Marc Hil Macalua
Director for SEM
MBS Tek, Inc.

Education:

BS, Management, Major in Communications Technology, Minor in Marketing, Ateneo de Manila University 1995 — 2000

How’s your industry doing these days?

Very, very bright. Internet marketing has finally taken off in the Philippines. Suppliers and buyers of Internet marketing expertise are finally meeting and doing business. I think it's safe to say that we're already done with the “you have to have a website” stage. We're now in the “how do I promote my site” stage. Extremely exciting times ahead!

What is it like handling and organizing people?

Just like all things, it's both a blessing and a curse. I'm in charge of a sizable department (over 100 people) and let me tell you, being able to help people achieve their goals is extremely gratifying. But not all projects end up as successful as others. That's the hard part: watching people you care about miss expectations (their own, yours or your company's). Deep down you can't help but think that you could have done something more to help them get to where they should already be.

What are the challenges facing your industry right now?

Recruitment and training come to mind. Internet marketers that are ready to go are hard to find because this is a relatively new and very specialized niche. When recruiting top talent, I try to get people with at least two of the following skill sets:

How do you respond to the challenge?

We've been able to hire a lot of our best people purely through word-of-mouth referrals. Now that we're growing, we need to focus on building partnerships with major universities and trade organizations in the Internet marketing space. We also believe in the value of e-recruitment and I must say our partnership with JobsDB has been very, very helpful.

What is your main concern right now?

Right now our focus is on expanding our employee base and empowering them with the best tools and methodologies that are available in the market. We intend to continue producing world-class professionals in Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click, E-mail Marketing, Affiliate Marketing and Web Analytics.

How did it all start? Please tell us about your career path.

I've been into the Web ever since my first year in college at the Ateneo de Manila. After opening that first browser window, I knew right away that I wanted to be in this business.
I’m what you would call a Web prodigy (or a Web addict, take your pick). My professional career has always been centered on the Web and the Internet in general. When I joined the workforce in 2000, I was fortunate to be hired by Asia Online Philippines Ltd., then the leading Web agency for Philippine Fortune 500 companies. It was here that I deepened my skills in the creative, usability and information architecture areas of web development. Usability was my game back then and that practical understanding of the user experience has infected me and my projects with a Jakob Nielsen-ish passion for what works online.

Project management knowledge was added to my professional background when I was recruited to join a British software development company as team leader for their Web group. That stint helped me polish my project management skills via Project Management Institute (PMI) and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) instruction. I also gained valuable business development experience when I was appointed to work for the parent company in Hong Kong.

My next stint was with a leading BPO company in Ortigas. That brought my Web creative, management and business development skills to the enterprise. As Director of Development, I was in charge of leading tactical enterprise-wide IT initiatives. It was in one of these initiatives that I rediscovered the marketing face of the Internet. Through topics like search engine optimization and pay per click, I was able to complete and cement my understanding of the Web development process: from vision to creation to optimization and monetization.

What is your most fulfilling experience so far?

It's the realization that Filipinos can compete in this space, and compete well.

How would you describe your management style?

I'm a firm believer in kaizen and David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD). I feel these two management philosophies directly address the weaknesses of our culture, specifically our pwede na yan (that will do) and mamaya na lang (I'll do it later) tendencies.

What are your plans for the foreseeable future?

Married to  my fiancée and starting a family :)

How do you remain competitive, as a leader in the industry?

It helps that we've partnered with some of the biggest names in the online marketing space: Omniture (for web analytics), Efficient Frontier (for PPC), CheetahMail (for e-mail marketing) and Commission Junction (for affiliate marketing). These service providers keep us updated on true best practice lessons from the trenches.

Our other secret lies in our recruitment philosophy, and that is “A-people hire A-talent”. Other management teams refrain from getting A-level people for fear of being replaced, so they end up getting B-level people. These B-level people will no doubt hire C-level people and so on. That is not the case with MBS Tek. If I were to leave the company, anyone of my managers can step up and assume command. They're that good.

What’s it like coming to work every day?

Very satisfying actually. As a marketer, nothing beats being able to see first-hand how your campaigns have contributed to the company's bottom line. Seeing how much traffic, clickthroughs, or sales were generated by a campaign, all with just a few clicks is extremely gratifying.

The other thing that excites me to no end is learning new stuff everyday. Obsolescence is a fact of life and to be on the bleeding edge of Internet marketing, we invest a lot on research, development and testing. Because of this, I'm exposed to new technologies and methodologies that all the major players in the US online retail space will be rolling out in the next six months. I have a front seat view of that. And that gives me added incentive to come in to work day in day out.