From Fifty to Five Hundred Employees in Five Years: Boehringer Ingelheim Global Business Services Manila Credits Phenomenal Growth to Employees

(Photo: From Left) Jose Zaide, managing director and head of GBS Center Manila; Andrea Jakob, vice president and head of GBS Center Network; Rechiel Catalino, senior specialist source-to-pay; Andreas Hilf, senior vice president and head of corporate division GBS

Multinational pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim Global Business Services (GBS) Manila recently marked its 5th year in the Philippines with a townhall meet last November 29 at the Grand Ballroom of Crimson Hotel in Alabang, Muntinlupa City.

Originally established as a regional center to provide transactional services in the HR, Finance, and Master Data Management for the APAC region in 2017, the Center grew by leaps and bounds in its Alabang location.

“The success of the Manila operations over the past years validates our decision to establish our GBS center here,” Andrea Jakob, Boehringer Ingelheim GBS Center Network head, said. “Key criteria were the availability of talents, the customer-centric mindset and flexibility of the Philippine workforce, strong communication skills in multiple languages,” she added.

The GBS center in the Philippines initially started with fifty employees in 2017. “Since then, we have grown the Center tremendously, adding services that went beyond what was originally planned. Because of its successes over the last years, we decided to also launch and deliver IT Services from this Center,” said Jose Jamil Zaide, Managing Director and Head of GBS Center Manila. “By the end of November, the Center marked its fifth year, which also happened to be the day we onboarded our 500th employee,” he continued. 

The GBS Center Manila works towards standardizing and centralizing target processes, providing back-office services to Boehringer Ingelheim entities in North America, Japan, China, Australia, and New Zealand.  It’s also a service center for Southeast Asian countries like South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. 

“Apart from creating attractive jobs, our employees especially appreciate our culture of empowerment and our focus on people development,” Andreas Hilf, GBS Corporate Division head, explained.  “Our drive to develop our employees is important to ensure our people’s employability and to enable them to pursue fulfilling careers within our organization.  At the same time, this also enables us to locate higher-value and more complex activities at the GBS Center Manila,” he said.

Members of the Global GBS Leadership Team marked the company milestone by honoring the Center Manila employees at the event. Numerous members were acknowledged for their innovative ideas, commitment, and loyalty. Jakob and Hilf also thanked Zaide along with his leadership team for their untiring drive for excellence.