My Last P&G Speech: What I learned and What I loved by Francis Uy

What I learned and What I loved (by Francis Uy) 
My goal is to leave you some wisdom on what I learned and what I loved in P&G.

1. Culture.

Let me put this in proper perspective. I worked for a big consulting company for 1 year after graduating from college. You could say I felt proud graduating from UP with a Computer Science degree and a cum laude distinction. However there were days / weeks / months in the year when I was there where I didn’t feel energized, committed, and passionate. As a matter of fact, the only time that I had SO much fun was when I was assigned to the BIR project for that company.. but it was only for 2-3 months.

So what happened?

I am in bliss, and I will thank this company for that til the end of my life.

3. Train to Master.

When you can explain or teach a concept. You have mastered it. Among the things I have mastered are: Time Management, Emerging Leader 1, Corporate Athlete, Effective workload Management, Project Management, Service and Initiative Management, In Touch with Users, Enterprise Architecture, iGDE, certain SAP modules.

When you learn, your mind is expanded, once your mind expands, your world expands.

You enhance your memory, you get better and better at applying what you teach, you develop your self-confidence in talking to people (which btw is an excellent skill as you go higher in the organization), and frankly you meet more people, you contribute to more people, and you leave your legacy to the next person.

This is the same in people management. You coach to grow not just your mentees or coachees but also yourself.

4. Operational Discipline.

AG said, and this is in my interpretation: The only strategy that others see is in the execution. Why do you need to execute well?

For one, you have been entrusted an amazing opportunity. I started with managing a million dollar project on my first year. Now on my twelfth, I am influencing a 6B$ eNOS program with 4MM$ this fiscal directly under my control. Keep on creating success story after success story.. And your responsibilities / and your capacity for bigger things grows.

And anyway this also goes back to you — in terms of promotion, compensation packages, and other perks.

5. This whole thing about Purpose.

Keep it personal for you. Go to the core of why you say what you say is important to you until it speaks to what you really are about.

Marta has the Foster Family’s 5 Fs. I had my 4 core areas and since my marriage, Daphne and I have created our F&D Goals.

I did say keep it personal. My #1 Value is my Family. And the future I’m living into is my daughter and wife getting me for them as a gen-provider, love, and inspiration.

Use your purpose as your north star. Let it drive your goals — for your work and your life. When I lose my way at work (which can happen), i lock myself in a huddle room and I get in touch with my why’s.. and my what’s… and then my how’s..

6 years ago, I asked myself: why do I want to get to B3, what is needed to get me there? and how do I now take action?

I am where I am because of my purpose.

Think about it, whether you know your purpose or not – there’s a future that you’re heading to. I’m sure you’d rather have a say in your future than leave it to chance.

6. In closing.

There are hundreds of learnings that I could share with you but I would stick to those 5 key things. Take care of each other. The people you see everyday have the potential to be your lifelong friends. Give back by training — and it will return to you a hundred fold. Always deliver your results well, be proactive. Keep glued on your purpose and use it as a fuel to give you energy to push through.

To end this, I do want to honor you – you bring forward a new face to the Filipino.
A great and courageous teacher told me last Feb, that in Asia – Filipinos are seen as maids and drivers. This got me thinking a lot.. I have heard of that before. and yet to a large extent, I ignored it, hid it under the rug…

What I realized is that by being successful here in P&G, by being successful in life — we take a stand.

We are global-level managers, trainers, IT professionals, business professionals. We are rated amongst the best in the world, and we succeed.

We raise the Filipino equity to one that wins, one that provides the highest level of service and value — to the global P&G community and even outside.

I will end by saying, once a P&Ger, always a P&Ger. You all will always be in my heart. and I will always be one call away, a chat away, an email away.

This is Francis Uy, Section Manager P&G. For now — I am signing out. 

Francis has since started his own IT Strategy and Information Security Company, Sinag Solutions, together with his partners – Rene Jaspe, CSSLP and Geoffrey Yu.  You may reach him at francis.uy@sinagsolutions.com