Prof. Ramon F. Fernandez

Executive Profile

• Result-oriented team leader with direct supervision of cross-functional areas such as business development, customer relations, human resources management, administration, legal, sales & marketing, productivity & industrial engineering, information technology and strategic planning.
• Proven management experience in handling big organizations with 500-800 employees, building nationwide operations and nurturing mutually-beneficial relationships with global clients and suppliers.
• Passionate on mission critical standards addressing growth, expanding market share, surpassing client quality expectations, while ensuring profit improvement in highly-competitive business environments.

Professional Experience

July 2005 – Present Special Projects Director, Furniture & Particle Board, Grace Park Int’l Inc. (GPII)

• Supervised GPII’s first and biggest furnishing project at the South of Market Towers at Fort Bonifacio with the supply and installation of furniture to 600 condo units worth P35million and accomplished it in 2-months.
• Expanded GPII home and office furniture sales in the domestic retail markets, improving 2006 sales by as much as 25-50% growth over 2005 sales.
• Established record sales of particle board products in the domestic market, achieving as much as P100M in 2005 and P16M in one month (March 2006), which is almost 100% growth over previous monthly sales.
• Implemented profit improvement programs and setup “The Factory Dashboard”, a factory management information system that gathers key performance indicators (scorecards) of GPII’s four factories.
• Assisted the Finance Director & CFO in implementing the ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) System, KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and MIS Program throughout the organization.
• Assisted the Vice President for Business Development in the achievement of its P1.2 Billion sales for 2005 and P1.5B sales for 2006.

Sep. 2002 – Jun. 2005 Group HR Director, Grace Park International, Inc. (GPII)

• Completed the re-organization and consolidation of its 4 factories into one holding company
• Acquired plant managers, production managers, QA managers, engineering supervisors, chief accountants and other critical managerial positions for its 4 factories & holding company
• Implemented Total Productivity Management for its four factories
• Introduced training on Systematic Consultative Selling and Territorial Planning Management to expand sales of contract kitchens and furniture
• Concluded 4 collective bargaining agreements with unions of its 4 factories and prevented a consolidation of the 4 labor unions from 2004-2005.

May 2002 – Apr. 2003 Managing Director for HR & Training, Pacific Contact Systems, Inc.

• Became one of the incorporators of the company and became a member of the Board of Directors
• Setup of the call center operation focusing on outbound telemarketing to serve US and Canada markets
• Acquired and trained call center agents on telemarketing and customer servie
• Acquired support staff for IT, HR, finance and admin, and QC/QA

Nov. 2000 – Apr. 2002 Group General Manager, New Century Telecoms, Inc.

• Completed the acquisition of the Infopage paging business from Nextel Philippines in Nov. 2000
• Acquired and integrated Recall 138 paging system with Infopage in Feb., 2001
• Set-up the NCTI Call Center in Feb., 2001 initially for telecollection and later for telemarketing
• Managed the transition to migrate Recall clients to Infopage in Mar. 2001
• Reduced operating expenses by 50% and increased operator capacity to 200 subscribers per agent
• Was hired as Group HR & admin director, but promoted to Group General Manager in July 2001
• Became a Member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors

Jan. 2000 – Oct. 2000 General Manager, VCT Corporation

• Convinced the board of directors to refocus the business towards its customer service strength
• Rationalized manpower by converting qualified factory workforce to become sales/customer service engineers, thereby reducing factory overhead by 33%
• Reduced product lines by 80% by retaining only breadwinner product lines, thereby achieving economies in purchasing and manufacturing
• Introduced aggressive collection schemes, thereby retiring the company’s bank loan and other payables
• Conducted ISO 9000 quality management training and instituted quality systems and policies

Aug. 1998 – Jul. 1999 Human Resources Manager, AOL Member Services Philippines, Inc.

• Demonstrated the ability to acquire and expanded workforce from 36 to 530 customer service agents
• Acquired Network Administrator, 3 Service Delivery Managers and Production Officers
• Setup the HR organization and HR systems and procedures
• Completed and rolled-out the “First” AOL Philippines Employee Handbook
• Transitioned the migration of US AOL culture into the AOL Philippines culture
• Handled corporate, legal and administrative affairs during the startup operation.
• Was elected to become a member of the AOL Philippines Board of Directors

Jan. 1997 – Jul. 1998 Asst. General Manager, Paging Division (and concurrent), Head, Resource Mgt Division, Infocom Communications Network Inc.

• Was initially hired to supervise HR, Training, Purchasing and Administration, but was promoted to Asst. General Manager, thereby adding supervision of Operations, Engineering, Sales, and Customer Service.
• Completed the nationwide expansion of transmission coverage with 15 new cell sites in Dec. 97
• Tripled sales growth and expanded client base from 41,000 (Jan 97) to 122,000 (Jul 98) subscribers
• Coached Infocom team to win the Customer Service Silver Medal given by Teleperformance Philippines
• Introduced internet paging, news headlines, traffic reports and roaming as new value-added services
• Setup 24-hour engineering shift schedules to ensure quality and paging transmission reliability.
• Increased operator capacity from 110 to 150 subscribers per agent.
• Convinced the Board of Directors to implement an aggressive salary administration program to be able to acquire managerial talents in the telecommunications industry
• Concluded the first CBA with the Infocom Employees Welfare Association in May, 1997.
• Streamlined HR policies, training programs, admin/purchasing procedures and introduced supply chain management systems, such as bidding systems and vendor assessment systems

Mar. 1992 – Jan. 1997 General Manager, GPI International Export Corporation (GPIIEC)

• Supervised and completed the factory construction in July 92 according to IKEA specifications
• Commenced export sales serving IKEA stores in Sweden, Germany, UK, USA, Canada and Australia.
• Expanded export markets to non-IKEA customers in the USA, Europe, Australia and Asia.
• Rallied the organization to achieve P268M sales by end-1995 and made it to RP’s Top 2000 corporations
• Developed the local furniture retail market with Shoe Mart, Abenson, Waltermart and other key customers.
• Developed OEM and furniture subcontracting projects with Singer, EDIA and Contract Design.
• Setup the company showroom, called Gracewood in Ortigas.
• Setup joint venture stores, ie Graceline (SM Megamall), Grace Kingdom (Waltermart Sta. Rosa) and Our Home (SM Megamall, SM Fairview)
• Assisted local distributors in visual merchandising, advertising and promotions to improve furniture sales performance, capturing 50-60% share of store display spaces.

Nov. 1989 – Feb. 1992 Compensation, Training & Dev’t Manager, Wyeth-Suaco Lab., Inc.

• Implemented MBO, performance appraisal, career developement and succession planning systems for managerial positions.
• Implemented various employee rewards, such as Perfect Attendance Reward for non-exempt employees.
• Conducted the “New Beginning” workshop, aimed at establishing a new corporate culture.
• Conducted several computer literacy training programs for sales and marketing managers
• Updated the CEO on labor disputes and union issues in the pharmaceutical/consumer industry.
• Became editor of the company newsletter

Aug. 1987 – Oct., 1989 Human Resources Supervisor, E. R. Squibb & Sons Corp.

• Convinced the President to improve Squibb compensation from 18% below to 3% above the industry.
• Implemented benefit programs that placed Squibb among the top 5 desirable pharmaceutical firms.
• Participated in the successful one-day negotiation of the 1988 CBA.
• Completed the Employee Handbook and the HRD Procedures Manual, both pioneering efforts.
• Conducted seminars on quality circle programs.
• Computerized personnel records and movements, benefits availment, talents search, and skills inventory.
• Was given a Quality/Productivity Improvement Award of Recognition for the design and implementation of the Squibb Human Resources Data Base Management System given Oct. 89.
• Conducted in-house seminars on computer literacy — Wordstar, Lotus, DBase III Plus, and Storyboard.

Apr. 1985 – Jul. 1987 Operations Manager, Entrepreneurs & Exporters, (ENTREX) Inc.

• Expanded export capacity and tripled export earnings.
• Implemented quality procedures and standardizing production of 10 wood products suppliers.
• Set-up administrative systems and controls for export documentation.
• Handled legal arrangements such as supply agreements, and buying agency contracts.
• Closed $250,000 order for a US client based in Northern California.

Jul. 1982 – Mar. 1985 Assistant Manager, PCI Management Consultants, Inc. (PCIM)

• Became project manager and junior management consultant in the following areas:
• General Management, Corporate Rehabilitation, Restructuring & Receivership
• Investment Management and Project Feasibility Studies
• Human Resources Management and Compensation Benchmarking
• Systems Development, Productivity, Energy Conservation and MIS

Aug. 1979 – Jun. 1982 Project Planner, Beer Marketing Division, San Miguel Corporation

• Conducted feasibility studies to secure funds for the expansion of beer warehouses and maintenance of delivery fleet nationwide.
• Handled site acquisition and instituted changes in 81 of the 122 SMC warehouses from Aparri to Basilan.
• Generated P10M annual savings in fuel cost and warehouse rental by recommending strategic changes in warehouse locations.
• Reduced capital expenditure by P20M annually by negotiating long-term warehouse lease contracts
• Participated in the implementation of the CDS (Complimentary Distribution System), SMC’s conversion from in-house sales force to an outsource distribution network system.

Government Service

• Jul. 1978 – Jul.1979 Project Officer, Office of the Administrator, Farm Systems Dev’t Corp. (FSDC)
• Nov. 1977 – Jul. 1978 Technical Assistant, Management Systems Development Office, National Environmental Protection Council (now under DENR)

Education

• M.S. Industrial Engineering, Major in Operations Research, 1982 (Candidate), University of the Philippines (Diliman, Quezon City)

• B.S. Industrial Engineering, 1977, University of the Philippines (Diliman, Quezon City)
• H.S. Diploma with a Certificate in Electronics Technology Don Bosco College (Mandaluyong City)

Continuing Education

• “Cascading KPIs Into Action”, Mercer HR Consulting, Mandarin Hotel, March 17, 2006.
• “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, Covey Leadership Center, August 25-27, 1997.
• "Managerial and Situational Leadership Program", Louie Allen Management Consultancy, Delar Learning Systems, 10/30/91.
• "Employee Counseling for Managers", Personnel Mgt Assn. of the Phils., 08/13/91.
• "Management-by-Objectives", Guthrie Jensen Consultants, November 1989.
• "Total Compensation Planning", SGV Management Development Ctr, April 1989.
• "Strategic Agribusiness Ventures for Survival & Growth", W. D. Scott, February 1985.
• “Strategic Planning Workshop”, AOL Headquarters, Dulles Virginia USA, September 21-27, 1998.
• "ISO 9000 for Top Managers of IKEA Suppliers", Asian Business Consultants, Macao, Nov. 28-29, 1992.
• "Squibb Worldwide Quality/Productivity Resource Manager's Conference", Squibb International, Princeton, New Jersey USA, Sep. 14-21, 1987.
• Rotary International Group Study Exchange (GSE) Scholarship, “An Orientation on Business, Industry, Services and Education",Oregon, USA. April-May 1987

Mentoring Experience

• Professorial Lecturer, Industrial Engineering, De La Salle University, 1980-1987.
• Assistant Professor, Business Management, Assumption College, Makati, 1980-1993.
• Lecturer, Human Resources Management, Management Science and Business Statistics, Ateneo Graduate School of Business, 1983 & 1988.
• Lecturer for Production Management and Business Policy, Miriam College, 1993-1997.
• Resource Speaker, Emerging Trends in Industrial Relations, FIK International (Singapore), August 25-26, 2003 at Mandarin Oriental Hotel
• Resource Speaker and Facilitator, Compensation Planning, Job Evaluation and Proactive Approaches to Labor Relations, Resource Consultants Int’l, Inc., 1989-1999
• Resource Speaker and Facilitator, Salary Administration, Quality Assurance, Management Information Systems and Logistics, Human Technology & Development Corp, 1987-2000.
• Resource Speaker, Production Management, Quality Assurance and Logistics, Executive Development Academy, 1987-1990

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