Bioessence named model company

MANILA, Philippines - Bioessence, the 14-year-old beauty clinic with origins in Davao City, became the first company from the country’s health and wellness sector to bag the 2008 model company award for the quality and productivity category of the Department of Trade and Industry-Center for Industrial Competitiveness’ (DTI-CIC) annual Pro-active Awards.

The award is bestowed on companies that underwent the pro-active programs for competitiveness of DTI (open to public and private sector organizations), successfully implemented the lessons from such programs (that started in 1987 and which could also be customized to tailor-fit the company’s needs), and eventually vied for the pro-active award.

The beauty clinic — known for its brand, quality customer service, strategic franchising program, and its own kind of corporate social responsibility — eventually vied for the quality and productivity honor. Only three companies bagged the award for 2008.

The award is given by DTI to companies that strive to improve their industrial competitiveness in areas of human relations (labor management cooperation, value re-orientation for excellence and team-building); management development (supervisory development, strategic vision formulation, hoshin planning and related modules), and quality and productivity.

DTI-CIC executive director Virgilio Fulgencio cited Bioessence for achieving an almost perfect score, making it worthy to receive the award last July 21 at Renaissance Hotel, Makati. “Bioessence is one of our long-standing clients. It met the criteria for good housekeeping practices or 5S, cooperation for quality and productivity, and quality control circles. I believe this is the first time a company from the health and wellness sector won this award,” Fulgencio shared.

Fulgencio said Bioessence was open-minded when offered the DTI-CIC pro-active programs for competitiveness training. Since then, it regularly underwent training, and like a truly model company, Fulgencio said that the beauty clinic is able to promote cooperation and collaboration in the workplace, align its management system to support high performance, and benefit the company’s bottomline.

In her acceptance speech, Dr. Emma Guerrero (Bioessence founder) said that everything they do, they dedicate to God. “I think such spiritual foundation is also important for any company, as it’s not all about profit,” Fulgencio shared.

The teamwork among Bioessence employees is also to be credited for its bagging the award, he said. And as part of its winning, Bioessence will participate in DTI-CIC’s tours to share their model company experience with other companies as well.

“We’re truly honored to bag DTI-CIC’s Pro-active Awards. It’s a proof that as a company, we’re open to changes. It also proves that we are willing to be trained to be truly competitive, and that we will continue to strive to our hardest to live up to this honor of being a model company,” Dr. Guerrero said.

Meanwhile, another award was recently received by Bioessence. The DTI has given it the One Town One Product (OTOP) award, which is a priority program of President Arroyo that aims to promote entrepreneurship and create jobs. This award focused on Bioessence’s competitive advantage as the company performs top services in spa treatment. The clinic’s therapists have undergone an extensive three-month training before the actual exposure. This has paved the way for their recognition determining Bioessence’s expertise in the field of beauty and wellness.

The OTOP Philippines is a focused approach to product development where local chief executives of each city take the lead in identifying, developing and promoting a specific product or service that’s perceived to have a competitive advantage.

To date, Bioessence has 26 branches nationwide (18 company-owned and eight franchises), has a stable pool of celebrity endorsers like mother-and-daughter Jean and Jennica Garcia and Glaiza De Castro (for Bioessence subsidiary Facial Plus). Bioessence is now on its 15th year making the brand a pioneer in the beauty and wellness industry.

(For more information about Bioessence, log on to www.bioessence.ph or call Bioessence hotline: 8-BEAUTY)