Questus5 is more than committed to fighting poverty as part of our corporate social responsibility efforts. The idea for the company literally emerged from concepts for fighting poverty, and those concepts pointed to a need for Questus5 to exist.
The Power of Education
As one travels in developing nations such as India, Philippines, South Africa, Brazil, or China, the amount of suffering from poverty is ever-present and heart-breaking. The needs are endless, and the situation seems to be hopeless. We cannot lose hope, and we must not only bring hope, we must bring solutions.
Recognizing that education enables economic growth, many developing nations created strong education systems decades ago. Now, these nations enter a new age of hope and economic growth.
Hope is what leads a family – even an extended family – to pool resources required to pay for a college education for the most gifted in the family. Expectation is what results when that most gifted of children finally earns a that degree, and enters into the workforce. It is hard for Americans to understand this way of life, where a family is interdependent to the extent that one college graduate can pay for the needs of many others in an extended family. Yet, that is exactly what one employed college graduate can do, and is expected to do.
The problem is there are many graduates that do not become gainfully employed.
The market for global talent isn’t working as well as it should yet, and exceptional talent is wasted far too often.
One of our founding partners, Greg Lins, was traveling in Philippines, where the hardship and suffering stirred a lot of thinking about new models for fighting poverty. After having lunch in a restaurant, served by an MBA with exceptional English skills, the vision for Questus5 began taking shape.
The man serving lunch would likely earn less than $150 per month, yet could earn 20 times that in the United States. If the market for talent could so easily miss a man with his capability, and legions of others like him, there must be a fundamental problem with the talent market. And so it began that Questus5 would create a better market for global talent.
Global Talent Market – Inefficient
Many college graduates in developing nations actually do find gainful employment. There are already many large-scale professional centers in developing nations, often providing office-based outsourcing services for US and European companies. Many of the biggest have grown out of expansion needs for large multi-national corporations with deep pockets. There are many smaller centers that are viable, catering to a few accounts only – with opportunity to grow. Still others are micro-businesses that rely on referrals from relatives that immigrated to the US.
The small and mid-size centers are generally not adept at selling in the US, and as a result, they cannot grow to employ others as fast as they could. This is one problem with the current market.
At the same time, small and mid-size companies in the US generally don’t know the benefits of using remote talent, and have little knowledge about how to go about using it. Large professional centers that work with multi-national companies have little comprehension of challenges faced by small and medium businesses, and generally do not market to them. Many small and medium companies operate with a stigmatized view of “outsourcing” as un-American, when the reality is it is an excellent approach to lift their own people to more valued roles, and grow their businesses.
Again, these all seem to be fundamental problems with the market. On the one hand, professional centers aren’t reaching small and medium businesses. At the same time, small and medium size businesses are not aware of the benefits of using global talent.
The implications are enormous. Because the market for global talent is not reaching every type of business, the market permits poverty to exist. It perpetuates Americans deferring opportunities to elevate to higher levels of prosperity that occur when their employees are freed up to lead, innovate and create new markets. Many Americans are unaware that they are well positioned to literally organize legions of others to adopt our successful practices for economy building.
Therefore, we decided to create a new market for global talent. Questus5 was born.
Creating an Efficient Global Market for Talent
Questus5 has created a new type of marketplace for global talent – one that is efficient and effective. Particularly for small and medium size businesses that want to minimize risk and maximize success, our new market removes uncertainty and provides all of the US-based support that is needed to leverage global talent. We also build efficiencies for global professional centers to reach larger markets, because Questus5 has developed an extensive distribution network in the US.
Our distribution system is substantially larger and more efficient than any one professional center could ever hope to imagine building for themselves. As a result, professional centers in our network are able to keep costs under control and focus on what they do best: delivering exceptional services and growing scale to meet our increasing demand.
Our approach to developing this new market also required the creation of the first “catalog” of global talent, with over 220 different knowledge worker positions available at this writing. This is a key element of our approach, since it enables each one of our sales executives and partners to offer a wide range of proven services. This helps them to bring more value to their customer relationships, and streamlines the process involved in identifying viable sourcing options.
The Future of This Model
Our approach to increasing global prosperity has led to the creation of a new market for global talent. Market making is a big job, but the rewards for the global economy merit the effort.
The potential scale of our work is enormous. It goes far beyond ways to build a business model – given sufficient scale, the potential is to accelerate global prosperity at a macro-economic level. What was once an idea is rapidly changing into reality, and the magnitude of the social good we can bring is beginning to get noticed.
We are grateful to serve the people of our world with this new concept to build prosperity and reduce suffering. At the same time, we recognize that our group of mere humans that are working on this project need help. We need prayers, partners, and all the help we can possibly get.
Our future lies in God’s hands, and with the people that choose to join us in this effort. If you or anyone you know would enjoy working with us, please contact Greg Lins, who leads our campaign against global poverty.
