AMCHAM Closes 2010 BOP with Awards Dinner

The finale of 8th annual AmCham Business Orientation Program, marked by the customary Awards Dinner, was held at the Marriott Hotel Manila in Newport City last April 24, Saturday.

BOP committee member and Senior Director of Sea Change Mr. Christopher Stolk hosted the evening, and was accompanied by 2008 BOP alumni Conrad Lee and Mary Love Sy. Mr. Rob Sears, AmCham Executive Director opened the program by welcoming the attendees and thanking them once again for their support for the program.

In her keynote address, Ms. Leslie Bassett, Deputy Chief of Mission for the US Embassy encouraged the students to find one person that inspires them, and have mentors who are successful but will share their life lessons in order to help shape them to be who they want to be in the future.

The awarding of the BOP certificates was presented by Mr. Sears, Ms. Bassett, Mr. Jun Salipsip, Executive Director of the AmCham Foundation, and Ms. Carol Dominguez, 2010 BOP Chair. BOP partners and corporate sponsors were given a certificate of appreciation and a group picture with the students in recognition of their support, and in exchange, the partners gave a message of thanks and related some of their memorable experiences with the students. Marriott Hotel Manila GM Mr. Richard Saul gave a few words of advice to the students regarding their personal life and career, while Ms. Marla Alvarez of Thomson Reuters assured that they will sponsor the BOP next year.

The most anticipated part of the program came next with the awarding of the winners of the BOP Case Study. After a careful deliberation by the prestigious panel of judges headed by Mr. Ernest Cu, President of Globe Telecom, the team of Carlos Yu (UP Diliman), Marielie Sablan (Miriam College), Robbie Lim (Ateneo de Zamboanga), Marian Adriano (Ateneo de Naga, Bicol), and Maria Elena Alfonso (DLSU) was declared the winner. Second place went to Ayessa Gadia (Mindanao State University, Marawi), Emmanette Crisostomo (UP Diliman), Joemar Detalla (Siliman University, Dumaguete), Christian Patacsil (St. Louis University) and Ivan Lim (DLSU), while the group of Aldwin Dumago (Ateneo de Davao), Emmanuel de Vera (DLSU), Aimee Bacallan (UP Diliman), and Pamela Guingona (Xavier University, Ateneo de Cagayan De Oro) won third place. Athena Plaza of University of San Carlos, Cebu was also awarded Best Presenter.

The response from the students was given by Aldwin Dumago, wherein he thanked AmCham for the lessons, challenges, and memories that made up the whole BOP experience. “Last week, I came from Davao empty-handed, and tomorrow I will leave with excess baggage,” he concluded. As a gesture of appreciation for all their efforts and hard work, the students serenaded Ms. Carol Dominguez and Ms. Abbie Flores, BOP Coordinator, with a rendition of Tyler Collins’s ”Thanks to You”.

In her closing remarks, 2010 BOP Committee Chair Carol Dominguez reminded the students, “The objective of this past week was to make an impact on your life,” and ended the program and the evening with a quote by Peter Drucker: “Learning is a life-long process of keeping abreast of change, and the most pressing task is teaching people to learn.”

AmCham would like to thank the corporate sponsors/partners, the US Embassy, the 2010 BOP Committee, the BOP alumni and everyone else involved who made the 2010 BOP a success!

- Marge F. Friginal
Official BOP Writer

The BOP Daily Activity Post

Friday, April 23

8:00 AM

Mr. David Leechui, President of Jones Lang LaSalle, joined the students for breakfast to give them a talk on leadership.

9:45 AM

The group travelled to the outskirts of Makati to visit the 45-year old facility of Mead Johnson Nutrition, one of the world leaders in pediatric nutrition for infants and children.

Another supportive sponsor for the BOP for several years now, Mr. Paul Richards, President and Managing Director of Mead Johnson, warmly welcomed the students. He and his team went on to give them an in-depth look at the company history and operations of different divisions such as Supply Chain, HR, Sales & Marketing, and Corporate Affairs.
Mr. Richards gave an overview of the company brands: Enfa, Alacta, Lactum, Sustagen, Enfamama and Nutramigen; CSR initiatives, current challenges such as the global economic crisis, competition, regulatory business strategy and corporate objectives.
He also shared the three characteristics of a successful company: create value, do good, and have fun. He advised the students to do what they enjoy—in school, the subjects they enjoy are usually the ones they excel in; try out different things: at the start of one’s career, he or she shouldn’t lock themselves into a 10-year job. They should give themselves options to do other things, and set their own definition of success. Lastly, Mr. Richards advised the group to “Think long-term, but live for today.”

A short plant tour followed the presentation portion, i

n where the students suited up in blue lab gowns, face masks and plast

ic covers over their shoes. After the tour, they had a chance to ask the Mead Johnson team

some questions over a buffet lunc

h, such as why breast milk is still best for babies, promotional campaigns on campus-- whatever happened to Sustagen mascots Susi & Geno?; product development, launching programs and fruity-flavored drinks.

2:00 PM

Next stop was the Philip Morris office located at the 27/F of the Enterprise Center a

long Ayala Avenue, where Ms. Amy Eisma, Corporate Affairs Manager and several executives

engaged the students in an AVP presentation on company operations, production of tobacco leaves and plant process.

As part of her opening remarks, Ms. Eisma informed the group that Philip Morris employees do not en

cou

rage visitors to smoke, especially minors.

Philip Morris is the leading international tobacco company, with Marlboro being the most popular brand in the world. Their firsts include the invention of full-flavore

d menthol, lights, and mobile smoking lounges in areas where smoking is prohibited by la

w.

During the Q & A portion, students wanted to know more about the merger/joint venture between Philip Morris and Fortune Tobacco, exporting local products, etc.

Near the end of the visit, PM President Mr. Chris Nelson arrived and gave a short speech about career choices. “Careers are very mobile,” he explained. “Your chosen course doesn’t necessarily mean the job you’ll end up in.”

5:00 PM

The last company visit for this year’s BOP was Accenture up in Ortigas. The students were escorted to a small ballroom whose set-up was fit for a wedding receptio

n. Mr. Shawn Riley, Accenture’s charming senior executive, as well as several management associates, presented the overview on the company background and operations.

Accenture, formerly Andersen Consulting, is one of the world’s leading management consulting, technical services and outsourcing companies, with 178,000 employees in 49 countries. They work with clients in nearly every major industry worldwide, including 91 of the Fortune Global 100 Companies and over two-thirds of the Fortune Global 500 Companies.

Mr. Riley proudly shared accolades of Accenture, which includes being n

amed #1 IAOP Global Outsourcing 100 for three straight years; one of Fortune Magazine’s 2010 “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the second year in a row. In terms of choosing call center agents, the Accenture team emphasized The Filipino Talent—excellent English communication skills, talent, and dedicated sense of work attitude.

Following an AVP on “A Typical Day for an Accenture Employee”, the students asked questions on what makes Accenture different from other BPO companies, their competitive edge, opening call centers down in Mindanao, and the next promising location in the world to set up a BPO.

After a delicious buffet dinner and the usual photo op, the students hurried out into the early evening light and clambered back on the bus to a long night ahead of working on their case study in preparation for tomorrow’s presentation.

The BOP Daily Activity Post

Thursday, April 22

Happy Earth Day!
7:30 AM

The students were joined by Mr. Joseph Sullivan, President of CalEnergy for breakfast, who shared with them a bit about the company’s background, contribution to the Philippines, and CSR projects.

9:00 AM

Today’s company visits were located in the South, and first stop was at Sunpower in Binan, Laguna, after several wrong turns. Once again, Mr. Rey Mella, Site Director, and Mr. Jong Jimenez found themselves welcoming the newest batch of participants for the third straight year as BOP sponsors.Founded in 1985, Sunpower is the world leader in the solar industry, delivering the world’s highest efficient solar products globally. Production began in the Philippines in 2004, with diversified channels in residential, commercial, power plant and utility sectors abroad. Sunpower manufactures in the U.S., Philippines, Malaysia, China and Mexico.
During the informative presentation, the students got the chance to ask questions on solar panels for automotives, discussions with the DOE regarding the grid policy, alternative sources of energy during the rainy season, and criteria in choosing locations for installation of solar panels.

Afterwards, the participants were given a line tour, led by senior process engineers.

1:00 PM
Running a bit behind schedule, the bus headed straight for Ford Philippines in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, where Ms. Annika Salceda, VP for Communications, and her team briefed the students about Ford’s formidable background, aided by an impressive video of the company’s different vehicle models around the world, product launches and CSR initiatives in different countries, various accolades and visibility in the media.
The Ford team fielded questions about local availability of certain foreign vehicle models and coping with the U.S. automotive industry crisis, then gave the students a safety briefing about the plant tour, wherein the students had the chance to see the assembly line, painting and quality assurance areas.

3:45 PM

Back on the road in search of a McDonald’s (in-kind BOP sponsor) for a very late lunch, the sandwiches provided back at Ford not cutting it. Most of the tired students took the opportunity to catch a nap. Made a rest

stop at a McDonald’s at a Shell station along SLEX before rushing off to Alabang for the last company visit of the day.

5:15 PM

A welcoming committee from Integra was situated at the front steps of the Paragon building as the BOP bus pulled up, almost an hour late. In the stylish conference room, the Integra team encouraged the students to introduce themselves and mention an admirable trait about the person sitting next to them. By this time, after spending a week together, the adaptable and outgoing students were already comfortable with each other, thoroughly enjoying the icebreaker.
The team then engaged the students in an

interactive presentation about the company, giving them an overview of the BPO industry and teaching them self-awareness tools such as the Johari Window and the DISC Dimensions of Behavior.

After dinner, the students visited the two offices of Integra for a mid-shift tour of the call centers.

7:45 PM

While it was another fulfilling field trip, the day wasn’t done for the st

udents as the bus brought them back to Makati, another long night of working on the case study stretching ahead of them.

The BOP Daily Activity Post

Wednesday, April 21

8:00 AM
Over breakfast, the students were treated to a talk by Convergys regarding an inside look into a career in the call center business.






10:00 AM

At the 28th floor of the West Tower in Ortigas, Mr. Serge Grynkewich, President of International SOS, welcomed the BOP students for the fifth year in a row before leading them to the conference room where he and his team, including newly-appointed Country Manager Harold Pradal presented them with an overview of the organization, consisting of their client base, vision and mission, company values, as well as a touching video of clients around the world they were able to provide emergency medical assistance to.

International SOS is in the business of saving lives. They are the global leader in medical and security assistance, and international healthcare, operating in 75 countries; their clients compose over 80 percent of the Fortune 100 Companies in the U.S. In the Philippines, International SOS has been in operation for the past 20 years.

The students posed questions on the company’s client segments, whether Int’l SOS was a profit or non-profit organization, similarities to Red Cross, dealing with cases where clients are in remote locations, and membership rates.



After the presentation, Mr. Grynkewich gave the students a brief tour of the Alarm Center, where all calls are treated urgently and immediately. Then the group had to hop on the bus to dash to Newport City for the AmCham General Membership Luncheon Meeting.











12:00 NN


The students mingled with CEO’s over lunch at the Marriott Hotel and several conducted interviews with the press, while Ms. Carol Dominguez gave an inspiring presentation about the BOP.



3:00 PM

With (proudly) no lost turns, the BOP bus arrived at McKinley City and deposited the group to Thomson Reuters. After a relatively long registration process, the students were brought to a spacious and chic pantry that doubled as a conference room, where the Thomson Reuters team presented a video-intensive background about the company, including their market data platform, clients, and employee global footprint.


Named as one of the Top 50 Best Global Brands in the US, Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading provider of intelligent information to professional markets. The company was born from two powerful companies: Reuters (Europe and Asia), and Thomson (US & Canada), and combines industry experience with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and media markets.

The Q & A was composed of a panel of company executives as students asked questions about the demand of TR’s industry compared to other industries in today’s world, training opportunities and procedures, research sources, strategies in pitching services to clients, and limits on information being provided to clients.






The students were then subjected to a tour of the two offices of Thomson Reuters, with countless clicks of cameras in between, before heading back to AmCham.



















6:30 PM

En route the AmCham office. The bus was shaking with laughter as the students engaged in some fun and games, making traffic a lot easier to bear.














7:00 PM onwards

Munching on pizza for dinner back at the AmCham Hall while waiting for the case study mentors, Mr. Jun Salipsip and Ms. Grace Alcid to assist the students on their case study.

The BOP Daily Activity Post

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

5:30 AM

The lightening sky marking a new day found the bleary-eyed students clustered on the front steps of the BSA Tower, waiting for the bus while Ms. Carol Dominguez solicited their feedback on the previous day’s activities.

6:20 AM

After a brief bout with early-morning traffic along Cubao, the bus pulled up to the Ayala Techno Hub in Diliman, QC, where Ms. Cris Crisostomo, Director for Supply Chain Center Enablement of IBM Philippines met up with the students and Ms. Carol.

Ms. Crisostomo cheerfully presented an overview of the company,
which consists of several divisions; namely IBM Philippines,
IBM Solutions Delivery, IBM Customer Relationship Management and IBM Business Services, Inc. IBM is celebrating 72 years in the Philippines and is the leading supplier of information technology, hardware, software and services in the country. The Philippine subsidiary is one of the top 17 companies of IBM global.



After the presentation, Mr. Alex Pantola, a technical associate, gave the students a short tour of the Innovation Center. With sleek and modern facilities, the center truly gave off an impressive feel of state-of-art technology.





Mindful of the full schedule in Clark, the students scurried back to the bus immediately after the photo op and took their breakfast on the road.


8:30 AM

The students arrived at Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga and headed to the Peregrine office. Chris Stolk met the group there along with Mr. Dennis Wright, Peregrine President, and Mr. Jeff Pradhan, Business Development Director, who personally welcomed the students at the front door.


An engaging speaker and a 33-year Navy veteran, Mr. Wright gave the students an extensive lesson on the economic, cultural and geographical advantages to investing in Clark.
Rather than setting up shop in competitive Western countries, the Kuwait investors of Peregrine decided to invest in the Philippines, which is one of the emerging markets of the world, along with countries such as Iraq, Haiti and Sri Lanka. “Do your homework. Do your own economic study. Don’t listen to other people, as long as you have the knowledge to back up your decision,” he advised the students.

Peregrine, a knowledge management company chartered to assist, facilitate and augment clients and companies in developing opportunities and conducting business in transitional and emergent economies around the world, is located in the Global Gateway Logistics City in Clark and was formed in the Philippines four years ago.

Describing Clark as ‘the future of the Philippines’, Mr. Wright rode along with the students on the bus and gave them a detailed perimeter tour of the area, pointing out construction sites of new companies, future investors, and existing establishments such as Texas Instruments, Yokohama, Mimosa, etc. Meanwhile, the students asked questions on cash flow management and strategies on convincing investors.

His enthusiastic parting words to the students: “Be excited of your country and the promising future of Clark and Subic.”








10:00 AM

Mr. Wright personally dropped the students off at the site of Iren Dornier Technology, where Mr. Fortunato Samson, QA Head, excused himself from a training to meet
with the group to provide a background on Iren Dornier, grandson of a German pioneer aircraft owner.

Dornier was incorporated in the Philippines in 2006 and manufactures fully-built composite aircrafts used in sports. They are in charge of all MRO activities for Sea Air.

Mr. Samson proudly spoke of a 1944 Dornier plane, the last of its kind made, and the last one still flying—with a Philippine registry. He encouraged students to ask questions on the building process, lifeline, classifications and designs of aircraft and gave them a tour around the production area and the hangar, where students happily posed for pictures with different aircrafts.



11:15 AM

Holiday Inn’s General Manager, Mr. Simon Morley, welcomed the students and assigned them to three groups for a guided tour around the hotel. Aside from the rooms and usual amenities, the students also got the chance to see areas normally off-limits to guests, such as the kitchen, housekeeping, delivery center, administrative offices, etc.








The three groups then met up at one of the ballrooms for lunch with the Clark executives and BOP sponsors—Simon Morley, Dennis Wright and Jeff Pradhan of Peregrine, and several representatives from the President’s office of CIAC who later presented a speech from Mr. Victor Luciano. After lunch, Mr. Morley gave the students a background on Holiday Inn.



Holiday Inn Clark is part of the widely-recognized Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG). Holiday Inn was actually converted from Chambers Hall Hotel, a military transient accommodation house of Clark US Air Base back in 1996. The hotel is a business leader in the tourism industry in Central Luzon.

Mr. Morley’s advice to the students: “When you look for your first real job,
employers will want to know if you are just an academic, or a well-rounded person. Land the job that will put you onto the first step towards the direction of your dreams. Expect constant change in life, and make a difference, whatever you do.”


3:30 PM

The bus ride back to Manila was relatively quiet as most of the students took naps, tired from the long day.

5:30 PM onwards

U.S. Embassy’s Economic Advisor, Tim Neely and FCS-Commercial Attache, Tyrena Holley gave students a talk over dinner about the background of the Embassy and the contribution of the Economic Affairs’ contribution to companies in the Philippines.