As the E-commerce and wider information technology sector continues to flourish in the Philippines, Monroe Consulting Group is maintaining its position as the country’s go-to executive recruitment company by staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends and developments.
Mario Berta, the founder and CEO of FlySpaces, recently visited Monroe Consulting Group Philippines to discuss his exciting new start-up, FlySpaces, as well as broader trends impacting on the E-commerce industry, including human resources and recruitment.
Mr Berta is an E-commerce professional who has built, managed and trained sales and operations teams across Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, including Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, where he has been based for the last five years. The former regional managing director of Rocket Internet has a string of successes under his belt, including Easy Taxi, which has become Asia's largest taxi application with operations in nine countries.
His latest undertaking is FlySpaces, a digital marketplace that provides short-term work and meeting space solutions for entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs and mobile professionals. It is considered as the “Airbnb for office and retail space" and Asia's first portal that allows SMEs and multinational companies to find flexible office and retail space for their businesses.
Jelly Ruth Villaraza, the head of Monroe Philippines’ dedicated Technology Division, said Mr Berta provided invaluable insights that had helped widen her team’s knowledge of the E-commerce industry and the unlimited potential of the sector.
“Monroe is currently working with a number of startup E-commerce companies from countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, the United States, Indonesia and Thailand that are looking to establish operations in the Philippines,” Jelly said. “There are also several local companies that are transforming their businesses from retail to E-commerce, or adding new departments to focus on E-commerce to compete with these international companies.”
Jelly said that given the regional focus of many of these companies, Mr Berta’s perspective had been appreciated by her team of five recruitment consultants.
“He advised us about which companies were in need of our recruitment services and offered us a number of pointers about the specific recruitment needs of E-commerce companies,” she said. “In addition to the expanding online retail and marketplace industry, is the need for support services like financial technology companies, online payment companies and online logistics centers.”
Stuart Gatland, managing director of Monroe Philippines, said E-commerce was playing a large part in the growth of Philippines’ economy, while international E-commerce companies were eyeing the country’s reputation as the ‘social media capital of the world’ and its young workforce of developers and programmers who were fluent in the English language.
Executive recruitment consultant Kathleen Gumayan said she enjoyed Mr Berta’s information about likely new directions in the E-commerce space and how “we as recruitment consultants can help national and multinational companies grow.”
Cecille Marie Gonzales, another consultant, said she was amazed at the range and scope of start-up E-commerce companies opening in the Philippines. “We already successfully partner with a number of start-up companies here and we look forward to working with these new companies also.”