No Boundaries: Tribute to Workplace Mentors 2

I’ve been so blessed to have worked under bosses who mentored their people so that everyday work became an adventure of sorts.

They opened my eyes to fresh concepts and new ways of looking at things. Two of them pushed me to my limits, even if at times the process became traumatic or painful.

Winston Marbella, one of my former bosses in San Miguel Corporation, was my marketing guru. A once-upon-a-time physics student tutored by one of Eistein’s former students, he started his professional life as a journalist, moving later to public relations, marketing, then business management.

His legacy: “Think strategic. Think differently. Challenge ideas. Do not accept them for what they are.”

One of my most loved superiors was Eli Pinto-Mansor (she went to be with the Lord a few years back), my boss at the (once mighty, now history) Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP).

She showed how, with an eye for detail, minutest things could be incorporated into concepts and designs, turning the ordinary into spectacular.

Eli saw potential in people. She pushed us to our limits, even to the point of hurt. I would not have known what lay dormant inside if she didn’t demand excellence and my best and most creative effort.

She believed I was a writer even if I doubted that. I didn’t even consider myself a good enough writer. But she let, rather made, me write—feature articles in our corporate newsletter—until I discovered I really had it in me.

She gave me leeway to play around and have fun with the company’s stockholders’ meeting audio-visual presentation (AVP).

So I went ga-ga with my ideas and for the AVP’s opening spiel, used the “Pink Panther” theme music, replacing its lyrics with, “Your company has reached a billion mark, taran-taran!” Imagine the mixed reactions from the audience of mostly spiffy investors. It merited a comment from the Asian Wall Street Journal!

While producing this particular AVP, I made a very expensive booboo which I thought was unforgivable, so I offered to resign.

”It was costly,” Eli replied, but if that’s what’s needed to learn, so learn,” and assured me of her confidence. I never hesitated to work for her again when she asked me to join her later in another company. (Sorry to Burst Your Bubble, p.45)

Eli made such an impact in the Philippine design industry, when in a latter job at the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM, where I worked with her for a year), she took up-and-coming Filipino designers under her wings to develop world-class fashion and home accessories using indigenous Philippine raw materials.

Fearless, protective, passionate, but a mothering type, Eli helped define the course of my professional life: No boundaries.

After CITEM, a former colleague convinced me to move to Manila Hilton International (after which I went back to San Miguel). Having served three expatriate general managers in the hotel—an Englishman and two Germans— I sort of concluded that European bosses were objective, fair, professional, and gave their workers due recognition.

They taught me how global managers must behave. While respecting the culture of their host countries, they equally demanded professionalism from their staff.