Last year, another milestone was reached as we launched our third expansion and our largest office yet.
Let’s take a look back at how 2018 went:
Last March 2018, VBP has reached a new milestone—we are now 200 in our team! As we continue to cater to more financial planning firms in Australia, we also continuously (and rapidly!) grow our team here in the Philippines. Seems like yesterday when we were working as a team of 20. And now it’s four and a half years later and we’ve grown 10 times in number!
Being a culture-led business, growing our team and living our purpose are some of our main goals. See our Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) below:
We have a clear purpose, goal and plan, which is vital in keeping everyone aligned. (We use a one-page plan and learnt all about these principles from Gazelles coaching and from the book Scaling Up by Verne Harnish.)
Every company should have a clear vision for the business and of the four focus areas: People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. By far, the most important for our company is the decisions we make relating to ‘people’.
So how were we able to build, and now grow, a strong team? We focus on 3 things.
Hear it straight from our team on how they feel about working at VBP:
As we now focus on our next milestone to reach 300 staff by 2019, we remain focused on continuing to develop our people’s skills, to commit to improving advice delivery processes (via better use of technology) and maintain our unique business culture. This helps us with the longevity of our staff and the stream of people being referred to work with us.
We are very excited to announce that our new website is now live!
Over the course of three years, we have experienced a fast-paced growth as a business (we now have 204 staff and 62 clients). With this, we wanted to make sure that we are able to present our company, our brand and our purpose, in a well-structured site.
As we are an Australian company based in the Philippines (Cebu), our main goal was to have a more targeted marketing strategy by segregating the Australian audience (existing and future clients) from the Filipino audience (employees and aspiring applicants). We wanted to build a website that is comprehensive and has all the information needed for those who are interested in improving their back office. We also wanted an area where we can share about our amazing culture to those who want to join our enthusiastic Cebu team. We now have a separate website from our main site called careers.virtualbusinesspartners.com.au which is focused on recruitment.
The Main Site is for everyone who wants to know more about how VBP works. We have provided lots of feedback from clients and a more comprehensive list of all the services we provide, together with a bunch of resources and download materials to assist clients to get the most from outsourcing.
Click here to take a tour, and feel free to provide any feedback, as we would love to know what you think!
New Facebook Page
Having a separate careers page has also brought us to the idea of having a new Facebook page. Our previous FB page called VBP Back Office Solutions has now been renamed to VBP Careers and Culture which will now focus on recruitment and sharing more about our company activities to show people how we are as a company and as a family.
We have created a new Facebook page intended for our existing and future clients. Focusing on all things to improve business efficiency. Here, we will also be sharing updates and our blog articles that are relevant to the financial planning industry, outsourcing and business processes.
Over the coming weeks we will also be making some changes to our email communication for clients and contacts. Our client broadcasts and updates will now be classified into 5 categories:
2017 was a year of new opportunities and milestones for VBP. Although we had a few bumps along the road, VBP continued to soar.
We always live our core value of celebrating ‘Little WOWs’ but sometimes, it’s also more fun to celebrate the ‘Big WOWs’. From 55 advice firms, we wrapped up the year with 65 firms across 12 licensees, a 45% growth in client number. And of course, along with that is an increase in our staff number. From 123, we grew to a total of 183 employees.
Client satisfaction rate is up by 38% and employee satisfaction and engagement also went up by 55%. This is a great thing for a culture-led business like VBP, as we always aim to keep everyone in the family happy and engaged, both clients and staff. Of course with all of these, revenue growth is up by 47% as well. Plus, there’s a lot more to celebrate. Watch more of the business highlights from the previous year:
Last 17th of October 2017, the Asia CEO Awards held its annual grand awards night at the Manila Marriott Grand Ballroom. Asia CEO Awards is one of the largest awards event in the Philippines and the Asia Pacific region. Their purpose is to promote the ASEAN region as a premier business destination and is considered one of the most prestigious events for business leaders in the region. The awards recognise extraordinary leaders who have demonstrated outstanding achievement for their organizations and contributions to others.
Virtual Business Partners has been selected as one of the finalists for the SME Company of the Year. This award is for small and medium sized (10-500 employees) non-subsidiary, independent, profit-making companies that achieved relevant success in the past year.
“Being the first award we have nominated for, to have been chosen as a finalist, was a real validation of all the hard work over the past four years. We have been building a business that focuses on developing and inspiring the best from our team. I am very proud of the team’s efforts to continually look for ways to improve our system, client experience, and staff development and this was noted from some of the judge’s feedback and a key contributor to our results,” said VBP CEO David Carney.
It is VBP’s honor to be recognised as one of the most successful firms in the category. With over 180 employees to date, VBP has grown into an established back office solution firm, specialising in financial planning services. For over 4 years we have successfully launched new offices, hosted client conferences and have expanded our key services.
“For us, we see ourselves as more of a back office solution rather than just purely an outsourcing business. Key things we talked about is being a specialist not a generalist so we specialise in financial services and will continue to provide and look at value added on areas of business processes, systemising,” Carney added.
Reference: http://www.asia-ceo-awards.org/
On the 8th-9th of August 2017, clients from across Australia arrived in Cebu, Philippines. They stayed for five days with a series of conferences and tours, where a mix of fun and blissful adventure entertained them.
A day after their arrival, Madz, one of the Client Services Managers and Angeli Bas, the Talent Acquisition Manager, aided our clients and became their tour guides on a whim.
Angeli collected our clients every day from their hotel to the office where they spent most of their visit, whilst Madz accompanied them on most nights, together with the bosses DC and DD – from dinner to early night drinks.
In between conferences, clients utilised their time to sit in and get to know their CSRs. They caught up with them, not only on their daily tasks but also on what went on about their lives outside of work – from small talks to deeper conversations.
The conference consisted of a barrage of substantial presentations that enriched both VBP and the clients. From tips and tricks, to the introduction of business game changers.
“Sitting with other business units was also helpful as it gave me an insight of some of the processes that we could implement with our CSRs,” she added.
For Lia Etika of Financial Investment Solutions, she felt that some of the session contents and applications introduced were very valuable.
Jennifer Mogg, Operations Manager of Invest Blue saw the most value in meeting her team and seeing them in person.
It was an immersive series of events that is now cemented in our VBP-Client relationship history. They’ve witnessed how we work as a team and how we bond as a family.
It was also a great way for Matej Mandic, Client Experience Officer of Inspired Money, to see exactly what the company is about – how VBP processes work the way they do. Also, he sees the conference as a valuable way to explore different options from an outsourcing perspective within the company.
Recognition and Celebration
Dressed up for a night of glamour and celebration, VBP Back office solutions held the annual Talent and Awards Night last August 12th 2017 at Cebu Parklane International Hotel. Anticipated as an annual event where employees are recognised for the year’s wins and wows, awards were given out to outstanding team members whose contributions continued to nurture not only the business’ operations, but most importantly, those who cultivated VBP’s growing culture.
Also, performances that exhibited the VBP and Filipino cultures were one of the highlights of the night.
Nine Awards were given out this year, an increase from last year as VBP grew to a larger team and as employees demonstrated abilities deserving of recognition. Here are the list of the awards and their recipients:
Rising Star Award – Manuel Jacob Jamio, Paraplanner
Consider it Done Award – Christy Limotan, CSR
Core Values Award – Chowdee Tugaoen, CSR
Beyond the Call of Duty Award – Renz Salares, CSR
Servant Leadership Award – Lailani Santos, CSM
Team of the Year Award – Team Jabber
Support Person of the Year Award – Kay Jongko, Learning and Development Manager
Paraplanner of the Year Award – Giovanni Hermoso, Paraplanner
Employee of the Year Award – Anthonette Macawile, CSR
Staff members who have been with VBP for 3 years were also awarded.
As the visit ended, VBP and the clients have nurtured a strong working and cultural relationship – both parties were able to deepen the understanding each other’s’ beliefs, values, and principles.
They were also excellent few days for Andrew Rocks, CEO of Announcer.
