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SABINi

Ang SabiNi Sabin

Greetings, Aboitiz Eyes readers!

I am super excited to introduce my new monthly column here called SabiNi, where I can have a little fun and share my thoughts on anything under the sun. Thank you to the Aboitiz Eyes team for giving me this space where I can be much more casual, conversational, and candid about discussing things I think might be relevant to all of us here at Aboitiz.

From random musings to deep thoughts, funny stories to strong opinions, I will be using this column to help my own personal transformation as your CEO, and to practice the new core behaviors of a transformed A-Person, which we talked about in our Super Duper Conversations. In particular, this column will allow me to be more Open and Articulate, and it certainly makes communicating with you guys a lot more Fun!

No, this column will not replace my regular CEO email messages, as those will always be important and necessary. SabiNi will just complement or add to all other communications in a much more laid back and, hopefully, entertaining way. Consider this the diary of a CEO, and you all get to read it and get sneak peaks at what I think about on a variety of things.

There won’t be too much structure to it because, like I said, this will be more of a freewheeling ramble of thinking out loud that will give me the chance to open up my mind and let my thoughts flow as they will. This column is my hallway conversation with each and every one of you and, in today’s world of hybrid working, I think it’s important to keep those and maintain this kind of casual connection and communication that I’ve always enjoyed with all of you.  

This month, for example, I sent out a CEO message about a really good book recommended by Emilie (our Chief Transformation Officer) called Corporate Rebels – Make Work More Fun by two Dutch authors named Joost Minnaar and Pim de Morree. It’s amazing how much of what’s in the book are things that we at Aboitiz have already been doing for a long time, and how much of it just jibes with how we’ve been wanting to do things. You can rebel in a good way!

The book has a lot of great examples and good reminders for us to take note of. In relation to AEV, for instance, it talks about decentralization and how the role of a corporate office is shifting from one of control to one that’s more of support. This is exactly what we are doing with our new federated structure where AEV will be less controlling of the SBUs and much more supportive and value-adding. “Leaders should lead by supporting and not commanding,” the book goes on to say.

It even cites an example that pretty much describes our SuperDuperCons, where a certain company conducted “Thank God It’s Friday” meetings, inviting 90,000 employees to come together or phone in. At the Spotify office in Stockholm, Sweden, the authors found a similar ritual where the founder and some colleagues would go on a stage and share company developments, but as I paraphrase the book, “a rookie error was that they made attendance compulsory, and taking that route meant they would never find out if the employees found the meeting useful.”

That section goes on to talk about another company claiming that “gatherings are not simply for standard management updates. An important part of the process is the sharing of adversity and distaste. This way everybody can learn. So we want to give our employees the chance to receive all relevant information. Employees can ask questions and nothing is taboo, but we noticed that there have not been too many tricky ones. Most employees were not comfortable bringing up the touchier subjects. That was one of the most difficult things — convincing people that it’s really OK to ask anything because we want to be completely transparent.”

Sound familiar? Reading this made me think about our Undiscussables SDC episodes and what improvements we need to make. But I noticed a lot of similar thinking between us and these corporate rebels, which is probably a good affirmation of our consistently forward-thinking attitude, now even more emboldened by our Great Transformation. I guess being a techglomerate of the future is sort of like being a rebel or a maverick in a world of conglomerates that in some ways might still be living in the past.

Anyway, food for thought. There is so much more I want to say about this book, so stay tuned for my next column in October. Let me end this here as a taste of what’s to come, and as a proper introduction to the tone, content, flavor, and purpose of this column. We would love to get your feedback on this new communication channel, and I hope your experience with it was just as refreshing as mine.

Till next time, A-Peeps!

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