Teaching English to MNC Workforces: GlobalEnglish CEO Deepak Desai (Part 6)

SM: How many people are learning on GlobalEnglish today?

DD: About 130,000 people. We have a lot of TAM still available. Brick and mortars, traditional classroom providers, are still dominant. There are a few companies online as well. Englishtown is based out of Europe and is a subsidiary of English First, which is a huge brick and mortar business around $700 million to $800 million.

SM: What about Rosetta Stone?

DD: They are not focused on English the same way that we are, but they are a language company that focuses on the institutional and corporate market as well. They are trying to move from CD ROM to online and become move international. They are public and have more than $200 million in revenues, but 95% of their business is in the United States. A large play is Pearson, which sells textbooks for the English language-learning market. They are working aggressively to get into different models.

SM: What do your sales channels look like?

DD: We have a complex global sales model with a worldwide direct sales force. We have people on the ground everywhere. The lead salesperson is wherever the headquarters of the company is.

SM: You must receive tremendous adoption by the Chinese companies.

DD: Some, but the majority of our business comes from multinationals. Third-world multinationals are a growing portion of our business. Asian companies do not necessarily view training the same way as Western companies. The real reason our sales work is because of the culture our company has.

SM: Tell me more about that.

DD: I believe that this is what I was meant to do. The passion that I have is shared by many people in the company. We have to give people more than just a business opportunity to believe in. The culture is one of teamwork and that is magnified by the global nature of the company. We created compensation systems for the sales force that is complex in many ways but simple in the fact that everyone earns more money if we meet strategic objectives as a team.

SM: How do you manage the incentive structure?

DD: We are very clear about what the goals and incentives are. If there is someone in Brazil participating in a global deal, they get compensated based on their participation. Knowing that everybody plays an important role helps everyone focus on getting the pie bigger so everyone gets a bigger piece. Nobody can be short sighted thinking “this is about my commission for this deal.” It is about relationship selling over time. People who stay with the company for many years benefit even more.

SM: What is your attrition rate?

DD: It is very low. It is less than 2%. It is important for people to know that while the company is growing and has opportunities, that they will be treated fairly in that process. If somebody is working for IBM the customer is looking for them to be on the same page if they are in Japan, Korea, or anywhere else. Customers do not want to know about internal issues. That is even truer for a small company like ours. I spend a lot of time on the road talking to employees. We have made a lot of deals because of our ability to give great service to customers, and we can do that because we have fantastically loyal employees.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Teaching English to MNC Workforces: GlobalEnglish CEO Deepak Desai
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