• “The people [they] recruit for [their] client’s teams”
• “The tools that [they] put in place to service [their] clients and [themselves] internally” 
• “The facilities that [they] operate from, and just how [they] behave” 

“Every touchpoint I’m a strong believer that there’s no magic bullet to how you run a business, just like there’s no single magic bullet to how you perform and invest [in] team in a sporting environment,” the Satellite Office founder and CEO said.

“[We] focus on quality across what we do and who we are. I know it’s a bit cliche, but when you lift up the bonnet and explore what it means internally, and what we provide to our clients, it’s very real,” he added.

Focus on client outcomes, not just cost savings

“The focus on quality for us with our solution is heavily people-focused,” Michael says.

Being a people-focused service provider requires understanding what the client needs exactly [and] “not just from what’s on the job spec.” And this is what exactly Satellite Office delivers.

Unlike other companies that want to focus on cost savings, the Satellite Office quality service shows that “paying to get the best talent ensures that the output and the quality of person will be at least as good as what you have in your home country.”

The threats and opportunities of AI and automation

“AI and automation can be a threat and a challenge to our industry in the service providers, but it can also be an opportunity.” the Satellite Office founder and CEO said.

Michael also mentioned that [AI and automation] can be an enabler, and emerging technologies can be part of the solution that assists in the service delivery of what they do for their clients.

Satellite Office embraces these technologies to enable better service delivery and recruit talent with the needed skillsets.

“We’re using this technology, now across the tools we use and implement as part of our service delivery, be that across recruitment,” He says.

Moreover, Michael thinks that “[the threats and opportunities of AI and automation] depends which way you look at it. But if you embrace it and allow it to be an enabler, [you] allow [it] to evolve your solution.”

How talent investments revolutionized the Philippine outsourcing

Michael shares that India was more developed 20 years ago than the Philippines. But he found that there was a huge opportunity, a great talent pool, and highly educated talent for their Satellite Office in the country.

He thinks the Philippines “got strong support from [the] government.”

“The government has been making across university qualified graduates and candidates, as well as the infrastructure that has been invested in build on to spread access to the talent more broadly than just Metro Manila,” he says.

As a result, “the players have improved, the quality has improved, the talent is getting deeper and broader”; hence, the Philippine outsourcing industry “definitely evolved.”

Connect with Michael through his LinkedIn Profile or email him at [email protected].

To know more about Satellite Office, you may visit: https://www.satelliteoffice.com/