Feature
clear
courteous
portrait by Tony McQuilkin...Jeff Malchow Clear Harbor’s GM
The
e brings 10 years experience to the call center arena and it appears to have been time well spent. With Clear Harbor pushing revenue over 10 million US Dollars annually, this small business is going somewhere. “That may sound like a lot.” Malchow modestly adds “But really the more efficiently we run the business, and the better decisions we make in investing our money, places us in a position where we can grow our business in Grenada, Dominica or whatever island we open up in the years to come and that is really one of our goals.” This past year, Clear Harbor was selected by INC 500 magazine as the 53rd fastest growing company in the United States. With anticipated continued growth for the next two to three years, Malchow explains, “It’s not how big you are, it’s how good you are. What I’m really thrilled about with the business in Grenada is that we are growing in a quality fashion.”
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Jeff MALCHOW, General Manager of Clear Harbor Inc. is an affable man, at ease with himself and those around him.
So what exactly is a call center? Virtually every major company has some sort of call center support network which they either own or outsource to third party experts to manage for them. More companies are going in the direction of outsourcing, allowing them to spend their time managing the process and the business. Owners Tut Smith and Lee Waters have years of call center sales and service experience from a variety of reputable companies in the US. As they did their research on the Caribbean, they realized that not only were the language skills good but they also believed there were multiple islands that they could do business on, preferring the small to mid- sized islands due to the fact that those islands needed new business coming to their counties. The owners look for several things: access to an airport, what is the business environment like, what is the cost to do business from a real estate perspective, and what is the labor market;
are there enough potential employees available. They started the business in Nevis four years ago, simply because they saw an opportunity in the near shore markets to compete with the India’s and Philippine’s of this world. From Nevis, they opened up a location in Dominica which to date is continuously expanding. Employing over 400 people in Dominica. A country of under 70,000 people, Clear Harbor is the single largest employer on th H\?[? ?H \???][? ??[? ?\?\?H[??[?YK? ?\?[? H ?] ? Y? H ??[Y[??\?H ?Z[?Y?[?YX[? ??\??[?[ ?[? Z\?[\?[Y[? ^H\?H]?\X?] K??Y??? ?\?[??^ [??[??8?&?H??[Y]?H ?][?H ?X?H ?H??[[\?H
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