Winning Leadership

OLX Philippines recently had a big shake-up in its executive board, resulting in its first massive leadership change since South African firm Naspers bought Sulit.com.ph and adopted its current name.

- Pat Calica

Now at the helm of arguably the country’s number one online classified site is Giancarlo Bonsel, who was the company’s former Head of Marketplace Development. Speed talks to the new leader of OLX PH, who gamely shares his working experiences and philosophies, as well as his passions at work and outside of it.

Congratulations on your promotion as General Manager and Country Head of OLX Philippines! What changes can we expect during your leadership?

[With] me coming on board as the General Manager, I don’t really see a lot of changes other than the directions we have already set into, which for me is threefold. We really want to increase the affinity people have with our brand, and I think “Win Together” campaign is creating an emotional layer on the brand that kind of speaks to the Filipino hearts and minds. The other thing is that we continue looking for ways to improve the user experience on our products, particularly in mobile. And the [third] thing is that we continue to look for opportunities to increase and further develop our team.

What’s your typical day like as the General Manager and Country Head of OLX PH?

Most of my day I spend talking to people, so I try to keep out of meetings as much as possible. But I like to go around and understand what people are doing and help them kind of figure [things] out.

You’re pretty hands-on when it comes to managing your people.