There are many ways to succeed, but for Owdylyn L. Lee, who at 27 is the Macaulay Club topnotcher, it paid to start early.

“I was in college when I decided to join Sun Life,” she shares, “I decided to do so because I saw the freedom it gave to my mother, Susan Lee, and sister, Zzlleenn Lee.” Both women were already successful Sun Life financial advisors.

It was a Sun Life trip to Brazil with her mother that convinced Lee to go on the same path, even if she was already pursuing a career in law. “I told my mom that I wanted to join Sun Life because I saw what it had done for our lives and I wanted to have a similar way of life,” she adds, “And I wanted to start earning money while still in college.”

After Lee made up her mind, there was no looking back. Seven years later, she finds herself at the top.

It was not an easy climb, especially because she started so young. First, she had to balance her academic and extracurricular activities with Sun Life work. “The transition was difficult, because of the learning curve. I had to open myself up and push myself to be less shy and see the importance of insurance,” she explains. “It really did not help that I was so young. No one would believe a 20-year-old on the importance of insurance because for them, what does a 20-year-old know about the difficulties of life? So the best I could do was to help inform my peers and people I already knew.”

What helped was that Lee was working with mother and sister, who were also her mentors. “I had to ask help from my branch manager and unit manager to understand what I was doing wrong,” she says, “They’re my sister and mother respectively.”

What was it like working with family? “Patience is key,” Lee reflects, remembering that, being young, she initially believed she could learn everything her way by simply reading the necessary documents. “It was a difficult relationship at the beginning. But later on, I realized that experience is the best teacher. No matter what I read, it will never beat the experience that my mentors had. And it is their sharing of their experience that I got to learn how to deal with my frustrations and valuable tips on closing a big sale. Again, I had to learn to be patient.”

Lee attributes her success to her family–specifically her upbringing. “Our family has always had a go-getter attitude. We were raised to have to know everything and to learn everything,” she says. “It was difficult and sometimes it got very frustrating, but I realize now that this is what gave me the drive and ambition to do more and be more. It was the ability to deal with so many things happening and handle an incredible amount of stress that allowed us to juggle so many things at a time.”

Lee sums up her work ethic as a Sun Life financial advisor with this simple line: “If you can do it now, just do it.” We lose so many opportunities by waiting, she adds, or we tend to forget and let the opportunity pass and then it is too late.

To other financial advisors who want to achieve the same level of success, Lee stresses the need to stay in a positive space. “Keep your spirits up,” she says. “I found it very difficult to work whenever I felt down with my surroundings. I think trying to keep a positive attitude or trying to see the good with what you have helps in pushing you to have what you want in life.

Owdylyn Lee is a President of the 2020 – 2021 Macaulay Club.

For more information and inquiries, visit the Sun Life website at https://www.sunlife.com.ph/en/.

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What does it take to be the longest qualifier to Sun Life Financial’s Macaulay Club, an elite group of the top five percent of financial advisers in the agency force? For Lily Co Ang, who has qualified for the Macaulay Club for a record-setting 36 times now, it can be summed up in one word: karma.

“I strongly believe in karma,” Ang says, stressing the importance of doing good deeds to reap good rewards. Now 64, she is a radiant reminder of how a life of service is its own reward.

Ang’s interest in sales was sparked early. “Even while in college, I would dabble in some sort of buy and sell of RTWs and selling non-life insurance to some of my classmates and friends,” she shares. After completing her college degree, Ang worked as a money market trader, promoting the investment products and financial services of an investment house. “It was there where I honed my skills in dealing with people from all walks of life.”

The path to a career in the insurance industry was already set alight for Ang. “My father had a great influence in my choice of career. He was engaged in the non-life insurance business,” she says, “He was successful in his field and that made an impact on me.”

It was another power woman, however, who fanned the flames and opened the door for Ang to Sun Life in 1984. “When I came to know Ms. Mary Chan, I was inspired by her success in the life insurance business. Her diplomacy, determination, and persuasion skills made me reflect on my own capability,” she recalls, “So I decided to emulate her and be one of her protégées.”

With her sales background, Ang found it easy to get referrals but was challenged in meeting potential clients because she didn’t know how to drive. “At first, I had the support of my husband, who would sometimes drive me to my clients. At other times, I had to hire a driver,” she shares. “Through sheer determination, I took on the challenge of knowing how to drive by myself to address my problem with mobility. And it certainly paid off.”

Ang credits her success to this strong sense of determination, but only after divine providence and the unwavering support of her mentor. “With the will and support of God, everything is possible. And whenever I encounter problems, Ms. Chan has always been there to assist me. Without her, I would not be where I am today,” she says, adding, “With God’s grace and a mentor’s support, personal drive and aspiration will be the final determining factors for success.”

What keeps the fire going for Ang in her 37 years with Sun Life is her sense of service. “Through my work, I believe that I have been able to assist many people to become financially independent and be prepared for the eventualities of life. The financial reward that comes after serving my clients is the icing on the cake.”

For Ang, selling insurance is both a commitment and a responsibility. “It is important that after consummating a sale, the salesperson should still be around if and when the client has a problem,” she stresses. “A good salesperson knows the responsibility that comes after the financial reward and the commitment to serve even after the sales is consummated.”

Ang also wants more Filipinos to learn the value of life insurance. “I do hope that more people appreciate the importance of life insurance, not only as a form of investment but more for protection against life’s eventualities. The pandemic has made everyone realize how uncertain life is and how important it is to be prepared.”

At this point in her life, with her material dreams achieved and her children all grown up and settled, Ang already considers herself a fulfilled sales executive of Sun Life and is now thinking of building her personal legacy. “My further goal is to be able to train more sales people to become what they want to achieve in life,” she says.

Ang wants to keep the fire burning, and her desire now is to spread the light. “Sharing the thoughts and knowledge that I have about insurance to people I know, regardless of nationality,” she concludes, “provides me with personal satisfaction and is preparation for good karma.”

Lily C. Ang is a Gold Macaulay Club Qualifier. She is also the longest Macaulay Club Qualifier.

For more information and inquiries, visit the Sun Life website at https://www.sunlife.com.ph/en/.

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Thanks to the McDelivery Share to Many feature, you can share the light this holiday season by staying virtually connected with loved ones.

Friends and family that eat together, stay together! Although big, chaotic, and fun face-to-face gatherings are put on hold, McDonald’s found a way to brighten up the festivities even when celebrated apart.

With the McDelivery Share to Many, you can bond with friends and family over your McDonald’s favorites in the comfort and safety of your homes and despite being miles apart. This feature, exclusively available in the McDelivery App, can simultaneously deliver favorite McDo meals in multiple locations!

Whether you want to send your virtual guests individual menu items, Happy Meal orders for the little ones, or even food bundles via Holiday Group offers for a big feast, the McDelivery Share to Many feature will make sure the meals will arrive at everyone’s houses safe and ready to be devoured!

Celebrate and share the holiday cheer with family, friends, and colleagues by sharing and sending their favorite McDo meals via the McDelivery Share to Many! Head on over to the McDelivery website or download the App now through the App Store or Google Play, and make sure to follow McDonald’s on Facebook for more McDo announcements.

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For over two decades, the Philippines has crafted a reputation as the top call center outsourcing destination on the planet. In fact, it has earned the moniker “Business Process Outsourcing Capital of the World,” largely due to the country’s success in delivering high-quality contact center solutions. There are many reasons for this, such as an educated workforce and ongoing government support. The biggest factor, however, is that premium call center providers in the Philippines have mastered a pricing structure that enables them to deliver world-class service consistently.

What many organizations looking for call center outsourcing in the Philippines fail to understand is that the cost structure of outsourcing has a direct impact on quality. An hourly rate for a premium call center outsourcing vendor average approximately US$12 to US$14 per hour. In contrast, a low-cost call center costs about US$6 to US$8 per hour. The difference? The premium call center delivers reliable, world-class service in the form of highly skilled agents and robust infrastructure. The low-end call center may be hard-pressed to even deliver the same agents on a week-to-week basis.

In the Philippines, demand for the best, brightest, and most highly skilled agents is fierce. In fact, the demand far outweighs the supply for call center staffing in the Philippines. “This imbalance has coincided with the explosive growth of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines over the years and has led to steadily increasing salaries. The country’s leading call center outsourcing providers and captive operators understand that they need to pay top dollar to attract and retain top talent,” says Ralf Ellspermann, CEO of PITON-Global, an award-winning, mid-sized call center outsourcing provider in the Philippines.

For the last twenty years, agent salaries have steadily increased at a rate of US$20 (P1,000) per year. Now, the Philippines’ premium BPO providers, third-party outsourcers and captive operators, pay a premium for top agents, with salaries of US$600 to US$800 (P30,000 to P40,000) per month. The days of hiring highly skilled, experienced, and English-proficient agents in the Philippines for US$2 to US$2.50 per hour are long gone.

Yet a low-cost call center in the Philippines that charges US$6 to US$8 per hour can only afford to allocate US$2 to US$2.50 for an agent’s salary, since there are other costs that must also be covered, such as the operating margin of 30%, cost of management, support, infrastructure, technologies, telco, utilities, etc. These low-cost contact centers simply do not generate enough revenue to be able to hire and retain the country’s top agents, who are needed to make programs work and to deliver a truly world-class Customer Experience (CX).

Over the last two decades, as the outsourcing industry has grown and matured in the Philippines; it has become one of the most highly desirable employment sectors for Filipino professionals. The industry enjoys full government support as well as highly focused curricula in the country’s leading universities dedicated to high-value specializations such as IT, AI, and R&D. As a result, the market for jobs at the leading outsourcing service providers in the country is thriving. “For Filipino professionals, it is also a point of pride to work for or represent some of the biggest brands in the world, such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Likewise, these leading Fortune 500 companies and SMEs are perfectly willing to offer top compensation packages to hire and retain the most talented and skilled agents in the country. They understand that doing so will allow them to deliver world-class CX and roll out higher-level business processes.”

Low-cost vendors cannot compete with this level of quality and service, and as a result, they are unable to hire and retain the top agents. When a low-cost call center in the Philippines can compete only on price, they will experience a revolving door of low-quality labor. “For low-cost vendors, it then becomes a race to the bottom, and for the companies that partner with them, the result is frustration, additional (unplanned) costs, and in most cases, program failures.

“However, for the organization that understands the value of working with a premium outsourcing call center in the Philippines, the result is quite the opposite. A slightly higher cost is directly proportional to the long-term success of the program and ultimately equates to outsourcing done right,” explains Mr. Ellspermann.

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Globe and multinational companies stressed the importance of integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices in business operations as nations come out of the pandemic. It is necessary to put ESG at the core of every institution to build a better world.

ESG, as aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), aims for everyone to have equal opportunities to live a life that respects humanity and allows future generations to do the same.

Industry leaders spoke about the power of ESG integration on the future of enterprises at the 12^th Globe Business Leadership Innovation (Lead-In) Forum, which carried the theme “Bigger Picture, Greater Future: Redefining Success Beyond Business.” The annual event was attended by over 900 guests, including C-Level executives and heads from various industries.

Globe Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice-President for Corporate Communications Yoly Crisanto said more Filipino consumers and companies are now embracing new ways of doing things under the ‘Great Reset.’ As a result, ESG targets are being placed alongside financial targets as top corporate priorities.

She said stakeholders worldwide, including employees, customers, shareholders and investors, are expecting businesses to be transparent and to stand for sustainable practices and ethical standards.

“There is no time to lose. We must evolve from outdated principles of unlimited access to resources and the primacy of shareholders to one that recognizes the limits and consequences of everything we extract, manufacture, consume, and put to waste. Above all, we must recognize our impact on humanity. Just like any transformative change, it begins within our organizations,” Ms. Crisanto pointed out.

Underpinning ESG is technology, which serves as a great enabler. Companies that are more mature in the digital space are winning the future because digital transformation has become a life essential. However, digital transformation with compassion for humanity will create more value moving forward, she added.

Globe is determined to do its part to help the country meet its commitment to the UN SDG 2030 agenda by making connectivity accessible for all, preserving the environment, creating economically viable jobs, and protecting human rights.

Lucas Joppa, Microsoft Corporation’s Chief Environmental Officer, also underscored the responsibility of enterprises to include ESG in their operations. “Building a solid society, working to improve the human experience, working to ensure that our economic systems don’t degrade our environmental systems — those are jobs for every type of organization,” he said.

On the other hand, Cesar Romero, President and CEO of Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, said that the environmental challenges, mainly global warming, are too big to be handled by just one sector of society, thus, the need for collective effort.

Just like Globe, Royal Dutch Shell has committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. “We believe that in due consideration to nature and society, we need to work hand in hand with our customers in helping them achieve the net-zero emissions target. And similarly, allow our company to be a net-zero emission business by 2050,” he said.

For instance, Shell pushes the use of eco-bricks through a livelihood project in Cagayan de Oro City, which at the same time addresses plastic waste. The company also provides the community with renewable energy and solar power.

For his part, Managing Director, Member of the Management Committee of Ayala Corporation and Chief Operating Officer of iPeople, Inc. Alfredo Ayala said businesses can still pursue profit with purpose. “You can attract really passionate people when you have that purpose at the core of your organization. You can achieve a similar Return on Equity, but you have other dividends from the community, from HR, coming from retention and attraction. There are different types of profit, and there could be a lot of benefits above and beyond the numbers,” he explained.

Ayala Education has committed to providing quality and affordable education to significantly enhance the employability of graduates. Job creation is key to a nation’s success, thus, the importance of equipping students to become great employable citizens.

“Fast-forward today. I think we can say that we’ve dramatically reduced our environmental footprint and our footprint going forward. I think we’ve significantly increased our societal impact, all because of digital and our partners like Globe,” Mr. Ayala said.

Globe has maintained its status as among the world’s most socially and environmentally responsible companies, having been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series for six consecutive years. The index, administered by the Financial Times Stock Exchange Russell Group, measures the performance of businesses around the world that demonstrate strong ESG practices.

For more information about Globe Business, visit www.globe.com.ph/business/enterprise.

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One of Japan’s leading chu-hi drinks bound to make waves as Coca-Cola introduces its first alcoholic drink in the country

Lemon-Dou®, one of Japan’s growing chu-hi drinks, is now available in the Philippines in three different variants. The entry of Lemon-Dou® in the country is seen as a response to the increasing demand for refreshing lemon alcoholic drinks and marks the first alcoholic beverage brand in the growing beverage portfolio of Coca-Cola in the Philippines.

“At Coca-Cola, we’ve always strived to deliver innovations that center around what our consumers want, while ensuring that we evolve our business responsibly and sustainably as well. We continue to be bullish on our business here in the Philippines amidst the ongoing challenges of the pandemic — and the launch of Lemon-Dou, our first alcoholic brand in the country, is a tangible proof of that commitment. We are confident that Lemon-Dou will help further accelerate the high-growth trajectory of flavoured alcoholic drinks in the country,” said Tony del Rosario, President of Coca-Cola Philippines.

Inspired from the southern province of Kyushu, Japan – the birthplace of shochū over 500 years ago – Lemon-Dou was first introduced by Coca-Cola in 2018. After two years, the lemon-flavored alcoholic drink became one of Japan’s Nikkei Trendy top 5 trends in 2020.

Martyn Ferguson, Marketing Director for Emerging Brands of Coca-Cola ASEAN & South Pacific shared, “Lemon-Dou uses a closely-guarded traditional recipe from Coca-Cola. True to the Japanese philosophy of Kodawari, we’re very proud of how we have tapped into the strength of our global network to ensure that the quality of Lemon-Dou remains consistent when served to the Filipino legal age drinkers.”

Lemon-Dou is a play on “lemon,” the drink’s main ingredient, and the Japanese word “dou,” meaning house. Literally translated to “The House of Lemon,” Lemon-Dou uses crushed whole lemons, infused in alcohol and mixed with bubbles, which creates the great tasting, refreshing and full-bodied lemon-sour experience for the alcohol drinkers.

This newest Japanese-crafted chu-hi drink comes in three different variants: Honey Lemon– sweet taste & mild flavor with 3% alcohol level, Signature Lemon with the classic taste, bold lemon flavor and 5% alcohol level, and the Devil Lemon, a wickedly good taste with 9% alcohol content.

Globally, Coca-Cola adheres to a strict Global Responsible Marketing Policy to ensure that the company grows their alcohol brands, such as Lemon-Dou, in a responsible and sustainable way. This policy includes championing responsible consumption and marketing that does not appeal to people under the legal purchase age (LPA).

People of legal drinking age can now enjoy Lemon-Dou. It is available in major supermarkets nationwide, which includes SM Hypermarket, Waltermart, Robinsons Supermarket, Shopwise, Landmark Supermarket, Royal Duty Free, S&R, Lander’s, Alfamart, Puregold, as well as convenience stores such as 7-Eleven, Mini Stop, Family Mart, and Lawson. Lemon-Dou may also be ordered online via Boozy.ph, CokeBeverages.ph, Shopee, and Lazada as long as you are 18 years old and above.

For more information on Lemon-Dou, visit facebook.com/LemonDouPH/. 

Spotlight is BusinessWorld’s sponsored section that allows advertisers to amplify their brand and connect with BusinessWorld’s audience by enabling them to publish their stories directly on the BusinessWorld Web site. For more information, send an email to online@bworldonline.com.

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