Testimonial
Doing Business
To make the business succeed I had to find the right balance between the Dutch and Philippine cultures. Dutch discipline, frugality, no-nonsense hard work combined with Filipino passion, dedication, empathy, and curiosity became the recipe for success.
Joris Spanhoff
Owner, Poweredge Solutions Phils., Inc.
I'm Joris Spanhoff, I first arrived in the Philippines in 1996. I studied Business Economics at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, after an internship in Vietnam I was captured by the culture and opportunities in Asia and determined to find a job that would send me back to South East Asia. I was hired by a Swiss/Dutch company that send me to Manila to set up and run their operations in the Philippines, I did this for five years.
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Challenges during this time in the Philippines were the financial crisis, political instability, and the lack of basic infrastructure. These at the same time created many opportunities as the local market was immature but growing fast. Despite significant developments since, some of these challenges remain.
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After another tour in Vietnam, this time as Country Manager for PEJA Vietnam from 2001 to 2004, I returned to the Philippines to start my own business, Poweredge Solutions Phils., Inc.
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Poweredge provides safe and managed power to critical applications such as hospitals, airports, data centers, factories, and many other businesses where clean and uninterruptible power is crucial for their operations. We're partners of companies like GE (General Electric) and ABB. Our biggest challenge is to provide 24/7/365 reliable service nationwide, often in a matter of hours, building a trusted and successful business around this is our main driver.
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Having my own business was always the dream, my motivation to be an entrepreneur is to build, build a business meaningful not only to myself but to all stakeholders, build a team with different kinds of people, delegate but take responsibility, be independent, and live the daily challenge of doing this in a country like the Philippines.
To make the business succeed I had to find the right balance between the Dutch and Philippine cultures. Dutch discipline, frugality, no-nonsense hard work combined with Filipino passion, dedication, empathy, and curiosity became the recipe for success. Apart from this you need a ton of patience, know which battles to fight, and be honest even if others are not.
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Twenty-five years later I'm still captured by the opportunities in the Philippines and Asia, apart from Poweredge I've worked on different other startups and ventures, some of which are successful businesses in the fields of Outsourcing (Definite Studios, East Vantage), Software Development and Implementation, (Acceltech Pte. Ltd., Infosoft International Solutions, Inc..
