Tuesday, October 21, 2008 Echaves: The game plan By Lelani P. Echaves Thinking Aloud
PROACTIVITY, often mistaken for anticipation, showed its palpable face last Saturday in Balamban. The occasion: The inauguration of the Modular Fabrication Yard and Outloading Facility of Metaphil International Inc. of the Aboitiz group of companies.
Proactivity means facing the present and future with values, not emotions; with courage and sense of purpose and direction, not with fear. While other companies are holding on tenaciously to their money and fearfully monitoring the winds of change, Metaphil just went on and built their newest facility costing P540 million.
Are they above all the economic challenges facing the world, particularly Europe and the US? Metaphil president and CEO Roberto E. Aboitiz simply said, “We’re not in retail business which just waits for customers to come to the store. We go out and approach our customers, and actively marketing in the world.” It’s a statement and approach finding resonance from Metaphil’s marketing VP Felma Yap and AVP Anton Perdices.
The company’s courage does not escape the guests, including Rep. Pablo John Garcia of Cebu’s third district. He said, “There is something to be said about this synergy (of the Aboitiz Group and Balamban). A company’s confidence in a place and a people, which builds the confidence of the place and its people, on and on in a widening circle that can only make both of them stronger….Amid these admittedly uncertain times, our people have reason to hope—hope in themselves, hope in what they can achieve, and hope in better days ahead.”
Visibly moved and overflowing with happiness was Arpili Barangay Captain Primo Paulin who remembers that where the facility now stands, used to be rice fields owned by one or two families. There he and his family, and other Balambanons before him worked from sunrise to sunset, rewarded with a harvest that lasted them a few weeks.
The barangay leaders’ memories ran far and deep, of a sleepy town which aside from people walking only knew two other means of transportation—tartanillas and one or two tricycles. Today, he looks forward to more universities setting up extension schools in Balamban, is proud of many families now owning the land their houses stand on, and is equally proud that such industries as the workforce of such companies as Tsuneishi, FBMA and Metaphil reserve about 70 percent of their workforce for Balamban’s residents.
With the new facility in Balamban, Metaphil International can now do everything, from storage to blasting, cutting, assembly and outloading. Some savings are realized, such as fewer man-hour needs, because of better time management, convenience and less dependence on external agencies. Before this new facility, fabrication had to be done in its yard in Mandaue City, and assembly had to avail itself of the Cebu Port Authority area. Outloading, too, had its inherent challenges.
This is not to say that the present yard is facing phase-out, Roberto Aboitiz said. Rather, it shall be used for smaller projects. With these as game plan, competitors are aptly warned, “Watch out!”
