Our businesses are reliant on key employees, and we may face high attrition in our talent. We may not be able to replace displaced talent with new talent on a timely basis or with equivalent skill sets.
We are, to a considerable degree, reliant on the continuing leadership of our Chief Executive Officer and would be materially and adversely affected should he unexpectedly cease to be employed by us. In addition, our businesses are subject to fierce competition for talent, which could result in high attrition of our employees, or we may not be able to find the requisite talent to operate our businesses. A significant increase in the attrition rate among employees with specialized skills could decrease our operating efficiency and productivity. Our failure to attract, train and retain personnel with the qualifications necessary to fulfill the needs of our existing and future customers or to assimilate new employees successfully could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows. In addition, fluctuations in our business may require that we lay off employees with possible negative effects on employee morale. We try to minimize these risks by actively promoting employee relationships and offering competitive salaries, but if we cannot mitigate these risks, our business and our operating performance could be adversely affected.
We operate from multiple locations and our employees are very diverse, so we have significant coordination risks.
We are headquartered in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, just outside New York City. We have delivery centers in the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Germany. Our employees are geographically dispersed, as well as culturally diverse. Our personnel need to work together to successfully execute our business plans and we invest in various measures to improve coordination and teamwork. Should we fail in these efforts, our ability to execute our business plans may be adversely affected.
Our intellectual property rights are valuable and if we are unable to protect them or are subject to intellectual property rights claims, our business may be harmed.
Our intellectual property rights include certain trademarks, trade secrets, domain name registrations, a patent and patent applications. Although we take precautions to protect our intellectual property rights, these efforts may not be sufficient or effective. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, we may experience difficulties in achieving and maintaining brand recognition.
Disruptions in telecommunications, system failures, data corruption or virus attacks could harm our ability to execute our global resource model, which could result in customer dissatisfaction and a reduction of our revenues.
We use a distributed global resource model. Our North American workforce provides services from the U.S. and Canada, and the balance of our workforce provides services from the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, Israel and Germany. Our global facilities are linked with a telecommunications network that uses multiple service providers. We may not be able to maintain active voice and data communications between our various facilities and our customers’ sites at all times due to disruptions in these networks, system failures, data corruption or virus attacks. Any significant failure in our ability to communicate, or the availability of our platforms, could result in a disruption in our business, which could hinder our performance, or our ability to complete customer projects on time, or provide services to our customers. This, in turn, could lead to customer dissatisfaction and an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Even though we have implemented network security measures, our information technology systems may be vulnerable to computer viruses, cyber-attacks, break-ins and similar disruptions from unauthorized tampering or intentional and unintentional disclosure of sensitive and /or confidential personal information by employees and non-employees. Additionally, the Company may not be able to effectively identify and resolve such issues on a timely basis. The occurrence of any of the events described above could result in interruptions, delays, the loss or corruption of data, cessations in the availability of systems or liability under privacy laws or contracts, each of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations.
Our international operations subject us to risks inherent in doing business on an international level, any of which could increase our costs and hinder our growth.
The major part of our operations is carried on in the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, and Germany, while our headquarters are in the U.S., and our customers are primarily located in North America and Europe. While we do not depend on significant revenues from sources internal to the Asian countries in which we operate, we are nevertheless subject to certain adverse economic factors relating to overseas economies generally, including inflation, external debt, a negative balance of trade and underemployment. In certain of the countries in which we operate, tax authorities have exercised, and may continue to exercise, significant discretionary and arbitrary powers to make tax demands or decline to refund payments that may be due to us as per tax returns. Other risks associated with our international business activities include: