Brigitta Bihari Interview with Hassan Ghellab, Managing Director at Majorel Africa
We have spoken to Hassan Ghellab, Managing Director for Majorel in Africa about the Africa strategy of Majorel, a 58,000+ people company, providing Customer Experience (CX) and BPO services for global clients.
Hassan, you have been shaping Majorel’s operations in several African countries. Could you please give us a short overview on Majorel’s history in Africa and on what services Majorel is providing from which locations and what your typical clients are that you are serving from Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo?
Majorel is a global player in customer experience and BPO. We serve our portfolio from locations in 30 countries across 4 continents, our teams count over 58,000 employees worldwide and our growth is an ongoing process. Globally, we strive for a diverse footprint. In Africa, we count 16 locations across 4 countries and our operations in our home continent have a 20 years long stellar track record.
Picture: Majorel office Morocco, Copyright: Majorel
It all started in the early 2000’s when we decided to invest for an operations’ launch in Morocco as the country offered several incentives to provide the right environment for the customer relations industry to take root and grow. Back then, customer
experience management was a local novel trade. Initially, we were set up to take up the challenge of responding to a growing trend that started in the telecom industry; outsourcing services, specifically customer experience management. After that, 2010 was a turning point as we started growing our services’ range and expanding our target industries and customer portfolio.
After years of substantial experience and achievements in our field, Morocco achieved the coveted status of a hub of expertise and excellence in the industry. Along the way, Majorel has grown into a regional leader with a diversified range of industries, businesses and clients, with over 8,000 employees in Morocco to date. After our telecom-focused beginnings, we went on to cover e-commerce, high tech & internet, energy, health, in addition to recently captured business areas such as insurance that we started providing for 5 years prior. Our services evolved as well as we developed new offers such as content moderation or web development for highly renowned partners.
Our business lines have naturally evolved to adapt to the needs of our clients, particularly with the integration of new services such as vertical Business Process Outsourcing and Digital Marketing. Our growth and the expansion of our portfolio keeps us on our toes. Aside from Morocco, we operate through 5 sites in Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo, with over 3,000 employees and prestigious brands that trust us with their customer relations.
“Morocco’s political and economic stability and government-powered programs to support outsourcing companies contributed highly in the industry growth in the region.”
We partner with business leaders, and that is a daily drive and a constant reminder that nudges us for continuous and effective innovation practices in order for us to offer an on-the-spot service to our customers, but also to be on the lookout for any potential evolutions that might shape their needs differently in the future.
When we are talking to local partners in African countries the topic of growing entire sectors by supporting digital business models is a very important pillar of economic development strategies. How do you think can companies like Majorel
contribute to the digital transformation in those countries?
Doing business in Africa offers an undeniable set of opportunities for growth. Among those opportunities, the dynamics in the economies of our host countries are a major drive for us to consider our continent as the place to be. Openness to new industries with highly digitalized business models rank among the pre-requisites for us to consider locating in a country, because it is at the heart of the mix that allows us to grow a strong portfolio, to this purpose, we have designed a tailormade and proprietary assessment methodology.
It goes without saying that our focus on Africa is a strategic choice for the international development of the Majorel Group in high-potential markets, all the while creating added value. We have a tried and solid delivery model that is based on excellence, which enables us to scaleup our operations and duplicate our model while taking into account the specifics of each location, factoring in its capacities along with the local cultural.
In the continent, we always led the way. We were the first player to launch the industry in Senegal, in Ivory Coast and in Togo. Each of these pioneering launches brought along technological and skills development opportunities to the table. Prior to each of our launches in the aforementioned countries, we had to start from scratch with a greenfield mindset, because we had project specifications that entailed an upgrade in infrastructure, be it telecom providers or other partners from our supply chain, to meet the requirements of our global clients. After all, we are not only after operational targets, we strive to launch
not only Majorel locations, but complete Customer Experience ecosystems wherever we settle.
None of this would have been possible without the unwavering confidence and support that was provided to us by local authorities. In all our African locations, we were honored by the tokens of trust and by the effective assistance of institutional representatives among which, the most recent that comes to mind, is the stewardship that the Togo Presidency granted to Majorel all along the launch of our operations in Lomé.
Across our locations on the continent, we have a lot in common. Experience and technology transfers from a country to another might be a bumpy endeavor, both from a cultural and operational vantage, but we come from a common ground, and that made the duplication of our model and the transfer of skills from our initial locations in Morocco to the younger ones in the rest of the continent an easier, smoother and more streamlined process.
Picture: Majorel offices Morocco. Copyright: Majorel
Majorel’s approach was a success. In fact, our African operations are maturing in terms of operational management and support, with honorable outcomes. Our operations in Africa take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and algorithms-based assistance for our outbound calls activities, their entire talent management is completely digitalized including training and career evolution, we comply with the highest cyber-security standards, we are ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, and we observe a strict no-paper policy.
Today, we can state in all humility that Majorel remained true to its stance of an industry trend-setter and market maker, on top of being the first global player historically to set-up in Africa – Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Togo.
You can read the full article in the Outsourcing Destination Guide Morocco, which is available for free download at www.outsourcing-destinations.org
About Hassan Ghellab: Hassan Ghellab is the Managing Director of Majorel Africa since 2018. Hassan has more than 20 years of experience in many industries, mainly Telecommunications and CRM. He has held consulting and operational positions, dedicated to Marketing, Strategy and sales.
Since 2018, Hassan has overseen the continued development and expansion of Majorel Africa, and achieved exceptional growth, with the launch on 5 new sites in
Casablanca, Marrakech, Abidjan and Lome, thanks to an offensive strategic plan that accompanied the launch of many new activities with clients who are global leaders in their industries.
