Jop Cornelio Jr., ITG’s Managing Director, Tells What Leadership with a Heart Means to Him
April 11, 2024 | Article
With his tall stature, commanding presence, and unwavering resolve, Jose “Jop” Adolfo Cornelio, Jr. means business. Yet, he is more than just an authoritative figure. Cornelio is a man of strong faith and resilience, a devoted husband and father, and a great leader with a heart.
As in all life, Cornelio’s path to growth and maturity was shaped by the very adversities that threatened to break him. Life’s challenges did not grant him an easy way to become the strong leader he is today. Despite his busy schedule, Cornelio generously shared a piece of his life’s journey and business experience with us, offering the work a glimpse of what it is like to be in his shoes, to be the man for the job, and to be the Managing Director of IT Group, Inc. (ITG) Philippines.
The Telco Guy in Tacloban
Before Cornelio made his way to the tech industry, he was in the telecommunications sector first. “I was a telco guy for probably 22 years. A telco guy who was well traveled, being assigned to Mindanao, Manila, and Visayas areas.” And before joining IT Group, Inc. as the Managing Director, Cornelio was the General Manager at his former company. Cornelio explained that when you are the GM or General Manager in the telco Industry, you have a designated region assigned to you. “We were assigned by region. I was in charge of Eastern Visayas. Eastern Visayas comprises Leyte and Samar. So, anything and everything that goes around there is your territory—from labor relations to customer service, network outages, sales, marketing, and billing and collection—that’s yours; you’ll handle that,” he said.
But on November 8, 2013, Cornelio, along with the locals of Tacloban, experienced the biggest catastrophe in the province before the year ended—Super Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters that hit the Philippines, affecting more than 13 million people across 44 provinces. It was heartbreaking to see seven years of hard work in the Leyte operation disappear in one day. Resilience is ingrained in every Filipino, and as the Head of Bayan Telecoms and a Rotarian, Cornelio spearheaded the rebuilding of the telecommunication infrastructure in Samar and Leyte, areas devastated by Yolanda, especially in Tacloban. “We rebuilt schools, clinics, and houses. We provided food and medicines, and most importantly, we hoped to rise again. Bangon, Tacloban! (Rise, Tacloban!). At that point in time, you will always know that a part of my heart will and still remains in Tacloban. It was a huge part of my life [that] was truly tested.”
Cornelio felt relieved that the typhoon spared Manila. Although his family was safe, the trauma it brought to his loved ones, especially his daughters, led him to make tough choices in his career. “My absence affected my daughters a lot. So, in a way, the decision to move back was… I know my wife can handle it [and] she was able to handle it quite well. But my daughters, they took it very hard. So, for me, it was a decision to really go back [to Manila],” he said.
Blessing in Disguise
After the devastating experience in Tacloban, Cornelio prayed for a new blessing to come—one that aligned with God’s purpose and would help him to be physically present with his family. “I’m a very religious person. I always pray that God will guide me to the right path. [And] that God will lead me to something better and fulfill that longing that I can still be very productive,” he said. “My talents will be put to use, at the same time, without sacrificing my presence and guidance with my family, especially with my daughters, who were still growing at that time.”
Little did he know, his prayers were about to get answered. “A good friend of mine, Marcos Manglicmot, who came from my former company, knew that I was open to opportunities, especially for marketing. At that level when Marcos called me, [he] told me there was an opening in IT Group, Inc. I asked him where it was, and he said it was just in Quezon City. And I said, ‘Wow that was very ideal for me.”
Faith over Fear
Two fruitful years passed, and Cornelio had already found his new home with ITG. Another challenge, however, tested his faith and leadership as the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world. It affected many businesses as it halted their usual processes and physical operations. “The pandemic was a different experience, but it was still a crisis moment for us. And the scale was really [a lot] bigger [than before]. The Yolanda [typhoon] experience was basically localized. It was mainly in Tacloban where it happened. I was fortunate enough to know that it was not hitting Manila, and it was quite isolated in my area, so I knew that my family was safe,” he said. “But this one? The scope and scale of [the] pandemic and the uncertainty that came with it were really at a high level. And I was with my family. We were all with our families [and] locked up in our houses.”
Cornelio highlighted that though the pandemic created physical distancing to ensure safety, technology bridged the gap between employees and their company, creating new ways to continue the business despite the situation. According to Cornelio, aside from the lessons the pandemic brought, it was the people who endured and ventured with them who made it possible [for ITG] to rise above the challenges.
“I was lucky to have been surrounded by dedicated and passionate individuals—having great team [and] supportive leaders (like Cris)—it made us not only survive [the pandemic] but thrive and grow despite the challenges,” he said. “Our core at ITG is our employees. It’s always the employees. First and foremost, when both Yolanda and the pandemic crises hit, our focus was on our employees and how they were doing because, without them, there would be no ITG.”
Read More: IT Group, Inc. Celebrates 20 Years in the IT Industry
Surviving and Thriving in Tough Times
From Yolanda to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cornelio reminisced about his leadership and how it was tested through time. In hindsight, Cornelio’s life and business experiences were the actual testimony of his faith, proving that tough times never last, but tough people do. “I commend the employees for trusting the management and leadership during that time when we were making very difficult decisions. And not only did we survive, but we managed to grow in those crisis moments. Imagine that, how do you collect payments? How do you sell? How do you do marketing? How do you communicate and coordinate? We had to go through a lot of “new things to survive and thrive in the pandemic situation.”
As the pandemic started to ease, restrictions became less. Slowly but surely, Cornelio saw that better days were coming. “I think everybody was excited to go back. Let’s go to the general sentiment [of people] when they were easing restrictions: it was about time to reconnect and rediscover life outside our homes. And people were excited to go out into the world again. Those times were exciting,” he said.
Venturing Together
Cornelio saw the post-pandemic era as an opportunity for everyone to grow, especially to bounce back and rekindle business relationships with clients. “For ITG itself, because we are in the technology business the need for being present, heightens. So rekindling that relationship was not difficult because they wanted you (the clients) to go, they wanted you to be present, and being present means that, hay salamat andito na sila (thank God, they are here), then we can move forward with our clients. We can move forward with the improvements and enhancements in our business because they (ITG employees) are already here. We can do it together,” he said.
Cornelio was excited about what was ahead for the ITG and its people—putting an optimistic outlook on how we could gracefully welcome life and business again. “So [the] motivation for me as a leader or as the head of ITG is to embrace the opportunity to grow, embrace the opportunity to be free again, discover what was lost—relationships—re-establish those relationships again, enjoy the company of people, enjoy the scenery and beauty of the environment, enjoy the freedom and what comes with it,” he added.
Although the pandemic threw a curveball, Cornelio holds onto his faith and believes that we can always thrive in tough times through innovation. True enough, ITG not only survived but also thrived, individually and as a company. “Growth and success will always be based on a team effort. My role will never be [the] boss, my role will always be the best teammate and cheerleader for all employees in ITG. We want [our employees] to become the best that [they] can be. We have an open career roadmap for all employees to follow. This also aligns [with] our journey to help not only our customers but also our employees to be the best and bring the best in people’s lives,” he said.
Today, ITG is one of the leading IT Solution Partners in the Philippines and the ASEAN region, promoting digital transformation across the area. “Some clients have premium support that they can use for retraining [with us]. That’s the beauty of premium support and that’s how we innovate in terms of making sure the customers are delighted. We will retrain them in using the solution,” he said.
“We are venturing together [with our clients] because we are inheriting part of their business—from them purchasing the solutions to training their people, to supporting them when they have problems. They just call us, so it’s a full cycle [and genuine] partnership [with us].”
ITG is an ISO 9001:2015 Certified company with over 20 years of solid expertise. ITG has four regional offices located in the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, helping 200+ clients across the ASEAN region on their digital transformation journey, and has a solid portfolio of 250+ successful projects.
