During my interview with Marion Garlick, she mentioned the story of when Gilligan Sheppard began outsourcing to India in 2008. Here is her reflection…

“What Gilligan Sheppard did with outsource was outstanding. It often gets downplayed, and Greg Rathbun was quite pivotal in Gilligan Sheppard’s success during this time. He brought a lot of structure and organisation to the team and business. He had a determination to get things done, and he did.

“Perhaps not in the most tactful way, but still – he got shit done.”

“I can remember him telling me he was off to India for a holiday. He just didn’t look like the kind of person who would go to India, let alone for a holiday. So, I asked him if he was going to start up an outsource firm. He said no, but sure enough six months later, we started one up with Sunny Bansal.

“Tanya Canty got the job of flying over to Chandigarh with a couple of MYOB software disks and her vast experience to get the systems up and running. I think they only had two employees at the time, Vilma and Navneet. She went over everything with them in one week. It was June, the hottest time of the year and Tanya very nearly melted!

“We started getting this team up and running and drove it like nothing else, a huge amount of effort. I’ve been to India a few times to do continued training with the team there, and those times were among some of my most memorable experiences. I went back again eight years later and met up with Vilma and Navneet, who have since both had very successful careers with the company. Vilma told me I was the godmother of the company! Very fond memories.”