2019 Holiday Message from JCCI President & CEO Carol Dominguez
What a year this has been! I cannot believe that another year — not to mention another decade — is coming to a close! I have to say that 2019 has been my busiest year so far — I went on 15 trips in 22 different cities, sat on seven different boards, and did a plethora of talks and panels in between! But it was definitely exciting and fulfilling, as 2019 has shown that the Philippine economy continues to be a strong performer in Asia with its steady GDP growth and sound fiscal and monetary policies, backed by our stable BBB+ credit rating. Investing in the Philippines is riding the next Asian Tiger!
Leveraging on our economy’s progressive growth, John Clements once again organized a series of roadshows entitled “Investing in and Recruiting from the Philippines”. This year we visited Japan with our partner Persol; three Nordic countries — Finland, Sweden and Denmark — in partnership with Barona, the Finn-ASEAN Business Association, and Global Risk Clinic; and Germany — namely Berlin, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich — in collaboration with MAP and the Philippine Embassy and Consulate in Germany. Economic outlook and talent availability were the focus of our presentation and based on the enthusiastic response, we look forward to more roadshows!
We are fully in the Age of Intelligence and technology is at the heart of businesses today, reshaping organizations’ job requirements and strategies. One of our key takeaways from NASSCOM 2019 in Mumbai is that now is the time to figure out ways how humans and AI can work collaboratively and imagine what the future world will be like with the rise of AI in all our undertakings. As such, we hosted roundtable discussions such as “Advent of AI: Adapt or Die” and “HR 4.0: How AI and Big Data are Transforming Talent Acquisition and Organizational Development”. We also gave youth leaders in Manila and Cebu a glimpse of the rise of AI in our annual Youth for Leadership Summit (Y4LS).
We continued to invest in our people by further developing their leadership skills through a series of internal training programs, i.e., the Business Development Program, First Level Managers Program, and our Executive MBA on AI. We also gave them, together with young aspiring women from other sectors, a great opportunity to participate, listen to and learn from the successful and inspiring stories of accomplished women leaders at the FCC x MAP Women’s Expo and Forum: Inspired Conversations, the only forum of its kind in the country and a major event where John Clements was a co-organizer and partner. Early this year, we launched the JC Recruitment Lab “Recruitathon”, a week-long intensive basic recruitment course for fresh graduates and career shifters with a keen interest in recruitment.
Our employee engagement calendar was filled with exciting events such as our “tribal” summer outing in Subic, our annual CSR activity at the Chosen Children Village, and the 10th CADY Awards where we celebrated a decade of excellent JCCI sales and production consultants. We also caught up with old colleagues at the JC Alumni Homecoming last March and reunited with our former AIESEC interns in Berlin. We treated our clients to a day out on the green at our prestigious JCCI CEO Golf Classic, now in its fourth year, and co-sponsored the 2019 Wallace Cup as well.
We formed a new partnership this year: EDI-Staffbuilders International, a fully-owned subsidiary of John Clements, has teamed up with Fintech capitalists Tomasz and Iza Bogus to venture into the Polish market and accelerate EDI-SBI’s entry into one of the fastest emerging labor markets for Filipino workers in the European Union.
To cap off this exciting year, we celebrated new milestones — John Clements’ 45th anniversary, EDI- Staffbuilders International’s 40th anniversary, and the big move to our new office, the John Clements Hub, which has been designed to encourage the kind of innovative and collaborative spirit we want our company to exhibit. And of course, our year would not be complete without our Christmas traditions: the JCCI “Glam Jazz” Christmas party, and our holiday potluck party.
A big thank you to the John Clements team — our clients, partners, employees and friends! As we step into a new year and a new decade, we reiterate our commitment to provide our clients world-class services, help build our nation, and show the world that the Filipino will indeed be a global talent worth investing in.
A blessed Christmas and prosperous New Year to all!
(signed)
Maria Carolina V. Dominguez
President and CEO — John Clements Consultants, Inc.
