Mr. Roger Aliermo, Marketing Manager, Fastpak

Roger Aliermo: Turning life's lessons into leadership experience
Text by Mary Gumellus L. Arabaca
Interview by Immanuel Jay Avelino

As a child, one of his favorite hobbies was to experiment - doing things uniquely and setting up the trend around his sphere. For him, work is every bit as much fun as play.

“When I was a kid, I never really envied my playmates for what they have. If they have common toys, I don’t want to play that kind of toy. I really want to be unique. I don’t want to be branded as a copy-cat. I always want to be the innovator of everything, to stand out be on top. I want to be the one being consulted. I have taken that style deeply and seriously,”  says Roger Aliermo, National Sales and Marketing Manager of Fastpak, a freight forwarding company.

Today, Aliermo passes on this value of being innovative to his staff by encouraging them to try new developments and implement expansion in ways they can understand.

“You have to make this team as one… despite the hindrances. The culture and the principles of these people are different from one another, so you have to coordinate their ideas… or you won’t be able to hit your goals. It’s really a difficult task. That’s why, I took an effort to go down to their level to be able to understand them, to get their side, ideas and opinions.” says Aliermo.

Just like other executives, Aliermo started as an ordinary employee. He began his career as a Sales Clerk/Sales Coordinator of Electroworld back in the 90s, where he acquired proper training in selling. And though he was good at it, he was already convinced that he wanted to engage himself in another area, which is marketing. So, eventually he transferred to another company where he became marketing supervisor and later on, manager. His determination to grow did not stop there. Aliermo, although already a manager, still pursued a Master’s Degree in Marketing at the De La Salle University. After which, he moved on to join Fastpak. 

Aliermo admits, initializing strategies and innovations for Fastpak in order to contend with major competitors was not that simple, especially at first.  ‘”There are so many challenges, number one is the competition of course. Our competitors are more known to the “masa” market. Fastpak is not known to individuals or what we call ‘masa’ because we cater more on corporate accounts. So right now we are venturing into the individual accounts for the walk-in markets,” explains Aliermo.

With a mind of a manager, Allermo did not let the challenges win over him. It has been normal for him to face competitions in any legitimate circumstances, including industry association conference, joint ventures, industry benchmarking clusters, incorporation negotiations and joint buying agreements.

A true marketer, Aliermo already mastered how to be in two places at once. He is a multi-tasking expert who manages his time well inside and outside the office. He points out that being equipped and organized doesn’t mean putting life on a spreadsheet. It means planning and employing priorities. For him leadership means setting principles and living up to them, and showing the young professionals how to do the same.

Outside the office, Aliermo is a family man. “Pag holidays talagang family lang ako. Sometimes I turn off my cell phone… Family ko ang motivation ko. If you don’t have a family, everything will be useless. Everything I do is for my family,” shares Aliermo.