Share Your Knowledge

Ortigas Land’s head of projects execution group Antonino ‘Jojo’ Aligaen believes in the power of smart work rather than hard work. He also believes the key to confident leadership is knowledge sharing.

- Anastasia Prikhodko

George Smith Patton Jr was a General of the US Army who commanded the US Seventh Army in the Mediterranean theatre of World War II. He is also Antonino ‘Jojo’ Aligaen’s role model. Jojo is Head of Projects Execution Group at Ortigas Land and leads with Patton’s ethos in mind. “Patton drove his men hard, he was a disciplinarian,” says Jojo. “He set goals that were high for them, but even with that, even how harsh he became, he loved his men and cared for them.

“Some managers or leaders often say, ‘Just get it done, you solve it,’” Jojo states. “And for me, because I’m the boss, it’s easy to say, ‘You solve it.’ But instead of that, I say, ‘Let’s solve it together. How do we solve it together? What’s your idea and I’ll tell you my idea and let’s see what works.’

“General George Patton was not sitting in some command post several kilometres behind the frontline,” Jojo says. “He was at the frontline. That’s the model I look up to, working with your men and not just telling them to solve it on their own.”

EARLY BEGINNINGS

When Jojo was still a child, he remembers watching an advertisement. The black and white commercial, since televisions weren’t yet in colour, showcased a manufacturing company in the Philippines. “It used to manufacture steel reinforcement bars, but it doesn’t exist anymore,” he says. The commercial captured him.