When a business is acquired by one of the world’s largest technology solutions providers, it can be said that the company is doing something right. Led by Paul Bellette, the award winning BPO focused Converga has been on the up and up for the past 15 months. Business First caught up with Paul to talk about turning a business around and why that made it so attractive to acquire. Story by Jonathan Jackson
On Monday 9 November, Canon Australia announced that it had acquired Converga from parent company New Zealand Post Group.
With a specialty in business process outsourcing and a particular focus on document digitalisation solutions, the stand-alone Converga was no longer a fit for New Zealand Post Group as they sought to streamline their operations focusing on mail, logistics and banking in New Zealand.
Recognising that Converga could provide Canon customers with BPO solutions strengthening Canon’s end-to-end managed services and business process outsourcing capability, Canon swooped.
Yusuke Mizoguchi, Managing Director, Canon Australia said at the time, “At Canon, our vision is to be recognised for our customer-focused solutions and market leading technology and services. Converga is a fantastic company that we intend to invest in, and grow, long into the future.”
For Converga, it is business as usual.
“At Converga, we’re driven to innovate with the best people, processes and technology to deliver document processing solutions to our customers – this move will ensure those needs for customers continue to be met,” said Bellette post acquisition.
It is that customer focus and drive to innovate that has led the company to become one of the country’s leading BPO providers, and it is those values that align well with what Canon is also achieving.
Converga was selected as best fit in helping Canon to achieve its growth strategy, combined with a strong culture and brand alignment.
Paul is a seasoned international business executive with extensive experience in the Asia Pacific market. He has held various General Management roles centred around Sales, Corporate Strategy, Marketing and New Business revenue generation with a particular focus on translating strategy into practical strategic programs. With Corporate experience covering outsourcing, logistics and distribution with industry experience across ICT, infrastructure, government, services, FMCG and resource sectors he was the perfect fit for Converga’s top job.
His experience was nurtured during his 17 years with logistics giant DHL, for whom he worked in the Australia, New Zealand and Singapore offices.
He says DHL was and still is an “amazing” company.
“There is an entrepreneurial spirit that is encouraged at DHL,” Paul says.
“They make you feel part of their growth and make you want to contribute to it. I felt I grew as the company grew and there were many opportunities to learn and grow. It is an incredibly global business, but also incredibly connected and I learnt a lot about the dynamics of a global market.”
His boss at DHL was one Brian Roberts, who just happens to be Paul’s predecessor at Converga.
The pair share a 20-year history.
“I made the switch because Brian was my boss at DHL. I worked with him for 20 years and when he moved to Converga he gave me a call and asked if I would like to come over.”
The thought of saying no to Brian, never entered Paul’s mind and from the moment he stepped into Converga’s head office he took on multiple General Manager roles.
He says it has been a constantly changing environment, but it is change which allows the individuals within companies to grow.
“If a company is growing and looking at new things, and you have the ability to learn and challenge yourself that keeps you interested. I have had multiple different roles over the eight years here and the changing face of the business keeps you motivated and successful.”
This is an attitude that runs through the company. It is an attitude that Graham Bailey adopted when he started the business in 1994 as Outsource Australia and it was carried through when the name changed to Converga in 2008.
The business’s initial focus was mail room outsourcing and it grew to encompass full BPO solutions including digital transformation.
As a company changes, the best way to lead it is to integrate yourself into every aspect – which is what Paul did.
“There is obviously a lot to learn and experience in a business. It is not until you have done specific tasks that you know what goes on in those areas,” Paul says.
“I believe in hands on experience. That’s how you learn about how the business functions.”
The more people are fully integrated into the business, the better leaders they can become.
“It means you can rely on trusted people in their field and bring them into the decision-making processes,” Paul says.
The strength of the team has enabled Converga to enter a new growth phase. While part of this means bringing in new business and partners, there is also a strong focus on existing customers and expanding services to them.
Paul understands the importance of existing customers and partners and he takes an aggressive approach to keeping them engaged.
“There were some challenges we faced when we lost a major customer and it was going to have significant impact on our success. This caused us to re-examine the business and ensure our customer focus and their satisfaction was paramount.”
After a little soul searching, Converga turned things around. They came through the year with increased revenue growth; they doubled their EBIT result and became an even more customer focused organisation.
By doing so, they even won back their lost customer. And they started to win awards. In 2014, Converga won Employer of Choice and Excellence in Business Ethics award.
The company has a long list of awards dating back to 2004.
Paul puts it down to having a great team and great customers.
And as we touched on earlier, he also puts it down to the company’s continued willingness to evolve.
“We have a great solution in the BPO market and we weren’t getting that out enough, so we put a further focus on our customers and made them paramount to our objectives.”
Paul is driven to drive for results.
This attitude has really enabled Converga to come out of the last 12 months a stronger organisation that is well respected for its customer service and is admired in its given markets.
That is no mean feat considering the organisation employs over 1300 staff operating in 150 customer locations across Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and USA.
In fact an 800 respondent customer survey came back with a 94% satisfaction rating.
That’s across the business.
So you can see why Canon Australia was attracted.
Converga mirror Canon’s own values, which will make it easier as a parent, to help Converga in their growth ambitions.
Converga is about culture. It is about customers and people and it takes pride in how it conducts itself. It has implemented programmes including It’s Your Business, which encourages leaders throughout the organisation to treat the business as if it was their own and the 90/10 program, which ensures 90% of time is spent on servicing and growing existing customers.
The best thing about the business is that it is focused on best practice and that is what drives not only Paul, but the Converga staff and customers to build a better business. BFM
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