In our continuing theme of “The Best of Both Worlds”, our spring installment comes fresh from a trip around the world, seeing for ourselves the gap that has separated the businesses and cultures of our world disappear into the sunset.
At the same time, while the worlds converge and becomes more connected, little nuances develop in between the two groups as they do business together, and that, my fellow travelers, is where the rubber meets the road and where CogNet is different.
The key is having a tour guide, or Ombudsperson if you will, that can tell you where the two sets intersect and where they don’t touch at all. The only way that a person can succeed is if he/she has walked in both sets of shoes and has the ability to translate on both sides of the line.
Within the history of Cognet lies the simple three-step process that we share with our partners, customers and friends every day:
We spent six years on planes, trains and elephants to complete these three steps so you don’t have to rack up the Star Alliance miles and see what sleep deprivation can do to someone not in Navy Seal training. We’ve been in the trenches, Step One.
Our owners and operators have been on the ground on both sides, with over 80 years of experience in the U.S. market running HR Services companies. That includes resumes with payroll bureaus, third party administrators, HRMS developers, PEO, ASO, HRO, internal HR and all the fixings. We know your business because we competed with you, not just serviced you.
We have also operated offshore service centers specifically for HR Services companies since 2005, and our offshore team can probably name more capitals of the States than most people on the street. It is our core belief that to be in a market, or to properly service a market, you must be in both. We are a “hands on” company and will come on-site, not just to guarantee success in transition, but to build relationships. We love Skype, and it may save our competitors a lot of money. But, long-term success lies in our collective teams trusting and understanding each other. Step Two, check.
What good is experience if you don’t apply it? Not much! Listen, you can surely take some Western management books about motivating highly effective people, or conversely, force your managers to read Eat, Pray and Make Money until the sacred cows come home. But you can’t magically cross-pollinate the two into a new flower.
Step Three is earned, and trust us, we have earned it. Experience tells you to move a portion of a process rather than all, and even better what not to move and why. We know when your people will struggle and push back just as much as we understand how to manage ours through it. “How?” you ask? Because we have been both “your people” and us in our history. We formed Cognet on the experience of setting up captive centers, working on the ground in India and running HR Services businesses in the U.S. and you won’t find that anywhere else, not even on e-Bay.
You can’t run a business in the U.S. the way you do in France, and the French don’t like McDonald’s very much. So why would you go offshore with someone who only knows, well offshore? You don’t, you hire Cognet.