MANILA, Philippines - Countless women have broken the glass ceiling to prove they can survive and stand out in industries dominated and driven by men. But what if we turn the tables?
As general manager of Mary Kay Philippines, Tente Alday is a man working in a woman’s world. It was in 2008 when he found himself joining the skin care and beauty industry.
“I knew from the very start that my main task as head of Mary Kay in the country was to serve women and help them reach their dreams and aspirations,” begins Alday. “I thought I was qualified for this job because I’ve been in the service of women all my adult life: I share a home with my wife, three daughters, and a female dog!”
But really, he was so fit for the position that the headhunter convinced him to give the job interview a try even after turning it down. With over 22 years of experience in sales, marketing, and operations in various financial services and direct selling industries, Alday was the perfect candidate to steer Mary Kay into recovery, acceleration, consistency, explosion, and relevance, which are all part of the “5-Year Development Stages” of the company.
When he joined the company, Alday had to deal with challenges early on in the business: slight decline in sales and members as well as weak brand awareness. But most of all, he had to drive the local subsidiary into overcoming the ill effects of the global financial crisis that was at its peak at the time.
His dream some six years ago was for Mary Kay Philippines to be “relevant” and to become one of the biggest subsidiaries of the company in the Asia Pacific region. (“A Mary Kay subsidiary becomes relevant only when it reaches a certain size,” he explains.)
Alday, who earned his Business Management degree from the Ateneo de Manila University and completed the Management Development Program of the Asian Institute of Management, exceeded expectations.
He created a new vision for the company and led everyone in the organization into the direction they set for themselves. “I made sure that I talked about the vision at every opportunity and in every encounter with employees and sales force members,” recalls Alday. “I was very lucky to have joined a company with an admirable mission, a clear business model, a great set of values and principles, a dedicated management team, and hardworking employees and sales force members.”
Under his leadership, Mary Kay Philippines’ business size grew by 255 percent over the last six years. Present total sales force count is 335 percent of the numbers when he joined the company. In 2010, the Philippine subsidiary participated for the first time in a global employee incentive plan after it reached the minimum level required of all international subsidiaries. Based on 2013 Euromonitor reports, Mary Kay Philippines ranks 3rd among the direct selling companies in the country.
All these milestones but he is not one to rest on his laurels. Alday, together with sales directors, beauty consultants, and the entire Mary Kay Philippines team, continues to reach out to customers and recruit members to fulfill their collective dream of having a beauty consultant in every barangay in the country.
“With strong competition from retail brands, other direct selling companies, and online shops, we focus on building the Mary Kay brand by continuing sales force education and development. We have seen an increase in the number of people qualifying for the company’s overseas incentive trips. Next month, we will bring more than 300 incentive trip achievers to Hong Kong,” shares Alday. “We are also happy to be in a position to help people in need through our CSR programs whose growth in resources has been fueled by the growth of our business.”
According to Alday, his biggest fulfillment lies not in the sales generated by the company but in helping enrich people’s lives and contributing to their positive transformation: an achiever who receives Mary Kay’s “trophy on wheels” or the famous pink car, a sales director enjoying the overseas trip reward, or a then-timid team member who can now speak enthusiastically to a huge audience.
“My job allows me to be part of the success of many people. To ensure that we are focused on what we are called to do, I always remind myself and my team that our success is measured not only by the amount of business growth we achieve but also by how much the lives of our independent sales force have changed as a result of what we do for them,” concludes Alday.