AIM & Coca-Cola Open Happiness Day

AIM & Coca-Cola Open Happiness Day

By Khairy Alonto, CMS & Placement Manager for AIM

Last July 6, 2011, Coca-Cola sponsored a recruitment event solely for the Asian Institute of Management's Washington SyCip Graduate School of Business at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City, Philippines.  This was a new venture between AIM's Career Management Services & Placement office and the HR team of Coca-Cola Bottler's Philippines and Coca-Cola Philippines, in their pursuit of recruiting the best talent available for their organization.  It was even mentioned that “they were here to recruit their dream team”.

Coca-Cola Bottlers was headed by their CEO, Bill Schultz, and their COO, Baring Olafsson; Coca-Cola Philippines was headed by Guillermo Aponte, their President and General Manager.  Other representatives from Coca-Cola were Jen Garcia (HR Director) and Atty. Tina Reyes, among other senior leaders of their company.  On the other hand, AIM was represented by no less than our President, Edilberto De Jesus, and Professor Ricardo A. Lim, our new Dean of the Institute. Other representatives from AIM were: Ana Puatu (Program Manager for the W.SyCip Graduate School of Business), Mia Zamora (Brand Manager), Jade Galvan & Eena Reyes of CMS, and yours truly. 

Current students of AIM were also joined by some alumni who were interested in knowing more about Coca-Cola.  What’s to know more about Coca-Cola, you might ask? We all know it’s a top beverage company globally. Well, we found out from their leaders so many things about Coca-Cola.  For one, in spite of the difference in population, Coca-Cola Philippines has a much larger business compared to India (and I hope our Indian students would take this as a challenge!).  They also shared videos and presentations about their CSR campaigns and promotions, and how promoting happiness is key to their strategy.  We also witnessed an ingenious way of strengthening awareness about Coca-Cola by word of mouth (and sorry, I won’t be sharing it because I will let that buzz reach you personally).  Let’s just say that it included a delivery van that delivered happiness with a push of a button.

Guillermo spoke to us about their company as an employer, by being specific of their core values and their importance, namely: leadership, passion, integrity, collaboration, diversity, quality, and accountability.  Baring inspired us with his talk on a quick glance of Coca-Cola Bottler’s Philippines, and even humorously pointed out that diversity in Coca-Cola can be readily observed with the three guys that were on stage: an American (Bill), a Colombian (Guillermo), and an Icelander (Baring).   Bill talked more about his personal experiences leading towards being a CEO.  He spoke about his work with P&G, Dixie cups, and a rice company before joining Coca-Cola and also experiences he had when he started out with Coca-Cola India.  Jen Garcia, their HR Director, moderated the Q&A portion where their three senior leaders answered the technical and sincere questions of our eager graduate students.

  

This event would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of Marie Curitana, Senior Manager for Talent Acquisition of Coca-Cola Bottler’s Philippines and her team, whom I personally coordinated with by trading phone calls, emails, and SMS.  I personally had a blast that night, and I probably had four bottles of Coke Zero (I forgot to ask them where I can purchase it in bottled packaging; Coca-Cola really does taste better in a bottle).  Seriously, I just want to let you readers know how much I appreciate the efforts of Coca-Cola’s senior management– in my decade of experience as an HR practitioner, I always felt that top management, and perhaps even the CEO, should still play a role in the recruitment of their next wave of leaders. I have rarely seen this done, and it was refreshing to see the CEO of Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines and the President/General Manager of Coca-Cola Philippines actively recruiting the best that AIM can offer.

Alonto for the assist...

Khairy Alonto took his MBA at AIM and now works there. Follow him on Twitter @khairyalonto or view his profile on http://ph.linkedin.com/in/khairyalonto