PHIL. SUMMIT Speech for PHILIPS Pres
UPKEEPING QUALITY
THROUGH
MANPOWER TECHNOLOGY
Speech Delivered by
Jeroen W. Candel
at the ’95 Philippine Summit
Sept. 27-28, 1995
President Ramos, Prime Minister Banharn, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
It is my great honor and pleasure to stand before you: my ASEAN market neighbors,
fellow-visionaries, co-laborers; visionaries, because we all somehow believe in the vision
that the people in this part of our global community aspire for—or we certainly would
not be here.
In another sense, we know, as the pragmatic leadership of His Excellency President
Ramos knows, and does—that as we strain to reach the threshold of Philippines 2000,
we will have to fold up our neat sleeves and get down on our elbows and knees.
I like to remember something someone our company holds with much esteem once
said—perhaps not in his most prosaic moods, but worth quoting nonetheless—“There
ain’t no rules here! We’re trying to accomplish something!” These words were spoken
by the father of the ‘illumined’ world, Thomas Alva Edison.
Indeed, the task of building something new can be very random and seemingly endless.
Many times, the only thing that keeps one going is the vision of what could be. Being in
the developmental manufacturing field pus our company always in this situation. Yet
always, there is an end. And always, there is a reward to successfully developing a
product that meets a need that no one else has met.
The challenge of manufacturing has been made even more interesting by the variety of
cultural contexts that we have learned to operate in—sixty different cultures, to be exact.
The Philips Group of Companies has had the privilege of meeting the needs of Filipinos
for seventy-five years now and the privilege of working alongside the Filipino worker to
produce world-standard goods locally. Let me take the opportunity to share with you
what we have learned.
In particular, I will focus my discourse from the viewpoint of a multinational
manufacturing enterprise in the Philippine context.
QUALITY
Our company has taken time to build its name over the years—and if I may say so,
successfully made it synonymous with quality electronic products—as witnessed to by
our ISO 9002 certification for our manufacturing operations. The challenge, as you enter
a new context, recruit a new workforce and deal with cultural and work values very
different from those you have been accustomed to—is to make this entirely new equation
produce exactly the same results.
In a technical field such as ours, there is no room for mincing with words, or numbers, for
that matter. And such an exacting requirement necessitates the facility of a tool to ensure
the precise conveyance of systems and procedures as well as quality standards to our
manufacturing lines. This tool is Language.
Without this facility, quality can suffer to a damaging degree in spite of excellent
technical standards being maintained by the same company in another manufacturing
locale.
It is the factor that makes a production line formula universally valid.
In the Philippines, the high literacy of the workforce, which translates into good to
excellent language skills, makes sure that no time is wasted in the transfer of technical
knowledge necessary for the work at hand.
As, yearly, thousands of Filipino engineers graduate from universities nationwide, the
Philippines is truly a haven for qualified, skilled, technical workers.
Our local semiconductor operations were the first to receive ISO 9000 certification in the
Philippines. Only recently, our Filipino team won in the annual worldwide qualityimprovement competition among Philips Semiconductor companies. Other
multinational companies such as Motorola, I understand, are getting the same results as
their Filipino teams garnered top awards, for two consecutive years now—in similar
semiconductor assembly competitions.
This is the strong relative advantage of Filipino labor which makes it very appealing to
the international market.
And, as the economy blossoms, and a larger workforce is required by incoming investors
and multinational companies, I am sure there will be no shortage of manpower. Even as I
speak, hundreds of thousands of Filipino professionals suffer separation from family and
country for gainful employment overseas. I am certain that, given an option, these would
prefer work within the country.
Only last year, we inaugurated our large, new semiconductor manufacturing plant on a 9hectare plot of land in an Export Processing Zone south of Manila with an initial
investment of P1.2 billion. We would not have done so if we did not believe in the
Filipino.
Today, Philips has a mutually-gainful relationship with more than 3,000 Filipino
employees.
PRODUCT INNOVATION and TECHNO TRANSFER
One THING That makes Philips unique and gives impetus to its manufacturing
operations is that it believes in fomenting discontent among its people. Our new
corporate slogan goes, “Let’s make things better.” It is this attitude of continuous
innovation that Philips wants to impart to all its workers, both in the Philippines and in
the fifty-nine other countries where it operates. The refusal to be complacent and
content with prevailing standards.
The manpower potential in the Philippines is too precious to put to waste. What happens
then to the thousands of engineers who graduate each year in the country? Sadly, many
of them go to some form of employment which does not put their knowledge to good use,
much less expose them to the latest developments in their fields. Philips firmly believes
in providing opportunities for the transfer of technology so that the Filipino mind could
contribute to the dynamism of the company.
POLITICAL-ECONOMIC SITUATION
The political and economic situation in this beautiful and colorful country has not always
been very stable. But the invaluable advantage gained by Philips, as well as by other
companies that have stayed on through those hard times, is that they have learned to
identify with the Filipino, to become a part of his struggles and dreams. This is
something that’s very important in the culture of the region.
We at Philips have always said, however, that to a well-oiled machinery, adversity is
something hardly-noticed. From a long-term perspective, Philips has consistently done
good business in the Philippines and expects even better opportunities in the very near
future, as the country approaches the eve of its industrialization.
Already, the Philippine government is preparing new trade and special economic zones
such as the fomer Clark Military Air Base and the former Cubic Naval Base. These
former US miltary facilities are now being transformed into a Pandora’s box of
investment opportunities for the astute investor, offering tax and other incentive
packages.
Bullish is a light word for the present situation, and with good reason. There are fewer
labor disputes, no major political power struggles, and there is, overall, greater
confidence in the economy. Already, major road projects are in the offing to decongest
city traffic; major expressways are in the pipeline for quick access to the special
economic zones; major plans are being made to augment the present capacity of the
international airports.
Market potential for the country has always been good. And necessarily, this is
dependent on the quality of products that we present to the local market. Over the years,
we have gotten a grasp of the Filipino’s needs. This has enabled us to put forward
solutions such as the energy-saving incandescent lamps, solar home systems for use in
rural electrification, top-of-the-line medical equipment, among others.
PHILIPS’ CONTRIBUTION
I believe that the multinational investor has the responsibility to be relevant to the
development goals of the host country. This implies a two-way street. Apart from
technological transfer, Philips has sought to make an impact by seeking out the nation’s
needs and developing the answers to these. Towards this end, Philips has worked
directly with the Philippine government to help it meet its development objectives. It
has, for instance, embarked on a municipal telephone project in cooperation with the
Department of Transportation and Communications. Philips also provided the
communication systems for the National Power Corporation’s power plant in Bataan as
well as for the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Projects like these give companies like ours a good feeling, knowing that we have
touched the life of a nation and fulfilled our reason for being. It’s in times like these that
we most strongly feel that we have, indeed made things just a little bit better.
So many other possible areas of partnership exist, which gives our manufacturing
activities a purpose. Already, we have provided a margin of safety for the patients of
several leading hospitals in the country which have purchased our state-of-the-art cardiac
diagnostics and treatment equipment. We are likewise bringing in our road traffic
systems experience to make the latest technological advances available to local traffic
controllers. The upgrading of the nation’s airports for the 21st century also provides
opportunities for us to offer air traffic and airport systems technology that have been
tested in advanced facilities such as those in Munich Airport, Singapore International
Airport, and others.
CONCLUSION
Understanding the needs of a developing country cannot be done overnight. This takes
commitment. But the rewards, I believe, will be worth it. As multinationals march in
step with their host countries—we put ourselves in a good position to start anew, as it
were. Through our partnership with economies on the take-off such as the Philippines,
we can impart the benefits of progress and have the vicarious satisfaction of approaching
this complicated business of industrialization, a little bit more wisely each time we apply
it to a client-nation.
By doing this, we hasten the advent of a new order of relationships among nations based
on equality rather than on paternal affinity. This is inevitable. Because there are not
three worlds, as we sometimes think, but one—meant to be shared equitably.
Thank you and good evening.