With close to zero experience, the five quit their jobs, rented a house in Pasig, and recruited 50 employees to compile and encode legal issuances from Congress, Malacañang, The Official Gazette, and university libraries.
For the first six months, the stakeholders did not regularly draw a salary while the company put out Laws, a compilation on CD of legislation and executive issuances that went as far back as Republic Act 1 issued in the 1930s. That first CD contained materials culled from 10 sources that could easily cost P100,000, all told, at that time. In contrast CD Asia distributed its digital product at P22,000 or close to a fifth of the value of its print version.
"Laws found a ready market among start-up firms that were attracted largely by the value proposition, efficiencies, and conveniences it offered them. Previous to the issuance of the first CD, it could take at least three days to scour libraries for relevant decisions on the matter," said chairman and chief executive officer Caparas.
"It was a difficult period. We needed to decide whether we would be moving forward in our operations or folding up," said vice-president for marketing-sales and special projects Libunao. "We suddenly realized that we had been operating for the past five years without a vision or mission statement on paper. Misunderstandings often arose over the areas of responsibilities of each partner."
To help it forge a direction in the next five years, CD Asia tapped OTi Consulting, a Singapore-based management consultancy firm with operations in seven Asian countries, including the Philippines.
"The first step was a three-day corporate planning session where the goal for the group was simply to answer three questions. Where do we want to do? How do we get there? What will it take for us to get there?," said OTi managing director for Philippine operations Romulo Romero. "Then, with the help of our profiling system, the stakeholders of CD Asia realized that they had all the talents, styles, and qualities to come up with the innovations required for growth and expansion. They didn’t need someone else to tell them how to run their business."
Today, CD Asia’s products are being used in more than half of the 80 law school libraries nationwide, all courts in the land (except for the newly created courts), and all the major law firms in Metro Manila. Users of the company’s CDs have multiplied over the years. Some law firms, for instance, request for as many licenses for their CDs as the number of their computer terminals.
"My CDs are a constant source of delight. Now, all I need to make a good evaluation is to type out some magic words and, voila, the guidance I need appears, truly at the tips of my fingers," said Nimfa Penaco-Sitaca, presiding judge of Oroquieta City’s Branch 13. "I now need no more than a day or two to finish most decisions and perhaps a week or two for cases that are more complicated than most."
Despite its success, CD Asia foresees a time when its CDs might eventually be edged out by free information on the internet. "We have asked OTi to walk us through a scenario planning process so we can better respond to the changing times and keep up with the needs of our clients. We are now veering away from products and into services such as the maintenance, upgrade, correlation, and integration of vast legal data available. Information, after all, is only useful if you are able to organize it in a relevant manner," said Caparas.
Paradoxically, change has become one of the few constants in CD Asia’s business today.