Agent of Change: Luzelle Artillero Leads RLC’s Digital Transformation
Meet the young and dynamic director of Robinsons Land’s Digital Office
by The JG Summit Team| Jun 3, 2021
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In the span of a decade, Luzelle Artillero has gone from being a fresh college graduate to the director of Robinsons Land’s Digital Office. Still only 32, she’s one of the youngest officers of the real estate company. How did she get so far in a relatively short period of time? According to Luz, it was through a combination of having tough but caring mentors, practicing the right values, and being empowered by the organization to achieve her absolute best.
A REMARKABLE RISE
After earning her degree in Legal Management from Ateneo de Manila University in 2010, Luz joined Robinsons Land as a marketing assistant instead of pursuing a career in law, as she originally planned. Hoping to ease the burden on her parents, who also had to put her three younger sisters through school, Luz jumped at the opportunity to work. “I think it disappointed my dad a little, but it gave me the motivation to work extra hard, to make him proud of me. That moment was very instrumental because it planted the seed of grit in my mind,” shares Luz.
From her earliest days in RLC, Luz says she was fortunate to have worked under leaders who molded her work ethic and discipline. Receiving tough love from her mentors was a difficult part of the process, but it made her appreciate the value of perseverance. “I also learned that you have to think before you act, but at the same time, you don't have to be extremely cautious that you're afraid to move.”
When she assumed the role of Digital Transformation Lead in 2017 and began to report directly to RLC President and CEO Frederick Go, Luz recalls being taught the “freedom within a framework” concept. “He would provide the vision and general guidelines, but he empowered me to make decisions. He would remind me that if I did otherwise and just pushed the decision up, that means I’m not doing my job. I valued his trust.”
Being empowered to make her own decisions, Luz says, was crucial to developing her analytical skills, which influenced how she deals with people from various business units and how she helps them realize how their respective departments can benefit from digital transformation.
DELIVERING CHANGE
In early 2018, JG Summit Holdings, the parent conglomerate of Robinsons Land, declared its intention to become the leading digital conglomerate in the country. JG Summit thus embarked on an organization-wide digital transformation campaign, with RLC being chosen to lead the implementation of digital initiatives, which were dubbed “Lighthouse Projects.”
As the Digital Transformation Lead, Luz was instrumental in the swift development of projects and their implementation across all of RLC’s business units, which include the commercial centers, residential, hotels and resorts, and office buildings divisions.
Luz describes her role: “As the Digital Office director, I liaise between the different business units. It's a very dynamic role. In a technical sense, we're like the product managers of the different innovations that we churn out. We work with the business units directly, helping them realize the full potential of their digital transformation goals. At the same time, we help transform mindsets, we help them understand what needs to happen for the goals to be achieved.”
For most of RLC’s divisions, the main goal is to achieve customer-centricity, so many of the digital transformation projects are customer-facing. For the malls, interactive digital directories were created that help shoppers navigate each Robinsons Mall, allowing them to find shops, restaurants, products, and services easily. The team is currently developing a Tenant’s Portal and a new Malls App.
The Digital Office also identified the need to update the property management system for the Hotels and Resorts division. Customizing an off-the-shelf product to suit RLC’s needs, the new system greatly improves the end-to-end customer experience, from the time a booking is made all the way to guest checkout.
Her favorite project so far is the myRLC Homeowners’ Portal. “This project was special because we were building the product just before the pandemic hit. Imagine immediately shifting from working onsite – meeting face to face, directly interacting with stakeholders, to virtual ways of working,” says Luz. “I was surprised on how quickly we were able to adapt. It was also inspiring to see the team work so hard to deliver a product that can help customers with real-world challenges.”
Working on myRLC, a web-based portal which addresses condominium residents’ daily concerns, also revealed to Luz the culture of “malasakit” in RLC. Even in the most trying of times, RLC’s employees gave their best to cater to their customers’ needs.
“That's one of the key corporate culture traits in RLC. That's why I think I've been in this group for so long. Some millennials would work hard, burn out fast and just move, but for me it was different. The people that I work with, they're not just like family. I’m inspired to give my best because I’m surrounded by people who are equally passionate for what they do.”
LIVING THE VALUES
As the real estate arm of the JG Summit conglomerate, RLC shares its key corporate values, which are the Entrepreneurial Mindset, Integrity, and Stewardship.
In her role as Digital Office Director, Luz leans mostly on the Entrepreneurial Mindset. “It’s all about striving for growth with a resilient, passionate, and agile mindset,” says Luz. “That was what I personally stood for since the very beginning, without even knowing it. Change was so inevitable, and how I applied it in my work by embracing change boldly, whether that meant moving roles to changing my ways of working to cater to different customers, internal and external alike.”
Embracing this type of mentality allows Luz to prepare herself for the unexpected, helping her react more positively to tough situations. “If you are willing to face certain changes with an open mind, the possibilities are endless. Regardless of your role, regardless of your job, you will deliver results.”
Luz also points out that by having the entrepreneurial mindset, one is never afraid to fail. This ties in well with the Agile methodology which is also finding favor throughout the JG Summit conglomerate. She says, “You must always do your best. Don’t be afraid to fail. Test and iterate. You will never perfect it the first time.”
The value of integrity resonates deeply with Luz as well, as this was something that she learned from her parents. “For me, integrity means doing what you say, or doing the right thing even if no one is looking. So when I see people who are not necessarily doing bad things, but they do their work just to get by, that’s a red flag for me. Connecting integrity to my work, that’s when I tell my bosses I will work hard to accomplish a goal, I will strive to deliver results to the best of my ability.”
The value of stewardship, being responsible for the resources one is entrusted with, is applied with how Luz deals with her team. This was especially relevant at the height of the pandemic, when there was a lot of pressure to produce digital transformation projects that would aid RLC’s customers, even while the team was adapting to massive changes in their work and home life. “I would empathize with what my team was going through, I would have one-on-one sessions with them and ask how they are coping with everything. And I would always ask if there was anything that I could help them with.”
Luz believes this connected all members of the team on a human level. Knowing that there was flexibility on the demands she put on her team during the difficult time made things easier for her team, easing the major transition everyone was experiencing at the time.
ROLE MODELS
In 2020, RLC was one of only two Philippine companies included in Bloomberg’s Gender-Equality Index, having a strong ratio of women to men not only in leadership positions but across the organization. For Luz, this was another way the company empowered their employees to attain their full potential. “I'm extremely proud to work in a company that supports and looks beyond gender roles and stereotypes,” she says.
“Can you imagine being in a boardroom, and the top executives are mostly women? Seeing that in RLC was life-changing for me. Having strong female figures in the workplace helped build self-confidence. It was so amazing and inspirational to work with them.”
AIMING HIGHER
When one is involved in digital transformation, one’s job is never over. Projects can always be improved, tweaked, or fine-tuned. In Luz’s case, she intends to help RLC continually deliver a better end-to-end customer experience. She is constantly reminded that her role is to “make lives easier for your stakeholders, to help them do their jobs better and faster.”
With this in mind, Luz says it becomes easier to visualize the possibilities for her customers, whether internal or external. “Right now, our work is not perfect, we acknowledge the fact that there are still gaps to fill. And with every new project we work on, we're uncovering even more gaps. So, that's the ultimate goal, to reach a point where the experience of each customer - be it a mall shopper, a resident in our condo, or a hotel visitor, will be frictionless and delightful!”
ALWAYS EVOLVING
Early in her managerial career, Luz admits to being an authoritarian boss. “I was even called ‘monster’ or ‘dragon’ behind my back,” she jokes. Luz explains that this initial management style was due to her still learning to deal with work pressure, and passing down this pressure to her team.
She also went through a “pacesetter” phase, where she expected everyone to move at the same work rate as she did. “This was also a bad style for me!” she candidly admits. “Not everyone can move at the same pace as you and everyone's different. We work differently, we all have different work styles.”
Nowadays, Luz is aiming to adapt an agile leadership style. “Agile is a big buzzword, but there’s a leadership style behind this. Basically, you are adaptable to whatever style a situation would call for yet focused on the goal. That’s the kind of leader I want to be.”
Reflecting on the way her mentors guided her career, Luz says she wants to do the same for the next generation of leaders. “I want to create an environment that fosters self-managing teams to thrive. Going back to the topic of empowerment, it was such an instrumental and pivotal phase in my life. If I didn't have that from my bosses, I wouldn't be the person that I am now. I want to make sure that whomever I work with will have that same environment, or at least teach them to be bold enough to face new challenges, to think outside the box, and not be afraid to soar to new heights. That was the most important gift that I received form my bosses, so now I want to share the same.”
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