Fabricating for the new normal
Paulo Miguel Garcia Managing Partner GMD Pro
We’re a group of friends doing what we love to do...Things were scary, perotulungtulungan namankami (but we helped each other).”
He could have joined his father’s wood supply and molding business, but this De La Salle University graduate wanted to strike out on his own. With friends, he set up an enterprise whose current best-sellers, like acrylic counter shields, protect the public from coronavirus infection.
RISKS are inevitably involved when striking out on one’s own, not to mention the long hours poured into making any startup work.
So, Paulo Miguel Garcia, managing partner of fabrication company GMD Pro, describes the painstaking birth and growth of the enterprise he and friends Mar Mungcal, Kim David and Bryan Badajos fashioned.
No to silver platter
The product of four generations of entrepreneurs, Paulo says he had always been interested in his father’s wood supply and moldings business. But he did not want it merely handed to him on a silver platter. “My mindset ever since graduation was that after five or six years, I would have a business of my own,” Paulo tells Keep in View. He worked for other companies, considering them as stepping stones to understanding, when the time came, how to manage independently.
“In my second or third year of college, I failed a major subject, and in my course (organizational communicationsI, you had to wait one year before you could retake it,” the De La Salle University alumnus admits. “Nahiyaakosa parents ko (I felt embarrassed for my parents).” To make amends for the academic hiccup, Paulo approached a family friend to help him land an internship at Magnolia Ice Cream for two summers in 2009 and 2010. He searched further for similar positions, saying: “My driving factor was to get as much experience about how working people thought.”
Upon completing college, he jumped across various industries, but always in the events arena. He worked as a sales representative for Smart Communications Inc., became a human resources associate for events in Alveo Land Corp. and then got a marketing job at Philippine Airlines (PALI. Here, he came into contact with third-party agencies and saw them in their creative mode. “Anggaling [They were impressive],” he recalls.
After his PAL posting, an events outfit, which bid for one of its projects, reeled him in as an account executive for camera company Canon. “This was when I thought, ‘I can actually do this — I can run my own business,” he says.
Two years ago, Paulo, who plays football, took the first step and decided to ask friends on his team what services they needed in their respective businesses. He struck gold with the people he approached as they eventually became his partners in GMD Pro. Industrial designer Mar Mungcal also worked in fabrication; Kim David owns CTV Inc., specializing in national conferences and product launches; Bryan Badajos became GMD Pro’s resident architect; and Paulo heads operations and sales.
A quick glance at their website shows the range of services they offer: retail design, event fabrication, architectural services, interior fit-outs, in-store merchandise display and large format printing. “We’re a group of friends doing what we love to do,” Paulo explains. “Mar told me nakayanatinmag-ganito (that we could do thisI. So, we left our (oldI jobs and invested in GMD Pro. “Things were scary, perotulung-tulungan
namankami [but we helped each other].” According to him, they planned to operate small-scale projects for the first three years. But after only one year, they racked up several prominent clients, whom they personally sourced. Their big break came with the partnership with alcoholic beverage company Diageo International to promote brands such as Johnny Walker, Smirnoff, Captain Morgan, Bailey’s and JFB among others. Today, other patrons include Unicef, Kimberly-Clark, Potato Corner, Smart and SPAM.
Paulo says that the struggle was formidably real especially at the start. “We had no consistent salary and it was a big risk for me too since I was getting married at the time.” He is grateful for the support of his wife, Adelle and his father, Rafael Garcia, whom he deems his mentor. It was at this time that his family stepped in and bought most of the company shares in order for it to expand.
High risk, high reward
The younger Garcia narrates that his father always applied a hands-off policy. “Hinahayaanniyalangako [he would let me be]. He wanted me to experience how hard it was to start your own business.” The two grew even closer as Paulo navigated the entrepreneurial world. “My parents treat my business as their own,” he says. “They said that they invested in GMD Pro because they saw its high-risk, highreward potential.” This further motivated him to bring in new business. To quote the Beatles, they got by “with a little help from their friends.” They asked their connections in big companies if they could pitch their services, and soon, GMD’s capabilities spread via word-of-mouth.
The coronavirus pandemic has posed a real challenge for Paulo and his colleagues. He says: “We had to ask: ‘ How can we adjust to the current situation? What do we need to do to be productive and give opportunities to our workers?’”
The answer came when he was asked if GMD Pro could create aerosol boxes, which provided healthcare workers added protection when intubating patients. They launched a donation drive and were able to distribute 680 boxes to hospitals nationwide, a far cry from their initial target of only 50. This went on for two months. The team has now moved on to manufacturing acrylic counter shields, something Paulo has predicted will be commonplace in the new normal.
“Since the end of April, we’ve been making and selling acrylic counter shields,” he reports.
As a businessman, Paulo says he needs to work on a daily basis. “Unlike in a corporate job, where you work Monday to Friday, eight to five, running your own business [pushes you to think], ‘How do I get paid?’” His only rest comes in the form of traveling with the family; their last trip was to Japan in January. “I’m an outdoors type of person,” he admits. During the lockdown, however, he has found the time to catch up on sleep, watch K-dramas on Netflix and do a bit of exercising at home.
Paulo is also a fledgling father. His wife gave birth to a baby boy in early August.
From gaining experience, to making his dream a reality, satisfying clients and giving back to the community, Paulo Garcia has certainly hit the nail on the head.