The CEO is the Chief Problem Solver

By Leo Riingen, Informatics President and CEO

It always brings a smile to my face whenever I am complimented to be a young president of a company or a big school like Informatics. I have also been asked by students how I was able to become a CEO at a young age. It is as if being or looking old should be one of the requirements to be one.

I may still look young, thanks to hair coloring, but I already consider myself old at 45. I started the first Informatics school at age 29, and I think it was during my early years that my performance as CEO was at its high gear. Informatics, as successful as it is now, is a product of several years of hardship, trials, errors, failures and, of course, problems.

Solving problems has always been a CEO’s job. Since Informatics started 15 years ago with one school at SM Megamall, and up until now with over 35 schools nationwide, problems never really go away. They never will. This is because once a company stops having problems, it may be the tipping point for failure. Second, success, like failure, also breeds problems. And third, because of the need to grow, unwittingly, the CEO may cause a problem. Thus, it is the CEO’s job not only to solve problems but to create them.

I classify problems into two: an implementing problem and a goal-oriented problem. The former being caused by the day-to-day implementation of plans and strategies, while the latter is initiated by the leader, in this case, the CEO.

The daily grind of business is characterized by operational problems, which every manager of a company has to solve. A task that needs to be done, an activity that has to be undertaken and a project that requires proper implementation are actually problem solving exercises; pulling them off will end the problem. In a way, as what I have been telling my managers, it is the role of everyone to solve problems of the company -- it is what everyone is paid to do. Whatever department one belongs to, his task is to solve the problem assigned to him. Failing to do so makes the person the cause and not the solution provider.

The second problem is caused by the CEO. Ironically, it is also his job to make sure it is solved. When the first Informatics was set up in 1994, our goal was simple: to provide a premium quality IT education to Filipinos. I had seven people helping me do that in a four-room center. Our first class had only two students! With sheer determination and teamwork, we saw the enrollment grow but, again, not without problems. The daily problems were solved by the team while I looked for opportunities to grow. We did reach full capacity and it soon became a good problem, which begat a bigger problem -- how to extend ourselves to serve people in other locations, in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. I posed this challenge to the team and they responded. I created the goal-oriented problem of opening 20 schools in five years. Surprisingly, we were able to solve it in three years. The rest is history. We have trained over 300,000 students to date. Our 35 schools nationwide post annual enrollment of 6,000 and over 700 teaching and non-teaching personnel. We achieved this feat through a series of problem solving exercises involving the team, the managers, and the CEO.

We often think that CEOs should not be given the headache of solving problems. It is not uncommon for people to hide problems from their managers to avoid reproach. However, while the accountable person is expected to solve day-to-day difficulties, the responsibility of solving unresolved issues should be elevated to the higher level. And the buck stops at the top – the CEO, the chief problem solver.

From a problem creator to a problem solver -- that is what a CEO should be labeled. Pessimistic as it may sound but everyone has to be part of the problem – either as the solver or the giver. A business needs to grow and problems grow with it.

Problems are part of life and work. We just have to face them squarely and be not afraid of failing. The problems I face may appear simpler now, not because they are less complex but because age has given me wisdom and experience. I always believe that experience is the best teacher. The more problems you have, the more trials you face, and the more lessons you learn. Thus, problems really do make you better, not bitter.

My former boss shared with me that the baseball player with the most homeruns in the sport’s history is actually the one with the most strikeouts. That’s Babe Ruth. We know him to be the homerun king; not the one that had been struck out the most. And that’s because he kept on swinging the bat. One is remembered by the successes he makes, not the failures.

I swung the bat, missed a lot, but got a lot of homeruns, too. And I look forward to many more years of swinging it, with hits and misses along the way. After all, I’m not that old.