Great teams, not great individuals, bring great results

Corporate head Med Mateo likes to drop the oft-repeated quote "Great teams, not great individuals, bring great results." That’s how he looks at his employer of 23 years: Royal Philips Electronics, the Dutch manufacturing company and technological innovator in consumer electronics, lighting, healthcare, telecommunications, and semiconductors. The list of its businesses and products goes on – in fact, the company is so huge that as of last year it held 115,000 patents.

But Mateo would rather talk about the one resource that Philips is really proud of: its people. With Philips Philippines celebrating its 50th year in the country this year, having surpassed the $1 billion mark in export sales of semiconductors in 2005, and forecasting double-digit growth this year, its corporate culture is worth a second look.

"From its founding days up to now, we are a very people-oriented company," Mateo says. "We develop people, we give them opportunities not only within the local organization but in the regional and global levels as well. The Philips Lighting GM in Singapore is a Filipino who started his career here; so is the international key account manager of Philips Consumer Electronics. Our people are everywhere. We send them for training to the US and Europe."

Mateo says the rationale behind this is simple: further training outside the country makes for better employees. Some are posted abroad, some come back to the Philippines, and always "they come back with a different view of the world, which I think is important. It’s not just about technology, but the basic mindset of how the world is in relation to our business operations. That’s one of the keys to attracting, developing and retaining good people."

This CEO himself has benefited tremendously from his experiences of working abroad. A lawyer by training, he has moved from one division to another in the organization, from legal to human resources, strategic planning, business development, managing an operation, and four years ago, heading the country office of Philips Philippines.

He worked for three years in Singapore, and two and a half years in the Hong Kong office. "In Singapore, they never stop looking for opportunities for improvement, for perfection even. That’s the strength of the Singaporeans, that’s their key advantage to success in businesses and their nation as a whole."

In Hong Kong, he found a totally different corporate culture – less process orientation but a very deep passion for entrepreneurship. "That’s one thing I saw there and brought over to our local organization here. At the end of the day, it’s also about making money. Cost efficiency is important; so is challenging the things that are being done but don’t make a lot of sense. Philips’ tagline ‘Sense and Simplicity’ is not just for commercial purposes, it’s also about managing a business. If you see things that don’t make sense, you challenge those long-held assumptions and beliefs and ask, why is it that we do this?’"

Any organization, even an excellent one, has lost key people to corporate piracy, and he proudly says that many who leave Philips often come back. Call it burnout, call it the grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome – many white-collar employees make such decisions that they later regret. "We often ask them why they want to come back and their answer is the same: in Philips, they feel they are part of a big family with people willing to coach them and mentor them."

Mateo describes his management style as one of "mentoring." He believes that the more you empower your employees, prepare them for bigger responsibilities, the better they will perform. "Unlike other companies where you have a superstar in every corner office, we are not individually centered. We build teams."

And while commitment to excellence is demanded of individuals, it is the teams that are tasked to deliver results. Take, for instance, Philips Seminconductors’ test and assembly plant for integrated circuits (ICs) in Calamba, Laguna. The company invested $300 million in the plant, which opened in 2000, following the most efficient designs for its assembly and test lines to assure quality products that will be used across the world by leading automotive, telecommunications, computer and consumer electronics manufacturers. In the Philippines its semiconductors division today employs 6,000 people and has become a center of excellence. It is also the biggest in all the semiconductor units in Asia.

"Philips is a metric-oriented company, meaning we want to measure everything that we do. The only way we will see progress is to benchmark our performance."

The company is No. 1 in lighting globally and locally. In the local market, Philips sees its biggest growth in medical systems and consumer electronics. "Lifestyles are changing, which means growth for our consumer electronics; more homes and condominiums are being built, which means there’s a bigger need for our appliances. Lighting is a mature market, but in different regions in the world urbanism is increasing and the demand for lighting increases with it."

Even as it is involved in city beautification programs all over the world – Philips helps design and supplies the dramatic lighting of the world’s best landmarks like the Sydney Opera House in Australia and the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany – it is also campaigning to avert the country’s energy crisis. It recently launched a campaign to help the nation, not just homeowners, save money by pushing the use of CFLs, which consume less power than incandescent bulbs. This ties up with Philips’ cause-oriented work with Gawad Kalinga, a foundation that builds houses for the poor. Philips’ initial commitment was to build 50 houses (and provide lighting for the GK houses), which it doubled when its global president Gerard Kleisterlee came to the Philippines and Mateo brought him to the Philips village to literally help build houses.

Whether he’s talking about his company’s commitment to causes or his employees’ commitment to do their best, Mateo always emphasizes team effort. As another quote captures the point so well: "No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it."