On July 18, the company formally held its inauguration, which was attended by HGS’ Group CEO Partha DeSarkar and various Colombian government officials, of a center that now employs more than 150 workers and expects to surpass 300 employees by the end of the year.

Photo: Partha DeSarkar, group CEO of Hinduja Global Solutions, cut the ribbon on the company’s new facility in Barranquilla last month. (Credit: HGS)

HGS Senior Vice President Tushar Sharan sat down with Finance Colombia’s Executive Editor Loren Moss to discuss the commitment HGS has made to Colombia, and why the global firm bet on Barranquilla’s talent (and sunny climate) for its new plans for growth.

Loren Moss: First, congratulations to you and HGS on opening this Colombia facility. My understanding is that you guys actually started operating last year, but have now held the official inauguration of your Barranquilla facility. Could you elaborate on that and explain the process or the opening?

Tushar Sharan: We actually had a presence in Colombia for a while, through our subcontracting partner. But we started ourselves last year — around the end of the calendar year — when we came to Colombia, took up a space to start operations for a customer of ours. That led to the existing plan to really move to Colombia. It’s when we took up the call to really have an onsite building and started to go through the whole process of building the site and getting all of that done.

The site actually became ready a month ago, and we were trying to finalize a date for us to have a formal launch. That’s what we did last month when we formally launched the site in the presence of our executive director and the chief executive officer, Mr. Partha DeSarkar, along with some government officials from the mayor’s office and from ProColombia.

Tushar Sharan of Hinduja Global Solutions has been enjoying the energy of the workforce in Barranquilla as the company grows. “The kind of commitment — the kind of energy and motivation — that we see in our current set of employees is very enriching.” (Credit: HGS)

Loren Moss: Colombia obviously has several big cities. Bogotá and Medellín get a lot of attention as well as Cali. On the Caribbean coast, Cartagena is famous because of its history and tourism. But you chose Barranquilla. Why specifically did Hinduja Global Solutions decide to open this location in Barranquilla, Colombia?

Tushar Sharan: There are a couple of reasons. One, we were a much larger company earlier, and half of our portfolio was bought over by a private equity firm, which is called Baring. At that point in time, all we had was them as a presence in Colombia, in Barranquilla, with the subcontractor that I spoke about earlier. So that was one reason.

The second reason is that, when you do a survey in terms of the English level across the whole country of Colombia, the level of English of Barranquilla has been ranked the best among all of the cities. Higher than Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali. Those cities have higher populations — so they have a larger resource pool — but the quality of English that we get out of Barranquilla is also top-notch.

So those are the two key reasons why we started in the city and have a big presence here.

Loren Moss: What kind of services are you offering now from Barranquilla? What kind of services do you potentially think that you can offer from the Colombia location?

Tushar Sharan: Currently, we provide customer service, sales, and L1 technical help desk services. All three of them are actually what we are providing today from Colombia.

The few customers that we have already are from IT or from a different industry, and the pipeline is growing. We are also seeing a few more customers coming in that are going to be more customer service driven. By the end of the year, our customer service piece, I see growing bigger than what we are at today.

Apart from the services offered, we also are looking at multilingual capabilities. We are offering services in Portuguese, Spanish, and English.

Loren Moss: Tell me about your employment goals. Are you fully staffed now or are you still hiring? What’s the capacity of your location?

Tushar Sharan: We are in a ramp-up stage right now, and we continue to hire. We’ve reached a head count of 150 employees, and the plan for us is to be 300-plus by the end of the calendar year. There are some more new means, big ones, and if they keep coming at scale, I see ourselves continuing to grow and hire — at least for the next six to eight months before we start stabilizing.

From a capacity standpoint, right now, we have signed for one floor in the building that we are in at around 180-odd seats. We’ve just taken up or signed a lease for another space in the same building, and the construction has started. So we’ll be adding around 100 more seats in a month or so. We should have close to 280-300 seats available.

Hinduja Global Solutions (HGS) has opened a new location in Barranquilla that it expects to reach a headcount of up to 300 in the near term. (Credit: HGS)

Loren Moss:  How long have you been there in Barranquilla? How do you like the Barranquilla lifestyle?

Tushar Sharan: Personally, I have been in Colombia for the last four and a half years. I was largely based in Bogotá with my previous company, and then moved to Medellín and then to Barranquilla. The first time that I came to Barranquilla was actually last year.

I saw a complete change of weather, from Bogotá to Barranquilla — one of the first things I noticed when I came out of the airport. Like I said, I also noticed it is very evident that the level of English that we find here, and across the board, is a lot more near-native.

READ MORE: Hinduja Global Solutions Opens Customer Experience Hub in Barranquilla

What we also learned — and this also came from our CEO — is how we are seen by the locals, by the employees. The kind of commitment — the kind of energy and motivation — that we see in our current set of employees is very enriching. It is very nice to see them all fired up and energized.

We are seeing growth. They are seeing themselves grow. They are seeing their company grow, and they are all the more motivated to keep doing better each day. I think that feeling of all of us working together — trying to grow the company and create more jobs — is one thing that I see across the board, across all of the behavior.

On July 18, the company formally held its inauguration, which was attended by HGS’ Group CEO Partha DeSarkar and various Colombian government officials, of a center that now employs more than 150 workers and expects to surpass 300 employees by the end of the year.

Bangalore-based HGS, which provides solutions in digital CX, business process management (BPM) and digital media services, had already begun work in Baranaquilla starting in November 2022 from a local co-working space to support clients in English, Spanish, and Portuguese

Alfredo Carbonell, a representative from Barranquilla mayor’s office, and Daniel Aranguren Casas, senior investment advisor of ProColombia, both attended the inauguration earlier this month.

“Colombia has been growing steadily as an attractive nearshore destination for CX services, led by many advantages including the presence of high-quality multi-lingual talent, multiple universities, and time zone alignment to North America markets,” said HGS in a statement. “HGS believes that the new hub in Barranquilla will act as a catalyst to significantly scale its CX capabilities for its expanding multilingual client base globally.”

Photo: Partha DeSarkar, group CEO of HGS, cuts the tape on the company’s hub in Barranquilla. (Credit: HGS)

Barranquilla “La Arenosa (sandy city)”

Human Development Index: .821—High, Population 1,232,462

Barranquilla (above photo)is Colombia’s largest coastal city, with a population of 1.2 million; slightly more residents than nearby Cartagena. While Cartagena is a famous historical tourist city, Barranquilla is an industrial powerhouse and on the coast of the navigable Magdalena River, a primary gateway to the country’s interior. Barranquilla is home to Colombian architectural glass giant Tecnoglass (NASDAQ: TGLS), an employer of almost 6,000 that uses the city’s port location to export almost half a billion dollars of glass per year to the US and other markets. The city is also suitable for outsourcing services. Atlantic International BPO, a subsidiary of HGS is based in Barranquilla.

Global pop star Shakira is a Barranquilla native.

The city is well run. Outgoing two-time mayor Alejandro Char left office with an astounding (& independently verified) 94% approval rating. There is no beach in the city, but nightlife & tourism magnet Cartagena is less than 2 hours to the west, and the beach resort town of Santa Marta is less than 2 hours to the east. Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport (BAQ) has nonstop international connections to the United States, Panamá, Ecuador, Aruba, and Venezuela.

Though rare in the rest of the country, American baseball is a popular sport in Barranquilla and the Atlantic coastal region of Colombia.

Cali “La Sultana del Valle (the Sultana of the valley)”

Human Development Index: .910—Very High, Population 2,445,405

Though the musical genre was invented in New York by Puerto Ricans, Cali proclaims itself the “Salsa Capital of the World” and dancing salsa is virtually a religion in the city. Salsa super-group Grupo Niche is native to Cali.

Cali is the largest city in the Southwest of Colombia, and the closest major city to the country’s only international port on the Pacific Ocean, Buenaventura. Situated in a fertile agricultural valley, Cali is the capital of Colombia’s sugar industry, and the road from the airport into town is lined with sugar cane plantations. Not surprisingly, Cali’s economy is supported by a strong industrial and agricultural base and enjoys a low cost of living.

That doesn’t mean the city isn’t attractive for professional services, as evidenced by large global services delivery business parks constructed by developers like Zonamerica and ZF Towers Versalles. Cali gets much less attention than Medellín & Bogotá but the city does have the infrastructure and bilingual talent pool to support even large operations.

As the gateway city to both the Pacific ocean through nearby Buenaventura, and to Ecuador and the rest of South America via its southern highways, Cali offer strategic advantages when ground transportation is integral to an investor’s supply chain. Ample flat terrain as a valley city make construction and transportation easy and inexpensive.

Cali’s Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport (CLO) is located in the Cali suburb of Palmira and offers direct international flights to or from Panamá, the United States, Curaçao, Peru, Ecuador & Spain.

The “Eje Cafetero (the Coffee Axis)”

Human Development Index: .758—Medium (Armenia), .820—High (Manizales), Populations: Pereira 476,636; Manizales 400,136; Armenia 301,224

A misty morning in Manizales (photo credit Loren Moss)

Colombia’s “Coffee Axis” is an urban region in the heart of coffee-growing country roughly halfway between Medellín to the north, and Cali to the south. If one thinks of it as analogous to the “Research Triangle” of Raleigh–Durham in North Carolina (US) or the “Twin Cities” of Minneapolis–St. Paul in Minnesota (also US), this region is a cluster of small cities near enough to one another to function largely as a single economic region and labor pool. The three primary cities are Manizales, Caldas; Pereira, Risaralda; and Armenia, Quindió. Manizales has the most universities (7) per capital of any municipality in Colombia.

Panaca is an entertaining amusement park with an educational purpose: Teaching tourists about agriculture, animal husbandry, and Colombia’s rural heritage. (Photo credit Loren Moss)

Agriculture is an obvious economic engine in this peaceful, low crime area, though it also houses several universities providing thousands of bilingual students to the contact center and BPO services sector. Tourism is also a draw, with activities and tourist infrastructure for domestic and international visitors. Manizales is home to some amazing restaurants, and major amusement parks such as agriculture-themed Panaca and coffee-themed Parque del Café. Coffee is still king in this area, and there are countless fincas (plantations) open to visitors, many with bed & breakfast facilities. Nearby volcanoes fuel several natural hot springs, some of which have been made into spa facilities. There are abundant opportunities for ecotourism such as the Los Nevados National Park, home to the Nevado del Ruiz active volcano, the Cocorá Valley with the world’s tallest palm trees, and scenic/artisanal tourist town Salento. Rather than one big city, this neighborhood of several small cities has a palpably more relaxed lifestyle but with the infrastructure, labor pool and resources of a larger metropolis.

One of several roller coasters at Parque del Cafe in Colombia’s Eje Cafetero (Photo credit: Liliana Padierna)

Logistically, the Eje Cafetero is located almost centrally between Medellín, Cali and Bogotá, making it a good logistical destination and a hub for the domestic supply chain. Road networks are well developed, redundant and well maintained. Pereira’s Matecana International Airport (PEI) has nonstop flights to The United States and Panamá, while Armenia’s El Eden International Airport (AXM) has flights to The United States. Manizales’ La Nubia Airport (MZL) offers domestic connections.

Bucaramanga, “the City of Parks”

Human Development Index: .879—High, Population 795,734 (combined with adjoining Floridablanca)

Bucaramanga is often the most important Colombian city that foreign investors have never heard of. Along with its high-income suburb of Floridablanca and nearby bedroom communities of Girón & Pidecuesta, Bucaramanga is the most economically important inland city in the eastern region of Colombia. The tropical city is near the refinery town and river port of Barrancabermeja, and is well connected with both Colombia’s Atlantic coast, Bogotá, and Medellín.

Economically prosperous, Bucaramanga has one of the strongest economies in Colombia with a 5.1% annual growth rate from 2004 to 2014, single digit unemployment, the highest per-capital local GDP in Colombia, and a business-friendly political climate. In addition to traditional economic activities such as leatherworking and shoe manufacturing, the city is a base for Colombia’s petroleum industry, with facilities for downstream petroleum firm Terpel and Ecopetrol’s research arm, the Instituto Colombiano de Petroleo (Colombian Petroleum Institute) located in Bucaramanga.

Bucaramanga is the closest large city to Venezuela, so when Colombia’s neighbor is eventually able to return to viability, the city will be well positioned to supply the economic recovery. Bucaramanga’s Palonegro airport (BGA) has nonstop international connections with Panamá.

An attractive, well-kept city, Bucaramanga is known as the “City of Parks.” Bumanguesas, as its residents call themselves, enjoy adventure and outdoor sports in nearby San Gil, or the Panachi amusement park (Parque Nacional del Chichamocha) in the Chichamocha canyon. Nearby suburb Girón’s colonial architecture and cobbled streets also make for an attractive outing only minutes from the city.

Bucaramanga skyline (Photo credit: Loren Moss)

An estimation of the adjusted human development index for the Colombian departments — Lecturas de Economía Print version ISSN 0120-2596

Barranquilla photo credit: By –F3rn4nd0 06:21, 27 March 2007 (UTC) – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1848518

Cali photo credit: By Aleko David Alejandro Rendón – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8954828