Following is the speech of PD Jong Fortunato, who was the commencement speaker during the graduation exercises of AMA Computer College on May 30 at Bethel Guest House:
Let me thank you for inviting me to be your graduation speaker. It’s
quite unusual for us in Dumaguete to have a graduation just as classes are
about to start - my son, in fact, left just yesterday because his classes
start on June 1 in Iloilo.
I believe I was invited because we at DTI have been at the forefront
inviting IT investors to set up shop here and since that has been one
of our greatest successes, let me share with you how we did it.
My job at DTI has always been to help develop industry and SME’s,
especially if that industry or enterprise is export-oriented (like the
stone-craft or dried fruits that we produce here), labor intensive and
use our available resources. That was in effect a major strategy used not
just by our country but even by all our neighbors. That’s why we have many
export processing zones and industrial zones in all regions. And for
the 20 or so years that I have been here, we always looked at it that way
until we realized one day that there was another industry that was right in our
midst and even had more potential and promise.
I am talking about our education industry. Cebu’s growth was due to a
large part to trading and now the manufacturing zones in Mactan and so it is
a business center, while we in Dumaguete have always been known as the
education center in the south. Most students now watch tv and
entertainment stuff than read our history books, so it might interest you to know
that when the Americans took over the Philippines in 1898 the first-ever
private school they set up in our country was right here in Silliman…so we have
a long history of education behind us.
Another trivia as early as 1958, three of the top government officials
in the land were graduates of Dumaguete the President of our Republic was
Carlos P Garcia, the Secretary of Education was Jose E Romero and the
President of the Univ. of the Philippines was none other than Dr.
Vicente G. Sinco.
Going back to our education industry, we did a study and found out that
a third of the sales from the shops here in Dumaguete is education-
related notice there are now 30,000 plus students here and a good
number of them are foreigners. Which brought us to another discovery
education can also be an export industry. In just the same way that tourism can
bring in dollars, education is the same the Koreans, Iranians and other
foreigners who study, live, and travel around here are spreading their
money to all sectors of our society and is revitalizing our community.
Our research has shown that Australia’s No. 8 export is also education
more than 250,000 foreigners study in Australian colleges and universities.
Aside from the economic benefits, the more important thing is that when
they go back to their hometowns they will hopefully spread the good
news what they learned here, the hospitable Dumaguetenos they met here and
the overall experience they enjoyed here, which will in turn encourage
others to follow suit.
We also tried to do some re-assessment of our assets if the product of
say, Boracay, are the beaches and resorts galore, our best know product
here are the excellent human resources that graduate thru out higher
education institutions. You might say, hey most other regional capitals
like Tacloban or Cagayan de Oro also produce thousands of graduates. I
believe our distinctive advantage is we have some of the best schools
in the country. Silliman is probably THE most significant schools outside
of Metro Manila. And out of the 20 autonomous universities in the whole
country, two are here in Dumaguete, meaning they don’t have to ask CHED
permits every time they increase their fees or offer new subjects.
Foundation University, meanwhile, is on tract to becoming an international
university and last year even had a British guy managing its high
school department.
So two and a half years ago, we started doing road shows in Manila
about our excellent human resources. At that time, we already knew the key
criteria call centers and BPO’s were looking for was hirability and
retention rates. In Manila the hiring rate now is 2%, meaning out of
every 100 applicants only 2 get the job. Imagine the horror if you were a
recruitment officer and you had to fill up, let us say a 100-seat facility,
you would be needing something like 5,000 people. And that really is a
problem some companies are putting up mega call centers which have
2,000 seats and if you work the numbers, you will see that they will need to
interview 100,000 people. Imagine that…and no wonder the infrastructure
in Manila will always be bursting at its seams they need thousands of
people every day to interview.
Our game plan was to meet with the most senior people in offices and
organizations and assure them they would not suffer this fate. And
since this was done in Manila and you know how expensive things are in Manila
and we had a limited budget, we tried to “think global, but act local”,
meaning scheduling our meetings at around 11am so they could invite us for
lunch or calling on our better-off kababayans there to take us to dinner. This
was very effective because we would be able to inform them what we were
doing, convince them, and at the same time they would go out of their way to
look for other friends that we could bring our message to, so this was a
very good networking strategy.
Our team included a Dumagueteno who became the CEO of a major international
company and now semi-retired here, the Chairman of the Board of one of
the universities here, a Peace Corp guy who was working with us at DTI on
business development and an IT professional working with IBM at that
time. So the five of us were a good mix representing government, academe and
the private sector. Of course from time to time the Governor or his representative
would join us on these getting-to-know-you trips. On hindsight this was also
very important because most of the people we were seeing were American executives
and it kind of reassured them that we knew what they were looking for and could deliver on it.
Aside from expats, we also talked to policy makers, heads of the
foreign Chambers of Commerce in Makati and always about Why Dumaguete. In late
May 2004 or exactly 2 years ago, we were able to host the CEO of a company
who had never stepped foot outside of Luzon because he was always abroad
looking at their operations in the US, India and Europe. He was very
much surprised that a city our size had access to the country’s most
advanced telecom infrastructure. He liked the small town atmosphere and we even
brought him to Valencia and had lunch al fresco and under the trees and
he aid that in Manila, this was easily a two-hour ride. More importantly,
he promised he would send a team over to do a more comprehensive
assessment. The rest is history the team came in August, did interviews in
September, started training in October, looked at prospective office sites that
same month, and commenced operations in December that year. We were there
every step of the way - calling friends who had jobs but who were looking for
better jobs to apply, looking for temporary recruitment facilities and
staff apartments and introducing them to the community. Today, barely
18 months after they started operations, they already have 600 people and
I don’t know any company here that has grown that much that fast. I am
also happy to say a good number of them come from… AMA!
Our second success story is TeleTech. The expat running the Philippine
operations also heads Asian operations which include Korea and China,
and we were the first provincial office to invite them to look at sites
other than Manila. They were expanding very fast and knew the problems of
just locating in Manila so when he came here to visit, we gave him the red
carpet treatment, doing courtesy calls on the Governor and our Mayor
who assured them of safety (this is very important to them as we are near
to Mindanao and you know what the average American conjures up when they
hear that place) and of course they feel better when we bring them to dinner
at the boulevard and they see all the foreigners going about. We give them
a guided tour of the city and the different universities and colleges and
my having researched on the history of our place helped somewhat.
At the time we met the executives at Teletech, they were still intent
on getting a good foothold in Manila and they were just planning their
first foray in the suburbs of Novaliches. To make the story short, the Peace
Corp guy working with us in promoting Dumaguete was hired by Teletech as a
Business Development Manager when his contract ended and he was the one
who really pushed for setting up in Dumaguete. In October of last year,
they presented to Dumaguete City officials a plan for the “managed growth of
the call center industry”, meaning they wanted a timeframe of three years
so they could hire the most number of people without fear of poaching or
pirating but more importantly because for the 300-seat operation they
planned here, they were not sure about the hiring rate. Even if the
rate here would be 10% or 5 times higher than Manila’s, there was no
assurance on this. When they were finally granted the “First Mover Incentive”
and started hiring though, they were surprised because they had 20% plus
hiring rate.
Right now you probably know a friend or relative who is applying at, or
working for TeleTech. They now have more than 100 people and will hire
more as soon as they will occupy the first building that is now going up at
Dumaguete Business Park in Calindagan.
So in just two years time, we can proudly say that we did the
following:
· Have aggressively promoted Negros Oriental as the next “hot
spot” for IT services after Manila and Cebu, resulting in the first new
investment here in our Province in the last 20 years
· A PEZA registered IT Park, one of the few outside of Manila and
Cebu, which is in fact located in Bacong, a fourth-class municipality
· Even in the Animation Industry, a local company is now doing
outsourcing work for a Manila-based company
So IT is spearheading the development of our City and we at DTI can say
that our graduation gift to you is the prospect of more jobs here.
Before I end, let me leave you with some words of advice…
First, just because you have graduated doesn’t mean you stop learning.
Learning never stops and the more skills you have, the more you will be
“in demand” whether this will be fixing things or making things happen. I
fervently wish you would start your own businesses but in our culture,
we start by working for others. Most likely it will be working for a small
office or a big organization and this requires “soft” skills. Examples
are communication skills such as verbal, written and listening. Verbal is
something that we do day in and day out and its always nice if we can
say things nicely and not rudely. To me, some of the nicest people are
those who can “disagree agreeably”. So even if you will not be working for a
call center fielding calls from irate Americans, it will help if you read up
to improve on this skill.
Other skills like teamwork will be very much appreciated, and this
means doing your part so that as a whole you will be able to meet deadlines.
In other words, no if’s and but’s. In our local culture, managers become
really frustrated because just when they need more people, they
disappear because of some fiesta, bunyag or some other reason. Again,
the opening up of international companies here means adhering to their rules,
and if it means working the graveyard shift, we just have to work on it.
Others skills like being assertive, having integrity, commitment and
emotional competence are also equally important. We must always
remember we are now working with global companies and in a global environment,
it will help all of us immensely if we hone up on these skills.
Second, I would like to suggest get a life. Meaning do something you
really would like to do. When I first visited Siquijor more than ten years
ago, I told myself I would go biking around the island because it really is a
biking paradise. Well, it took me ten years but I finally did it this
summer my wife and I got bikes early this year and we started doing
starter trips up to Valencia. It took us several attempts before we
finally made it all the way to Valencia and I can tell you the feeling is
similar to those guys who just made it to Mt Everest. Last month, we decide to
make a go at Siquijor. We almost gave up because we got left behind by the
first 2 trips but finally made it to the 3rd trip. We started biking at 9am
and I can tell you it was glorious 80K around the island, 10 hours on our
bikes, 6 towns including stops to taste local cuisine and look at the sites
and we had one great vacation, short though it was.
Of course, the nicest thing is also it’s a cheap way to see our country
and I’m always reminded of that sign which says, “See the world before you
leave it.”
You don’t have to go to Chicago to see the Shedd Aquarium to see the
$47M wing which houses an exhibit called Wild Reef featuring our very own
Apo Island because its just a few minutes boat ride from Malatapay. You
don’t have to go to Bora or the Maldives to enjoy the best beaches because we
have our very own sandbar at Campuyo. You don’t even have to go to
Bohol to gaze at, in the words of my son, “those weird-shaped hills and that
even weirder-looking monkey” which have made Bohol famous because we have
our own share of endangered species in that mini zoo in Daro.
Lastly, carpe diem…that’s Latin for “seize the day”.
I think you’ve heard enough lectures in the last few years so I will
end now. In closing, let me thank you again for inviting me and
Congratulations, thank you all.
