Ryan Villaflores of Hot Button Consulting shared: “The pursuit of excellence is the singular most powerful driving force in my life. In everything that I do, one can see preparation, hard work and a meticulous thought process behind each detail. From building houses and renovating homes to crafting brands, making presentations at work or designing just about anything, I strive to bring excellence to life.”
Excellence, indeed, marked his journey. From grade school to high school, he was a consistent class valedictorian at the University of San Carlos (USC). In college, he graduated as USC’s most outstanding graduate with a degree in accountancy. His excellence in school was a blessing to his parents, Dennis and Perfidia Villaflores, because it meant his schooling was free from kindergarten, especially at that time when his father lost his job as head of motor pool engineering, and for 10 years did odd jobs. For all their deprivation at home, Villaflores said his parents were nurturing, giving their absolute support in whatever he wanted to pursue; and also importantly, there was always enough food on the table.
In college, he was a scholar of Equitable PCI Bank (eventually merging with Banco de Oro Universal Bank). But even with that scholarship, he was already earning, doing company reports and similar marketing collateral. He gave back to his benefactor by working for Equitable for almost a year after graduation. He was discovered in Cebu by a team of Unilever talent-seekers in 1996, where he was offered training with Unilever’s sales division to set up distributors in South Luzon. After about a year, he was moved to sales strategy, doing shopper marketing for the oral care and hair care categories.
In 1999, he was moved to Japan in a swap program, where he learned to speak and write a little Nippongo. After almost a year, he returned to the country as customer development manager for Robinsons and Mercury Drug.
In 2004, he was back home in Cebu as area head for the Visayas, where he worked to transform the region to become a showcase of growth and excellence. After four years, he went back to the headquarters as head of category operations, and then as head of customer marketing. Throughout his Unilever life in the Philippines, a company known to have the best and brightest talents from the top three Manila schools, Ryan, a Carolinian from Cebu, was flying high because he was blessed with the best mentors from work.
In 2008, he was off to Moscow, Russia, as customer marketing director for almost two years. And from 2010 to 2014, he was global shopping marketing director for emerging markets, where he went all over the world to create global repeatable models, or market-tested business models of growing Unilever categories. He drove restructuring, revitalizing and training of various shopper marketing organizations, helping them in strategies, inspiring them with best practices for all areas related to shopper marketing.
In 2014, when his global team’s mandate was largely fulfilled, and the entire team had to be moved elsewhere, he was confronted with two opportunities: one was to continue his global career in a foreign country, and another was to opt for early retirement and return home to Cebu.
It was a hard decision to make; to give up a steady employment that has supported his being the family breadwinner for 18 years. But in his words, “not everyone grabs the option, the privilege to show love.” His mom was sick with a rare kind of cancer (of the soft tissue) since 2011. “I gave up my global corporate career to be with her.”
“[It was tough to balance] my career and nursing my mother. But I got that from her; that grit, that wanting to survive, to choose life no matter the pain. All the years she was happy, and whole, and loving.”
After seven years of fighting, his mother passed away in 2018. She survived five major surgeries and several chemo and radiation therapies.
“She was my partner, my girlfriend, my best friend, my cheerleader, my constant date, my torch and my flame. I am the world’s biggest ‘Mama’s Boy’ and her passing changed me forever.” For his mother and his father who never had a house to call their own, he built a beautiful all-white house by the sea in the north, and secured a penthouse in the city, to give them what they did not have “in the most harrowing time of their lives when we were ejected from our home when I was only 10.”
But life goes on and everyday needs are always there. Unilever taught him the dignity of labor.
Nothing is gotten from sheer luck. Luck is what happens when opportunity and preparation collide. So I am always prepared. Whatever opportunities that come my way, I grab it. If I am not prepared, I say no.
He started a consultancy business after he resigned, and then decided to brand it. Hot Button is into consulting in areas of branding, design of retail spaces and brand communication materials; end-to-end sales and marketing; crafting of corporate purpose (vision, mission and values); public relations; social media management; and business development.
His inspiration for Hot Button?
“Each person is a hot button to push for whatever stimuli that ignites or inspires market and business transformation.
SOME OF RYAN VILLAFLORES’ clients
Property sector
ACM Homes
Vibo Land
ArthaLand
Hongkong Land in Indonesia
Multinationals
Luxasia
Pilipinas Shell
Homegrown Cebu companies
Julie’s Bakeshop
Cañedo Equity Ventures
Vibo Group
Government bodies
Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority