Mario Deriquito
Director, Center for Social Development
Director, GILAS (concurrent)
Ayala Foundation

Education:

Management Engineering
Ateneo de Manila University

Please tell us about your company and industry.

The Ayala Foundation’s Center for Social Development (CSD) is focused on education, environment, and entrepreneurship.  We manage the Gearing Up Internet Literacy and Access for Students  (GILAS), a multi-sectoral campaign to bring the Internet to all Philippine public high schools. We are also involved in a big project in Mindanao called ELSA or Education and Livelihood Skills Alliance, which is funded by USAID.  This is focused on ARMM and the conflict-affected areas.

Then there is Text to Teach, which we developed with Globe, Nokia, the International Youth Foundation, and Pearson Company. The project brings educational video materials to schools not by Internet but by via satellite. 

Each school in this program is equipped with a TV set, a mobile phone, a satellite dish, and a machine called media master or a knowledge box.  If a teacher wants to order material on a specific topic, all she has to do is send a text message to the server, and then the server beams the material via satellite which reaches the school and is viewed by TV. This is for elementary schools.  We started this project about five years ago; now we are asking Globe and Nokia to develop a 3G-based platform, this time using mobile phones.

How do you define corporate social responsibility and why is it important?

The traditional definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is that it is the social arm of business and equated with philanthropy.  The modern definition has something to do with the very way by which you do business and takes into consideration the interests and needs of your stakeholders.

For example, when you set up a company, you are expected to perform several core functions like pay taxes, produce quality products and services, and employ people. If you want to go beyond that, you make a donation. Now, the new definition of CSR should reflect in the way you do business with your employees, do your products and services, and takes into consideration the good of society. This is where fair labor practices come in, or truth in advertising, or not harming the environment.

Now if a company’s definition of CSR is traditional, it can do philanthropy but indulge in non-environment-friendly practices or not be fair to its employees.  There must be integrity in the entire way you do business, and it should reflect in all your business operations, and not just in the outreach.  As a business, you can no longer ignore societal realities like poverty or the quality of education.  You should find the intersection of your business objectives and the good of society.  This intersection creates a greater possibility that your involvement will be sustained.

What is your mandate?

First, to make CSR for the Ayala Group continually relevant to the business. We have to find ways to make CSR work for the different companies. Second, to make CSR make sense to the larger society; we are always looking at things that will have great impact.  Several years ago, we started connecting five schools to the Internet; eventually we reached 200 schools.  But compare that to the 6000 public high schools, it’s just a drop in the bucket.  We scaled up by forming partnerships and creating the GILAS Consortium, we even invited competitor companies to join us. Third, to cope with the changing definition of CSR. We have to study global trends and tools and see how we can apply that.

Tell us about your management style.

I refer to my management style as idiosyncratic – it’s different strokes for different folks.  Each person is different.  Get to know each member of the team and see how each one responds to different things.  I give them the big picture, show them the resources, and involve them in what’s happening.

We invest in people and see to it that they are qualified.  I look for those who are entrepreneurial and can work independently.  Given the training and enough leeway, they can deliver. 

Please tell us about your career path.

I’ve been with the Ayala Foundation CSD for the past eight years.  I assumed the project director position of GILAS in 2007.

For the first two years after college, I worked for profit corporations.  But after another two years, I decided to shift to the non-profit sector.  I started work in a parish with pockets of urban poor and was in charge of its social development program.  Afterwards, I managed an NGO in Marinduque, which responded to the typhoons that hit the province.  I was that foundation’s first executive director.  Then Mondragon International asked me to establish their non-profit foundation. I stayed there for nine years before going to Ayala.  It’s been twenty years in the non-profit world.

Why did I choose the non-profit sector? I was with the socially active organizations in Ateneo and I wanted to serve the grass roots.

What are the challenges you face now?

For GILAS, we have to raise P100 million a year.  I’m also expected to get financial support, not just manage the programs.  GILAS has been getting enthusiastic support from local governments.  Later on, we will do a campaign to reach the individual donor.  The public is inclined to help because people are looking for ways to help the country.  In 2007, we generated $1.3 million worth of donations from Filipino-Americans; $230,000 went to GILAS.

What are the qualities that can make you last long in this kind of career path?

Understand that the career in the non-profit world is not as lucrative in the mainstream business.  You have to make a fundamental decision to live on that level, like just be happy with a comfortable life and be able to send your kids to school.  I made that decision and I am not looking for more.  Next, you always put yourself on a learning mode and that there are new things to learn.  Then you have to apply large doses of common sense.  The daily challenge is translating theories into actual situations. 

You must be able to provide your people certain rewards that will make them stay.  Give them a sense of contribution.  Make them feel that they are contributing something significant.  You make them part of your conceptualization, planning, and troubleshooting.  Recognize their good work.  Let higher management know that your people are doing well.

Finally, get your people to believe in the vision of your organization.  This also helps in sustaining your succession – because even if you leave, there will be people who will take up the cause.

Where do you and your organization go from here?

I’ll always be in this line of work, as this has been my choice.  I also use my work here as a platform to get involved in other volunteer work.  An example is the 57-75 campaign to reverse the education crisis.  Its objective is to give the business sector a set of things to focus on as far as education is concerned like improving reading proficiency and our achievement rates in math and science.  We hope to generate more support from the private sector and use that as leverage for towns and communities, challenge them to set up their own educational alliances and plans and raise their own resources to match what we are giving.

You build a network of people who are supportive of these ideas for a long time.  Eventually, there will be a critical mass who will make a difference.  We in Ayala Foundation call that “Creating A Network of Support.”

We are looking for more partnerships.  It’s a competency we’ve developed:  to convince our partners and stakeholders to work for a common goal.  I see Ayala Foundation continuing to provide leadership in the non-profit sector.