MBA Speaker Series Welcomes S. Tien Wong

On Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland welcomed S. Tien Wong, CEO of Opus8 and entrepreneur-in-residence at Smith, to its MBA Speaker Series program. Wong is the chairman of Opus8, a private investment firm based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on mid-market buyouts and venture capital. Opus8's investment focus is on firms in North America and China that deal with business process outsourcing, call centers and customer relationship management, and marketing services. Wong differentiates his firm by taking an active role in the companies in which he invests, terming this "venture buyouts."

In his address, Wong spoke Smith students about offshoring, outsourcing and other service industry trends, detailing the history and many of the recent developments in the outsourcing and offshoring business.

Wong described the top industries for outsourcing and indicated the areas he thinks are primed for growth in the near future. Telecommunications, financial services, health care, travel and leisure, technology, consumer products, and automotive are the spaces where the most outsourcing and offshoring have been seen, as well as where it will persist into the future. These industries are outsourcing marketing services, analytics and business intelligence, finance and accounting, human resource management, IT, and business processing.

Wong closed his address by talking about the major drivers that are fueling the growth of outsourcing and showing some examples of where it has succeeded and failed. Lastly, Wong illustrated the nations which are most prominent in the outsourcing industry and where the biggest growth in services is occurring. Wong then took questions from the Smith School audience.

Adam Weiner, MBA Candidate 2009, Smith Media Group