So Long and Farewell, Philippines

In 2017, I was invited to visit our teams in Manila as a guest. It was late in the night, and a van took me from the airport to our office in the suburb of Alabang. I walked into the lobby and was made to feel at home instantly. My makeshift office had fresh oranges in a bowl because someone found out that I like fruit.

A highlight of my trip was meeting with our Outfront Team (LGBTQ+). During Q&A an associate asked if I had any advice for people whose life choices were not embraced by their families.?

My heart ached for the person who asked the question, and I remember saying:

As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that family isn't always the people you’re born into. Family are the people that stand with you when you’re alone, when you make the tough choices, when you feel you’re going to fail, when you’re on your last leg.?

When you can see the finish line but don’t think you can make it across. Family is the person who lets you lean on them, helps you across the finish line, and even after you collapse from exhaustion, stays with you until you can stand up again.?

The next few days were filled with similar rich and vulnerable conversations. I found Capital One Philippines to be a special place where people talked openly about wins, losses, struggles, and aspirations.?

I returned to the U.S. rejuvenated and a couple of years later, said yes to an assignment in Manila. In 2020, my wife, son, daughter, and Goldendoodle prepared to start our assignment. We even had a going away party. But then, in March, COVID shut down the world, and our assignment was delayed indefinitely.?

Instead of moving to the Philippines, I was asked to lead our Card Servicing teams. In my new role, I met 2 people that I probably would never have met had my assignment not been delayed: JP Paperman and Heather Ramos. Together, we learned to build a virtual team and run a global business from our homes. We shaped a higher purpose, values, norms, and a management system that made sure we were “eyes on, and hands off” while building a team that felt connected at a deeply human level. We also found in each other shared values and a leadership way that was optimistic, kind, yet aggressive!

During 2020, I asked JP and Heather if they wanted to join me on this great adventure across the world. They said yes! I’m still amazed, honored, and grateful that they did.

In early 2021, my family and I were finally given the green light to move to Manila, in the middle of the pandemic, during a time when near-empty planes were carrying essential personnel into a heavily armed Manila airport. JP Paperman and his family joined us a day after we landed, and Heather Ramos joined us a few months later.

We found an incredible team in the Philippines - Michelle Ramos (CFO), Bex Romero (Chief Comms Officer), Von Ramos (Head of Workspace and Technology), Marifil Rodriguez (Head of Security) - that faced steeper challenges than the ones faced in the US. In the Philippines, vaccinations were scarce, and we hadn’t figured out a way to work from home. Our teams were struggling - 11 people a day were contracting COVID, 40% in all. Seven team members died of COVID between July and December of 2021.?

In the next 3 months, we mobilized our teams to do what had once been thought of as impossible - working from home in the Philippines. All in all, we moved 4000 people and 10,000 assets across a 160 km radius of Manila, using a fleet of vans.

We also found ways to provide vaccination (voluntary) services for our associates, including purchasing vaccines directly from suppliers and delivering them from airports to local clinics, and eventually sharing our supply with local communities.

Only a few months later, in December 2021, our teams were safe in their homes driving historic best results:

• 97% of our teams were vaccinated compared to 10% in the general population?
• Productivity was at a 6-year best
• Attrition improved from an all-time worst to an all-time best
• Engagement scores improved from 59% to 92% (currently at 94%)
• Burnout reduced from 34% to 16% (currently at 12%)

Our new operating model, mainly working at home, also helped us scale our business and grow to service Retail Bank customers. The resilience we built during COVID and the impact we had on the community emboldened us to set a goal to eradicate water scarcity in the Philippines. Over the next 2 years we’re standing up 100 water towers that will provide Filipinos clean water 73,000,000 times a year!

Forged by struggle, our team shaped a deep sense of purpose to Change Banking for Good by elevating our teams, our customers, and the communities in which we recruit, operate and live. We also anchored our purpose on a clear set of values to Be Bold, Be Open, Be Intellectually Rigorous, and Embody Integrity.?

We believe that nothing is impossible when one leads with values.?

Today our team of 4,548 associates is the embodiment of our values, led by leaders who live by them everyday.

• Heather Ramos (COO) embodies boldness. Heather was a single mother in her early 20s. Soon after, she married a person in the U.S. Military, raised a family during 2 deployments, building a career that started on the phones and culminated in becoming COO of C1PH. Nothing is impossible for Heather. She challenges us every day to move forward and get better.
• Michelle Ramos (Chairwoman) embodies integrity. Michelle’s beginnings were so modest that her family couldn’t pay for her education. Every step on her journey to Chairwoman of Capital One Philippines has been paved with hard work and a relentless pursuit of truth and authenticity. Michelle ensures that our words and actions are always aligned.?
• Marifil Rodriguez (Head of Security) embodies integrity. She protects us every day with a passion that supersedes titles and positions. I have pushed Marifil to change policy a few times, and she has pushed back, only for me to learn a few months later that she was right. Marifil shares her opinion early and often? and holds on to her truth.
• Bex Romero (Chief Communications Officer) is open. Bex recently shared a story with me of her first day in kindergarten. She noticed that no one was speaking, so she walked to each student and introduced herself, and encouraged the class to talk to each other. Everyday at C1PH, Bex makes sure we’re all talking, communicating, and sharing the most important news and decisions with our teams almost instantly so that everyone is working off the same truth.
• Von Ramos (Head of Workplace Solution) is intellectual rigor. He looks outside of himself, gathers data from external sources, questions assumptions, and builds a path forward that ensures the greatest likelihood of success. Von procured 4000 laptops in a pandemic when people couldn’t find chips and then found a way to get 10,000 assets delivered to our associates’ homes in a fleet of vans across a 160 km radius.?
• JP Paperman (Head of Operations) is all of our values put together. In the Battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas, when faced with insurmountable odds against a Persian army, says he’d rather have 10 lions than 100 sheep. Forget 10 lions. All of us just need one JP Paperman in our lives. JP spearheaded our work-at-home program and the operating model that followed by being bold, open, rigorous, and honest.

Together all of us had perhaps the greatest advocate of values-based leadership in Corey Lee, who was my manager in 2021 and 2022. Corey’s quiet strength, resolve, and courage to support us while we transformed C1PH is a key reason for our success.

Today, we are far from the early days of the pandemic. My family and I have enjoyed the last year of our assignment exploring the Philippines and the world around it: from Tokyo to Singapore to Sydney. My children are resilient. The world is now their palate. I am so grateful to my wife and children for having the courage to move our lives across the world during a pandemic, and to give me so much strength every day. My wife and I know that our family bonds are even stronger. I am stronger. My wife in particular, remains my greatest advisor, advocate, and friend. And our children are our greatest joy!

Still, the first few months of 2021 were really difficult. When we landed, we were all in lockdown. My wife got COVID Delta and at some point, when she struggled with her breathing, we thought we’d need oxygen tanks. The same week, we lost water and electricity because of a typhoon, and we wondered how the children would attend online school. For the next few months, due to COVID protocols, my children were not allowed to leave the house.

In these tough moments, everyone at Capital One Philippines gave us strength by delivering water to our home, helping us with emergency hospital visits, sending notes of encouragement and prayer.?

In these moments, as we all found a way to live and work amidst a pandemic, we became family.?

What is family after all??

As I said 6 years ago during my first visit to the Philippines:

Family isn't always the people you’re born into. Family are the people that stand with you when you’re alone, when you make the tough choices, when you feel you’re going to fail, when you’re on your last leg.?

When you can see the finish line but don’t think you can make it across. Family is the person who lets you lean on them, helps you across the finish line, and even after you collapse from exhaustion, stays with you until you can stand up again.

Family is the 4548 amazing Capital One employees in Manila.?

Family is Capital One Philippines!

I love you all very much, and I will miss you every single day!?

So long, farewell, and thank you, Capital One Philippines!

Joseph Paperman Heather Ramos Michelle Ramos Rebecca Romero Corey Lee Paulo Isidro Osler Orido June Marvin Hernandez Mary Grace Garcia Kaneth Santiago Wax Pangan Philip John Bravo Gonzo Nuyda