Source: ENTERPRISE Magazine Vol. 4 Issue 4 July-August 2006 www.enterprise.ph
A former farmer from Britain makes a spontaneous career move to the computer industry - and finds success by learning to adapt to changes, and never forgetting the people who helped him succeed.
By Michael David C. Tan
AROUND THE WORLD | GROWING IN THE PHILIPPINES | LIVING THE FULL LIFE
He was just a young farmer in his native United Kingdom when Simon Gainsford, president of Advanced Synergies Philippines, Inc. (ASP), Progressive Software Inc. (ProSoft), and NaviWorld Philippines, made the decision that would change his life. “I took a good look around me and saw that if (farming) was going to be my future, it was not going to be much fun,” he recalls.
After asking himself where the future – not just his future – lies, he came up with three answers: television, advertising, and computers. “I wrote them on a piece of paper, took a pin, closed my eyes, and stuck the pin on the paper,” he says. “The pin came closest to computers.”
After attending a series of management and sales courses, Gainsford managed to “talk my way” into the IT Industry.” You have to understand that in those days, there were no structured computer set-ups yet,” he says. “It was the days of punch cards, and the IBM 1401 was just coming out, so the whole thing was just happening.”
It helped Gainsford, too, that “I was reasonably bright. I was a top honor student when I finished my college course in farming, (so) adapting wasn’t hard.”
From then on, he never looked back, driven by his “never give up” attitude.
AROUND THE WORLD
“I’ve basically lived all over the world,” says Gainsford, now 68. The UK-based company he worked with for 17 years assigned him to, among others, Sweden, Mauritius, Africa (Zambia, Ghana, and Kenya), London, Egypt, the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and Iraq) and the US. When he moved to another company, Gainsford then worked in Scandinavia, running MSA, then the biggest software company in the world with a net worth of $450 million. He even had a stint in Australia, which allowed him to penetrate the growing Asia-Pacific market, including the Philippines.
Gainsford is proud of the successes he had while handling various companies in various countries. For instance, although he went to Australia unemployed, he managed to build the Australian company that hired him from zero to a $26-million industry player. Also, in the Philippines, although the companies under him had only 11 people 2 years ago, it now has approximately 85 staff – and they are earning P100 million annually.
All his experiences, Gainsford says, taught him two invaluable lessons. “One of the biggest things you have to remember is that nothing’s static, everything changes,” he says. “So if you build a company around rules, and you never review those rules, you will become a dinosaur. Everything changes – business changes, the dynamics change, so you must be prepared to change.”
He adds: “The second thing I learned is that in the industry, the only thing we have are the people. Machines, plants, equipment – they’re just there. But if we lose the people, then we have nothing. So you must look after your people.”
GROWING IN THE PHILIPPINES
While acknowledging that “times are tougher, with most companies unwilling to adapt newer technologies,” Gainsford however, sees bright prospects for the Philippines.
According to him, the route to growth for the country lies in business process outsourcing (BPO). “India, the industry pioneer, created a wonderful market. But (the Indians) are now having difficulty meeting the demand they have created,” he says.
While other countries, such as Estonia, Lithunia, and Romania in Eastern Europe, are starting to penetrate the European Market, even as China and Korea are going into BPO in Asia, “the truth is, to succeed, you must have an edge in communicating in English, and the Philippines has that edge,” Gainsford says. “So I think the Philippines has a wonderful chance (in BPO). The Philippines is already doing well in the call center industry, but (business-wise) that’s a lower value operation – if (Filipinos) can move it up higher to offshore development, which has a higher value, then we have a lot to gain.”
Offshore development, therefore, is the focus of ASP, one of the subsidiaries and brands of InterActive Holdings Inc. (IAH), which is engaged in software reselling and its corresponding professional services, marketing, and software development. With contracts in the US, UK, and Ireland, Gainsford says ASP – with more than 50 software developers – should be able to make it big in the field of offshore development.
To this end, he sees Europe and Japan as major growing markets. The Japanese, in particular, “are facing an inevitable problem: their population is shrinking – they have 125 million people today, and that is projected to fall to 120-million by 2025. But they still have the same businesses and industries to look after, so they will be desperately short of qualified people. So there’s an opportunity there for offsourcing. The Japanese may not like it, but they will have to put up with it,” he says.
Meanwhile, in order to respond to the needs of local banks, which are adapting new technologies to comply with international standards, or to tap emerging markets that demand the use of the newer technologies, Prosoft, another IAH brand, focuses on systems integration, software resale, business consultancy, and implementation services with special emphasis on the financial sector.
Other IAH subsidiaries and products are NaviWorld Philippines, a reseller of Microsoft Dynamics’ Navision that provides consulting and implementation services, and e-Motion HR and Payroll, which provides a human resources and payroll solution developed specifically for the Philippines setting.
IAH’s list of clients includes Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank), Pilipinas Savings Bank, SM Group of Companies, and Jollibee.
IAH’s success in the Philippines, says gainsford, is due to its people. “In fact, to turn companies profitable, thus successful, the secret is to help your people,” he notes. “When people open (the same business as yours), the first thing they do is (tap) your employees. It’s easier for them to do that. So I have to make sure we don’t lose our people.”
Amazingly, in Gainsford’s experience, “obvious things,” such as better facilities, making the environment friendlier, and additional benefits, such as provident plans, help in motivating employees. “Making sure (you) have amenable terms and conditions generates employee loyalty,” he says.
Last year, only one ASP employee moved to another company – a far cry from the years before Gainsford took over the company, when its employee turnover was a s much as 20% annually.
“Leaders should have a vision, but they should not be scared of succession as well,” he says “People are scared of that, with people possibly taking their jobs. But it’s something you have to do. And to grow your successors (among the people currently working for you), you have to look after your people.
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SUCCESSFUL AND ENJOYING LIFE Simon Gainsford (Left, with his daughter) defines success not just by helping companies succeed, as he did with various Philippine-based IT companies, but by enjoying life, including getting his golf handicap down and spending time with his family. |
LIVING A FULL LIFE
Once, in a high technology conference, Gainsford encountered an actuary from an insurance company, who told him that, based on industry estimates, high-tech business executives, from the day they retire at 65 (if they chose to retire at that age), only have an average of 27 months to live.
“He said the problem with us is we work so hard, and when it all stops, it stops suddenly. From being an important executive, you suddenly have nothing to do, and so you die,” he says. “I thought about it and decided I will not just stop my life. I won’t let that happen to me.”
Thus, Gainsford wants “to remain active and strong, and when I go, I want to go quickly.” And to keep himself fit, he plays squash, tennis, and “bad” golf. “I’m a health freak. I don’t live to eat, I eat to live,” he says. I haven’t been sick for more than two days in the past five years.”
For now, though, “I am just enjoying life,” Gainsford says. His more immediate goals – aside from continuously growing IAH – are “to get my golf handicap down, and learn Thai (his second wife and a daughter live in Thailand). He already speaks English, Swedish, and French (“No Tagalog yet, since it may confuse my learning Thai,” he says).
Despite all that he has done, however, Gainsford says “the most successful thing you can ever be is to be happy, and not make other people unhappy. I can’t guarantee the latter – sometimes you have to fire people – but I can make sure I do well with enjoying life,” he says. “I haven’t thought of retiring yet because I am having fun. When it ceases to be fun, then I’ll stop doing it.”
And when he does, going back to farming is not on top of the list of the things he wants to do. “I thought about (going back to farming), but only ‘toy farming’ – leave someone else do the (literally) dirty work,” Gainsford laughs.
