Nearshore Americas’ Founder and Editorial Director, Kirk Laughlin, will speak at the Peru Services Summit 2013, an increasingly important global conference organized to discuss Peru’s emergence as a lucrative destination for services exports.

“Peru is one of the most important ‘breakout’ stories of Nearshore outsourcing in 2013,” says Laughlin. “I’m extremely excited to be part of an intelligent discussion on how Peru can position itself to attract greater attention in global knowledge-driven industries.”

Laughlin, who launched Nearshore Americas in 2009, is an award-winning editor and expert in information technology and offshore BPO/ IT business strategies and shared services. He is regarded as one of the foremost thought-leaders on the expansion of cross-border trade and investment in business services exports in the Western Hemisphere.

Laughlin is a special guest speaker along with industry experts from global technology companies including IBM, Atento and Arvato.

Over the past decade, Laughlin has addressed several outsourcing gatherings including three appearances at the Brasscom IT Global Summit in Sao Paulo; the Latin America and the Caribbean Outsourcing and Offshoring Forum (Outsource2LAC 2012) organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) as well as significant conferences in Mexico, Chile, the United States and  Jamaica.

The Peru Summit, which got underway this week is expected to attract a large group of outsourcing service providers from across the world. Peru is already home to a huge number of call centers. Peru’s investment promotion agency PromPeru, the event organizer, is aiming to position the Andean country as a platform to export services in wide-ranging areas including software, contact center, graphic, animation and video games.

Peru’s service export sector grew 2.6 times over the past decade. Last year, the country earned US$3.9 billion in revenue exporting services to the US.

Peru’s service sector transformation is the need of the hour because neighboring countries such as Colombia and Chile have already implemented a string of strategies to promote their service export sector.

The export sector in Peru accounts for 50% of the country’s GDP and 65% of national employment. But this Andean country is known more for its copper and gold mining. “Mining generates a lot of support industry in services, and services are where 70% of the working population is focused on,” stated David Edery, PromPeru’s Export Services Coordinator, who recently spoke to Nearshore Americas’s Colombia-based reporterJon Tonti.

“Much of the competitive advantage of Peru’s mining industry is based on the supporting BPO and KPO companies that provide services to the mining companies,” Edery added.

The Latin American country is hoping to reach 100 BPO companies exporting high value added services over the next two years.

Peruvian 3D animation companies are responsible for producing seven animated films that have been received well internationally, Rodencia being one of the latest. The Summit will play host to Asian companies coming specifically to meet with animation firms.

The event managers have planned 1,350 business meetings with 107 international buyers from various countries in the region, Europe, US and Asia. There will also be six technical workshops for sectors like BPO, Publishing, TICs Infrastructure, Logistics, and four workshops designed to keep the employer informed of the latest global trends.

This is the third edition of the Peru Services Summit. Last year, the event brought together more than 2,500 Peruvian and international executives, who generated over US$26 million in exports and investments to the sector.

The Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) has urged Latin American countries to invest more in education, science & technology and infrastructure in order to achieve economic growth.

The UN agency also recommended to improve controls on tax evasion in hopes of increasing collection levels and prop tax revenue across the countries in the region.

“Thanks to a series of reforms, the tax burden has moved in the right direction over the past decade, and this has facilitated a significant rise in social spending. However, tax policy still has a low impact on countries’ fiscal policies in general, which is reflected in the low level of tax receipts,” said Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC, speaking at an international seminar on tax policy organized in Mexico City last week.

Mexico has the means to become a knowledge and information society, but the country does not seem to been investing more on research and development, the ECLAC pointed out.

According to ECLAC data, the average tax burden of Latin American countries was just above 14% of GDP in the period 2000-2011, compared with 11.5% between 1990 and 1999, while the region’s social spending rose from 10.2% of GDP in 1990-1995 to 14.3% between 2005 and 2010.

In Mexico, the tax burden decreased slightly in 2000-2011 to 9.3% of GDP, having risen to 9.6% in 1990-1999, while in Brazil the figure rose from 18.4% of GDP in 1997-1999 to 22.3% in 2000-2011. In Argentina, it rose to 16% in 2000-2011 (from 12.3% in 1990-1999) and in Chile it increased from 16.1% to 17.3% in the same time period.

However, the rising levels of social spending and the decreasing level of investment in research and development has raised eyebrows within the agency.

Between 2005 and 2010, Cuba spent 36.6% of GDP in social welfare, followed by Brazil (24.5%), Argentina (23%), Uruguay (21.4%), Costa Rica (19.3%) and Bolivia (17.5%).  Chile’s social spending was 13.9% in this period, while Mexico posted an average of 10.1%, according to ECLAC.

“Mexico invests 23% of GDP in total, but investment in research and development stands at just 0.39%, which is much lower than other countries such as the United States (2.9%) and Sweden (3.4%),” Bárcena said.

“We believe that public finances need to respond to a progressive fiscal policy. We must focus on investment (especially in human capital) and assign resources for future generations,” she added.

Bárcena urged LATAM countries to reduce their dependency on the commodity market.

By Ashok Patil

As outsourcing becomes a common practice among the business community, service providers across the globe are relentlessly devising newer and newer strategies and delivery models to stay relevant and grab a larger slice of the market.

India, the industry’s dominant player, is scrambling to cut costs and inject value into services. Unlike the countries in the Nearshore region, India has a few options at its disposal to remain dominant and relevant. Indian Outsourcing service providers are increasingly focusing on enhancing the quality of their service as the wages have continued to rise steadily over the past years.

Until recently, reducing cost was the key aim of service providers, but things have changed. Many service providers, particularly those who entered the market as of late, are focusing on quality instead of cost.

For these new entrants, offering high quality service at a low-cost is not easy, however.

Service providers in emerging destinations, such as China and Latin America, seem to have grabbed more than 10 percent of the market share from India Inc. Nevertheless, India has remained the largest BPO provider.

Experts say the sudden rise in the number of outsourcing service providers has increased competition. More providers walked into the market as U.S. companies looked for newer locations to outsource their back-office functions. These new competitors are doing everything they can to grab a larger slice of the market share from large and more established players.

“I think the cost advantage is fading with many ITO/BPO processes being automated. But Asian locations will retain the scalability advantage with their huge educated workforce,” says Anupam Govil, Senior Partner with Avasant and President of AvaSense.

What the Buyers Look For?

Enterprises, according to the Everest Group, examine several values ––sourcing models, risk diversification, access to language skills, cost arbitrage, etc –– before wrapping up deals with a service provider. And they weight both value and cost before making their decision.

“Multi-location delivery centers, proximity and cultural affinity are some of the major factors that enhance the value of a delivery center,” says Anurag Srivastava, an analyst with the Everest Group, pointing at the established players who are increasingly expanding their operation in the nearshore region.

Analysts say buyers are putting as much emphasis on quality as on cost. Working closely with the client is just another way of adding value to the service.

Many service providers, analysts say, have kept on modifying their delivery model in a desperate attempt to stand out from the crowd. But the fact is only a few providers have managed to ‘stand out from the crowd’ successfully.

Established players like Accenture, IBM, and Capgemini are adopting ‘transformational’ strategy, while some providers are adding SMAC services –– social media, mobile, analytics and cloud –– to their offerings.  Indian service providers have an advantage when it comes to application management.

But what is clear is that the new entrants have heated up the competition. Some of these newcomers are not limited to a particular country, they are expanding into many important markets, or joining forces with competitors to better tackle complex projects. Still, most of them are yet to attract the attention of large enterprises and government agencies.

A few mid-tier companies, such as Genpact, WNS and EXL Services, quickly responded to the market demand and expanded into far-flung locations, including Latin America. Aside from setting up offices overseas, they added more services to their portfolio –– finance & accounting, customer service, research & analytics, to name a few.

Genpact is also expanding in continental Europe and the Middle East, and intensifying its effort to catch up with the early entrants such as Infosys and TCS. These initiatives of the company were reflected on the financial results it unveiled recently –  Genpact reported 15.7% growth for the first quarter of 2013, while other India-centric competitors such as TCS, HCL Technologies, Infosys and Wipro posted growth rates in the range of 4% to 15%.

The Battle over Cost and Value

“As long as you add value, you keep buyers happy. Most service providers are carefully carrying out their job to retain their customers,” says Thomas Reuner, an analyst with Ovum.

Reuner says it is, however, hard to examine what changes the value has brought about. “To have a significant success with such large transformational deals, buyer and service provider should partner and work together,” Reuner added.

With all the complexities in the global sourcing industry, it is difficult to know exactly how costs can be reduced. Service providers can keep on winning deals so long as they successfully distinguish themselves in terms of value proposition, delivery model, service offerings, pricing and location.

“Cost parity cannot be achieved in the foreseeable future due to many factors,” stated Anupam Govil. He says market will correct itself as low-cost service providers expand into areas where wages are high. However, Govil pointed out , it will take some time for the industry to push down the cost.

So long as service providers do not streamline their operation and hire limited number of employees, pushing down cost will remain a challenge.

Who needs a limo? Mujica drives an ’87 Beetle

By Pat Antuña Yarza

While Uruguay has garnered attention for its potential as an IT hub, its high percentage of people with broadband access and its relative affluence compared to its nearest neighbors, in recent years the country was frequently overshadowed by Brazil, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

The tiny republic is in the spotlight once again, however, thanks to President José Mujica, a former guerrilla and farmer who has been in office since March 2010.

Mujica joined the Tupamaros guerrilla movement in the early 1960s. The movement drew some inspiration from the Cuban revolution and performed some violent actions that earned it notoriety, while at the same time performing other more sympathetic actions that fueled the Robin Hood mythology of the guerrilla.  It was crushed shortly before the military dictatorship in 1973.

Some say he was shot six times, some say nine, some say less during his stint in the movement. He was imprisoned for 14 years, most of which were spent in solitary confinement. He has often stated that his time spent in prison helped him shape his thinking and taught him that one can always  start again.

Mujica donates 90 percent of his salary — an estimated US $150,000 a year — to charities that his own political party runs, the majority of them related to providing housing for the poor.

He also shuns the presidential palace for a modest farmhouse on the outskirts of Montevideo. He lives there with his wife, Senator Lucía Topolansky, also a Tupamaros member, and their dog Manuela. Mujica is not the first Uruguayan president to remain in a private residence. His predecessor Tabaré Vázquez did the same. Vazquez lived in a well-to-do residential district, however, while water is taken from a well and clothes are hung from a line at Mujica’s farmhouse.

Mujica travels with no entourage, except for two police officers who don’t wear their uniforms inside. He drives a 1987 Volkswagen Beetle to his office, after years of driving an old Vespa to Parliament, where he spent two periods as MP. Again, the lack of bodyguards or chauffeurs is not exclusive to Mujica, in a country where other politicians regularly jog along the promenade or do their shopping at local supermarkets, all a result of the country’s still high ranking in terms of safety.

Poverty and Popularity

The president, who is usually referred to as “Pepe,” addresses the issue of his personal austerity by quoting philosophers, often present in his rhetorical repertoire. “I am not poor. Poor are those who work to keep an expensive lifestyle, always craving for more.”

He seems to be relaxed about his recent drop in popularity within the country. “I don’t give a damn” he is reported to have said, adding that if he believed in polls he wouldn’t be president.

It is worth mentioning that his popularity abroad is higher than ever, with media from all over the world producing sympathetic pieces about his persona, even when he gets himself into trouble by making “off the record” statements that get leaked, like when he recently referred to his ally, Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner, as “that old hag.”

Since his election, Uruguay has passed bills legalizing same-sex marriage and abortion, two extremely sensitive issues. Mujica himself prompted a debate on the legalization of marijuana, suggesting it would be an effective way to combat drug trafficking. After polls revealed that the majority of the population did not agree, he asked MPs to withdraw the bill and consider discussing the matter again in the next legislative session.

His government has also drawn international attention for the encouragement of alternative energy sources, like wind and biomass.

Whether he was shot one, two or six times, what cannot be denied is that President Mujica has reinvented and recycled himself, challenging every single notion of what a traditional leader does and becoming the austere president that many rich nations would like to have.

Pat Antuña Yarza is a freelance writer and translator based in Montevideo. This story was first appeared in NSAM sister publication Global Delivery Report.

Jamaica’s outsourcing industry lobby group (BPIAJ) has teamed up with the country’s National Training Agency (NTA) to build what is hoped to be a pioneering program to increase the readiness of the   BPO worker population. 

Both entities will collaborate to device a vocational training program that will equip youths with skills required to work with outsourcing service firms, including call centers.

Jamaica’s announcement comes barely weeks after Colombia unveiled a program to train more than a thousand graduates in agile software development.

“Jamaica has a huge potential in business process outsourcing (BPO),” stated Phillip Paulwell, country’s Minister of Science & Technology, after the signing of the agreement.

The minister, however, conceded that his country’s BPO sector has not grown to its real potential. It is, however, true that Jamaica has emerged as the leading contact center location in the English-speaking Caribbean with over 10,000 full time agents in the offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

“What I am determined to do this time around is to ensure that rather than just a Minister going out crusading, we really try to build an effective partnership.  It is partnership that is going to enable Jamaicans and this country to move forward, especially in relation to some of the new areas and industries,” he stated.

Several ministries, including Finance, Industry and Education, will play their roles in the training program.

The skill training will turn out to be a key to success of the outsourcing industry in Jamaica, stated Yoni Epstein, President of BPIAJ.

Most part of the training program will focus on training agents for call centers. The BPO sector in Jamaica comprises more than 25 companies performing a range of services, including finance & accounts, tech support and customer service.

The Caribbean country has been recognized by Gartner as a destination to watch and by A.T. Kearney as a favorable BPO destination.

Beatriz Peralta, a Director for Sykes El Salvador

By Loren Moss

To the outside world, call center sourcing is one of the most visible among BPO activities. Contrary to back-office processing or F&A, call centers usually directly engage the public in sales or customer service roles. Along with this comes unique stresses – not just  from dealing in a problem-solving role with customers who at times can be quite infuriated, but also from representing the client’s reputation and  bottom-line.

Nearshore Americas spoke to some call center veterans in order to get a feel for just what’s it like on the front lines of call center BPO, including Renato Mota, Senior Manager at Allied Global, (with main offices in Guatemala City) and Beatriz Peralta, Director of Area Operations for Sykes El Salvador Ltd. Two of Peralta’s operations directors, Marbry Perez and Jose Castaneda, also contributed to the interview.

NSAM: As a floor manager or site director, what are the most common stressful stresses that you encounter in this role that sets it apart from other occupations?

Mota: The most common stressor found at this level of management is that the ultimate responsibility for everything will always reside with you. No matter how the operation under your care is composed, regardless of how many divisions it has.

While you are at the top you will always be held responsible for the outcomes and performance of everyone.  In addition, there is a saying “it is lonely at the top”. This is very true as it is very important for the site director to maintain a healthy separation from everyone under him.

Peralta: The biggest challenge is managing in a fast and dynamic environment where change is the only constant, as well as keeping your people engaged to embrace change and adapt quickly. Additional challenges are the diversity of people management issues due to age and background differences and juggling multiple client types and business cultures.

NSAM: What unique qualities does the floor manager or site director possess that allow for long term success – and happiness on the job?

Mota: Being truly committed and in agreement with your organization´s goals. Especially in this industry, the best site directors have worked their way up the ranks and thus are uniquely qualified to understand the needs, challenges of all the positions below him/her. If you have been in the industry long enough to have become a site director; it is a perfect indicator that you enjoy the work you do, which is a must in this industry.

Peralta: Self-motivation is critical, as well as maintaining a healthy work/ life balance.  You have to be self-critical and a manger cannot be afraid to re-invent the wheel when innovation is called for.

NSAM: Do you find that Floor Managers and call center managers tend to rise from the ranks of operators and customer service representatives, or do they come in from outside, either from other management positions or as college graduates?

Mota:  It is preferable if floor managers or call center managers to have come up from the bottom of the ranks as this enables them to possess an inside perspective on how things develop at each level. These are the people who tend to be the best when reaching these levels of management.

Peralta:  I believe that as the call center industry is a people centric  business, most of the growth should come from the inside, and as such, call center managers should have a sustainable leadership pipeline to supply leadership needs at all levels. A college education may be required for some specific technical positions, but I do not consider it a sine qua non pre-requisite.  Previous managerial experience is always a plus.

NSAM: What is a typical day like for you? Walk us through the different things you spend your time on in a typical day.

Mota: I begin the day by meeting with my team, the heads of each department – operations, client services, quality assurance, workforce management, IT, facilities, human resources, marketing, and finances. This allows me to touch basis with each unit. As part of our daily meeting we discuss the past day’s results by end of business, performance trends specific to each unit, incidents and highlights of the day, so that we can resolve which business reactions will take place throughout the day to achieve desired outcomes.

Next, I review the development of our different performance progression programs and what our efforts and budgets are returning to us to assure effectiveness of each program. When necessary, our performance strategies are taken back to the drawing board for adjustments, new approaches or discontinuance if found ineffective. This is all while continuously reviewing interval result reports down to every 30 minutes (!) and taking the appropriate actions to assure each day the business closes as expected. Throughout the day, other meetings are held directly with each client. The purpose of these meetings vary, from regular updates to reviewing results or discussing different business initiatives and requests.

Peralta: A typical day for my operations managers starts with greeting for their teams and reviewing daily checkpoints, walking the floor, revising critical performance indicators, resolving critical and urgent matters, and holding project execution or planning meetings. A normal day will include conference calls and client related meetings, coaching and developing my teams through staff meetings and individual sessions, email responses, as well as regular floor walks.

NSAM: How do you recruit and retain people that can handle the unique stresses of this business?

Mota:  Our recruitment department looks for personnel based on the profile needed depending on the business vertical or line of business we are hiring for at the time. This is accomplished with a combination of a lengthy interview process that includes a variety of skill-set testing, as well as psychometric and personality tests.

We combine this with a great employee benefit package. Allied Global is a great believer in the fact that a happy and satisfied employee is a good employee. We offer a fun, interesting and safe working environment for our personnel.

Peralta: Defining the right competencies for the job and implementing a rigorous multi-step process to on-board candidates, from recruiting up to training certification during nesting, tailoring a specific competency set for the different types of contacts handled. We retain employees by ensuring that the call center atmosphere fosters a welcoming environment, assessing leadership support and having the appropriate compensation and rewards plans in place. We design attractive campaigns and foster healthy fun competitions among agents and teams and provide regular coaching and developmental sessions highlighting accomplishments and guiding opportunities.

NSAM: What is it about your work that you find particularly rewarding and satisfying? What do you like about working in your field?

Mota: Building a healthy and satisfying relationship with our clients through meeting and surpassing their service expectations. The better our company is doing the better conditions we are able to offer our current employees and at the same time, excellent performance levels result in triggering the desire of our clients to grow their business with us. This grounds the strongest and most satisfying aspect of this work for me, which is that we get to offer great jobs to many people. The better we do, the more the business grows and the more people have the opportunity to work with this great company just as I had 10 years ago.

Peralta: Having the ability to work with talented individuals from whom we learn every day, contributing to the community by sustaining a profitable business which supports over 800 families, growing and developing human capital and working in a dynamic and fast paced environment. The opportunity to exercise leadership practices daily in order to achieve goals and commitments, while developing new generations of leaders. Also, the possibility to contribute to the local economy by paying above minimum wage salaries and having a solid social responsibility program that continuously engages with our community.

Global HR management firm ADP acquired South America’s noted HR outsourcing services provider Payroll for an undisclosed price.

The acquisition, analysts say, will expand ADP’s presence in the region. The company has grown rapidly within the US in the past few years.

The financial details of the deal have yet to be disclosed by either company.

Labor markets across Latin America are growing at an unprecedented pace. Businesses in countries such as Chile have had no choice but to hire foreign workers to keep up with the rising demand.

“Latin America represents a multi-billion dollar opportunity, and we see strong momentum in the region with annual growth rates in the high single digits,” stated Gary Bragar, HR Outsourcing Research Director at NelsonHall.

Payroll, which has offices in Chile, Argentina and Peru, is believed to have more than 1,300 clients and employs over 450 associates. The company’s solutions and technologies include core payroll, HR, performance management, recruiting, scheduling, absence management, time and labor management.

Santiago, Payroll’s Chile-based office, offers full outsourcing, software-as-a-service and on-site deployment, among other services. Offices are also present in Buenos Aires and Cordoba in Argentina and Lima, Peru.

Roseland, the New Jersey-based ADP office, stated that it has had a partnership with Payroll since 2009. In Latin America, ADP’s presence is only visible in Brazil, where it has been working with a few subsidiaries.

“Today’s announcement marks an important building block in our global HCM strategy.  We currently offer HCM solutions to clients in over 80 countries and this acquisition will further reinforce our capabilities in the fast-growing Latin American market,” said Mark Benjamin, Division President, ADP.

ADP has been rapidly expanding through recent acquisitions. Last year, it acquired Mai Foi Consulting, an Indian human resource and payroll management company and TheRightThing, a Findlay, Ohio-based recruitment outsourcing outfit. These acquisitions, analysts say, are helping ADP grow within the US, as well as overseas. Its largest competitor is Paychex.

TOTVS Ventures, the investment arm of Latin American enterprise software company TOTVS will invest $ 22 million in San Francisco-based cloud analytics firm GoodData

This is TOTVS’ first venture capital investment outside Brazil. Other investors in GoodData include Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst Partners, Next World Capital and Tenaya Capital.

The venture will grant TOTVS exclusive access to GoodData’s platform in Latin America. In return, GoodData will gain access to the $9 billion Latin America software market, where TOTVS is one of the significant players.

“By combining GoodData’s intuitive analytics with our market-leading enterprise software, we are creating the cloud analytics leader in Latin America and giving access to Big Data solutions to our clients in Latin America,” said Alexandre Dinkelmann, executive vice president of strategy and finance at TOTVS.

GoodData is a business intelligence service provider, and the Big Data it analyzes helps companies quicken their business decisions about expansion and customer services.

According to recent  reports, GoodData garnered US$75.5 million in total funding, and the company talking about plans to expand operations in Latin America.

“We founded GoodData as a cloud company because cloud has no barriers to scale or new markets,” said Roman Stanek, founder and CEO of GoodData. “We’re now taking GoodData to the next step: leveraging TOTVS’s dominant position in the region to extend our U.S. leadership to the $9 billion Latin America software market.”

Founded in 2007, GoodData has 20,000 active clients and 51 partners, which embed its on-demand business intelligence platform into their services.

“The funding will enable GoodData to hire employees, expand into new markets in Latin America, and increase investments in R&D and marketing,” TOTVS stated in a press release.

TOTVS’s Alexandre Dinkelmann will join GoodData’s board of directors.

By Marnely Rodriguez-Murray

Most of us have felt it: the pounding headache that starts the moment you open your bloodshot eyes, the constant need to drink fluids, the aches and pains from when you fell on the dance floor last night, that bruise on your left leg you don’t remember getting stares at you in disgust. You’re hungover and all you want to do is chug a gallon of cold water, close the curtains, turn off your phone, and stay in bed. But it’s Monday and you can’t – someone has to go to work.

Wake your shaky and nauseous self up! Start by drinking two glasses of room temperature water. No, having a beer will not balance it all out and make you feel better, it will only dehydrate you more. Have a snack, such as crackers or a piece of fruit to try and settle your stomach. Grab an over-the-counter pain reliever to start treating the headache. But if all this fails and you’re waking up to someone that loves you, have them whip up one of these classic Latin American hangover cures (if you have no one that loves you, I hope you live close to a Latin neighborhood!).

Sancocho in Dominican Republic

Colloquially called “revive muertos”, Dominican sancocho is typically served at parties on New Year’s Day. After partying for hours, the sun rises and the simmering sancocho has started to waft into the air. It’s a stew like dish made with seven kinds of proteins, including pork, beef, chicken, and rabbit, among other. Served piping hot, it will surely settle your stomach and have you sweat out that hangover. Squeeze a little fresh lime over it for an acidic balance to the rich stew.

Menudo in Mexico

Simmered beef tripe and hominy make up this hangover cure. Although we’re not sure why it’s a cure, but we’re guessing the amount of fat in it will eventually settle your stomach. And with more and more chefs doing the nose-to-tail experience, Menudo has become quite popular in cities across the USA.

 Leche de Tigre in Peru

If you can stomach it, “leche de tigre” is known to be a cure all in Peru. What is it? Well, imagine ceviche. You’ve marinated this fresh fish in a gorgeous combination of citrus juices, thinly sliced onions, and chilies. That liquid that’s leftover after you serve the ceviche is what is known as “leche de tigre” or “leche de pantera”. It’s invigorating and also known as a common aphrodisiac.

Goma (Caldo de Pollo) in Guatemala

Nothing like caldo de pollo, or chicken broth, to sooth a nauseous and hungover human being. If the comforting thought of it doesn’t, it’s typically served piping hot, so you’ll probably just sweat out the hangover while you slurp it up! Add a splash of chili sauce or Tabasco to get your blood racing.

Fricase in Bolivia

A spiced up stew, thickened with bread and potatoes, this mixture of yellow chili, pungent garlic, and cumin-infused pork meat will have you craving for more! It’s a hearty dish, so be ready to be stuffed by the end of it. You’ll be needing a nap, it’s so filling!

If you still have the hangover even after having a taste of any of the dishes above, bite the bullet and call in sick. There’s no way you’re making it into the office today. That’s what sick days are for, right?