IACOPO ROVERE CEO FOODPANDA PHILIPPINES

Last year, two Europe-based online food technology rival companies Delivery Hero and foodpanda decided they can share the world after all and merged businesses to form one of the largest online food delivery start-ups.

In the Philippines this was foodpanda, emphasis on the font’s lower case “f”. foodpanda Philippines is headed by its CEO, Iacopo Rovere. The set up of the company is as unique as its beginning, both are German-owned, but foodpanda began in Singapore and covers mostly Asia and some parts of Europe.

Rovere said since 2014 when foodpanda was launched here, the online food delivery business has expanded its online ordering platforms and increased its partner restaurants.

foodpanda’s marketplace is mainly Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The people who run the company is targeting to corner a big slice of an estimated $50-billion online food delivery business in these emerging markets. At the moment, only a small piece of this potential business – about one to two percent – are being tapped.

foodpanda operates in 43 countries, five continents, 65 cities and growing. Rovere, now tasked to grow the local food delivery market, was pulled from his former job as global operations manager of the company’s head office in Germany to focus more on the Philippines as one of the fastest growing Southeast Asian market overall.

(Work) life as CEO

Rovere is touted to be 100 percent target-driven, a hands-on leader and counts “results and talent” as key words in ensuring a successful venture. It is what he looks forward to in this line of work that is based on an innovative business model. “Ultimately the best part is to be able to work with such a talented pool of people which drive the business with passion and dedication. No one of us is perfect but we all strive for that,” he added.

Some days are not-so-great-days but that’s work. “It can be incredibly difficult to have all of them (employees, customers, partners and investors) satisfied at the same time.”

The Philippines, while an emerging Asian dragon in terms of economic growth potential, has plenty of challenges to overcome, namely infrastructure. Still, the country is expected to outperform most of its regional neighbors this year on the back of a healthy GDP growth, low inflation, an ever-expanding services sector and strong consumption, among other factors.

Rovere, given scenarios of political upheaval in the Philippines, Martial Law, anti-globalization policies, and stiffer online market competition – was asked which of these issues are of the biggest concern for him in running a business. “Most of the aforementioned can be worrying for any average person (but) I mainly focus on competition which is a very important component of a fair market and also a great personal motivator to do better.”

For one, he has to deal and prepare for a future where drone delivery or unmanned aerial vehicles for the transportation of food and other items or goods is the preferred choice for clients, and how will this affect the way they run their business.

“Drone delivery is an innovation that might disrupt our sector and we are also looking into it,” he said. “Unfortunately it seems unlikely we will be able to rapidly roll-out the service on a global level, hence it will be used only in very limited areas with lower impacts on the overall business.”

Other than drone technology, Rovere said the daily challenges are easily dealt with, right now.

“As of this point in time, we do not have any major risk that might disrupt the way we do business over the next years. Some online service providers experienced issues in other countries which could undermine their unit of economics, but this is not our case since we operate differently at the core,” he remarked. “Nevertheless, it does not mean we have an easy future. On the contrary, we have our own challenges to overcome on how to improve our service and reach continuously faster delivery times without undermining the financial aspects of the business.”

So far, the online business is moving along as planned. foodpanda’s roster of partner restaurants total 1,000. Basically, the company through its platform and applications, takes and sends orders to their partners via the Internet and mobile technology. It’s an online ordering system made very easy and convenient for the customers.

“While we do want to increase, there is no specific quantitative target right now, it is more on qualitative inventory,” explained Rovere. “Being on foodpanda is fairly easy but there are some quality standards that need to be followed to be able to operate on our platform.”

Rovere said that as a group which includes Delivery Hero, they process around 23 million orders per month. One could assume that the Philippines have a small portion of this volume, for now. “I am not able to disclose any specific number for Philippines at this point in time. What I am happy to disclose is that last year we grew three-digit percentage points, and this year I intend to triple last year’s record.”

foodpanda services could deliver food in 45 minutes on average -- “but being able to handle such competitive KPIs (key performance indicators) is challenging and expensive,” said Rovere.

In this kind of business which very much rely on technology and the continuous update of that techn o l o g y, l a r g e - s i z e d i n v e s t m e n t s are made at the onset to get everything set up and running fast and smoothly.

“The nature of our business would expect that we have one big investment in the beginning of our operations and then very little are needed later on to scale up,” said Rovere. “This allows us to have close to zero blockers in our growth and expansion.” The investments were in the platforms, both the ordering one and the delivery one, and it has been significant with so many markets to service.

Rovere said how much transactions they process in terms of volume will only improve their delivery times overtime. This is why it is important to grow the online food delivery market as fast as they could. “I am confident that at the current growth rate we are, we will soon be able to delivery over 95 percent of orders in less than 40 minutes in Metro Manila and Cebu.”

Rovere has been at the helm of the local foodpanda in less than two years. In the past 12 months, they have achieved significant breakthroughs in terms of cutting the average order placement time by 3x, which he said, is currently under one minute and a half, and the delivery time by 2x, currently at 43 minutes in average. “Given the operational challenges and the history in the market, these are surely among our biggest breaks,” he noted.

“When I first arrived in the Philippines I had to face difficult times due to internal changes that affected both the group as well as the local branches. Being able to overcome those and grow the business by a three-digit percentage is something I am most proud of,” said Rovere.

No easy trials Rovere is steadfast in his study of the local market, he’s still a newcomer. New markets and trying to get a solid foothold is stress-inducing.

“Speed and complexity in rolling out even the simplest changes can be incredibly frustrating,” he commented on doing business in the Philippines. “Sometimes it just takes so long or so many steps to implement a minimal improvement and be sure that it is properly functioning.”

Rovere said when faced with difficult issues or extremely vexed, it is “fundamental to remember why we do what we do.”

“Personally it is the love for innovation, creating something new, and solve a consumer need (why I do what I do). Being the first in doing something is also among the motives that get me through the hardest days,” he said.

Rovere admits there are two things that do worry him more – employee unhappiness and operational flaws. “If I experience any of the two in any sort of degree, I will most likely lose precious hours of sleep,” he added.

But maybe, these challenges endear the country and the culture, especially the food, to Rovere more.

“I would say the country, its people and the local cuisine all share the characteristics of being original and surprising,” he offered. “(The) Philippines has among the best (if not, the best) beaches in Southeast Asia, Filipinos are incredibly warm, sociable and with defined personalities, and the food follows the same pattern combining some of the most ‘unusual’ flavors together.”

Tech guy, always

It’s not a surprise that, had the world been different and Rovere is not the CEO of foodpanda Philippines, he would still end up in the technology industry.

“I love innovation, sustainability, tech and numbers, so I would probably be doing something related to one of these fields – most likely it would be correlated with the use of technology to improve and simply our life,” he said, when asked what an alternative universe would look like for him.

So, for Rovere, the most crucial tech accessory is the power bank – “without which I would be constantly out of power on my phone.” One could imagine how much Internet and mobile usage he requires in a day. “I need three full charges per day.”

It’s probably why he supports renewable energy – which can be replenished such as wind or solar power – to ensure he and the rest of the world will never run out of energy. “I firmly believe and support that our future should revolve around renewable energies. If something is clear is that mankind cannot support for long the use of fossil fuels on a mass scale without jeopardizing the chances of survival.”

This tech guy is also a dog person. Not wholly about “dog people” personality because that’s not it – not entirely – but he supports the rehabilitation of rescued dogs.

Rovere is an animal welfare volunteer for the rescued Pit Bulls of Laguna, and he helps “heal and retrain pit bulls rescued from illegal dog fights (and) preparing them for adoption.”

This kind of understated compassion, he probably inherited from his parents, his source of “himself.”

“My mother raised me, and like most moms, filled me with love and appreciation for anything I would do,” Rovere, an Italian, said. “But, it is my father who had the biggest impact in shaping me in the man I am today. Dedication, strive for improvement, love, and respect are core values with which he educated me.”