How Philips paved the road towards this woman’s most rewarding career

Cecilia’s journey with Philips Indonesia began in late 2012, when a regional business leader for the company’s Monitoring Analytics and Therapeutic Care (MA&TC) division recognized that Cecilia was a great fit for Philips and called to convince her to join the fold.

In a way, the leader’s sales pitch wasn’t anything Cecilia hadn’t already heard from other prospective employers. “Philips wanted to change people’s lives,” he said. But the passion and authentic emotion with which he told his inspirational stories of life at Philips captured Cecilia’s imagination.

“I thought to myself, ‘why not?’ After all, to work for a company committed to improve the health of society was something I always wanted,” recalls Cecilia.

And so, a few months later, in March 2013, Cecilia joined Philips Indonesia as a channel manager for Philips Indonesia’s MA&TC division.

Fortunately, life at Philips exceeded Cecilia’s expectations.

The first step towards a rewarding career path

“One of the main reasons I joined Philips was because I wanted to contribute more to society. At the same time, I came to realize that I had always wanted to work for a company which believed in its people and genuinely wanted to grow its talent both professionally and personally – and this is what I soon realized I had found at Philips,” says Cecilia.

“It was very surprising to me because, at the time, I thought that a big corporate company like Philips would only care about their P&L, but Philips cares about so much more – it’s truly a company willing to go the extra mile to understand the goals and ideas of its staff.”

From her very first day, managers would regularly ask Cecilia how she was enjoying her role and what she dreamed of achieving at Philips. They kept their doors open at all times. They respected her opinions. And, most importantly, they listened.

“When I first joined, I told my bosses that I wanted to become the Business Manager of MA&TC one day. They said, 'to be a business manager, you need to show these skills and behaviors: A, B, C and D. Right now, we see that you have A, B and C, but we haven't seen strong evidence of D yet. If you're able to demonstrate this, you'll be able to get to your goal much faster'. “Being told in exact terms what I needed to do to land the job I wanted made achieving the promotion that much easier.”

Thanks to her supportive colleagues, Cecilia climbed the next rung in the ladder to become Business Manager of the MA&TC division in 2015, just two years after joining the company.
 

It’s a position that she holds to this day – one that involves overseeing all aspects of developing the MA&TC business, a division that has more products in its portfolio than any other under the Philips Indonesia umbrella.

Beyond the job: Making an impact on society

From algorithms designed to support category-leading precision, to configurable screens and multi-parameter alarming, the division’s products could potentially improve the accuracy and efficiency with which a clinician is able to monitor a patient’s needs.

That the devices connect to form a network that captures virtually patient data through appropriate processes and procedures that can be analyzed anywhere at any time is truly amazing in Cecilia’s eyes.

“It's a little like AI. They talk to one another and produce data that the system can then use to improve data management, clinical workflows and patient safety – and ultimately could help to save lives,” she says.

And it’s not just innovative products that make Philips well positioned to help hospitals reduce lengths of stay, mortality rates and costs. As Cecilia explains, before any sales are made, Philips employees take the time to understand the needs of their clients, so that they can suggest solutions that treat the causes of a client’s problems, rather than their symptoms, which often manifest themselves as simple requests for specific products.

Selling integrated solutions rather than isolated products is all the more important in an emerging market like Indonesia, where some medical practitioners may not grasp how Philips products can help them to overcome their problems.

As a result, education is a major part of Philips Indonesia’s business development strategy. In addition to running roughly 20 educational events every year to teach physicians in rural areas of Indonesia how to simplify their clinical workflow and use Philips products, Philips Indonesia has equipped one of the country’s largest hospitals with an integrated health solution.
 

There were two reasons for doing this, explains Cecilia. The first was to demonstrate to clinicians and other hospitals how Philips solutions could really add value to the country’s healthcare services. But the second, and perhaps more important reason, was because the company knew that it could make a meaningful difference by doing so – and so, it did.

“A shortage of medical practitioners and a high mortality rate in Indonesia mean that these activities are crucial to improving the country’s healthcare in the long run, which is one of Philips Indonesia’s main concerns,” says Cecilia. “Philips is not solely focused on its return on investment; it wants to have a positive effect on society.”

But while Cecilia’s job is ultimately about increasing her division’s net worth, her responsibilities extend far beyond sales and business development. Just as Philips is a people-driven company, much of Cecilia’s work boils down to bringing out the best in her team, a group whose ranks will swell to ten people by the end of the year.

According to Cecilia, working at Philips has taught her that there’s no room for big egos in the world of leadership – that being a good manager rests on recognizing and building up the talents of those around you, rather than putting yourself on a pedestal.

“You can’t think, ‘hey, I'm the leader, I don't need to ask anyone about anything, I'm the decision-maker'. Instead, I tell myself that we can all learn from each other,” she says. “That way, everyone will think, 'hey, I can do it by myself, but, if I do it with my team, then the results will be much better.”

It’s no coincidence that Cecilia’s leadership style is based on empowering those around her. Trust is a core foundation of Philips Indonesia’s workplace. By having trust in one another’s abilities, employees at Philips create an atmosphere that makes their co-workers feel safe and valued, encouraging them to be bold and try out new ideas.

According to Cecilia, the goodwill is infectious.

“My bosses have always supported and listened to me, and so, I make an effort to support and listen to my team. The rich culture of mutual support and trust is what makes working at Philips so great. You don’t just do your 9-5 job, tally up your sales, deliver the number and then look at the profit… The company really tries to understand what its employees want and need.”

The support that Cecilia describes knows no age, no color, no gender, no politics, no religion, no sexual orientation. If it did, she wouldn’t be in the position she’s in today.

Because, as Philips and Cecilia understand, it pays to celebrate difference.

"Philips doesn't differentiate between men and women. It gives the same support and opportunities to everyone, while at the same time appreciating the different challenges that people may face,” says Cecilia.

“There are so many different perspectives and ways of thinking. Only by bringing them all together can we become complete – and being complete means each of us can achieve greater results.”