INSIDE THE BEEHIVE: MY JOLLY YEARS AT JOLLIBEE #1

Out of the blue,I just decided I'd write about my years at Jollibee while I can still recall them:-)

When I'm asked about what I did for Jollibee as it's Training Manager,(a post I held for over 11 years) my ready answer is:

"When I joined Jollibee in 1985 it had only 20 stores.When I left in August,1999 it had grown to 348 stores! So whether good or bad,I may have had something to do with the 320 stores that opened!"

I wouldn't have stayed that long if I didn't love the company.Fact is, I never really left because today,I still do work for the JFC group as a Training Consultant for one of it's brands,Chowking.

So what was it like inside the beehive? Maybe I ought to go back to 1985 when I joined Jollibee.

THE PRELUDE:OPPORTUNITY AT A TIME OF CRISIS

I was still working as a Training Specialist at Foodmine Inc.,the local franchise of KFC, when the opportunity to work at Jollibee presented itself.This opportunity though came in the form of a crisis that was facing the organization.

KFC under the Quesada's had just gone through a wildcat strike and so things were not good inside that organization. Morale of store managers was so bad that there was a mass exodus of managers starting late '84 (just after the strike) up to the 2nd quarter of 1985. The company President Efren Quesada,or EQ as we called him,was coddling the labor union so they wouldn't threaten to strike again. In doing so however,he alienated himself from the Store Managers who had sided with him all throughout the almost month-long strike.

Many of these managers left and looked for work at Jollibee,which was then starting to move up the ranks of the fastfood chains.

If I recall correctly,Leonie Antonio,Connie Mendoza and Jimmy Ramos were among the first ex-KFC's who were hired by Jollibee for it's expansion plans. The blow to KFC came when sometime in March of 1985 Jimmy Enriquez,who was then a KFC Area Manager,Raffy Selga (Training Store Manager),Meann San Juan(Store Manager and Jimmy's girlfriend) and a newly-hired Management trainee named Livia Pinggoy,all went to Jollibee. Their jumping ship gave a signal to everyone else at KFC then that things were going bad.

To stave off any further resignations, EQ and his VP for HR and Administration,Atty. de Leon, HR Manager Conrad Donato and Operations Manager Raffy Vallejo started having one-on-one sessions with the Store managers left pleading with them not to resign and promising them a better future at KFC.

Meanwhile, I had to contend with the problem these resignations were causing.

My boss then and former classmate, Joseph Hernandez,also resigned his post leaving me as the OIC of the training department. Since there were now vacancies for Store managers in about eight of the 12 KFC stores we had to fill up these posts immediately.

As a stopgap solution,some of the senior managers who had stayed behind had to manage two stores at a time. We at the Training department came up with a two week crash course for management trainees so that after that time we could field them immediately at any KFC store that needed a manager.

What made matters worse for us was that Raffy Selga,who was then our Training store manager,was part of the diaspora so we needed to have someone who could train these new recruits on actual store operations.Fortunately for me,there was one relatively new manager, Ma. Lourdes "Iyoh" Sordan, and Raffy's assistant manager at KFC Tomas Morato, who agreed to take on the role.

Sometime in February of 1985,I made a decision to start looking for a better option than KFC. I was just about a year and a half into my marriage and my wife,Jaja, was pregnant with our first child. I definitely couldn't afford not to have a job.

Jollibee was an option and since I was hearing good things about the company from the likes of Leonie and Connie who were already there I decided to send in my application. As luck would have it,the person in charge of recruitment, Susan Rosales (now de Guzman),was a friend of my sister in law. When she learned I was with Training,she informed me that Jollibee had plans of putting up a Hamburger University soon and had in fact hired a former professor,Dr. Butch dela Cruz, from the University of Maryland to spearhead the project.

I became more optimistic about my chances of joining Jollibee when I was interviewed by Ms. Fe Labayen,the HR Manager, who told me that my credentials looked good and that she would recommend me for a post in the HR Institute,as they called it.

Back at KFC,things were coming to a head. Many more managers were resigning so that EQ told his Vice Presidents that they were to do duty at the stores in order to keep operations going. I didn't like to work in our stores then since the employees were no longer in good terms with management specially after the strike. I told myself that if I was to be forced to work in the stores, I would leave and take my chances with Jollibee even as a management tainee.

My friends who were already at Jollibee (like Meann San Juan and Connie Mendoza)would call me time and again saying that I was needed there because their Operaions Manual needed revising and that they could use a guy like me in Training over there.

June of 1985, my wait was finally over when Jollibee called me up for a final interview with Dr. Ambrosio "Butch" dela Cruz,whom I think I impressed enough to give me the OK. WhenI finally passed my physical examination and submitted all my requirements, I was home free. The only thing left was to hand in my resignation.

Atty. de Leon tried to dissuade me from leaving,revealing to me that KFC had plans for expansion but which were just put on hold temporarily because of the current problems besetting the company. EQ didn't try to persuade me to stay but at one point sort of tried to make me feel guilty. Why was it that I was leaving when he needed my help most. He did wish me good luck though when he knew I was gettiing a better offer and couldn't match what Jollibee was going to give.

I said my tearful goodbyes to my colleagues and best friends in the Training department,Au Acosta and Chie Narvas. It was a sad parting but they understood it was for the better.

As a fitting and somewhat hilarious ending to my KFC stint I cooked KFC chicken.

It was a Saturday morning, and I had just come from my 1st day orientation at the Jollibee headquarters in Culmat building. On my way home I decided to pass by KFC Morato to say goodbye to Iyoh,who was on duty at that time. Coincidentally, one of her cooks hadn't reported for work yet and her chief cook needed to go on lunch break. She asked if I could take charge of cooking chicken for the lunch period until her cook finished his break.

I agreed to do this and I'm happy I did because it was a good way to end a chapter in my life.