The Man Behind EMS
As soon as I entered his office, I felt a warm welcome from the man who continues the legacy built by his father. Getting up close and personal, EMS Group of Companies Chairman and CEO Ferdinand “Perry” Ferrer looks like a younger version of Stan Lee (minus the iconic moustache) as I sat across his table and engaged on a learning conversation with him in his office in Laguna.
The mild-mannered executive was very expressive and articulate in sharing the history and pillars that built the family business that has given more jobs to fellow Filipinos in the country. His father, the late Francis Ferrer, former president of the Ayala-led Integrated Microelectronics, Inc., encouraged the son to join him in establishing an electronics company. EMS was born in 2004.
Like a superhero that Lee created in his comic books, Perry rose through the ranks of family-business with the objective of putting up a company to save the manufacturing jobs in electronics from going out to China.
EMS is a proud Filipino-owned company with a workforce of local employees coming from different provinces and from different levels of education. “We are trying to bring all our employees in certain level of parity,”Perry began answering my inquisitiveness.
From hardware topics to millennial behaviors, the interview evolved from light to very feel-at-home conversation like I had known the man in front of me for a very long time.
All our workers are Filipinos. “I’m proud that we are probably the only private Filipino company in the assembling parts industry in the Philippines. I’m proud to keep it that way. When people ask why, we want to really showcase a Filipino company (we don’t have investors), that on our own, through sheer work of employees and performance, we are able to grow where the big boys are, and we can go up together with them.”
EMS currently employs 15,000 Filipino workforces. “When my father started the company 15 years ago, the intention was to prevent the loss of jobs in the Philippines. In 2002 to 2003, China was cheap when it comes to production costs and we can not compare. During one of my father’s meetings with companies who were about to move productions to China, he said, ‘We can do that also in the Philippines,” and one of the Chairman of a multinational dared him and said, “Francis if you can do it, prove it.”
That was the start of EMS, with 80 people and sure enough they were able to keep the jobs here. “From 80 head count, by the end of that year, they were over 800 and before the global recession in 2008-2009, we reached a high of 1,800 people. That’s how it grew. Unfortunately, recession hit globally, and we lost 90% of our production,” he continued.
When Issues Arise
“If there is an issue, in the past in other companies itatagomoiyan. If there’s an issue, we go for it. Instead of putting blames, we tackle the problem right away. Because every hour, everyday it lasts, it becomes expensive.” The mantra of the company and the people working with him is if there’s a problem, solve it right away before it becomes expensive or it ruins what the customer’s planned.
“I never fired anybody for making a mistake because I make mistakes also.”
Silicon Valley-type hub of the Philippines
EMS is located inside Laguna Technopark, one of the Philippines’ premiere industrial estate in the fastest-growing regional center in Binan, Laguna. The industrial estate covers 460 hectares that cater to light and medium, nonpolluting enterprises, from both global and local markets. It is home to 239 of the world’s leading manufacturing companies specializing in electronics, automotive, consumer products, food processing, and pharmaceuticals. The estate is almost ripe to be developed as a Silicon Valley-type hub, where EMS could be part of.
“We are attempting to have that here amongst the electronic companies here (Laguna). There is an organization Semiconductor &Electronics Industries in the Philippines (SEIPI) and we are trying to group together and form and organization to exchange talents and bring rise tot eh different talented Filipinos here.”
Perry also added that SEIPI have a lot of technical working groups that exchange ideas amongst companies and present it how it is done that other companies might be able to use also.
He admits though that “we are not completely there yet,” but “there are handfuls of Filipino companies in the semiconductor industries that have proven that Filipino designers and developers are at par or are some are better than our foreign counterparts.”
SEIPI’s main goal is to set a level where Filipinos will not be just known as laborers assembling parts but designed and Made in the Philippinesproducts to improve and can prove that Filipinos can equal those in Silicon Valley.
Training While They’re Young
EMS provides training as early for those who are in kindergarten and up to 3rd Grade students focusing on Math and Science because they believe in getting the interest of the younger generation and how it is applied to normal day-to-day lives, they will accept technology much faster at the very young age. Perry himself is a witness where at a very young age, these kids can develop programs to run robots.
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