‘Make it your business to top your best work’

GINA Lorenzana: The Lifer. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Lifer (noun): A person who spends an entire career in the same job.

That’s what they call people like Gina Lorenzana. She devoted her life to Unilever Philippines, starting out as a trainee to become the first female head of the leading personal care company in the country.

Gina describes her 22-year journey with Unilever as an “awesome and inspiring ride.”

“Everything has been a challenge, and for somebody like myself who thrives on challenge, it was an exhilarating experience to just experience those challenges one by one,” she says.

She believes that her lone employer has nourished and nurtured her to become a well-rounded and grounded leader.

Two decades ago, Gina joined Unilever as a marketing management trainee after she graduated from Ateneo with a degree in Management Engineering.

As a trainee, she had her own reservations and expectations.  To her surprise, she was tasked to launch Dove soap bar in the Philippines.

Gina was eager to get the job done. But she was even more surprised to find out that the people surrounding her, especially her supervisors, were rallying for her to succeed.

“You would think that as a trainee you would probably do very basic things like photocopying or assisting your boss. While I assisted on the other brands, I get to work on my own project which, as a young manager, I felt really empowered,” Gina says.

The first major turn was when she headed for China as a senior brand manager in 1997 and was tasked to handle the mass market business.

At that time, China was just opening its doors to the world, weaning its economy from the traditional communist mold. Gina describes the time spent in China as a “phenomenal opportunity.” She had the privilege of sizing up the country that would eventually become the world’s second biggest economy.

In China, Gina handled the laundry component of Unilever. It was a new market with eager consumers. Gina learned to work in a new corporate culture.

“Although it’s still Unilever, it’s different because you’re living in another country with a different culture. At that time, Unilever in China was just setting up … which also allowed me to grow both as a manager and as a leader,” she says.

In 2000, Gina returned to the Philippines to handle the household component, considered a startup business then.

It was a time when the middle class started to enjoy greater spending power. Unilever wanted to capitalize and address the consumers’ needs.

For her, it was like taking a 180-degree turn. She was used to handling large categories like laundry, and felt like she had to go back to basics and lay down new foundations.

“I was then a marketing director. I took a look at how … to drive and start a new business for the company,” she says. “I don’t believe that a job defines you. You basically define your job. And what’s great is that, whatever job or opportunity [you are presented with] is what you make of it.”

AS HEAD of Personal Care, Gina (fourth from left) spends most of her time thinking of ways to boost the Pinoy’s self-confidence by making them feel good about themselves. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Gina built a new leg for the company. She grew a new venture in the form of the household business.

It wasn’t easy.

In order to grow the household business, Gina studied the people she served, looked at emerging trends, and plucked committed young managers to share the same vision.

In time, she achieved the goal and grew the category quite significantly.

In 2001, Gina was up and away again. This time, she went to Indonesia to bring back to life the hair care business that was critical to Unilever’s business portfolio.

The component just went through a 10-percent decline year-on-year. But like any other challenge, Gina embraced it and turned the situation around, putting the component back on track to growth and profitability.

“You have to first define what you need to do, get everyone on board, then listen to the people on the ground. Enlist everyone across different levels to come up with a plan … then execute the plan with such precision,” was Gina’s battle cry.

During the daunting task of reversing fortunes, Gina appreciated the “extremely supportive environment” that Unilever offers.

“We’re supportive of each other because we’ve got people from different backgrounds  having the same vision and ambition,” Gina recalls.

In 2004, she became the regional vice president in Unilever, leading its deodorant business in Asia, Australasia, Africa and the Middle East.

In her view, the deodorant business was just a small category with only a handful of countries actively using deodorants.

For her, the bigger task was to bring in more countries in the region to use deodorants. From having four to six active countries, she added 40 more to the list.

Those were fantastic times for Gina. She feels personally proud of her stint in the deodorant business. But she attributes her success to the supportive relationship that exists within the company.

During Gina’s tour of duty in the deodorants component, the Philippines became the sourcing unit for deodorants. It exports deodorants to some 40 countries across the globe, generating jobs for more Filipinos.

She also says that a lot of breakthrough thinking and out of the box ideas come from Unilever Philippines.

Chief among them is the launch of the mini-deo stick. Gina says this groundbreaking idea actually democratized the category.

It brought down costs of manufacturing deodorants and made it affordable and readily available for consumers in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Another perk of the job, according to Gina, is that it opens your mind.

“As a result of working with different people and different cultures, you realize that there is some human truths that are really universal … people are the same, and you just learn to see through differences,” she says.

A woman may have a tough time climbing the corporate ladder—you can’t have the best of both worlds, or so some people say. Not for Gina, who belongs to a company who shares with her the same set of values.

There was a time when her husband, Noel, who is presently the president and CEO of TV5/MediaQuest, had to take a job abroad.

“My husband had to move to another country and I was based in Singapore. I asked my boss ‘my job is in Singapore but I had to follow my husband for personal reasons because he was taking a job in Malaysia.’ And he said, ‘Why don’t you just take your job with you?’”

This is one of the reasons why she stayed for over two decades in the same company.

For Gina, she and Unilever share the same values. Now, she is paying it forward by developing talent and harnessing the full potential of a young manager under her tutelage.

The best part of Gina’s job is the impact it has had on the Philippines.

She believes Unilever has the capacity to improve the lives of the Filipinos. As a multinational company, it can be the equalizer that may lift the less privileged and provide them opportunities to stand out.

But what really tugs at her heartstrings is seeing people grow. It gives her a sense of pride whenever she sees young leaders take a shot at top positions.

The worst part of her job? Having a regional job requires a lot of shuttling back and forth. At times, she felt like she was living in a plane. But she is quick to point out that she didn’t “miss out a lot on my kids’ lives while they were growing up.”

Though Gina owns a myriad of titles, she says she is simply Mom to Raisa, Andre and Diego.

Among the numerous marketing campaigns she has spearheaded, she dotes on the Axe “call me” campaign as her favorite.

With this campaign, she grabbed the opportunity to make deodorants a global brand that resonated with other Asian countries with a high degree of conservatism. It tapped on the insight that young men want to be attractive.

Asked what she thinks is the key strategy to maintain an overall market share, she says that one should not rest on his or her laurels.

It is a constant climb and one has to keep going. “You’re only as good as your last campaign. Make it your business to top your best work. Don’t stop even if you have made a new benchmark,” she adds.

It all boils down to being values-oriented, that is what Gina wants to emphasize to young leaders and managers.

“You have to build on each other’s thought and keep going,” she says.

One must not be slowed down by obstacles. Keep the spirit of innovation and creativity burning through the company. And when one imbibes this line of thinking, then work will not feel like work.

It will be a breeze to go through a work-week, especially if you make the most of the opportunity to create ripples and improve the lives of Filipinos along the way, she adds.

Above all, you have to be a part of an organization where the people do not set you up to fail. Rather, teach you not to fear making mistakes so long as you learn from them. You have to be on the same winning side of your organization. Share the same passion and grow on the same set of values then all will fall into place.

Never forget to have fun and it will make you feel remarkably whole and fulfilled as a person, Gina says.