Joy Adalia
We all know that the Philippines is not a perfect country – far from it, yes. Still, the ad made by AEGIS highlighting the many negative aspects of the country, contrasting it with the many positive aspects of Malaysia, is a blow below the belt.
Maybe we are all reacting so negatively about this ad because we are Filipinos but even when I try to view this as objectively as possible, it was still very difficult to understand why they had to bash our country. Now that they decided to move to Malaysia, there was no need to show such hatred.
Harsh Philippine Environment
If we may look at this ad in the most objective way possible, however, we can see that there is a lot of truth there.
Firstly, AEGIS mentioned how they made the mistake of investing in a not-so-supportive business environment. Aside from the lack of excellent buildings to stay in, these structures are prone to becoming destroyed or damaged by calamities, citing earthquakes as an example.
Secondly, the company mentions the country’s unfriendly climate, prone to storms and typhoons that could cause floods and other problems. The country’s position within the Pacific “Ring of Fire” didn’t escape the company’s shrewd eyes, mentioning how this makes it harsher for businesses to operate: it increases the cost of living, causes high attrition rate, and a supposed ‘lack of availability of suitable talents’.
Third, AEGIS also hit the country for having lack of security in terms of protecting online data, making companies prone to hackers.
Fourth, they also mentioned there is a lack of government support.
According to the ad, this terrible environment creates a problem when it comes to communicating with clients, customers, and partners. Of course, that is bad for business.
Great Malaysian Environment
In contrast with all those negative aspects they had seen in PH, AEGIS praises Malaysia for having the complete opposite.
They praised the country’s excellent business environment for investors, offering world-class infrastructures. Malaysia is investor-friendly, with less bureaucracy and flexible policies. According to the ad, all these make processes quite easy in this country.
The ad boasts of Malaysia’s stable climate and good governance. It also praises the country’s talent pool, saying it is ‘customizable’ to business needs.
According to the company, these qualities make Malaysia the ideal place to invest in; for that reason, they decided to build a stronghold in the country. The move has allowed them to tap newer talents with multi-lingual capabilities.
AEGIS wraps up the ad by saying, “Because we understand that how you grow depends on who you grow with.”
No Need to Slam the Philippines
Yes, Malaysia may have its better points compared with the Philippines, but was there really a need to make a direct comparison between the two, to the point where the latter is placed in such a bad light that investors who would watch this clip might also think twice about investing in the country, too.
Despite the harsh environment that we live in, we have long learned to adapt. There may be plenty of typhoons, earthquakes, and natural calamities occurring in our country but we don’t have a hand in that. Even then, workers continue to strive hard to meet goals, helping the companies meet their targets and grow their business.
Filipinos are resilient; we know how to bounce back after falling down. Filipinos are multi-talented; many of us may not know how to speak Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. but we speak English like we are native speakers.
The ad was not about AEGIS, it was about Malaysia, about how the country is so much better than the Philippines. What’s the point? Perhaps the company had such a bad experience our country that it just had to badmouth the Philippines?
It’s too bad how a BPO company who has earned well in the country and utilized our pool of professional talents for many years would do this to us. Perhaps, AEGIS was merely speaking from experience but they should have made an ad without having to paint such a hateful picture of the Philippines, right?
Yes, the truth hurts but there was no need to slap that to our faces!
Watch the ad below and tell us what you think.
Aegis just painted a beautiful picture of Malaysia, it didn’t paint a bad picture of the Philippines. It just happened that Filipinos know that what Aegis said was true, that’s why it was hurtful for Filipinos.
I hope you know what you say. Have you watched the video?
I agree that they should not have publicized this as this is obviously bias against a specific country. But really, in the business world, nobody cares if you are risilient or if you could “bounce back after falling down” or if you are multi-talented. What businesses care about is the productivity of their businesses and how much money it puts into their banks. Sure, we’ve adapted well to the climate and to the typhoons and the flooding (really the flooding could be controlled) and the occasional earthquakes but that does not mean a thing to businessmen. All of these factors risk the stability and productivity of the site. For example; typhoons and flooding can cause and has always been the cause of absentism. Earthquakes – if strong enough, may cause the office building to collapse, which in turn, risk the safety of the employees. Businesses invest money on buildings whether they are rented out or they really built it. The same is true for hiring employees. Now, the regular occurence of natural disturbances (let’s not call it calamity as it’s not always that horrible.) is not good for the investment. And if in cases of a terrible earthquake and — may deities forbid — employees get hurt, the company will also take a big hit as they have to financially assist the employees (not because they care. They don’t care about us they only care about the money we bring into their stash.) because that’s the policy. That alone, they already lose money due to lack of productivity and they lose money for the employee assistance.
I understand the sentiment. I know most Filipinos took a painful hit to their “pride” because of this ad. And ethically, speaking this should have been an internal video that was never publicized. But let’s admit it with all factors accounted for, they country is not a very nice place to invest in a business that requires high amount of productivity such as a BPO or any industry that require employees to be in the office for 9 hours and more.
On the brighter side, our country is one of the top summer destination in Asia because of our beaches and I think businesses that involve tourists sure will pay off here.
AEGIS pays the lowest salary in bpo industry, the worst BPO management ever in the country the reason they could not even get to the top…WORST BPO COMPANY IN PHILIPINES TO WORK WITH not to mention salary deputes lol ,,,
what is AEGIS? who are they anyway? hahaha.
yes its true MALAYSIA AIRLINES are better.
Hahaha, you’re really a Malaysian. What if it was the other way around? If your country was being degraded while compared to another country? Wouldn’t you feel bad?
I am a Pinoy and I like what Malaysia published. It’s all true.
Philippines has lot of WORLD CLASS too, just check BINAY’S World Class City Hall.
Foreigners cannot invest more than 50% of stock in the PH.
Yes its true that the philippines is prone to natural calamities like typhoon but take note, there are regions that rarely experience that especially in the southern part, you cannot generalize the philippine climate. This ad is just saying not to be invest in the philippines because its a horrible place, prone to typhoons and earthquakes. of course, as a filipino i will protest. you are terrifying our investors. there are many investors who want to invest in philippine, please dont say such stupid things. IT MIGHT BE TRUE BUT NOT ALL PLACES IN THE PHILIPPINES. even if that is true you have no right to tell that, let the investor judge, not you…….
Atleast Philippines has the WORLD’S LARGEST INDOOR ARENA. 🙂
What the arena got to do with Aegis?
it wasn’t about the place, it was about the people of the place, and admit it or not filipinos are most fluent in english amongs asians, more intelligent, more productive, and better in many aspects.
And there are lots of killer, you can pay RM200 to kill someone you don’t like. Police are the kidnapper, gun for hire.
Fluent? Fluent my ass. Pinoys may speak English but that’s Pinoy English. Half the tme we don’t know what you Pinoy are saying in English with that Pinoy accent. Please… Speak ENGLISH.
This sounds a disgruntled company who’s not happy with the Philippines. If I’m a business owner, I probably would not do business with this company. If I’m a consultant being asked by a corporation to evaluate BPO company, I would not recommend Aegis. This is not an ad a professional company puts out. Ethically, it crossed the line.
MALAYSIAN LOOK YOURSELF FIRST YOUR PEOPLE ARE UNEDUCATED ELLITERATE …..GRABBING OUR TERITORY ….GREAT LIAR…………..SHAME ON YOU ..YOUR PEOPLE NO FREEDOM TO SPEECH NO EQUAL RIGHTS …….ASSHOLE.
ELLITERATE…
hahahaha.. you’re a laughing stock!
At least you can spell your own name correctly. ASSHOLE.
TERRORIST + ISIS + MUSLIM + LAND GRABBER + BOMBER + UNEDUCATED + LOW EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM + UNPROFESSIONAL + UNETHICAL + NO MANNERS = MALAYSIANS
Watch your manners STUPIDPINOY
Those mentioned in the ad about PH may be true, but what’s unacceptable is that Aegis could’ve just picked another country to invest in the first place. The weather has been like that long before they took their business here. Wasn’t it a well thought of plan? Aegis clearly cannot take ownership of their poor business decisions and pointed fingers to the easiest scapegoat possible. It even rings true that they are one of the few lowest paying BPO companies in the country albeit having a great pool of talents. And this is how they thank us after years of utilizing the efficient and resilient Filipino workforce. How ungrateful, unprofessional, and unethical. Aegis is free to take their business somewhere else. Who are they anyway? The entire BPO industry would be very happy to see them go.
ohh comon guys a little trash talks here and there are imminent.. get used to it.. masanay na tyo, kung sino pa yung magaling mang trash talk sila pa yung mabilis ma pikon.. Its business, whoever came up with this ad (is a retard) has a competative mind and only aims to compete thats all.. move on and show them that this is not true..
there is nothing we Filipinos can do even if they apologies, the thing is… damage has been done. hay naku!
Very Nice promotion AEGIS. You just proved how bad and stupid your company is!
When Aegis was still people support, it was one of the best, if not the best BPO company in the Philippines. When it became Aegis, it’s now in the bottom. Bad management that is, poor employee-management relationship, and the poorest company in terms of salary. I once worked in Aegis (Cebu) two years ago as a technical support and their salary was only Php 6,000.00 per month compared to Stream (now Convergys) of Php 16,000.00 with bonuses up to Php 5,000.00 for the same account. The difference is crystal clear.
On February 6, 2012, there was an earthquake that hits Cebu. At that time I was taking a call. On the floor was the Indian area manager of Aegis. He ordered us to continue taking calls even if the building was already shaking hard. Other companies have already EVAC. Aegis was the last.
Here in Cebu, Aegis hires mostly the recent graduates and even undergraduates from the provinces because they are the one who are easily lured with the cheap pay they offer.
There is NO freebies on the floor unlike Stream which offers free ice tea, juice, coffee of varied mixes, and others.
The worst part in Aegis was and I believe still is the ill-mannered TM’s and managers who would shout and treat their subordinates like slaves.
I personally would not recommend Aegis at all, not to my friends, not to my relatives, and not to anyone who would ask for my opinion.
Wow, Aegis has been taking down every attempt to upload the said video and grab a copyright claim. They have been censoring comments as well. It’s time for everyone to upload copies of the video and invoke a Streisand Effect. Do it, do it NOW!
Nonsense.