If there is one word that best describes Greymouse and its skilled virtual assistant teams it would be “multicultural”. Since its inception in 2005, it already embraced the idea of diversity. Today the business serves Australian and Fijian clients while being run by an Australian-Filipino-Fijian management team, and staffed with Filipino and Fijian talents. It is a mix that has worked for more than a decade now.
If you would ask Marisa, one of the founders of this growing BPO company, she would not have it in any other way. While many organizations fold under the pressure of diversity, Greymouse draws strength from it.
Talent is everywhere
Greymouse, or “GM” as what many of its people affectionately call it, provided virtual assistants to Aussie clients in its early days. The idea was to provide affordable services to talent-hungry Australian companies. Marisa Wiman, with her previous work in Fiji, saw an opportunity that could solve both the challenge of high labor costs back home by getting people from nearby Fiji who are struggling with unemployment. Two problems are solved in one sweep!
Fiji has good English language skills making them suited to serve the Australian market and they have a very deep talent bench with thousands literally looking for good-paying jobs. This built the foundation of Greymouse’s business. In its latter years, the rise of the Philippines as a reliable source of voice, IT, and web development talents led Greymouse to its shores, adding another dimension to its already diverse workforce.
Greymouse simply believes in the fact that talent is everywhere and leveraging on this makes business sense, as long as there is demand for a cost-effective virtual workforce.
Building a strong organizational culture
Even with a very diverse workforce, Greymouse was able to build a business culture that united its people into one, lean and mean working “machine”. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Filipino social media manager or a Fiji-based virtual assistant – you follow an internal culture that adds on to your own, local culture. Marisa, the founder, and leader of Greymouse calls this the “Mice Haven”.
Clients are never confused about the way GM deals with them, regardless if they are served by Filipino or Fijian talents. The whole organization provides the same prompt, effective, and committed service. This is the unmistakable Greymouse way.
It all starts with the leaders having the same heartbeat, the same discipline, the same mentality in approaching their work and how they conduct the daily affairs of their jobs.
Drawing strength from cultural diversity
A single stick can easily break, but a number of sticks bundled together would be harder to destroy. But what if you have sticks from varying trees, each one complimenting the strengths and weaknesses of the others? The same picture can be drawn from a multicultural organization like Greymouse.
Each location of the company has a specialty that is unique to that part of its operations. The Fiji office is more into VA services – taking calls for clients, providing financial services to companies in Australia while keeping a small group of IT professionals that serve both Fijian and Australian businesses. The Philippine office is more into IT services, web development, social media management, and digital marketing where its collection of web developers, content writers and chat support professionals have been serving Australian companies for many years now.
Greymouse is simply a living, breathing example of the mantra “unity in diversity”.
The multicultural nature of Greymouse has served it well. And while this was an intentional move by the founders Kelvin and Marisa, it also follows the natural order of doing business in these modern times. Having teams across the globe serving clients from thousands of miles away is a reality that businesses are waking up to today. Fortunately, Greymouse woke up earlier than the rest and now it is reaping the rewards of having virtual assistant teams from multiple locations.
