{"id":2047,"date":"2016-08-27T17:23:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-27T17:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/women-reality-less-hype_082816\/"},"modified":"2016-08-27T17:23:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-27T17:23:00","slug":"women-reality-less-hype_082816","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/women-reality-less-hype_082816\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware men in gray suits: Clients want more senior women, more real client stories and less automation hype"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

We set out a few weeks’ ago, with support from NASSCOM, to test the views of service buyers, advisors and providers on what the BPO industry needs to do to make the leap from delivering mere efficiency to one that can provide genuine strategic value<\/em> to clients (if this is indeed possible). \u00a0<\/p>\n

As we filter through the first results, what immediately leaped out at me was the following:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Clients want more women leaders and real<\/span> case studies… more than anything else<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

“Why are these providers and advisors dominated by boring men in gray suits?” \u00a0bemoaned several clients at one of our HfS Summits recently (where more than half the buyers executives present were actually female). \u00a0This is a serious issue, folks. Our industry has – somehow – become dominated by too many dinosaur service provider executives with their lavish air-miles accounts and two iPhones* (why do some people insist on having more than one iPhone? \u00a0Are they really that<\/em> popular?), who have, at the same time, somehow lost all records of actual client success stories that justify\u00a0their new vernacular around “digital transformation” and “automation”.<\/p>\n

In fact, during one service provider briefing last week (which will remain nameless), we asked an\u00a0executive to explain how he defined “Digital Transformation” (after many utterances of said phrase) and the poor chap was positively floored that he was asked to define what he was talking about. These people seem to be obsessed with recanting the vogue buzz phrases, without the need anymore to know<\/em> what they really are. Can we just call it “technology” again and go back to sharing real examples of how technology can enable and transform client performance? Can we just explain what all this hype is surrounding automation and emphasize\u00a0that most of today’s RPA technology has actually been around for more than a decade in many shapes and forms?<\/p>\n

Here, it’s abundantly clear that we need to see more women – and, dare I say it, more youthful executives, who can simply connect better<\/em> with the clients. \u00a0Everything has become so dominated by the men in gray suits, who talk in increasingly more impressive riddles that are becoming increasingly distant from reality. \u00a0Moreover, we need to dispel much of the hype surrounding automation and jobs impact: \u00a0Gartner’s unsubstantiated claim<\/a> that “more than three million workers globally will be supervised by robobosses in just 18 months’ time”, is simply irresponsible and unprofessional. It’s time to make it real<\/em> and drop the hype and scaremongering…<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line: It’s time for progressive change from within<\/em>\u00a0to break ourselves out of this legacy holding pattern\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The industry has spoken, and it’s not pretty – clients are fed up with the same old selling, the same old unsubstantiated hype and the same old cronies dishing it out. Change only comes when we look at progressive change, not successive\u00a0change. This means we must stop making the same old mistakes by replacing jaded middle managers with more faceless middle managers with a hype-upgrade; this means we must stop plastering out turgid marketing that was really a rip-off of the other ten competitors, with a different logo slapped on it.<\/p>\n

We need real people selling and delivering our solutions, who can listen to what clients need and can really empathize with them, who are diverse across the genders, the age groups and the ethic backgrounds. We need to start talking real English again, and less of the manifested garbage we can’t resist spewing out to mask our insecurities. As our whole 2017 research theme at HfS is centered on… it’s simply time to start making everything real<\/em> again and redefine our industry as something that is geared up for our clients’ real needs, not needs we are trying to convince them they have!\u00a0<\/p>\n

*In full disclosure, the author of this article has been seen once sporting a gray suit and did possess two iPhones for a brief period of time. \u00a0He has since changed his ways…<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We set out a few weeks’ ago, with support from NASSCOM, to test the views of service buyers, advisors and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2048,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,78,97,837],"tags":[303],"organization":[],"ppma_author":[19],"class_list":["post-2047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-process-outsourcing-bpo","category-hfsresearch-com-homepage","category-talent-in-sourcing","category-the-industry-speaks","tag-enterprise-irregulars"],"yoast_head":"\nBeware men in gray suits: Clients want more senior women, more real client stories and less automation hype - Horses for Sources | No Boundaries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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