12 revista gente

GENTE

Issue 1 - 2015

The benefits of a job well done

Cheaper by the dozen

editor`s letter DIALOG brings GENTE back again in 2015. Your feedback about the importance of getting to know one other in this personal dimension made GENTE a priority of the 2015 Dialog Action Plan.

Read in this issue about a team armed with laughter to fight stress; the real-life story for a Colombian version of Cheaper by the Dozen; and an HR team member making sure everyone has a parachute in Brazil. Big thanks to Fausto, Bettina, Juan Carlos, Cecil, JosĂŠ, Renata and Fabian!

Go grab a coffee and take a few minutes to catch up with your GENTE. Alejandra Martin, HR BP Communications, Finance, HR, Legal & Sourcing

An initiative of:

Do you want to be part of our next edition?

Do you know some interesting story of your collegues that worth to be shared?

ed.01-2015

Contents STORIES WE DON´T SEE 4 No joking aside If laughter is the best medicine, this is one HR team that doesn’t need to worry about getting sick.

Send us your story to: alejandra.martin@ericsson.com

and don´t forget to follow us at: /EricssonLatinAmerica /EricssonCaribbean /EricssonBR @EricssonLATAM @EricssonCarib

9 Cheaper by the dozen Fabian Patiño is not an actor but his real life story sounds like a movie. From selling hats to fruits and vegetables, he and his 16 siblings were natural-born entrepreneurs from their youngest days of childhood.

12 The benefits of a job well done Deborah Sasahara makes sure that every employee feels like they have the parachute they may need in the case of a personal crisis.

/ericssonlatam /ericssonBrazil

If laughter is the best medicine, this is one HR team that doesn’t need to worry about getting sick. If you don’t believe us after reading this interview, there’s a video to prove it.

Ok, team… GENTE heard that this is one of the funniest HR teams in RLAM. The saying around says that you work and have fun the whole time…

FAUSTO: this is because Bettina talks all the time (general laughter, especially Bettina). Yes!, she is so expressive and she talks soooo much.

I think I know who the quietest one is…

JOSE: yes, Juan Carlos is so shy… (laughter again) BETTINA: let's take the opportunity here to talk about Juanca, since he’s not on the line yet! Juan Carlos sometimes enters late in the calls, so we always give him homework as a prize, ha-ha!

Ok, so I will send my notes to him so he can translate this interview into English!

FAUSTO: We are a team that complements one another pretty well. Jose is the source of technical knowledge. He has a lot of experience in HR… at the beginning, when Bettina came to me with questions, I used to say "ask Jose, please"… after the third time I said that, she started skipping right over me and going directly to Jose!

Jose is the brain of the team, the smarts behind this operation.

BETTINA: Jose knows EVERYTHING. You can ask him how much two pounds of tomatoes cost in Uruguay… he will know!

José, after the call, please tell me because I don't know!

FAUSTO: Bettina is very optimistic and creative.

She looks at everything with fresh eyes, innovative ideas and that is a powerful spark. We are used to doing things one way and she pushes us to think out of the box… and she is 99% of the time the first in delivering!

FAUSTO: Cecil is a person who doesn’t speak too much, but when she does, she shares deep insights and changes the course of things. Juan

Carlos brings the flavor of the Caribbean…he is always willing and able to help his peers at any moment. He is a good soundboard for innovative ideas… If you mixed JC with Bettina or Cecil… you’d get an excellent product that Jose could then frame within our Systems: the Fantastic 4 in action!

And about me... I'm the annoying one but since everyone is afraid of me, they don't say anything. (laughter) BETTINA: We have learned to have fun, all the time.

We laugh about stress, deadlines, we laugh all the time. And that helps a lot when getting results.

FAUSTO: Yes, I know I'm known as a structured person, but this group is making me more open and flexible, even though we are managing the biggest organization. We have a good time; we like what we do; we are passionate about that.

And you are a remote team… didn’t you meet face-to-face for the first time recently in Panama?

CECIL: Yes, a meeting during Carnival… (suffering tone, general laughter) Your adoptive Brazilian heart suffered!

CECIL: Yes, I wanted to go to the parades!!

BETTINA: Cecil was so worried about her trip to Panama, because of her baby. But when she realized that it would mean three nights of uninterrupted sleep, she wanted to stay longer!

CECIL: I had forgotten what it was like…

JOSE: Our F2F was very productive and I enjoyed it a lot… we got together and also we met with other former HR Ericsson colleagues. It was nice to see them again.

BETTINA: Cecil is the one that takes care of all of us. She is always there for everyone.

CECIL: My team members’ needs are a priority for me. If I'm working on something and Bettina sends me a Lync conversation, I stop everything to answer her and see what she needs. My teammates are a priority for me. We are in the same boat, we need to support each other.

BETTINA: We are in touch with one another constantly. The question goes to Fausto on very few occasions. We also share a lot of work, to avoid inventing the wheel in our desktops.

FAUSTO: Yes, there is a lot of synergy among the team members.

So our time is up and Juanca is still not on the line… but let me say that he cancelled in advance, so he’s not late!

FAUSTO: No worries, we all have a lot of work to delegate to him for the week!

BETTINA: Let me say something about Juan Carlos… he is SO funny; he’s the one who makes me laugh out loud… have you seen the team video Juanca did? A master piece of humor!

OK, GENTE will have a separate interview with Juan Carlos to put him in the hot seat… I doubt he’ll have time this week, because he’s going to have a tough week for sure.

Now is your time Juan Carlos!

Juan Carlos, you have read the interview with your team… now it’s your chance to set the record straight!

Ok, first of all allow me to say that it’s not that I’m always late… it’s that they are always way too early!!

Ha ha!!!

So, let me get serious for a few seconds. I fully support Fausto’s comments: We are a very diverse team that complements one another very effectively.

We leverage Fausto’s experience, Jose’s knowledge, Bettina’s creativity and Cecil’s system skills and reflections and of course with such a wonderful key player like me, with my very humble attitude… how can we go wrong? Ha ha!!!!

We like to have fun. At the end of the year when the IPhone 6 came out, someone on the team (Faustito…) said that I promised to buy IPhones for everyone if we had good results....so, we delivered good results…but the IPhones…well, let’s just say that we are waiting for the purchase order to be approved.

About the Video: That was my Christmas gift for the team. I received a similar one from a friend and decided to make one for my team. I did it on my cellphone at 10:30pm and it went out through our WhatsApp group that December night. Check it out, we are such a great (dancing) team.

Growth+

Pricing Transformation

Order-to-Cash

Profitability+

Cheaper by the Dozen Fabian Patiño is not an actor but his real life story sounds like a movie. From selling hats to fruits and vegetables, he and his 16 siblings were natural-born entrepreneurs from their youngest days of childhood.

So Fabian, we have heard that your family is very big indeed…

them when they would go to sell in the market. We used to sell hats.

Yes, you are right. We were 17 brothers and sisters, including three pairs of twins... I'm one of them! Now there are 12 of us and we are a bit spread out. My twin lives in Australia!

So I used to go to the market and sell my brother’s hats, until the moment I saved my own money to buy new hats… that happened when I was 10, at which point I started my own business!

How do you manage that virtual relationship?

Other interesting activity was that every December in Cartago there is a tradition to light candles to the virgin. The candles melt on the doorsteps to the houses, which makes quite a mess. At that time, my brothers and I visited our neighbors to clean up the melted wax, we then saved the wax and we would sell it to a man that made candles.

Even with the time difference, we are in contact and we have a great relationship. We have a special connection, we are very perceptive about each other’s wellbeing or if one of us is suffering…He has a nice family there.

We are not identical twins. We are also very different in terms of our personalities. Most people who know us would say that they wouldn't guess that we are twins.

We were not raised together. We were separated when we were five-years old, when my father died.

He lived with his godparents and I lived with my siblings, which led to very different upbringings for us and that probably generated some of the differences we have.

Tell us more about your family...

My family has always been very entrepreneurial.

Because there were so many of us, it was a permanent cycle: the big brothers and sisters would make and sell things and the biggest of the small group took care of the rest of the younger ones.

The older siblings would take the little kids with

We also used to transport fruits and vegetables from the market to people's houses with our "balinera," a kind of skate we used easing the weight we had to carry. It was very funny.

So I worked on weekends, but studied very hard from Monday to Friday.

It seems that your personal story instilled very strong values in you...

Sometimes when I tell this story people feel bad about it. But on the contrary, this is for me a great story that helped me grow. I earned my money from the very beginning but it was for me. Our basic needs were covered at home. My money was to pay things I wanted to buy, to contribute my part to the household economy and to be independent.

I used to have my own food to take for breakfast to

school, and also I had food to share with my friends who didn't have any.

Sometimes I used to invite my friends to come to the market with me and they also liked to earn some money.

Because of that, me and some of my brothers and sisters could pay for university. I went to public university, but I was able to pay for my books, my clothing, etc.

When I came to Bogota to study, one of my brothers gave me a place in his house.

For sure it's a story to share!

Yes, and I like to share this story because I'm convinced that you can achieve anything you want if you make an effort to get it.

I wanted to go to university, and probably that was not my written destiny, being part of this entrepreneurial family activity.

Do you still all get together once in a while?

Is not easy to be all together because we are now 12 brothers and sisters, but many of us married with children (23 nephews and nieces), so imagine the size of that family event!

Many years ago we committed that we would ALL get together once every four years: to celebrate our mother's birthday on February 29th.

Do you have any children?

Yes, Nicky (9) and Pucca (6), my "niñas," as I call them… they are the daughters of another dog that I had, so they are technically my grandchildren!

Seriously, I love dogs and I have always had dogs.

They are like kids because I would never give up on them. They are for me a big responsibility and I like to take care of them and protect them.

I would like to have more, but it’s not possible right now.

When did this passion for dogs begin?

Well, I don't even remember when it started. I have always had a dog. One day, talking with an aunt, she told me that when I was a very small boy, around three-years old, I used to wake up in the morning and the very first thing I would do, after standing up on my own two feet, was to put one of ours dogs on a leash to be my day-long-partner. The one chosen for that day ended up completely exhausted!

Do you believe, as the saying goes around, that dogs sometimes have similarities with their owners?

Let me tell you that when I decided to get a dog as an adult I read a lot to find one similar to me. And I found the terrier, a dog that is small but with a big spirit!

So yes, it's true. Sometimes they are similar in the way they behave and even in their faces or body structure.

So it seems that they are in fact part of your family…

Absolutely! Dogs are amazing beings. You need to take care of them. Feed them, educate them and love them. They are so trustworthy and loyal!

And they are so transparent… if you pay attention, you can see when they are happy, or angry or feeling bad.

Sometimes I spoil them too much. Last time me and my wife went to my parents-in-law’s house in Cali, Nicky didn't want to come back to Bogota. She refused to jump the car to come back. I started the car, took a ride around and came back… no way.

So, we decided she could stay until next time we were coming back to Cali. Next time, she decided she wanted to come back to Bogota with us, so here we are, a family, together again!

Deborah Sasahara makes sure that every employee feels like they have the parachute they may need in the case of a personal crisis.

What's your professional background?

A huge fan of skydiving and the beautiful beaches of Brazil, Deborah Sasahara is from Sao Paulo.

She is the mother of a 12-year old daughter who she enjoys spending time with on white sandy beaches in the warm sun. Dedicated to overseeing issues related to people's health and wellbeing, like many of her HR team members, she also enjoys taking care of others.

I studied Administration and as a post graduate specialization, I studied HR Management.

I started as an HR generalist, working in training, recruitment and one day I started working with benefits, with Life Insurance, Health Plans… It's now been 12 years since I first started working on this.

Today it's my specialty and I really like it.

How long have you been in Ericsson?

I've been here for two years, but my experience with Benefits in general is from my previous jobs.

Debora, GENTE has heard about your very people-focused work. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Do you remember a particular case that really touched you? One you could share with us here?

Yes, you can certainly say that! I work in "benefits," in general, but I specialize in health plans, which is the part that I work the hardest on to help people.

I work with people to make sure they are getting what they need from their health plans. When employees—or their family members—are facing health issues… them or their families.

I support the use of the Medical Plan and other benefits available to our employees.

The cases I work on may be similar in some ways, but the people are always different.

I remember a case with an employee who was terminally ill and died, at the same time, his wife was also sick. We helped her with social visit to understand her needs to cover his insurance life and health plan. Her family members were very grateful.

A few days later, she died too but we were able to help them with all the things that our plan could provide. I know this sounds like a sad story, but I do remember this as a moment where I could help to make a difference for someone. She was a charming old woman and she was very thankful during all the time that we were helping her family.

What does this work entail?

There are two important aspects. One is related to the Plans and how the company strategically manages this benefit and the relationship with the providers.

For example, taking care of services covered or not covered for a specific situation, authorizations needed, medicines provided, the contracts with the vendors, for example.

I like to help employees when they have problems, facilitating their contact with the providers.

Benefits fields in HR are a sensitive area, because it is completely related to people's personal lives. It's really satisfying.

Do you work alone?

I work with Iraci Azevedo, who works in social care.

So often when facing tough situations, we support each other.

Tell us a bit more about Deborah! Do you have any hobbies?

Well, I can’t say it’s a hobby per say, but I have skydived… which was the most exciting experience of my life. At first, it was a terrible sensation but once I jump from the plane, it is a great pleasure “to plane” through the air. This year, I plan to go again.

Anyone want to join me?

dialog RLAM Action Plan 2015

Coming soon