A force for good
Credit to Author: LEAH C. SALTERIO| Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2019 17:31:59 +0000
McKinsey not only helps organizations achieve distinctive, lasting and substantial improvements. We also strive for meaningful social impact. When the Philippines was struck by [Super] Typhoon ‘Yolanda,’ our firm provided management expertise to government and non-governmental organizations.”
Filipinos are known to shine in the workplace. Whether in the Philippines or out in the world, they rise above manifold challenges to prove their rich potential and capabilities.
This is what Kristine Romano, managing partner of the Philippine office of McKinsey & Company, has been doing. Since she began working for the prestigious firm 15 years ago, she has been helping their clients — government and state-owned enterprises — improve their fiscal health, enhance their performance and realize their most important goals.
McKinsey partners are elected through a rigorous global selection process, according to Kristine. It is an approach that has remained largely unchanged from the inception, when it only had a few hundred partners, unlike today, when it has over 1,600 partners and 30,000 member-firms.
“It was through this global process that I was evaluated against internal candidates from offices around the world,” Kristine recalls. “I was elected as a partner in January 2017, the first Filipina at McKinsey to move into this role. In January 2018, I was elected as the managing partner for its Manila office.”
She believes that some of the factors that helped her reach those milestones can be attributed to “setting a high bar for [herself], developing resilience, enjoying [her] work and having excellent mentors, who provided valuable advice and guidance throughout [her] time at McKinsey.”
With more than a hundred years in existence as a global management consulting firm, McKinsey boasts of a “super diverse” culture reflected in its more than a hundred offices worldwide. “We have consultants in 133 cities in 66 countries,” Kristine says with obvious pride.
“Our people speak more than 130 languages and represent over 135 citizenships. While one might expect this diversity to require a lot of adjustments, what I have found is that everyone at McKinsey views themselves as part of ‘One Firm,’ rather than separate offices or functions,” she says.
McKinsey’s 20th anniversary in the country; with colleagues during the pro-bono effort for
Typhoon Yolanda victims, which Kristine led; on a desert holiday in Egypt.
“Based on this mindset, we share the same values to adhere to the highest professional standards, improve our clients’ performance significantly and create an unrivaled environmental for exceptional people,” she adds.
And regardless of background or hierarchy, everyone at McKinsey is ready to lend a helping hand. “This has helped me and others adjust tremendously well to the culture at our firm,” Kristine declares.
Across its six offices in Southeast Asia, McKinsey works with leading institutions to translate the region’s rich opportunities into transformative economic and social impact. The Philippine office serves many of the country’s most successful companies in every major economic sector.
McKinsey also prides itself on developing global leaders for the Philippines.
Giving back to society is inextricably woven into the firm’s fabric. Victims of calamities have benefited from McKinsey’s pro-bono efforts. Particularly fulfilling for Kristine was their participation in the relief efforts for those affected by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (“Haiyan”) in November 2013.
“McKinsey not only helps organizations achieve distinctive, lasting and substantial improvements [in] their performance,” Kristine explains. “We also strive for meaningful social impact. When the Philippines was struck by Typhoon Yolanda, our firm provided management expertise to government and non-governmental organizations, and guided private companies in supporting optimization of disaster mitigation efforts, tripling the impact of relief and recovery work during those difficult times.”
Kristine never expected to find herself in the unique position she occupies today. After graduating from the University of the Philippines with a degree in business administration and accountancy, she obtained a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
“Actually, my plan was to become a civil servant,” Kristine offers. “I wanted to contribute to the Philippines’ development. Growing up, I [also] wanted to be a social worker or a church worker. But my dad urged me to first take on a practical course, so that I would have a fallback option in case my vocation did not work out.
“One thing led to another and now, I’m still trying to fulfill my social mission but with the power of McKinsey behind me,” she says. “My parents are entrepreneurs, and they taught me the value of hard work. But I’m the first management consultant in the family.”
Kristine values the meaning she has discovered in her career path. “I have been privileged to support Filipino clients in several groundbreaking projects. These have included launching the nation’s billion-peso business process outsourcing industry, which created jobs for thousands of Filipinos and accelerated the digitization of financial institutions that has allowed people to gain access to financial services for the first time. This has led to hundreds of millions of dollars in bottom-line impact over the years, helping Filipino companies grow and compete globally.
“Over the years, I gradually realized I could be a force for good in the private sector, especially in a global firm like McKinsey, which has contributed tremendously to the Philippines’ growth. I am proud to see our Manila office growing steadily alongside the country,” she allows.
Kristine starts her day at 6 a.m., reviewing the day’s work. By 8 a.m., she is on her way to client or team meetings. Weekends see her catching up on sleep, doing errands, and enjoying the company of family and friends. Once a month, she and her husband try to explore a new destination, local or foreign. If not, the couple goes diving.
Being constantly on the road for work has entailed not a few personal sacrifices. “I spent more than a decade traveling to meet clients across the region, missing quite a few family dinners and spending many weekends away from home,” she says. There was a time she was ready to throw
in the towel. “But I received a call from the-then managing partner of McKinsey’s Philippines office, Suraj Moraje,” she recalls. “Our conversation reminded me why I decided to join McKinsey in the first place. As a Filipino, I wanted to do good things for my country, rejuvenate McKinsey’s Philippines office and lead our firm in being a force for good in the country.”
Moraje’s timely intervention prevented those goals from being stymied. He should be fervently thanked for that.
About me
ROLE MODEL
Too many
GOAL
To retire before I am 50 and be a full-time teacher
FIRST PAYING JOB
I did a TV commercial when I was eight years old. I got P5,000.
MORNING RITUAL
15-minute meditation, black coffee, and I’m out the door
SPECIAL SKILL
Pranking and surprising people
TIME SPENT ON
SOCIAL MEDIA
Very little