AAA CEMEXME v 13 for press.pmd - Cemex Philippines

16 CEMEX+ME 1st Half of 2004 /MANILA, PHILIPPINES
Like buildings and large structures, a
good business requires a solid foundation
to perform well and meet the
expectations of its clients and
partners. For Ruben (Beng) dela Cruz
and Nelson Carandang of St. Michael
Archangel Trucking and Trading
(Smarcht), their mutual fear of God
and love for man laid the foundation
for a partnership that will surely pass
the test of time.
Laying Laying the the Foundation
Foundation
Beng and Nelson met almost 10
years ago, through a Catholic community
called Familia. At that time, Beng
was a sales executive in a large multinational
firm and Nelson, already into
some family enterprises. When Beng
retired from the multinational firm, he
hatched the idea for Smarcht, which he
then discussed with Nelson, his friend
and “brother”.
Smarcht started operations in 2001
with three 10-wheeler trucks and two
forwards (six-wheeler trucks). It was
already handling trucking operations for
several companies when they got their
A Partnership as Solid as Cement:
Ruben dela Cruz
and Nelson Carandang
of St. Michael Archangel Trucking & Trading
first big break from CEMEX in August
last year. According to Nelson, the
negotiation process began in January
and took all of eight months.
According to Nelson, CEMEX had
high standards and requirements for
their time-chartered trucking partners—
just as in the other areas of the company’s
operations. It had 24-hour operations, to
anywhere in the country, so it required
Smarcht to deploy 10 dedicated trucks,
three reliever trucks, and 62 personnel just
for the company. Smarcht also had to
make sure that the trucks they used for
CEMEX were painted white and in
excellent running condition, and that
drivers and helpers were always physically
fit and wearing their uniforms.
Adhering to these standards and
requirements was not just a matter of
compliance for Nelson and Beng. It
was, to them, also a way to demonstrate
their professionalism in their business,
to properly care for their employees,
and to properly promote CEMEX’s
image as their partner in the industry.
“Because we are time-chartered
trucks, our units are really the first line
of marketing of the company
(CEMEX),” Nelson shares in Filipino.
“So, we said that, whenever we deploy a
unit, we carry with us the image of
CEMEX… We shouldn’t drag their
image down.” Beng, who’s in charge of
Smarcht’s operations and visits the
CEMEX plant in Antipolo twice a
week, pipes in: “The trucks that we
deploy… have to look first-class …
CEMEX shouldn’t be ashamed to tell
people that those are their trucks.”
Their drivers, helpers, and office
staff have also been acculturated to the
CEMEX style of doing business—that
is, being professional in their work, and
seeing to the details that make their
work stand out from the rest.
“The eight months of preparation
for compliance with CEMEX’s requirement
really gave us the proper time to
sit down with our people and discuss
the culture that CEMEX wants us to
imbibe,” Nelson, who handles Smarcht’s
administration in Sto. Tomas, Batangas,
explains. “We had to acculturate them to
a certain level of work attitude… For
us, the bottomline was to give the driver
and helper a sense of dignity… We
made it a point that they were properly
compensated so that they were properly
taken care of and won’t be tempted to
engage in kalokohan (foolishness).”
To stress his point, he adds: “If
ganito `yung standard mo, pero (wala namang
laman) ang sikmura ng tao mo, paano mo
mapapasunod `yan? Kung hindi motivated
ang tao mo, paano mo mai-insist `yung gusto
mo? (If you have set a particular
standard, but your people have empty
stomachs, how do you expect them to
comply with what you want? If your
people aren’t motivated, then how can
you insist on what you want?)”
Uplifting Workers’ Lives
Nelson and Beng spent a large part
of the interview talking about their
people, and about how they were using
their business to uplift the lives of
Smarcht’s employees and their families.
They also compared themselves to “traditional”
truckers who only saw the profit side
of their business, but who neglected the
needs of the men who spent long, hot days
in the trucks and on the road.
For Nelson and Beng, serving
CEMEX and their other customers well
meant taking good care of their people
first. Aside from providing them with
above-par compensation, health and
medical benefits, and decent uniforms,
the “brothers” have also put up a small