A tribute to a great man

Monday, June 25, 2007

MANAGING FOR SOCIETY, THE MANILA TIMES By Evelio G. Echavez A tribute to a great man

I remember what the late Don Felimon C. Rodriguez, one of the cofounders of the Philippine Investment and Management Inc. (PHINMA), said in one of the company’s gatherings in the 1970s that “in our lifetime, we cross paths with different kinds of people and some of them would have a great influence in our lives.” I have been very fortunate for having worked with people who had positively influenced my life. One of them is Ambassador Ramon V. del Rosario Sr., co-founder and chairman-emeritus of PHINMA and the conglomerate that it has become. In the early 1970s, I was the pulp mill superintendent of PHINMA’s United Pulp and Paper Company’s plant located in Calumpit, Bulacan. Ambassador del Rosario (RVR to most of us) was the company president at that time. When he visited the plant, we made sure that the plant was totally clean even if we kept the plant usually clean anyway at all times because we did not know when he or some of the executives would come to visit, with the plant being just an hour away from Manila. Even when the General Housekeeping Program or 5S, which was popularized by the Japanese, was still not in style, we already practiced that at PHINMA in the 1970s. I kept that practice in all my other assignments. RVR was known for his thoroughness and knack for details. Whenever we had our planning and budget conferences, we made sure that we covered all the bases because he and the other executives had a way of knowing whether we had considered all important aspects in our plans. I was continually amazed at his wisdom, creativeness and foresight because in all our major conferences I went home with some new ideas to consider. One time when we were told that RVR was going to visit the Davao plant I was involved in as senior vice president in the 1990s, my counterpart in marketing told me that he usually made sure he knew all the infrastructure projects in the Visayas and Mindanao, whether in-progress or being planned, because surely RVR would ask him about them. He was interested to know what the plants were doing to help the community. Our community outreach program (Comrel) started even before corporate social responsibility became a popular buzzword. He had the gift of remembering the names of people. My wife regaled in telling me that RVR remembered her name when we attended company socials or activities. During one Christmas party we had at our Davao plant, I wanted top management to encourage our employees to support the Total Quality Management (TQM) Program we were implementing. In his message, Ambassador del Rosario talked about TQM like an expert. We got a quote from his speech, which we placed in conspicuous areas around the plant. It was, “Hindi na pwede ang pwede na.” What I remember most of RVR was that he was our number one motivator and cheerleader. At the end of our semiannual planning and budget conferences, we looked forward to listening to the closing words of our top officials. RVR was good at using the right words and illustrations; and in encouraging all of us to do our best. He was eloquent like no other. Nobody could beat him in delivering a speech for any occasion.