Paolo PinedaPaolo Pineda, chief finance officer of ACJ O Shopping and concurrent head of Business Development at ABSCBN Corporation, is slowly but surely making his way into Filipino homes, and finding a welcome place, too.

Working on the start-up since its inception in 2013, Pineda has seen revenues double as more families, led by ever-busy homemakers, have turned to home shopping for convenience as well as for a lot of items not available in regular stores.

Pineda joined ABS-CBN in 2000. He says being with the company has helped him “understand organization, hiring people, culture development” and prudent resource management (“pagigingmatipid”).

At the home shopping network, Pineda and his team are working to be accepted as a regular sales channel by manufacturers and consumers alike. ABS-CBN’s partner for the venture, CJ O Shopping of Korea, already had a presence in China, India, Turkey and Vietnam before they came to the Philippines. The team launched best-selling Korean products at a crazy pace over the last four years and is now ready for the next phase, introducing even more products from both local and multinational makers of fast-moving consumer goods.

“At home shopping, our products are focused on the essentials. They give our customers more time for their families. We really want to help Filipinos in their daily lives, and for a certain segment, we want to help Filipinos who are moving to smaller dwelling places like condominium units. Similar to the experience in Korea, our products provide good value. For example, we have very practical space organizers built for small living spaces, and they’re affordable,” Pineda says.

To build a business like home shopping, Pineda has had to rely on his “pioneering entrepreneurial spirit.” He said working at ABS-CBN has given him a lot of opportunity to practice the Lopez Values.

“At the Lopez Group, they really encourage you to build businesses and give you both flexibility and support to grow the business.”

Going forward, he wants to focus on employee wellness and well-being in order to align each employee’s life goals with those of the company.

"Ours is a very functional business. There is a tendency for the team to just focus on selling the products. What I want the team to realize is that what we sell actually helps a person in his daily life. I want each team member to see his contribution to the family, to the customer, even in little ways, because of the products we are bringing into their home,” says Pineda.

His message for LopezLinkreaders: “O Shopping wants to make life for homemakers easier by providing them with products that are essential for daily living. We want to be able to give them kitchen tools and appliances that can keep their energy requirements very reasonable. Our kitchen products, our biggest category, are designed to allow for more efficient, more pleasant and more orderly homes.” (Story/Photos by: Carla Paras-Sison)