If there is one thing that Jack Madrid must be proud of, it is his being among the personalities who can claim they brought to Filipinos the unprecedented opportunity to be employed in the information technology and business process management or IT-BPM industry.

A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the United States, Madrid, president and CEO of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines, or IBPAP, has more than 25 years in leading strategies, digital innovation, and business transformation initiatives in various industries and organizations in Southeast Asia and Canada.

On leading IBPAP, an organization with over 300 members from IT-BPM and allied industries, Madrid is a firm believer in shaping corporate culture around the customer with a proven track record of developing meaningful customer experience strategies with swift execution and sustainable results.

"I chose the IBPAP leadership role for the privilege and opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to our country in generating jobs across the Philippines. I cannot think of a more impactful endeavor to increase the middle class of our country," Madrid told the DAILY TRIBUNE's online program Straight Talk.

Madrid is also the co-founder and managing director of Cascadia Fine Wines, the leading Asian distributor of premium wines from the Pacific Northwest.

Just like many in their youth, Madrid dreamt of being a rockstar or a stage actor. The strong fervor for being in the limelight, nonetheless, was instrumental in Madrid leading the IT-BPM industry to great heights.

IT-BPM firms which sprouted in most urban centers of the country offered Filipino workers the opportunity to reach salary levels that they can only earn overseas which entails the sacrifice of being away from their family leading to a broken society.

The Filipinos' unique attributes of being industrious and being honed from their tender age in the English language combined to transform the country as the prime destination for offshoring services.

Madrid said the demand for workers in the field will be boundless, especially among companies in the United States.

"The Philippines is a world capital in IT-BPM, and we seem to be the first choice whenever there is an opportunity for offshoring and delivering customer experience," he said.

Madrid added that the country's reputation for delivering complex business services and diverse functions will be its competitive advantage.

"Our industry has grown from plain vanilla contact center services to very distinct verticals including banking, financial services, insurance, healthcare, information management, and even creative industries. The long list of IBPAP members and all the multinationals that have done business here is proof of the huge opportunities in the country," according to Madrid.

In terms of export service revenues, the IT-BPM sector this year earned a growth rate of 8.8 percent in terms of the country's gross domestic product, which translates to an estimated $35.4 billion in revenue, exceeding the global industry's 7.7 percent average yearly expansion.

The IT-BPM sector, to date, has offered 1.7 million direct jobs to Filipinos currently working at close to 2,000 IT-BPM firms that are operating in the country.

"The jobs we created have a multiplier effect. For every direct job that our industry has, 2.5 other jobs are created. Adding it all up, we are probably contributing almost 15 percent of our GDP. But we are happy with 9 percent," he said.

Prospective investors in the IT-BPM sector include some European banks, and the United Kingdom-based group that will build a cybersecurity consulting operation in the Philippines.

In its Philippine IT-BPM Industry Roadmap 2028 launched in 2022, the industry is targeting a compound annual growth rate of 10.4 percent in the next six years, with yearly revenues seen reaching $59 billion by 2028, while aiming to create an additional 1.1 million jobs in six years, 54 percent of which will be in the countryside.

Madrid said the high end of the growth goal is attainable as most locally-based ,multinationals are content with the performance of the IT-BPM workforce because of their good command of the English language, great work ethics and overall dependability.

"Most of them (foreign firms) want to grow their presence here even more because they are happy with the results so far. But there are also some companies that are not yet here, and they probably ask themselves why I am not yet in the Philippines because maybe they feel left out," he said.

The Philippines is second when it comes to IT-BPM, next to India, primarily because they have a much bigger population.

"But I believe we are the 'Swiss Bank' of  IT-BPM, not the biggest, but the best in delivering customer experience," Madrid said.

Treasured workforce

Madrid, thus, is urging the public to give respect to the IT-BPM workers, instead of treating them as "call center agents," as the IT-BPM job is more than just the one-dimensional customer service jobs.

"We are more than that. If you have friends and family working in our industry, I think you should probably pay more respect to the work that they do because it is a global, impactful, and meaningful work that they perform to their global customers," Madrid underlined.

IBPAP's goal is to give 2.5 million Filipinos work by 2028.

"Executing plans to achieve the strategic intent of Roadmap 2028 launched by my team and me last year is a unique opportunity and ambitious challenge that I could not pass up. Generating 1+ million jobs, helping to generate $59 billion into our economy. How special is that?" he said.

Talent supply crisis

Despite the accolades he received and the success of the industry, Madrid admitted that the IT-BPM right now is experiencing challenges, such as talent gap and job skills mismatch.

"We as an industry in the Philippines, do not really have a demand problem. What we are facing right now is a talent supply issue. We need to increase the pool of employable talent so that we can meet the demand. And the answer to that is the upskilling and reskilling of our existing workforce and the incoming generation of university and high school graduates — the jobseeker of the future," he said.

He said the IT-BPM sector  offers opportunities that will always be there, waiting for future graduates.

"Regardless of the student's field of study and interests, there will be a job for them, and these are even more promising when the benefits of generative artificial intelligence are considered. Because to be good at generative AI, you need to be well-versed in qualities like curiosity. We also need to still be good at comprehension, communication, empathy, and caring — all qualities that the world of AI will need, which the country has the advantage of," Madrid explained, noting that society, even industries, should not be afraid of the emergence of AI, because it is the way forward.

Upskilling needs speeding up

Currently, Madrid said the speed and urgency that the country is taking in upskilling and reskilling its workforce is indeed sluggish.

"During the pandemic, we added 255,000 jobs, a good number, but that could have been 300,000. So, it is a pity that we did not take full advantage because we could have added 50,000 jobs if we had the employable talents," according to Madrid.

Although the private sector should be the ones to invest in reskilling the workforce as they are the ones who have the jobs to give, Madrid maintained that the government should support the reskilling and upskilling of the current workforce by addressing the lack of faculty from elementary schools to universities.

"For the private sector, within the current workforce, in the meantime we just need to continue accelerating the new skills and expectations of our investors. Technology is changing the nature of work and the expectations of our customers. The opportunity is there, it would be a pity if we did not take full advantage of it," he said.