Established in 2010 by a Euro-Filipino team to help foreign companies tap into the rich Philippine talent pool, Eastvantage has since grown and now provides business solutions to global companies. It enables offshore operations from its locations in the Philippines, India, Bulgaria, and Vietnam.
The management team brings a wealth of global insights and local knowledge in the areas of digital transformation, customer experience, and business support. Combining expertise with a hands-on approach to managing client relationships, Eastvantage aims to make outsourcing simple and seamless.

Eastvantage has grown steadily through the years until 2018 when the company realized it needed to strengthen its operations for it to be able to cope with the heightened requirements of its clients and the market as a whole. Thus, later that year, the company brought in Kamal Asarpota, a seasoned executive with a successful track record of delivering financial and business results with global organizations in the ITES/BPM Industry.

Supported by top management, Kamal began promoting an engaged and empowered team culture. In 2019, the company strengthened its core by improving operational efficiencies and getting the right people. The strategy established Eastvantage as a reliable partner, validated by seamless business continuity during the pandemic lockdowns.

When the pandemic struck the Philippines in early 2020, Eastvantage immediately put measures in place to minimize the impact on the company’s gains from the previous years and garnered a Silver Stevie Award for its COVID-19 response efforts.

The company continued strengthening its operations and sales team throughout 2020 and 2021. It reinforced its #everybodysells 360°+ business development cycle strategy, which covers pre-sales to operations. The strategy involves not only the sales and marketing teams but the whole operations support team, including HR, recruitment, IT, finance, and administration.

This, together with the entry of a seasoned investor in 2021 who brought in a deep understanding of scaling service operations, incentivized internal stakeholders to be aligned with company growth goals. Further, the company expanded its IT Managed Services.

These measures enabled the company to grow its existing business simultaneously with new business acquisitions, at an increased win rate of 19% compared to 5% in 2020. By the end of 2021, the company:

• had an accounts portfolio of 50 clients, a 70%+ increase from 29 clients in 2020;
• grew its headcount by 70%+, from 473 full-time employees to 815;
• exceeded its EBITDA target;
• closed the year at a 12% revenue growth; and
• earned the highest annual income in its 11 years of operations.

Eastvantage has not only survived the threats to general business stability brought about by the pandemic, but it has evidently also outgrown the startup phase. Now in the expansion stage of the business, the company has opened up additional delivery centers in the Philippines, India, Bulgaria, and Vietnam. Further, it now has a US-based Business Strategy Advisor for its diversification in North America.

The growth is expected to continue, as Eastvantage is bent on seizing opportunities by continually evolving in line with market demand. The higher focus on complex and digital services is one of the initiatives in this direction and is expected to contribute high value to the business. The direction is to further expand globally and be the Managed IT Services partner of choice.

Eastvantage won a Gold Stevie Award for Achievement in Sales or Revenue Generation in The 2022 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards?

Nominations will now be accepted through 13 July

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of The International Business Awards®, announced today that the final entry deadline for the 2023 (20th annual) edition of the awards has been extended through 13 July. The original final entry deadline was 14 June.

The International Business Awards are widely considered to be the world's premier business awards competition. In 2022 the competition attracted more than 3,700 nominations from organizations in more than 70 nations.

All individuals and organizations worldwide—public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small—may submit nominations to The International Business Awards. Entry details are available at http://www.stevieawards.com/IBA.

“By popular request, we decided to extend the entry period to allow organizations more time to prepare and submit nominations,” said Stevie Awards President Maggie Miller. No additional late fees will be assessed for nominations submitted after the original final deadline.

Juries featuring more than 200 executives will determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie-winning nominations that will be announced on 14 August.

The International Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Category types include:

• Management Awards 
• Sustainability Awards
• Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards 
• Human Resources Awards 
• Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards 
• New Product Awards 
• Public Relations Awards 
• Web Site, App, Event, Video, and other media awards
• Social Media Awards
• Thought Leadership Awards

There are many new and revised features of The International Business Awards for 2023:

• There's an entirely new group of five categories to recognize achievement in Sustainability.  Each of the five categories is split into six geographic sub-categories.
• There are new categories sprinkled throughout many of the category groups, especially in the categories for Achievement, Events, Marketing, Mobile Site & App, New Products & Services, Public Relations, , and Websites.
• The category group formerly known as Information Technology has been renamed Technology to better reflect that all types of technology-related achievements are welcome to be nominated in these categories.

Request your 2023 Entry Kit

Healthcare Consultancy Group (HCG) is a global leader in medical communications, comprising eight interconnected agencies with distinct personalities and complementary skills.

Incorporated in 1987, their agencies craft scientific evidence into medical stories that shape decisions and drive medicine. They aim to accelerate the understanding and acceptance of pharmaceutical clients’ medicines, getting the medicines closer to the patients who need them.

In their 30+ years of experience, they have helped bring transformational medicines to billions of patients worldwide in areas such as COVID-19, oncology, and CAR-T therapy. 

Their company culture is designed to generate a “thought arena,” driving future thinking, collaboration, and communication excellence. Since 1987, the company has grown to 900+ in global staff, now supporting over 70 pharma and biotech companies.

Employee Value Proposition
The HCG employee value proposition is “Come for the work. Stay for the culture. Have an impact.” With the advent of what many call “The Great Resignation,”  2021 presented a new challenge: How to become an agency everyone wants to work for? 

HCG engaged their staff consultants to gather insights that could translate into actionable change to strengthen the employee value proposition:

Come for the work — Placing talent at the heart of their business strategy meant overhauling their website to host a new talent campaign “The Wonderland of Medical Communications,” which reintroduces their fusion working model and highlights all available resources. 

Stay for the culture — HCG sought to create more value for existing employees by developing The Employee Engagement Council; building talent retention programs like the Personal Discovery program; and creating innovation initiatives like SWARM profilers to uncover the “inner innovator” in all employees.

They strengthened their commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), driven by a DEI Council through education initiatives like the DEI University, which includes three training modules and discussion points on inclusive mindset, unconscious bias, and antiracism; sponsorship programs: an initiative to elevate 25 midlevel diverse employees through intentional mentorship and action planning; and partnerships with five DEI- certified recruitment firms.

Have an impact — They continue to empower staff through industry-leading “Collective Intelligence” thought leadership initiatives. They recently started the HCG Disparities and Inequities Council to ensure a more equitable distribution of healthcare. They also restarted the Work with a Purpose initiative, allowing staff to directly engage with patients who have had access to transformational medicines.

Since Winning Their Stevie Awards
HCG continues to foster a healthy work culture through the expansion of successful employee-focused initiatives and the introduction of new or refreshed programs.

With their talent campaign “The Wonderland of Medical Communications,” HCG increased their global footprint that now spans the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the Philippines, Pakistan, and Australia.

Since submission, a brand-new companywide intranet, consciously designed and organized to align with the three distinct categories determined by the employee value proposition was launched. The intranet, entitled “StartHere,” houses over 900 assets that are fully available to all staff. Planned expansion upon StartHere is planned to focus on the connectivity of staff.

HCG has built a now annual workshop, known as FUTURUM, is a forward-looking think-tank initiative, bringing together the collective intelligence of HCG leadership expertise to research, prioritize, and take action against key trends in the coming year spanning pharma, medicine, technology, and society, which impact HCG and medical communications.

In addition to the SWARM Innovation Profiler, which aids individuals in gaining insight into their own strengths as an innovator, they have deployed the SWARM Innovation Culture Assessment. This assessment measures the degree to which your organization supports the eight innovation talents in its people and the maturity of your innovation system. 

They also re-introduced HCG’s LEAD (Learn, Engage, Act, Develop) program, which provides a forum for emerging leaders to interact with and learn from current leaders across the broader HCG organization, gain valuable insight from those leaders and guest speakers, engage in addressing relevant HCG challenges, and create connections with colleagues from across all the HCG companies. The program was held in person and allowed attendees to dedicate two full days to their development.

Healthcare Consultancy Group won a Bronze Stevie Award for Employer of the Year – Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations in the 2022 Stevie® Awards for Great Employers.

Interested in entering the 2023 Stevie® Awards for Great Employers?

Stevie-winner Adani Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, founded by Shri Gautam Adani in 1988.

Adani envisions training the youth of India and making them capable enough to earn their daily bread with self-respect and pride, resulting in the establishment of their Gold Stevie^® Award-winning Adani Skill Development Centre (ASDC).

The ASDC was registered on May 16, 2016, as a section 8 not-for-profit company to focus on skill development activities to contribute toward nation-building by bridging the skill gap demand & supply, in line with the Government of India’s Skill India Mission.

Adani Skill Development Center 
ASDC started its operations pan-India in 2016 with the project “SAKSHAM,” which has reached more than 100,000 beneficiaries. The program helps to teach parents, communities, and employers about gender equality, equal opportunities, and economic empowerment for females, as gender equality is embedded in all the courses. 

“SAKSHAM” means “capable” and is an ideology of the ASDC to enable the youth of India to become more capable of achieving their goals by becoming skilled professionals. This ideology has no borders and boundaries. SAKSHAM is working to bring world-class skills development training to India through partnerships with various corporations and other organizations.

The environment is designed to encourage young girls and boys to take up training and employment opportunities to build a well-trained, skilled workforce. ASDC aims to help India's youth achieve their goals by turning them into skilled professionals.

It is an initiative to provide disadvantaged youth, especially those who have been deprived of mainstream education, with essential life and market-oriented vocational skills. This not only helps them to access decent employment but also gives them the independence to be themselves.

Project Impact and Expansion
Thus far, the program has impacted over 100,000 young adults by equipping them with livelihood skills, thereby making ASDC the fastest-growing skill development company in India. Interestingly, 60% of the total trained youth are females.

ASDC has since launched additional programs, including:

• Special Project for FISHERMEN community in Kutch district of Gujarat state, which provides assured placement in nearby industry after training to the highly isolated community of the area.

• Special Project for Prisoners of Jail in Gujarat State, which provides basic digital literacy training to soon-to-be-released prisoners to help them integrate into the digital world after release.
• Training offerings for technological advancement in Welding, Crane Operation, Electrical Wiring & Heavy Motor Vehicle programs by introducing Mixed reality (Augmented + Virtual) -based simulator training.
• Four new training centers in India created the presence of Saksham in 11 states, enabling an overall annual training capacity of 30,000+.

ASDC is one of the biggest non-government-funded training partners in India to provide training in employable skill domains and providing livelihood opportunities to the upskilled youth of the Nation. 

They have now started to offer diplomas, postgraduate diplomas, and certificate programs affiliated with State Government recognized universities in skill development. They also provide experience-based learning opportunities through On Job Training (OJT), Exposure Visits, and Project work in almost all the courses to ensure that the Skill Gap is appropriately addressed. 

Adani Skill Development Centre won a Gold Stevie Award for Organization of the Year among Medium-sized Non-Profit or Government Organizations in The 2022 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards?

Friska Wirya is the powerhouse behind Stevie-winner Fresh by Friska, a change management consulting, facilitation, and personal development service for executives, teams, and large businesses.

Friska guides complex organizations through the people side of change; she has helped industry-leading organizations shift tribulation into transformation.

Friska is the former Head of Change at the biggest gold miner in the Southern Hemisphere, leading digital transformation changes to achieve US$170m annual savings, skyrocket innovation and improve safety. She infiltrated a digital-first culture across four countries to create a solid foundation to drive the adoption of new and emerging technologies, achieving recognition such as the Most Innovative Hard Hat Company from Apple and various industry awards.

Before this, she was the Global Change Lead for multi-million dollar projects spanning technology, structure, process, and people, impacting +23,000 at Tier 1 engineering firm Worley. She brought the digital future of policing to life for the world’s single-largest policing jurisdiction.

Friska started her own business after leaving her corporate job in the mining, oil & gas, and engineering industries on the precipice of the global pandemic. As COVID-19 spread, restrictions came out fast, borders closed, and Friska’s pipeline was eliminated in the blink of an eye – organizations were not investing in change management, ironically when they needed it the most. Friska invested time in the online space to develop her virtual brand.

In response to the COVID curveball, Friska offered workshops to the public she’d previously only offered in-house and even welcomed big brands like Salesforce and Microsoft on board as clients. She spoke at Microsoft’s first D&I event in Asia and at conferences such as The Future of Mining, Female Influencers in Tech, and Women in Construction and Engineering.

Friska was then engaged by the #1 university in Australia, The University of Melbourne, to pivot rapidly to a fully remote campus, impacting 65,000 students and 15,000 staff while maintaining operational efficiency and blitz-scaling programs to aid student financial and mental health during the global pandemic.

With a speedy turnaround, Friska’s team created a country-first digital portal for students to remain connected to their lecturers, lesson materials, access COVID-19 safety information, financial support information, and mental health resources. This portal also connected university departments and had them working together in ways they had never done before. The results were astounding:

• Transitioned to a fully remote campus in five business days
• Built a one-of-a-kind connection portal where everyone may have been physically distanced - but in heart and mind closer than ever
• Held virtual open days—the University of Melbourne had a two-week Open Day event. The first visual open day saw more than 40,000 people registering from around the world. People could take a virtual tour, join a sample lecture, ask questions, and network with other students.
• 300+ live events over six separate days
• ~45k event registrations and ~14k platform registrations

Friska’s work made students feel supported and empowered the university to adapt and continue to operate. The scale and speed at which the COVID response was executed make it noteworthy. During this process, there was zero downtime. 

The open days, and the positive feedback from these virtual events, were phenomenal. This program was the most comprehensive of its kind and a fully immersive experience. In numbers, this initiative impacted 65,000 students, 16,000 staff, and 250 vendors/consultants. It received exceptional media coverage in major newspapers. The marketing data for the virtual open days indicated that, over two weeks, over 45,000 visitors joined events from around the world, which suggests that a virtual event opened the university to more people.

Aside from keeping current students supported and extending the university’s credibility during a pandemic, this work also gave Friska’s business a chance to demonstrate her commitment to excellence and exceptional capabilities, seeing her pull off many incredible “firsts'' under challenging circumstances.

Friska has created a blueprint for change that is relevant for large workforces with central hubs where the workplace is more than just an office. Since then, she has gone on to consult for the world’s largest family-owned business in the automotive industry headquartered in the USA and enable a large Australian engineering company to implement sustainability principles across APAC.

Friska Wirya’s Fresh by Friska won a Bronze Stevie Award for Company of the Year among Small Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations Organizations in The 2022 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards? 

Founded in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Covax Australia is a Queensland-based company that provides professional staffing solutions and high-quality workplace management strategies.

Seeing the unmet needs in the community due to lockdown restrictions and nationwide delays, co-founders Mannu Kala and Dr. Anuj Gupta decided to combine their shared expertise to help innovate pandemic solutions and manage the pandemic alongside public health officials on the local, state, and federal levels.

Covax worked with leaders to support the vaccination rollout, operationalizing a major distribution hub, and offering end-to-end COVID-19-related testing services. They also provided staffing for hard-hit residential aged care facilities and partnered with community outreach clinics at schools and parks.

In response to surging infections, Covax built pop-up testing clinics on short notice and before major holidays. They implemented solutions to clear backlogs at other testing centers and coordinated with networks of pathology testing providers. 

Throughout the pandemic, as they responded to emerging community needs, Covax Australia leaders were also managing the company’s own growth. To keep up with demand for services, they recruited and trained over 800 employees. 

As lockdown restrictions impacted small businesses and commerce, Covax Australia was able to create jobs for their community. They proactively reached out to universities to give graduates real-world experience and assisted those making career changes with transferring their skills to a new industry.

Frontline Medical Hero of the Year
Of special note, Founder & Director of Covax Australia, Dr. Anuj Gupta, was honored at The 2022 International Business Awards® with a Gold Stevie Award for Frontline Medical Hero of the Year in the COVID-19 Response Categories. 

Dr. Gupta began his medical career as an international medical student in 2005 in Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Finishing his medical training in 2019, Dr. Gupta has already established multiple practices and enterprises, some of which are among the most successful general practices in Queensland and Australia. He has since gone on to open a vaccine clinic, respiratory clinics, and drive-through clinics in Brisbane and Gold Coast.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Dr. Gupta served as a frontline responder in Brisbane and consistently rose to the challenge whenever the city needed him in terms of surge and pandemic response. He is also responsible for setting up the first GP Respiratory clinic in Brisbane.

In December 2020, Dr. Gupta founded Covax Australia, a staffing agency with a focus solely on pandemic management, including developing and implementing strategies to help manage aspects of the COVID-19 crisis. In coordination with the Department of Health and Queensland Health, Dr. Gupta worked tirelessly to establish frontline clinics and to organize the COVID-19 response in Australia and Queensland in particular.

Evolving for the Future
Covax Australia now provides innovative staffing solutions to diverse industry settings to suit their changing needs, in sectors including but not limited to the healthcare, hospitality, security, human resources and environmental services sectors.

They support private clients as well as state and federal governments developing and providing end-to-end solutions, supply of equipment, and surge workforce assistance. The agency endeavors to build life-long partnerships with clients, adapting and customizing their services to meet the changing needs of all businesses. 

Covax Australia won a Bronze Stevie Award for Company of the Year among Medium-size Health Products & Services Organizations, and a Bronze Stevie Award for Startup of the Year among Business Services Industries.

Dr. Anuj Gupta won a Gold Stevie Award for Frontline Medical Hero of the Year within the COVID-19 Response Categories in The 2022 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards?

Founded in 2020, Stevie-winner Adapy Inc. exclusively manufactures and distributes patented technology to allow millions of disabled Americans to remotely operate all their mobility assistance devices, such as cranes, lifts, automatic doors/ramps, etc. using their cell phone or other mobile devices.

Disabled individuals who want to drive cars face challenges not typically experienced by other drivers. While most people can get into their vehicles and start driving, those with disabilities must first spend up to 15 minutes using multiple devices and remote controls to open doors, operate lifts, and raise seats. 

This process gets repeated multiple times each day and further becomes more complicated in cases where a remote control fails to operate. As one would expect, disabled drivers generally spend more time in the heat, rain, and cold than other drivers as they wait for their vehicles to be ready to use.

How Adapy Works
Adapy™ allows the user to prepare their vehicle in advance from their mobile phone with a tap of a button from a safe distance. It comes pre-programmed for each adaptive device installed in the vehicle. The user simply plugs in the universal adapter to their existing lift device and downloads the mobile app, and pairs it with the device.

What makes Adapy stand out is its patented technology that allows disabled Americans to operate their mobility assistance devices from the safety and comfort of their homes, offices, or other sheltered locations using their smartphone or other mobile devices. This technology makes it possible for people with limited mobility to remain sheltered from dangerous weather conditions such as extreme heat, cold, or rain while preparing their vehicles for transport.

What Inspired Adapy Technology
Adapy was founded by Aaron Werner who was inspired by military veteran and spinal cord injury survivor Andrew Evans. They determined to perfect the technology meant to help disabled individuals to experience greater freedom and independence.

Aaron has been a vanguard in enterprise technology development for over 20 years. He has developed several software applications in the video gaming industry, marketing, and financial spaces. Owing to his motivating encounter with Andrew, he was inspired to ease the lives of people with ambulatory issues by developing a framework to bring smarter technology to the existing adaptive space.

Adapy, Inc secured a relationship with Avenue Homecare, Inc to provide their Automotive Smart Hub to United States military veterans through the Veterans Assistance Program. Furthermore, this patented technology has recently received endorsement from the Challenged Athletes Foundation, ManaMed, Inc, and Marc Andrus RRT, MBA, a surveyor for the Joint Commission.

Adapy Inc. won a Gold Stevie Award for Tech Startup of the Year- Hardware/Peripherals in The 2022 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards?

We are pleased to welcome a new representative to the Stevie® Awards team: Cindy Chou, Co-Founder and President of OneShot Taiwan.

OneShot is an innovative "Communication-to-Commerce" agency specializing in strategic brand campaigns. They adjust their communication strategy with real-time feedback, using digital means to lay out thousands of communication nodes, assist in the optimization of the systematic effect carousel, and find the best contact point to achieve sales.

Cindy started her career in TV media in Taiwan and Hong Kong, gaining important experience and network connections as a professional reporter and eventually as a department chief.

Prior to founding OneShot Taiwan, Cindy had launched ICL Taiwan, which then merged with world-leading, French communication group MSLGROUP of Publicis Group. Following the merge, Cindy served as the Chair of MSLGROUP Taiwan. 

Stevie Awards President Maggie Miller said:

“We are thrilled to have Cindy join the Stevie Awards team to help reach outstanding organizations in the Asia-Pacific region. With her experience and extensive network, we know she will spread the message on what winning a Stevie Award can do for brand recognition, employee happiness, and company growth. We look forward to working together on international Stevie Award competitions."

Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 nominations each year from organizations in more than 70 nations, honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them. Stevie Awards representatives work across the globe to discover and help innovative companies and leaders enter the global arena and elevate their brand recognition.

We are now accepting entries for The 20th Annual International Business Awards®, the world's premier business awards competition, which attracts nominations from organizations in more than 60 nations and territories each year. All individuals and organizations worldwide—public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, large and small—may submit nominations. The early-bird entry deadline, with reduced entry fees, is 12 April. The final entry deadline is 10 May. Winners will be announced on 11 August and celebrated at a gala banquet in Rome, Italy this October.

Sign up for the Stevie Awards Update Newsletter to get updates on awards competition openings, deadlines, winner listings, and ceremony event details.

New Awards Categories for Achievements in Sustainability

The Stevie Awards are now accepting nominations for The 20th Annual International Business Awards®, the world's premier business awards competition, which attracts nominations from organizations in more than 60 nations and territories each year.

All individuals and organizations worldwide - public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small - may submit nominations to The International Business Awards. The early-bird entry deadline, with reduced entry fees, is 12 April. The final entry deadline is 10 May, but late entries will be accepted through 14 June with payment of a late fee. 

Juries featuring more than 150 executives around the world will determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners. Winners will be announced on 11 August and celebrated at a gala banquet in Rome, Italy this October.

The International Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Categories include:

• Management Awards
• Sustainability Awards
• Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product Awards
• Public Relations Awards
• Web Site, App, Event, Video and other media awards
• Social Media Awards
• Thought Leadership Awards

There are many new and revised features of The International Business Awards for 2023:

• There's an entirely new group of five categories to recognize achievement in Sustainability.  Each of the five categories is split into six geographic sub-categories.
• There are new categories sprinkled throughout many of the category groups, especially in the categories for Achievement, Events, Marketing, Mobile Site & App, New Products & Services, Public Relations, Video, and Websites.
• The category group formerly known as Information Technology has been renamed Technology, to better reflect that all types of technology-related achievements are welcome to be nominated in these categories.
• The COVID-19 categories have been eliminated.

Stevie Award winners in the 2022 IBAs included Anexa BPO (Mexico), Abu Dhabi Ports Group (UAE), DHL Express (worldwide), Filinvest Alabang Inc. (Philippines), Halkbank (Turkey), IBM (USA), LLYC (Spain), Lotte Duty Free (South Korea), MDI Ventures (Indonesia), Megaphone (Australia), MetLife China, Octopus Energy (UK), Ooredoo (Singapore), Sleepm Global Inc. (Canada), Unicef Cambodia, Viettel Group (Vietnam), Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., and many more.

Stevie-winner Thai Son Nguyen is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of SmartOSC, a premium, full-service eCommerce agency established in 2006. SmartOSC offers solutions in areas from consulting, website development, UX/UI design to managed services.

With a variety of large customers in North America, Singapore, Australia, Japan and Europe, SmartOSC has proved its expertise in guiding companies to take advantage of the online marketplace to drive revenue opportunities. Over the past 16 years, SmartOSC has built its reputation through a focus on eCommerce and cost effectiveness, together with a faster go-to-market service thanks to its scalable resource offering, and a track record of successfully delivering enterprise-level projects. 

Thai Son's customer-centric mindset has led to large, revenue-generating deals and award-winning projects with famous brands like LG, ASUS, and Toshiba, alongside regional giants like Korean ride-hailing firm Baemin and Independent Hardware Group, the largest independent hardware wholesaler in Australia. 

SmartOSC has grown quickly, opening new local entities in competitive markets such as Singapore, Japan, Australia, the US, and the UK, with steady growth even throughout the COVID pandemic.

From Humble Beginnings to Widespread Impact 
Thai Son Nguyen has never been one to stand still. He got his start in commerce running errands at his parents' grocery shop as a young boy before founding and growing one of Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated's (APAC’s) most prestigious eCommerce agencies, SmartOSC Corporation. Under his leadership, the business scaled from zero to more than 800 employees, achieving consistent 50%+ year-over-year growth. His sharp mind and resilience in the last 16 years have proved that he is an entrepreneur of extraordinary talent and a business leader whose impact and influence have extended beyond Vietnam and Asia, especially amid the global pandemic.

Instead of offering basic IT outsourcing services at cut-rate prices like many peers in the Asia Pacific, SmartOSC helps businesses save time and money by enabling them to build excellent experiences for customers on their eCommerce websites. Instead of selling cheap labor resources, Thai Son aims at digging into the nature of the client’s business models, analyzing their operations to offer comprehensive and customized eCommerce solutions for long-term growth.

Thai Son believes his industry has a duty to act in the interest of society in times of crisis. Since 2020, he has been an active force in building a community that knows how to leverage technology for the benefit of society amid the pandemic. SmartOSC collaborated with three other leading companies to introduce the Omnichannel Framework documentation to more than 500 retailers to guide them through the pressure of the strict lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 with digitalization. Thai Son has also invested in cutting-edge eCommerce technology such as ConnectPOS, GritGlobal, Antsomi and other fintech and blockchain applications to ensure global merchants get the best out of digital innovation.

The Vietnamese press has called his company “a pioneer in building the eCommerce community” as they have hosted many events for retailers such as Meet Magento (the largest annual event for the eCommerce community), and the Omnichannel Playbook. 

Years of active and thoughtful leadership have made Thai Son one of Vietnam’s top entrepreneurs. He is now also Vice President of the Vietnam-Australia Business Council (VABC), which strives to create a more favorable business investment environment with technology. Thai Son is also a trusted voice for top media platforms for C-suite members such as Vietnam Innovators, ticker NEWS, and Startup Grind. 

Since Winning His Gold Stevie Award 
Thai Son Nguyen has long been fixed on boosting SmartOSC’s presence across the globe and transcending its sources of advantage. As an eCommerce front-runner, Thai Son is dedicated to growing a network of local entities in new markets for the company, evidenced by SmartOSC’s newly opened office in South Korea. 

By maintaining teams of professionals who are highly knowledgeable of local regulatory structures and consumer markets, SmartOSC has been able to leverage both existing capabilities and new host country-specific capabilities, which help maximize the company’s competitiveness in new markets. The result has been a continuous cycle of exploration, adaptation, enhancement, and the exceptional growth that SmartOSC helps businesses around the globe achieve.

Thai Son’s strengthened ambition is not just reflected in the company’s expansion plan, but also in lower staff turnover and a reinforced digital talent engine. With Thai Son's strong emphasis on building a culture that encourages taking ownership and large ambitions, each organizational unit is characterized by a collective determination to constantly innovate. This helps ensure that SmartOSC's clients worldwide can meet rapidly changing customer needs and deliver exceptional customer experiences.  

SmartOSC Corporation Co-founder & CEO Thai Son Nguyen won a Gold Stevie Award for Best Entrepreneur - Computer Services in The 2022 International Business Awards. Read his Gold-Stevie winning nomination here.

Interested in entering The 2023 International Business Awards?