A nsiderac APAC Businesswoman awards 2017
Most Influential Woman in Management Consulting - Philippines Youngest Businesswoman of the Year & Best Specialist Recruitment Consultant of the Year - Singapore
K
Most Influential Woman in Custom Care & Best Telecommunications Provider Indonesia
Editor’s Note
,
Welcome to the 2017 APAC Businesswoman Awards Establishing themselves as powerful businesswoman across the globe, these gamechangers are reaching new levels of great success every day.
K
As such, the APAC Businesswoman Awards 2017 honour the remarkable accomplishments achieved by the strong women from a diverse range of industries. These dedicated, inimitable individuals work tirelessly breaking down barriers with their devotion and innovative ways..
2 APAC / Businesswomen Awards 2017
Contents
, K 4. Pacific Rim Innovation and Management Exponents, Inc. (PRIMEX) Most Influential Woman in Management Consulting Philippines 5. Michael Page International Youngest Businesswoman of the Year - Singapore & Best Specialist Recruitment Consultant of the Year Singapore 6. PT. Telkomsel Most Influential Woman in Custom Care - Indonesia & Best Telecommunications Provider - Indonesia 7. MotherWise Maternity Care Author of the Year 2017 - New Zealand 8. PT. Trans Pacific Global Most Influential Woman in Transport Rental Indonesia & Best Car Rental Company - Indonesia 9. Novartis Consumer Health Most Influential Woman in Healthcare Training - NCR & Best Global Healthcare Company 2017
*
ABW17001
,
Most Influential Woman in Management Consulting Philippines Pacific Rim Innovation and Management Exponents, Inc. (PRIMEX) is a leading Philippine management consulting firm with a reputation of quality and excellence built through 28 years of consistently outstanding performance in development projects in the region. We spoke to Elvira Ablaza, PRIMEX President and CEO, to gain a fascinating insight into the firm and the secret of its success. Few women in the Philippine consulting industry can match what Ablaza has achieved for PRIMEX. In August 1989, she founded the company in Manila, with its first office at the garage of her ancestral home. She had a bold vision that a small, allFilipino company could be No. 1, not only in the Philippines, but in the Pacific Rim. “I had complete faith that PRIMEX would someday emerge as a leading Philippine consulting firm. I have always been competitive, highly driven, and passionate in everything I do. I knew that I would be able to achieve my goal of making my company known for its work – both at home and overseas. Being a woman in a highlydemanding profession did not faze me at all. I had a dream, and I was willing to give my all to make that dream a reality,” said Ablaza. As President and CEO of PRIMEX, she has steered the company to become the No. 1 Philippines-registered consulting firm doing business with the Asian Development Bank (ADB). This ranking is based on the value of ADB technical assistance and loan-funded contracts signed with ADB over a five-year period. ADB’s 2017 Philippines Fact Sheet
showed that PRIMEX contracts have reached an all-time high of US$24 million, comprising nearly half of the total contracts awarded by ADB to Philippine firms from 2012-2016. “It is an enormous feat for PRIMEX to have bested hundreds of Philippine ADBregistered consulting firms, including companies registered in the Philippines by the large, multinational engineering consulting companies, such as those from Australia, Germany, France, and other First World countries. It is the consistent high quality of our work and the active engagement of our top management in all our projects, which set us apart from our competitors. Also, being a ‘boutique consulting firm,’ we are not burdened by a large organizational bureaucracy, and we are, therefore, highly flexible and able to make quick decisions. We are also highly responsive to our clients’ needs, working beyond our terms of reference, if necessary, to ensure full client satisfaction. And most importantly, all of us at PRIMEX are driven by a commitment to quality and excellence,” said Ablaza. Aside from ADB, PRIMEX has also been implementing projects for other multilateral and bilateral agencies, such as the World Bank, USAID, JICA, EU, and
4 APAC / Businesswomen Awards 2017
UN agencies. It has also been supporting various government offices in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. “Some people are surprised when I tell them that we have worked in 33 countries in Asia and the Pacific. We have also completed more than 300 assignments to date. We have reached this far because we are eager to collaborate with local and international partners, and we continue to look for new areas of growth,” she said. From its initial focus on agriculture/irrigation, fisheries, natural resources, and environment, PRIMEX has expanded into health, education, and infrastructure development. Since 2012, education and infrastructure development have emerged as the company’s most important sectors. At present, PRIMEX projects in these two sectors comprise about 75% of the company’s portfolio.
“I take pride in having built a company that has set high standards of quality for other consulting firms to follow. I am also pleased that I have gained the respect of my peers (mostly male) in the global consulting industry. A foreign guest recently told me that the PRIMEX story is so inspiring, it must be shared, especially with the young, so they will dream big and work with love and passion. My prayer is that PRIMEX, which has been my life, will continue to live on long into the future” said Ablaza.
Contact: Elvira C. Ablaza Contact Email: primexinc@primexinc.org Address: 502 Manila Luxury Condominium, 30 Pearl Drive, Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Philippines 1600 Phone: +632 633 9052 Website: www.beta.primexinc.org/
ABW17002
,
Youngest Businesswoman of the Year & Best Specialist Recruitment Consultant of the Year - Singapore Michael Page International, part of PageGroup, is an international specialist recruitment firm supporting a wide range of clients. We invited Divya Patel to talk us through the firm and her role in its success. Since inception in 1976, PageGroup has established the track record and expertise to be a worldwide leader in specialist recruitment. Michael Page International has since grown and, nearly four decades later the firm has more than 5000 employees and a global office network, while growing its UK market coverage too. With offices from Aberdeen to Bristol and Cardiff to Cambridge, and more than 25 specialist businesses the company have the track record to handle any clients’ recruitment requirements or job search. The firm combine local knowledge and global expertise to provide a specialised service to both employers and candidates. Divya discusses her career progression and how she has risen through the firm to the position she enjoys today. “Personally, I began my career in recruitment in 2011, when I joined Page Personnel Singapore as a trainee consultant after completing my Bachelor of Engineering in Nanyang Technological University (NTU). This was my first full-time employment after undergraduate studies and it has been a very rewarding one. I later moved within the Group to Michael Page India in 2016 as a Senior
Consultant in the Mumbai office. Here I specialise in middle to senior-level placements across the consumer and media industries. “Previously, I interned for 6 months at a Pharmaceutical Services MNC as part of my undergraduate studies, where I led process engineering projects across the manufacturing floor at a plant in Singapore. Here, I had the opportunity to both work with employees at the blue collar worker level and influence courses and outcomes of projects with the Commercial and P&L head. The experience allowed me to work cohesively with people at all levels and learn how to influence key business decisions through effective communication.” Drawing on her vast experience in the region, Divya has a strong understanding of the recruitment market in Singapore, which she is keen to share with us. “In the Asia Pacific, specifically Singapore, the corporate landscape remains encouraging for women looking to fulfil their career goals with ample support from their families and organisations. While this awareness is steadily catching on in India, we have a long road ahead in breaking barriers. We are pushing the envelope on a daily basis to garner acceptance
before we reach out and ask for support. The encouraging part is to see multinationals in India take a strong lead in making workplace culture more inclusive for women before and after childbirth. With the introduction of day-care in or near the offices, flexible working arrangements and company-wide initiatives to hear our challenges and brainstorm for solutions together, it is certainly becoming easier to fulfil duties at work as well as at home. “Internally, the industry has seen a steady growth in the number of females entering recruitment, it is also encouraging to see a resulting higher percentage step into management positions in the last few years. Within the Group, there have also been global campaigns in 2016/2017 to support International Women’s Day. There is a strong international Women@ Page network where we are all connected through internal communication. New mothers returning to continue their careers with Michael Page India can do so on flexible working arrangements and a pre/post Maternity Coaching programme was introduced to improve the retention of women returning from maternity leave. These supportive initiatives have made it easier for women to achieve and retain top leadership roles, and work towards continuous growth in the
organisation. The recruitment industry is fairly gender neutral at the entry level and initiatives such as these will go a long way in empowering capable females to assume top industry positions.” Overall, Divya’s advise to anyone looking to emulate her phenomenal success in this area is to work collaboratively and support others, as she proudly concludes. “Ultimately, I would advise women to work together and first be supportive of each other. While we work towards thriving in a competitive environment, we must keep in view that we need to be there for one another. Trust that if you stay strong together, the world will lend its support. Resilience, team work, focus and a solutions-driven attitude are vital attributes to scaling heights in the recruitment industry, or for that matter – any industry.”
Contact: Divya Patel Contact Email: divyapatel@michaelpage.co.in Address: 5th floor, 2 North Avenue, Maker Maxity, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra, Mumbai, 400051, India Phone: 00 91 22 4236 3365 Website: www.michaelpage.co.uk/
ABW17005
,
Most Influential Woman in Custom Care & Best Telecommunications Provider - Indonesia Telkomsel is the leading operator of cellular telecommunications services in Indonesia by market share and revenue share. We profile the firm to learn more about the range of services it offers. Established in 1995, Telkomsel provides cellular services in Indonesia, through its own nationwide dual-band GSM 900-1800 MHz, 3G network, and internationally, through 442 international roaming partners in 200 countries. Telkomsel’s operations in Indonesia have grown substantially since the commercial launch of its post-paid services on May 26, 1995. In November 1997, Telkomsel became the first cellular telecommunications operator in Asia to introduce rechargeable GSM pre-paid services. Telkomsel has the largest network coverage of any of the cellular operators in Indonesia, providing network coverage reaching all Indonesia’s population and is the only operator in Indonesia that covers all of the country’s provinces and regencies, and all counties (“kecamatan”) in Sumatra, Java, and Bali/Nusra. The company offers GSM Dual Band (900 & 1800), GPRS, Wi-Fi, EDGE, 3G Technology, and 4G LTE. Among the firm’s innovative product offerings is MyTelkomsel, a service launched by Telkomsel to provide easy access to customer service using a browser, smartphone or tablet.
MyTelkomsel also provides customer profile information, easy credit reload, and other purchases of Telkomsel service packages. To ensure excellence for its clients at all times, Telkomsel has a Corporate Culture that is referred to as The Telkomsel way. The Telkomsel way is a
6 APAC / Businesswomen Awards 2017
belief system of the company that will be built and developed continuously as a corporate culture of the company in order to secure that the company always be the winner with a competitive and sustainable growth. Looking ahead, Telkomsel will be seeking to grow even further and support a wider range of clients.
Contact: Setiawati Neneng Contact Email: neneng_ setiawati@telkomsel.co.id Address: 18th floor, Gatot Subroto no 52, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia Phone: 62 811 980000 Website: www.telkomsel.com
ABW17009
,
Maternity Care Author of the Year 2017 - New Zealand Kathy Fray is a nationally best-selling parenting author based in Auckland, New Zealand. We invited Kathy to talk us through her work and how she offers the very best advice and support. Having previously worked as an executive in the travel industry (in her BC ‘before children’ days) and later as a self-employed midwife (in her AD ‘after delivery’ days), Kathy today has a wealth of experience to draw on for her books on childbearing and child-rearing. She discusses her books and why she believes they are so very unique in the market. “In 2005 my first book OH BABY…Birth, Babies & Motherhood Uncensored was published in New Zealand. It was written by-a-mother formothers, because having had my own babies in 1997, 1999 and 2001, I was irked by the rampant amount of pious-andperfect parenting ideologies out there. The unrealistic extremist babble written by so many ‘motherhood gurus’, and their frequent lack of attention paid to the actual Mother, were incredibly frustrating (they were all baby, baby, baby) … but what about the transcendent passage into Motherhood that is so heavenly and hellish, so natural and unnatural, so sacred and profane?” Almost immediately after its publication OH BABY quickly became NZ’s No1 best-selling new-motherhood guidebook, and has maintained that status ever since. It has now gained the nickname of being the New Zealand ‘Bible’ to childbirth and newborns – which Kathy says is so exciting and so humbling all in the same breath. It was written to make the reader feel like the guidance is a cross between their big sister, best
friend and loved aunty, giving them a non-judgemental helping hand. [In 2016 Penguin Random House published my updated Second Edition, so OH BABY is still wonderfully current.] “Later, in 2010, after completing my Midwifery Degree, my sequel book OH GROW UP … Toddlers to PreTeens Decoded was released, which is now distributed internationally through a North American publisher who approached me. It also took a long time to research and write and perfect to my own satisfaction. And now I can say, for sure, it is without doubt a very unique ‘triadic’ approach to parenting (personally, I have never seen another book anything even vaguely like it).” With an almost encyclopaedic quality, OH GROW UP teaches parenting children’s Bodies using ‘Physiological IQ’, parenting their Minds using ‘Intellectual IQ’, and parenting their Spirits using ‘Soulful IQ’. It’s an extraordinary middle-road blend of nonjudgemental old-age new-age philosophies. Alongside her books, Kathy is deeply passionate about her concept of Integrative Maternity HealthCare, which she is keen to showcase. “Integrative Maternity HealthCare is simply: When the medical and the holistic, the contemporary and the traditional, the mainstream and the alternative, all respect how they complement each other, to create the ultimate in best maternity care. It’s about revolution and evolution.
“In 2015 I hosted a global inaugural conference on Integrative Maternity Healthcare called SOMCANZ. It was a cross-discipline exchange of progressive research, innovative knowledge, enlightened experience and radical ideas; in a medically professional and universally holistic environment of visionary open-mindedness. That inaugural conference was a tremendous success, and attracted some top international speakers. It was also a tremendous amount of work! Since then we have combined SOMCANZ with the AIMA conferences (Australasian Integrative Medicine Assoc). And SOMCANZ is the inspiration for the next book I am planning to write: OH MAMA: Midwife’s Guide to Integrative Maternity HealthCare.”
vaguely spiritual Parents was 1st runner-up in NZ’s prestigious body-mind-spirit book awards. It is a guide for parents who are not especially devoutly religious, nor devotedly new-age, not apathetically irreligious, nor lethargically agnostic, they just inherently know their precious child to be a Triadic person (more than just a Body and a Mind). They know their child has a unique ‘Spiritual’ Essence. And this book is – to the best of my knowledge – the first manuscript ever dedicated to these (exponentially growing amount) of modern humanistic parents.”
Looking ahead, Kathy is currently seeking just the ‘right’ publisher: “Last year my third manuscript OH GOD – WHAT THE HELL DO I TELL THEM?! Guide for
Email: kathy@kathyfray.com Address: Orewa House, 498 Hibiscus Coast Highway, North Auckland, New Zealand, 0931 Website: www.kathyfray.com
ABW17003
,
Most Influential Woman in Transport Rental & Best Car Rental Company - Indonesia Trans pacific global company is a transportation specialist focused on corporate car rental. We spoke to Director Verawati Basri to find out more about the firm and her role in its success so far. Established in 2007, Trans Pacific Global supports clients based clients all over Indonesia ranging from private companies to the government. Verawati discusses how the firm has grown since inception a decade ago. “Drawing on over 10th years’ experience, Trans Pacific Global has developed over the years and we now have around 25 employees and 300 vehicles. This enables us to offer a great service as well as choice to our clients.” As a woman in such a male dominated market, Verawati has faced many challenges over the years. She outlines her previous career and how she draws on this now, as well as the challenges she has faced and how she believes any woman can overcome these to succeed as she has. “Before I owned this company I had worked in one of the private automotive companies and one corporate car rental also located in Jakarta, from that time I build my career, more or less until now has been more than 15 years. “The challenges that I face in developing a business as a woman are government policies that involve the same policies
with male business actors, women on business should be treated especially in terms of financing policies for business development. To overcome these challenges and become a strong entrepreneur, all women must be persistent and optimistic.” Moving forward Verawati is excited for the future as she outlines the various developments she has in store for Trans Pacific Global.
8 APAC / Businesswomen Awards 2017
“Looking to the future, I have a target of business development not only for Indonesia, but also for the Asia Pacific, not only for land transportation but sea and air. Especially in our country there are still many opportunities that can be developed, not only transportation, but all forms of “services” business especially. Also, it is my interest and dreams in the future to improve the welfare / income of the Indonesian citizen in particular.”
Contact: Verawati Basri Email: vera@pacificrentcar.com Address: Jl RS Fatmawati No 53, 3rd floor, Fatmawati, South Jakarta, Indonesia, 12430 Telf: +622175918596 Fax: +622175918597 Webs: www.pacificrentcar.com
,
ABW17008
Most Influential Woman in Healthcare Training - NCR & Best Global Healthcare Company 2017 Novartis is a global healthcare company that provides solutions to address the evolving needs of patients worldwide. We profiled the company to find out more about the services it offers. Based in Switzerland with many offices situated around the globe, Novartis’ mission is to discover new ways to improve and extend people’s lives. The firm uses science-based innovation to address some of society’s most challenging healthcare issues. Staff work hard to discover and develop breakthrough treatments and find new ways to deliver these treatments to as many people as possible. Working hard as a team, the firm also aims to reward shareholders with rewards for investing their money, time and ideas into the company. Novartis possesses strong values which ensures that all employees and teams are working to achieve the same goals. The values define the culture of the company and help it to execute its strategy in line with the firm’s mission and vision. The company have introduced values which describe the professional standards and behaviour expected from its employees. Novartis provides innovation by experimenting and delivering solutions as well as quality by taking pride in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. High performance is achieved prioritising and making things happen with urgency,
whilst the firm encourages staff to speak up and give and receive feedback. The company’s integrity is maintained by advocating staff to apply high ethical standards every day. These values were selected by the Executive Committee of Novartis, with input from associates worldwide. They form an integral part of the framework the company uses to recruit people, develop them and assess and reward their performance. The firm holds themselves to account against these values and behaviours.
To be well prepared for a world with a growing, aging population and continuously evolving healthcare needs, the company must have a firm strategy in place. The team at Novartis believe that its clear mission, focused strategy and strong culture mean it is well placed to overcome the challenges of the future. Ultimately, Novartis is looking to be the leader in growing areas of healthcare and aims to develop innovative products in growing areas of healthcare where it can make a real difference. At the same time, we are expanding
our presence in the emerging markets of Asia, Africa and Latin America, where there is fast-growing demand for access to high- quality medicines and healthcare.
Contact: Irene Garcia Contact Email: irene.garcia@ novartis.com Address: Asian Reinsurance Bldg. Salcedo & Gamboa Streets, Legaspi Village, Makati City, RP-1229, Philippines Phone: 63 2 368 7777 Website: www.novartis.com
A nsiderac Subscribe to APAC magazine
Subscribe here www.apacinsider.com/subscribe 10 APAC / Businesswomen Awards 2017