Global Services recently came out with its outlook of 2012 based on its survey. In the context of some of the data presented, I took the liberty of getting snippets of information that may and will impact the call center industry in the Philippines and the rest of the world, adding my opinion to most of these analyses.

The Philippines is the top call center country in the world for outsourcing customer service and support not only because it is the only English-speaking country in East Asia but as well as its American style of doing business, character traits of resiliency and frugality, and a submissive, non-confrontational culture of literally respecting everyone who is older in age. Put that all together and you've got one of the most respectful, "the customer is always right," and "try as much as you can to solve it" type of service delivery in the world.

The moment of truth in Philippine tourism is when every contact with a tourist visiting the country for the first time happens. The wealth of solutions that best describe what needs to be done is all about the customer experience of the foreign tourist. The best people to help the tourism department will come from the contact center industry.

There are only some, not all, of the Steve Jobs charisma we can carry on into our daily lives because we also need to be who people know us to have been all these years. The glaring characteristics to Steve Jobs’ rise and fall are his tunnel vision to market wants, sticking to your gut, learning to dance with the men and women of power, hiring the best, being obscenely direct, learning the art of motivational speaking, minding your own business, and continuing to be a product and marketing guy even if you were CEO.

Facebook can lead students to the wrong path, much like the impersonators we've all seen before. Leading them to the wrong path isn't just the parents' fault as it is for the school and teachers, too. I honestly believe the teacher, that greatest public figure of young people who adore their moms, dads and (secretly, usually) their teachers, should begin to learn and equip themselves with the benefits, advantages and power of social media as an academic tool. The question more begs on why teachers and schools aren't extending their public roles and responsibilities to social media where their students today live and breath every day. There's an impulsive way of entering social media for educational and business means, and there's a more proper way of doing so. The challenge is to decide to enter and how to do so.

[Photo above]: Basic military training for new arrivals. How we all wish businesses provided as much training as possible before and while our young professionals are out on the field. Are today’s yuppies trying too hard to market and sell whatever it is they’re required to do? I ask this question because I always encounter [...]

The key to investing is time and a fund management program like Banco de Oro’s Easy Investment Plan is a way for the ordinary Filipino to start creating his investment portfolio that can yield good savings across a period of time. For as little as 1,000 Pesos a month, anyone can now watch their money grow without having to learn the complexities of financial markets and funds. Whether it’s a short or long-term savings requirement, the benefits still outweigh the usual interest rate of an ordinary savings account.

Personal finance management is all about planning and managing your money, creating wealth, sustaining savings, investing, lessening costs, and finding more means to increase income. It sounds obvious but many of us don't do it. And when a huge trial hits us requiring money, we are never prepared to deal with it.

My intent is to let you know that blogging can be done even with as little as a few hours per week. Just don't stop if it means well for you to start expressing yourself in writing; and blogging is the easiest way to publish yourself for free. What I wrote is based on my experience, not someone else’s. There are thousands of more tips and suggestions on the web on how best to maintain your blog and make it successful. Google it and you'll be overwhelmed by it. I’m sure others will have many more to add to my list.

If you take a stopwatch and record the time you spend on web sites, you might notice that Facebook takes an unprecedented amount of time you spend on the Internet over the rest of the other web sites combined. Indeed, Facebook has now topped the charts in terms of daily usage.