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8/6/2019 Backup Press Release

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BY: Wilmer Bondoc

Pinoy Technopreneur rises amidst times of uncertainty,launches start up business.

crisis means more opportunities…

IT’S ALL ABOUT CHANGE SINCE THE BEGINNING

At a tender age of five he started tinkering electronic appliancesat home in a room where he would secretly open it apart, look amazingly at its parts to find out how itworks. When he was six years old his mother caught him halfway finishing putting back together parts of their one week old brand new television. He was six years old when he created his first electronic gadgetnot as a science project but for himself. From grade school to high school everyday he would spend mostof his time during breaks and after class in the library reading science books and magazines featuringinventions and future technology trends. He would stay until closing time because the books andmagazines were not allowed to be borrowed home. Unlike most teens who decide what course to take incollege only a few weeks or months before and after their high school graduation, Degala knew what hewanted to become since he was six years old. His childhood dream was to become a scientist; Hewanted to create things that will improve and change people’s lives better. Unfortunately a financial crisisthat affected his family and his grades forced him to change his plans. Left with no choice he took abusiness course in college taking up two majors at the same time starting his junior year while working in

a fast food chain to support his studies. During college he would excel and lead a project team indeveloping products as required by his marketing subjects. He would stand out and make a differencebecause of his creative and innovative skill to blend imagination with reality. One time he awed hisprofessor and classmates because a new product innovation never before introduced in the market thathe had made and submitted in class was launched by a multinational company after a year has passed.Degala convincingly explains, “I got bored and tired seeing my classmates create out of this worldproducts or products that won’t sell. It was not pure luck or coincidental at all. I did it because of hardwork and foresight.”

PRESS RELEASE

PHILIPPINES : While the country faces a cycle of what seemsto be a never ending political crisis and majority of Filipinosare groping for survival, a new breed of Technopreneur is onthe rise.

Gerald C. Degala, technopreneur with an arsenal of more thana hundred of his pending patent and unregistered Internetenabled products and services to launch under his sleeve if not all but one could place him and the Philippines on the ever-exclusive list of the world’s highly successful technologystartups.

Degala 34 years old Founder and CEO of a pioneer R & Dventure firm in the field of technology and innovation basebusiness model engineering shares his passion for changeand tells us how he got into this business.



RESTLESS AND ALWAYS ON THE LOOK OUT FOR CHANGE

Ever since Degala started his career in sales and marketing he would always find ways on how toimprove things. “I will find ways for change the moment I step in an organization because I believe it is thefastest way the company can be competitive. I do not believe in sticking to rules permanently; for me, it isworse than being complacent.” The moment Degala sees anything worthy of change specially things thatwill affect revenues he would immediately conduct research. He would spend willingly his time onweekends and leave days; up to the point of even spending his own money, just to finish and submit hisreport and recommendations to management. “The moment I’m into something worth validating itbecomes an obsession. I do not care if I have to spend my time and money for doing it because I knowthat aside from the owners of the company who will benefit from the success of the project, I would be theother person who would gain from it.” He adds, “Project planning and execution is the best training onecan get and you must do everything to succeed because the more it will do good things for you.”Eventually Degala always ends up convincing management and would lead the project himself until itsuccessfully works out. After a brief pause with a straight look in the eye he quips, “You don’t have to fear anything as long as you know what you are doing.” In his 12 years of competitive sales and marketingexperience in consumer & technology industry most of his achievements were credited to his successfulmanagement of startup operations. By leading diverse teams involved in planning, development andexecution of marketing research, product development, R & D, marketing and business development

programs his success rate of achieving revenue targets ranges from 15% to 60% more than netprojections. Part of his responsibility includes setting and monitoring financial budgets and forecastsranging from P6 million to over P200 million and ensures that all resources are properly allocated andmanaged. His last employment stint in a senior management capacity contributed more to his knowledgeconcerning trends and issues in Information Technology, International Business and World Trade.

A JOURNEY IN A BUMPY ROAD

But it was not always a smooth ride for him helping out companies to grow. There was a time thatcorporate politics was just too much. He relates. “The company was a regional player based overseasand has been operating its Philippine branch for more than six years. It had what it takes to succeed in

the Philippines and even capable of being number one in the industry. The company had financial, globalindustry partnership and alliance strength and was strategically located for growth, but unfortunately itssales-driven attitude was keeping it too slow to respond to change.” At that time, the company wasexpanding in the Philippines and Degala was tasked to lead a sales team. “Since I already knew whatwas wrong and would hinder our success, I suggested that we form a marketing department immediately.Our first task was to form a team that will conduct an in-depth marketing research to assess the industryas a whole, gather and analyze historical and present data so that we will be able to plan strategically andchoose the best direction to be most competitive.” For two weeks, sleeping only an average of four hoursa day, Degala finished the pivotal report, which was immediately sent to its main office overseas for approval. “Main office was elated. Our report came as a surprise because at that time, they were alsostarting to set up their marketing division which would serve as a model to be implemented later to allcountry offices including the Philippines.” He was then tasked to execute the plans immediately and wasassigned to simultaneously form a marketing department from scratch, as well as re-align and monitor sales. Because of this achievement he was considered and groomed to be the next GM (GeneralManager - Philippines) within that year then only 24 years old. Surprisingly Degala would always remindmanagement of his undergraduate status, yet to take and complete several subjects in order to finish histwo college degrees. A working student and breadwinner also during that time, he had to stop severaltimes to focus on his sales and marketing career that included heavy traveling around the country.However, things unexpectedly went downhill after that announcement. He recalls, “One of the bosseswas not totally happy for my impending promotion. As he was eyeing that GM position for himself, he wasnaturally upset and unable to accept a technically considered college dropout like me to head amultinational company.” Degala continues, “He then proceeded to find ways to discredit me and evenwent to the extent of fabricating stories. With that scenario, I realized that the problem was too deep, it



wasn’t organizational anymore. Well so much for investing my time and effort on this organization’sgrowth. I decided it was time to move on.” Shortly after, he got a very good opportunity to work in another multinational company. Coincidentally after Degala left the previous company it never achieved itsexpansion plans in the Philippines and three years after, its operations stopped. Degala alludes,“Although they had the right horse, they could not find the right rider. It was such a waste of corporateopportunity. The losers of all unfortunately were the owners of the company.” Despite this experience,Degala faced the future with determination... With a smile he adds, “That experience made me moreaggressive, it did not stop me from doing what I really love to do and that is, to always look for change.”

THE TURNING POINT IN LIFE

After a brief career hiatus in 1999 in order to finish a course full time starting in the last quarter of thesame year Degala went job-hunting to get back on track. “My criterion in getting employed is to choose acompany that will provide a lot of challenges and opportunities. It should be regionally and/or globallypositioning for growth. As such, my knowledge and skills will be fully utilized to make a difference, and myrole should be critical for their expansion,” he explains. Also, he was thinking of a way to shift fromconsumer to I.T. marketing. Set to evolve his horizons in I.T., he muses, “Since 1996, I developed a keeninterest in I.T., there were a lot of developments happening at that time especially about the Internet, andthese quantum changes attracted me most. Unfortunately during those times, there were not enough jobopportunities in I.T. firms that were open to those who have not taken a course related to I.T. Even for thesales and marketing team, a technical guy would be the obvious preferred choice.”

Thus from a long list of 33 companies, in four months time Degala had to make a choice between twoopportunities. “The task was to decide between a Consumer and an I.T. company. The Consumer Company was upgrading and expanding its products and product lines. It already made expansions in itssales offices in Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and China. Management wanted to upgrade theskills of their people especially the marketing personnel and they wanted a visionary marketing guy toaccomplish all these for them. On the other hand, the I.T. Company shortly before that, ventured into thedot com business and before this even started operating, their marketing manager resigned after barelythree months of service. At that point, there was no staff to speak of , and the only thing to boot was a

supposed business plan. This I.T. Company wanted a new marketing head to review the business plan,among others, to form, train and lead a team to start the business.” Degala needed to forward a strategicchoice and he knew that there were advantages and disadvantages to be considered. He emphasizes,“Out of the 33 companies that I.T. Company was the only one in its kind. 1 out of 33 you can calculate theodds.” He adds, “The consumer company has a great compensation package to offer it really showedhow serious they are.” But Degala soon realized that he had to sacrifice the financial part in order to gainknowledge and exposure in I.T. Hence, he chose the I.T. Company. For him, it was a-once-in-a-lifetimechance. “Some people would tell me that I should have chosen the consumer company that I can alwayslearn about I.T. by enrolling a course in school and research all about it in books, journals and Internet.But I felt I needed a catalyst to quench my thirst for this new knowledge and I know the only way I canhave it is to experience I.T. myself, I must feel the competitive environment, the challenge, and the rush. Icannot fool myself; this time there is no substitute to experience.” And he never regretted it he recalls.“The company was very supportive especially my boss, they provided me everything that I needed toknow. They made me discover not just the power of the Internet on a dot com point of view but I.T. as awhole from the different software that powers the Internet to the complexities of the hardware that storesit. I was so interested to know everything and I got what I wanted. That for me was priceless!”



THE WINDOW THAT OPENED WHEN THE DOOR CLOSED

“Though I only had a brief stint in the company because the project was abruptly shelved for good, Iconsider the project a success. We were able to convince and sell to a number of clients during theproduct test period for a short span of time with virtually no marketing program yet implemented. Our competitors who were even a year ahead of us and some of them logistically superior than us wereamazed how we were able to outsell them.” He adds, “ Despite that, the company was impatient it did notsee the long-term value, flexibility and agility of the business.” He pauses with a naughty smile and couldonly say this much, “I guess it must have been because, we viewed things differently.”

Degala had to evaluate more. He wanted to be sure. “Being a marketing man is one of the advantagesthat helped me a lot in evaluating things: I could distinguish between hype and market opportunity.” Themore that he spent his time learning, the more that he saw the vast possibilities and opportunities theInternet can provide. Degala also learned from the mistakes of others; the Internet companies that havegone out of business including those listed on NASDAQ Tech Stock Market. “The situation made it moreobvious for all to see. The Internet companies were not that extraordinary as many would assume; mostof these companies who failed are those that had no concept of revenues being rewarded in the financialmarkets. It showed that whether you are an Internet company or not the moment you forget to accept thatthere are many ways to skin a cat, many ways to do things in order to achieve results that is the time youstart failing.”

It was in the last quarter of 2000 that opportunities came pouring in. In a span of two weeks threeSingaporean firms called up. Two were I.T. Companies and the other one was a consumer electronicsfirm. “Again the most promising and financially rewarding job was with the consumer ElectronicsCompany; they wanted a VP for Marketing to establish their presence in Latin America.” Degala wasinterested in the challenge and Competition was stiff as there were a lot of qualified applicants. But heknew what to do to win the game. “I know I can match them; it’s not the length of time of experience, theschool you graduated from nor the companies you have been with, but the quality of competitiveness thatone had gone through, it’s the attitude that really matters. The only way to win was to challenge andconvince the employer that I have the attitude and ability to think and play ahead of the game. My planwas to submit a position paper about the Latin American consumer electronics market and its growthpotentials including the details on how to penetrate and establish the market.” But there was somethingbothering him at the back of his mind. Degala knew what he really wanted and leaving the country for

five years would make things different. He had to take his chance again but this time Degala wanted to bein control. “All my life I’ve been a driver of change for others. It’s time I do it for myself. I know the Internetis a medium that has so much value in terms of storage and flexibility. This is the perfect tool for change. Imust not let myself pass this opportunity.” He formally withdrew his job application. Degala started hisplan.He knows that the task ahead of him is daunting but he is unfazed. He would remind himself of whathe once said, “You don't have to fear anything as long as you know what you are doing.”

THE BUSINESS OF CHANGE

Every time someone asks Degala what business he is in he would answer, “ We are in the business of Change.” His response would raise more questions and Degala explains, “We enter an economy that isdriven by changes: the Internet and Globalization. Because of this more changes will happen and thiscan be translated only in two ways: changes that become a crisis for those who cannot keep up andopportunities for those who are prepared. A lot of companies are not fundamentally prepared and webelieve that the best solution to help these companies is by way of engineering new generation businessmodels that are agile not only to withstand change but could initiate change as well.”

But right now there are a bunch of solutions companies with different core competencies. The solutionsbusiness represents a broad market. What separates you from them? What separates us from thesesolutions companies first of all is we don’t compete with them but rather we add value to their products



and services by complementing them with our own. Once we see the long-term value of any technology itwill become an integral part of our own.”

So it is more of some sort of technology integration? “It’s more than that, actually, It is much morecomplicated and we don’t intend to create the kind of plug- and- leave- It- attitude kind of thing. So wehave to be more responsible. Every industry has its own structure and for every structure there are layersthat compose that. It is not enough anymore to provide them with a pipeline or a show window, thechallenge is to give them a choice and let them make that choice in a way they can understand what theyare doing. That’s the kind of new generation business models we are building for them. This is one of those eras that begins with more crises because markets will disintegrate as markets integrate and wesee a lot of opportunities as things happen.”

So there really are a lot of opportunities way ahead and to start with what are your priorities? “First, sinceour company is unique, we must be able to create a sustainable differentiation. Secondly, we should becompetitive by being selective and we can only do this by careful identification and assessment of theproducts and services we will engineer and the markets we will enter.”

What do you think is your advantage? “Our advantage is our focus and expertise in engineering businessmodels that drive supply and demand. These are business models that are unique in value because theyrespond to customer needs faster and with great agility.”

Aside from that what other advantages do you have? “We are not a single product business. Constantproduct diversification to meet the market needs gives us the advantage of multiple revenue streams.”

What are your future plans? “We are in the business of change and we don’t have a choice but to sustaininnovation. We want to be ahead always by making things different. The only way we can do this is tohave continuous information and knowledge development, the future is filled with crisis and it meansmore opportunities for us.” And he leaves with a quote. “This is the perfect time to build a structure thatcan initiate and sustain a landscape of sweeping change.”

THE GDNET STRUCTURE. BUSINESS ENGINEERED TO ENGINEER BUSINESSES.

GDNet is an information and knowledge company, a pioneer R & D venture firm in the field of technologyand innovation base business model engineering. It was established a few years ago to conduct researchand development to monitor and simulate the impact of current and emerging technologies affecting oldeconomy business models. Its innovation and commercial driven efforts are geared towards engineeringnew generation business models for the new economy.

These new generation business models are delivered in the form of full-fledge portals that provide acomplete range of products and services to consumers, merchants and enterprises with full e-businessand e-commerce capabilities. These portals will be fully integrated across the enterprise with informationsystems, established channels and emerging delivery technologies such as Grid, P2P Networks, WiMaxand 3G.

To simplify Degala describes GDNet as a company trying to find ways to come up with new structures for the new economy. The benefit ultimately for the consumers and enterprises is it will be able to accessinformation anytime, anywhere and in anyway at nano-speed without the burden of cost enabling them tohave more freedom and more power to choose.



GDNet is in its second stage of funding campaign and is currently seeking for the right investors. Thefunds will be used to support and expand its business operations, hire key personnel and in the futurerelocate parts of its R & D to a modern I.T. Hub facility located in Asia.

At present GDNet has not yet committed to any alliance relationship with possible strategic partners suchas financial, telecommunications and allied technology companies.

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