Seasoned ‘salesman’ makes last stop in PH

Daez

When food and beverage consumer goods company Fly Ace Corporation’s general manager Ramon Daez took on his current post over a year ago, it wasn’t merely for the purpose of getting another job. It was a decision, as Daez puts it, motivated by his desire to “contribute” to the betterment of his home country.

“I’ve never had intentions of basing myself elsewhere,” says Daez, who has previously worked for two multinational companies. “I know the opportunities here in the Philippines may not be as expansive as in other countries, but I’d like to think that if more people take a look at the opportunities we have around here, and participate and contribute, it may become an even better country than what we have right now.”

Daez, who graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1983 with a degree in Business Management, grew his career in the consumer goods industry for 17 years with American pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert, where he had positions across almost all functions—sales and marketing, manufacturing, human resources, finance, even information technology.

In 2000, Daez decided to retire from Warner-Lambert, which was also the time it was being acquired by Pfizer. “I was being requested to join the new company, but my love has always been in the consumer [category], and my future role would have been in the pharmaceutical category. It would have been great, but not one that gives me the same passion as my being in consumer,” he says.

Daez then joined household products company SC Johnson in 2001, initially as sales director. He then moved on to become the company’s group general manager for a number of Southeast Asian countries, before retiring as marketing director which had him based in the company’s headquarters in Wisconsin. By that time, he was already mulling over plans to come home and wrap up 30 years of working in global positions.

“I had decided that if I would ever go back to corporate work, it would be with a Filipino company,” he says.

And when Fly Ace came along, everything just clicked.

“When I met with [Fly Ace president Lucio Cochanco Jr.] and his siblings, I was totally impressed with their humility relative to what they’ve accomplished,” says Daez. “I was also energized by the vision they have for the future of the company. And I thought, since I will never know if this will be my last company or not, what better way to contribute to the country by working with someone [Cochanco] who shares the same values, and who’s got the same vision not just for the growth of the company, but for the people working for the company, and the many, many consumers enjoying our products?”

A salesman at heart, Daez says he takes up after his father, a sales and marketing executive who also headed a few companies during his prime.

“He can talk to people across all economic strata, and he talks to them like they’re his best friends … I was able to pick that up. I’m usually the first person to ask our receptionists, our housekeeping, ‘O, kumain na kayo? Hindi pa? Kumain na kayo.’ [Have you eaten? Not yet? Take a break and eat.] And I mean it very sincerely. I think caring for your people is important, because I wouldn’t be able to do the work that I’m doing without the support of those around me.”

He sums up his management style in two words: servant leadership. While admittedly a strict disciplinarian with a penchant for efficiency and productivity, Daez says that whatever his role is in any company, he makes it a point “to teach my colleagues how to be better, more focused, while, at the same time, doing my best to make their lives more efficient and less cluttered.”

“I’ve got my other friends whom I used to work with tell me, when I left my previous jobs: ‘You know, there’s something about you, Mon. We can never say no to you,’” Daez adds. “I guess it’s because I never ask something from my team, my colleagues, that I myself wouldn’t do. Ahead of them, with them, and even by myself.”