SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—An outstanding performance in investment, revenue and employment generation won for the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) the much-coveted Executive Leadership Team of the Year prize in the prestigious Asia CEO 2016 Awards held on Tuesday.
SBMA Chairman and current Administrator Roberto Garcia, who received the award on behalf of the agency, said the SBMA made a dramatic financial turnaround in the past few years, after initially facing bleak prospects when he assumed office in 2011.
“The SBMA’s management team and staff were demoralized for having received only one salary increase for 18 years, and the agency was suffering from tremendous losses,” Garcia recounted the agency’s ordeal, as he accepted the award.
“It was a challenge to them to turn around [the agency] and rally to our theme that good governance makes good business. This spurred the team to produce historic records for SBMA in terms of revenues, profits, investments and the number of jobs generated,” he said.
Calling the award a testimonial to the SBMA management team which has been in place since 2007, Garcia said the SBMA citation proves “workers in government can excel and deliver world-class service that can compete with the best in the Philippines.”
Aside from the SBMA, another government agency, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), won a top plum in the Asia CEO Awards this year, the Service Excellence Company of the Year award.
The Asia CEO Awards, which aims to promote the Philippines on world stage, is the largest business awards event of its kind in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific region, representing the most outstanding grouping of local and international business people and organizations in both the private and public sectors.
The SBMA, which manages the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, was the only government entity that vied this year for the Executive Leadership Team of the Year award, which honors an executive management team of any organization that exhibited exceptional leadership skills resulting in the maximization of stakeholders’ values and has attained significant business accomplishments.
For this award, the SBMA bested contact center and performance marketer Acquire BPO; top BPO firm Cognizant Technology Solutions Philippines Inc.; appliance maker Concepcion Industrial Corp.; electronics manufacturer Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc.; and cargo logistics giant LBC Express Inc.
Judges based their choice of winner on five basic criteria: leadership and good governance, financial contribution, pioneering achievements, social commitment and international recognition.