A simple person and smiling face, Mr. Ramoncito "Mon" Fernandez is the President and CEO of Maynilad Water Services Inc. and Metro Pacific Infrastructure. He also has wide exposure in telecommunication such as SMART Communication and Philippine Long Distance Telephone. He took his Bachelor's degree in Industrial Management Engineering at DLSU and MBA in Asian Institute of Management.
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| photo credit: Camille Esquillo |
Integrity, Ethics, and Corporate Governance
Mr. Mon shared how Maynilad Services practice integrity, honesty, transparency and corporate governance and being part of their core values. From the shareholders then to the board of directors, and down to the management. The Board of Directors provides the framework of Corporate Governance as well as defines the role of the board and co-membership to the nomination committee, compensation of senior management down to compensation committee, strategic direction, review ethical standard and risk management of the Corporation.
Corporate governance is a system of rules, processes and practices in a company. In addition, corporate governance is a requirement and it really helps to run the business. He recalled, when he started implementing their corporate governance it was tough because their was resistance to change and received questions such as asking why are they doing the change? What they did - they do a lot of educating, a lot of brain storming and involving the team leaders in the change. In result, they manage the resistance and able to proved the purpose of meaning and change is eventually for the employees.
Whistle blower policy is also another act of Corporate Governance, wherein whistle blower is allowed to share confidential information. Another one is the Vendor Supplier Management, ensuring that the vendors are periodically measured in terms of performance. Corporate governance is essential in every business such as good corporate governance ensures corporate success and economic growth. Thus, corporate governance should be fully recognized and acted upon.
He highlighted that being the CEO, he is the leader role model and management by example. As a CEO, he ensures that those core values are applied consistently from top to bottom and across all departments as well as ensure that he practice what he say and the people see that he really practice what he preach as a leader.
Core values are the essence of the companies identity such as the principles, beliefs or philosophy of values. Establishing strong core values provide internal and external advantages to the company. Having core values helps the companies in decision-making processes. As a leader, he follow the policy for no tolerance for dishonesty and he shares his experience of letting go of reliable employee because of dishonest and he also fire top notch project manager because of colluding of one contractor. There are lot of due diligence and a lot of validation done before unpleasant firing.
Another one was his recent experience on one of the board, wherein they discovered an executive who falsifying the diploma. They deliberate in the board and most of the board, the initial reaction was lot of compassion because the person was the only bread winner in their family and the person was performing, delivering the expectation of the management. So, the case was overruled and the board decision was suspension. However, the head of the organization decided to pursue the investigation. They find out that aside from falsifying the document, the person was colluding with the vendors. The moral lesson that I've learned from his experience,
"People who are dishonest in small things, are probably dishonest in big things"
Leadership and Challenges
Mr. Mon site sample of management challenge wherein he experience to worked with three different cultures.
1) Swedish Culture - where he experience to worked in Swedish multinational company and where he see how socialist. Example of socialism was the net salary of factory worker is not far from the salary of the executives. They are trusting.
2) Thai's - similar to Filipinos, showing respect to the person.
3) Germans - very strict to deadline and strict to accuracy. They were bias and tendency to discriminate.
People management is very important in any industry. As a leader, we should understand the problem and analyze to reach to a solution as well as understand what is going on the team. Mr. Mon also shared the major decision that he made, when he moved from one industry or one company to another, the only people he decided to bring was his executive secretary and driver only. He want to try the management team of the new company, by giving them a break and giving them the right assignment.
In addition, he mentioned the practice of when to let go, for first two years he joined the weekly MANCOM to know the nature of the problems and nature of opportunities. After the first two years, he decided to leave the MANCOM and let the management do it by themselves, let them fly and make them commit their mistake. He will involve only when he needed such as for major improvement or venturing for something new. Now, I understand why some CEOs don't attend MANCOM. ^_^
The practice of patience patience and patience....
He discussed, while patiently waiting for government action, they went to Vietnam for partnership and another venture in Thailand. That's when he practice of being patient. I've also learned that patience can reward us with positive recognition, greater sales or sales profit. Success always begin with patience. As Thomas Edison said, "
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."
For his parting message - He is promoting Engineering Technical Field because the number of engineering are going down and some are going abroad. And most of all management and leadership requires continuous learning.
References:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250211
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/core-values-why-so-important-your-company-nicolas-schoenlaub
http://www.managementstudyguide.com/corporate-governance.htm#
