Mr. Gonzalez asked to go to the Philippines to get his first full Head of HR Role in a very corrupt and belligerent Union environment. After learning from a very experienced Union Negotiator and decertifying the first Management Union, ever in the Philippines. Mr. Gonzalez had to focus his attention to rebuilding a corrupt business that started with the termination of all of his peers and the General Manager. This was done within three months of his arrival to the Philippines. Mr. Gonzalez had to manage the operation for six months before the new GM arrived. After assessing the state of the business Mr. Gonzalez determined that the Company had sold 14 months of inventory (Loading the Trade) in each of the prior three years to obtain Maximum Bonus Payouts. His first business plan included the proposal not to sell the first month of the next fiscal year to allow the trade to absorb the excess inventory. This avoided the returns that had to be handled every year to correct the anomaly. Even though the Salesforce earned no commissions that December. Mr. Gonzalez used that month to establish a new selling process to include realistic targets per territory, taking into account the market impact of new store opening or closures, new Doctors or departing Doctors, new hospital openings or closures, etc. The new system also realigned the way commissions were measured and earned to provide greater weight to sales occurring the first weeks of the cycle instead of achieving target the last three days of the month and the last month of the year. This allowed the company to reduce the Distribution cost by over 75% and the Manufacturing Overtime cost by 100 %. In essence it made the organization more predictable and highly effective.
While this solution was initially not beneficial to the salesforce, and Mr. Gonzalez was hated. The Salesforce achieved its full year targets 6 week prior to the end of the fiscal year. Leaving for the end of the year only the question of; how big did they want their bonuses and commissions to be by continuing to sell more effectively in the marketplace? Within 10 ½ month a negative situation for some became a win-win to all. This shows that in a game actors might be willing to accept temporary losses in view of large potential gains.
Finally, for Mr. Gonzalez the game to win the soul of the Filipinos continued. After 12 months of doing everything in the management book and achieving business success, he was not yet accepted because people still believed he was there to fire them. One Friday evening, Mr. Gonzalez received an anguished call from a worker to tell him “The daughter of one of our sales associates needs a life-saving surgery now but we cannot find the product needed for her surgery because it is out-of-stock in Manila.”
Mr. Gonzalez directed the person to the distribution center to no avail. There was no product.
Then Mr. Gonzalez called the Pharma Plant but there was no production available.
As it was early Friday night, Mr. Gonzalez called the Head of QA, who was a high ranking member of Philippine’s society, and asked her to come back to the Plant and disburse one of the vials on hold for the FDA equivalent entity in Manila. As each production run required a one vial hold back for testing in case of any issues or on spot inspections at any time. A violation of this nature could cost her job and career and the Company a huge fine and embarrassment. How do you play a game where the two main actors stand to lose it all to the benefit of a third party? Easy answer CULTURE…The Philippines was a very impoverished nation in 1999, huge violence and a high rate of violent killings. But they loved their children.
Mr. Gonzalez weighted all the negative publicity and legal ramifications and put his head on the chopping block by writing a legal act to replace the vial of medicine indicating his decision to violate National FDA requirements to save the life of a child thus taking upon his shoulders the responsibility from the Head of QA and as a Company Senior Representative clearing the company of any wrong doing. On the middle of the night, Mr. Gonzalez was informed the operation had been a success and the child had been saved. He slept better that weekend.
On Monday, the Company had changed. What 12 months of worked had not produced, the events of Friday night had changed. He became the most beloved expatriate in the Company and by the time he left over 50 people accompanied him and his family to the airport crying for their departure. Mr. Gonzalez left the Philippines with the Company back at number 1 with a fantastic team that went on to take huge responsibilities across the Corporation including HQ.