Family, work formula help her grow logistics business
“Under-promise but over-deliver.”
Carmel de Pio-Salvador, Global Carrier Phils. Inc.’s owner, successfully employed this work formula for her logistics company to survive and grow for over half a decade.
“I never promise so much to my clients but give them the best service we could give and always going the extra mile for them,” Salvador said.
The formula helped her win the trust of clients, who at that time were hesitant to avail of her service since she was new on the job and at that time, she was one of the first women in Cebu to handle a logistics company.
She said that for a service company like hers, customer satisfaction was always a priority and her team did everything to do just that.
Salvador started Global Carrier Phils. Inc. in 1994 with two partners. However, her partners later withdrew from the business leaving her and two staff members to run the young business.
She turned to her family for help. Her father, who used to run taxi business, her brother and her husband pitched in to help her manage the firm and grow the firm’s customer base.
She recalled the challenges she encountered – like riding on jeepneys to meet a client and looking almost anywhere to find clients.
Her more than 10 years in the logistics business also served her well in running the company.
Her first job was an executive assistant to the president of Aerolift, an airline company back then. She was about to about to graduate from a political science course at the University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu City Campus when she got the job.
“I applied for that position here in Cebu while I was on my way to school one time. I dropped my resume at their office because it was just near my school. I was then interviewed here and was then called to work in Manila,” she said.
POLITICAL SCIENCE
She wanted to be a lawyer that’s why she took up Political Science. But this changed, when she got the Aerolift job.
After two years, she left Aerolift and joined a Singaporean firm, which was into international forwarding, Translink.
Her experience with Translink groomed her for the business of freight forwarding and logistics.
“I was with them for five years and learned a lot from them until I met people whom I then partnered with for a logistics business,” she said.
On Nov. 15, 1994, Global Carrier Philippines Inc. was created with Salvador as its main engine running the company.
In 1996, Salvador and her team’s sacrifices paid off when they got a big project with a company in Leyte province. They were hired to transfer raw materials and load shipments for three years.
But her company did not only have success in the past, there was also a time when they were tested.
“There was a time that the business was really bad because our clients were also experiencing difficulties and they still can’t pay us. That however did not discourage me from continuing on with the business,” she said.
“I have had achievements and I always try to improve every single time and never get discouraged by trials. I’m lucky that I also have people with me who share the same passion for service as I do.”
Sixteen years after she set up her own company, Salvador branched out to other businesses in Cebu.
These include operating a coffee shop at the Supercat Terminal in Pier 4 called Coffee Trip and Dentaland, which is a dental clinic in Ayala Center Cebu, which she and her husband together with their dentist friends set up, and a trading business in the city.
VOLUNTEER
Seeing how much she had achieved for herself and her family, Salvador said she wanted to become other people’s instrument to help them achieve better lives as well.
“Whatever level of success I may have achieved now, I owe it to many good people who unselfishly helped me along the way. I must have been a good girl in my past life that every time the challenge is too much for anyone to handle, I always meet good mentors who are willing to assist,” Salvador said.
She does volunteer work for the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Salvador was Cebu Business Month chairperson for two years. She is now chairperson of the MCCI’s Mandaue Business Month program for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Mandaue City.
“In the program, we get a list of nominees from each of 27 barangays in Mandaue City and choose one each whom we then train in partnership with the Kapamilya Negosyo Na. There will be three winners who will receive cash prices,” Salvador said.
Salvador has come a long way from her middle-class family roots in Cebu City where her parents taught her the value of earning a degree to have a brighter future.
She also looked back at her parents enrolling her in an excellent academic institution in Cebu – Cebu Normal University – where she spent her elementary and high school years.
All in all these factors helped Salvador achieve her dream for a better life be of service to others.
