PRESS AND FEATURES
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OTi's CEO and Principal Consultant featured on Lifestyle Channel!How do you know if you're in the right career? How long does it take to figure out if you're in the right job or not? Find out what CAN DO, WILL DO and WILL FIT mean, and discover the world-renowned DiSC™Assessment to help you decode your behavior styles!
OTi Philippine's CEO and Principal Consutant Omy Romero, PhD interviewed on Modern Girls. Coincidentally, this October we celebrate our CEO's 20th year in management consulting! Keep on facilitating organizational breakthroughs for more decades to come |
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OTI's CEO Romulo Romero on Employment vs. Employability on GMA News TVMarch 19, Tuesday on GMA NEWS TV's show News To Go.
Watch his interview by award-winning journalists Howie Severino and Kara David on his insights on employment and employability. |
Executive Coaching -- Feature on Manila Times.Net
Payback in executive coaching is six-fold
Like athletes, executives need coaches to improve their performance. The thinking underpins a relatively new service now being offered to, and finding acceptance among, top executives in the country by human resource practitioners. According to executive coach Romulo Romero of OTi Consulting, a Singapore management consulting firm, his clients have included executives in multinational corporations, as well as entrepreneurs, and officers of small- and medium-enterprises and government service organizations. A coach’s roles is essentially to identify gaps in the client’s performance; set goals with him and his supervisors; and then to proceed to work on his attitudes, behaviors and skills, according to Romero In general, the benefits of such intensive processing appear to be appreciated very much by those who undergo them. According to a Fortune Magazine survey of companies that engaged in executive coaching, the payback is six-fold. After six to 12 months of one-to-one sessions with a mentor, the top brass from surveyed firms—from vice presidents and up—said they experienced boosts in sales, productivity or profits, better relationships in the company and with clients, increased job satisfaction and developed greater commitment to the firm. Romero observes that coaching is a value proposition. In a worst case scenario involving an underperforming executive, it is more cost effective to have him coached rather than terminate him. After all, any termination—whether amicable or not—means expenses for a firm. The first cost involves the separation benefits the firm has to pay out to an outgoing officer. The second involves costs incurred by the company to find applicants and to select the best candidate. This process usually runs from 30 to 60 days. Then it takes three to six months for a new executive to familiarize himself with the job entailing further cost to the company. An executive earning P100,000 monthly and who has been with the company for around 10 years would be entitled to at least P1 million in separation benefits. Add the cost associated with the engagement of an executive search consultant plus the cost of at least a three-month learning curve. The cost of replacement may easily amount to P1.5 million. In contrast, bi-monthly executive coaching sessions for six months represent a fraction of the total, Romero explains. The coaching sessions which typically run for two hours per session center on people skills—relationships of the executive with his superior, peers and subordinates. “In executive coaching, we focus on the strengths of a person and seek to leverage on it. Instead of problem-solving, our approach helps draw from a person’s resources to address work performance gaps,” Romero explains. Before the coaching period ends, the agreements drawn up to address an executive’s performance are integrated into his performance appraisal to ensure continuity of improved output. While most top executives could also get their coaching from their superior, an outsider coach has her advantages, says Romero. She comes in fresh and not tainted with biases against her client. The reverse holds true for the person being coached. Moreover, she has the time to coach—a luxury for most top executives. Romero clarifies nevertheless that coaching is not done only to address poor performance. It can be used as a tool to motivate high potential managers or simply to enhance an executive’s skills. A company engaged in outsourcing engaged coaches, including Romero, for their managers. The two-hour sessions included discussions on leadership. Companies that can not afford regular executive coaching, can be assisted in developing a coaching culture and raising coaches among executives. Coaching does drive performance in organizations, Romero emphasizes. Romero, who continues to be coached and mentored himself, discloses that most executives have all the necessary resources to fulfill a job. The coach’s role is to help them draw out these strengths making use of change management principles and behavior dynamics. OTi administers learning instruments to orient the executive on the latter. Like a dedicated athletic coach who goes beyond sports techniques, the executive coach’s role is not confined to the realm of the professional. “We help professionals manage their organizational and personal change processes by impacting their heart set, mind set and skill set,” Romero said. |
Injecting innovation into the corporate bloodstream -- Feature on Inquirer.Net
MOST firms will agree that to sustain a company's growth and progress into the future, it must produce products and services that are getting better all the time. What they have yet to realize is that entire organizations can actually be trained in the process of innovation so its members are constantly improving their way of producing and doing things.
According to OTi Consulting, a management consultancy firm based in Singapore, innovators are not simply born. They can also be developed. OTi has gleaned this insight after working with many of the top companies in the city state as well as in Malaysia, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Dubai and Afghanistan where it also operates. OTi's managing director for Philippine operations, Romulo Romero, stresses that innovations can be unearthed through the processes of "oppo-tunity" thinking or finding opportunity in "the unity of opposites." The process challenges and questions the current way of doing things in a systematic way so that new possibilities can surface. The opposite or reverse of the status quo is also considered to stimulate fresh insights. Romero qualifies that, however one derives it, innovation as taught by OTi does not always require drastic changes. A company can maintain its distinguishing traits and products-be it a secret recipe or its quality of service-while implementing significant modifications. The consultant specializing in organizational transformation stresses the value of innovation. He relates that management experts in Singapore, the US, Japan, Britain and Canada have zeroed in on it as one of the most critical skills needed by both individuals, companies and even nations to cope with the constant changes ushered in by the Knowledge Economy. Nevertheless, most individuals are not naturally disposed to conquer change. Romero cites an Iowa study that tracked the life of newborns up to 24 months of age. The research revealed that the infants encountered the word "No" 432 times a day on the average in contrast to the word "Yes" which they heard around 14 times in a day. "The study shows us how we are oriented from birth to conform rather than to behave and think independently," observes Romero. A company seeking to be coached by OTi to embrace innovation initially undergoes an audit to determine how much of that quality it already has and how much more of it is desired by the firm. Weaknesses or gaps are pinpointed and OTi fills in the shortfalls by building capability and instituting training. Contrary to traditional thinking, innovation is not just driven by people who develop bright, new ideas. Studies show that the most useful changes are those that have been worked on by a range of personality types. Personalities generally fall into these categories: those who think of original ideas; those who compare ideas; those who question ideas; and those who think of ways to translate the ideas into products or services. And idea that has been examined thoroughly from the viewpoints of varying personalities are the ones that work best. "When you understand the process, you then learn not to exclude anyone. Everybody has a role. We just have to first identify what role they play in the process. It's a matter of getting the best synergies," Romero explains. In the Philippines, OTi has assisted a food manufacturer to lower costs through the use of thinner delivery cartons while maintaining the quality of its best-selling food product. A telecommunications company expanded its base of mobile phone users by tapping sari-sari stores as electronic loading stations. Other OTi clients that have started to integrate innovation in their corporate culture include a leading pharmaceutical firm, an engineering company, a petroleum producer and a photo developer chain. OTi points to 3M as one company that has adopted innovation as a way of life. One of its best selling products, after all, was accidentally discovered by an employee who realized that there was a market for neon colored paper that could stick on to documents but could be peeled off just as easily. Eventually 3M successfully marketed it to the world as Post It notes. Some local companies have instituted steps to stimulate innovation in their work systems and procedures. Others have tied up cash and non-cash incentives to employees who initiate and implement innovation. One of Romero's fresh ideas is that as people get better and better at process, quality will no longer be a basis for competitive advantage since everyone will eventually need to master it. "To win, you need to find ways to be innovative. If you are using yesterday's methods and techniques, you may not be here tomorrow," warns Romero. |
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Launching SMEs into international market -- Feature on Inquirer.Net
EVEN in the fiercely competitive world market, small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) do have a chance-given the right tools and approaches, according to a Singaporean firm.
Best business practices that have propelled many modest Singapore operations to the world market are now available to local ventures seeking to be globally competitive, according to Romulo Romero, managing director of the Philippine operations of OTi Consulting. OTi is a regional managing consultancy firm based in Singapore and doing business in Indonesia, Malaysia, China, the Philippines, and Afghanistan. It is one of the certified consulting firms in the city-state actively participating in a successful government-sponsored initiative to strengthen SMEs, the backbone of Singapore's vibrant economy. The Industry Capability Upgrading Program provides companies organized by industry with a framework for collectively assessing emerging trends and challenges in the global market; determining gaps that need to be addressed to enhance their competitiveness; envisioning the future; and planning for it. The program is anchored on the fact that few companies in the world today produce all its goods and services, according to Romero. Different parts are produced by different companies in various areas of the world. "Competition has become international and unprecedented in intensity. Companies can no longer single-handedly create the future for themselves and their people. They need to work with other companies to jointly develop strategies for bringing their organizations and people forward to ride the competition and scale new heights," he says. In the Philippines, SMEs make up 99.6 percent of all Philippine firms, providing 32 percent of value-added and 70 percent of all jobs. In foreign trade, they account for about 60 percent of all exporters. Romero believes nurturing SMEs can generate more jobs and stimulate a more even distribution of wealth. Most SMEs don't graduate to the next levels of development, he said. One reason is that assistance from government and other agencies has largely been focused on credit. In addition, best business practices are not shared. Growth and expansion are anchored on capital buildup and asset expansion while the health of the organization remains largely ignored, according to Romero. |
| Philippine Star Feature on Romulo Romero |
| leadership_approach_during_turbulent_times.pdf |
| Strengthening Corporate Culture -- Feature on HRM Singapore |
| Overcoming Today's Challenges Tomorrow -- Feature on HRM Singapore |