After nearly four decades in the Philippine IT industry, AGC Group through SLI Consulting is evolving its approach to IT consulting and staff augmentation. Led by President Gabriel Cervantes, the company is placing greater emphasis on long-term client relationships, project employee engagement, incentives and a more responsive workforce model as it adapts to the changing needs of Philippine businesses.
When Gabriel Cervantes entered this business, IT consulting was not exactly where he expected his career to lead.
A graduate of De La Salle University with a degree in Advertising Management, Cervantes began his career in advertising and social media. He worked with agencies including Publicis JimenezBasic and Digital FCB Manila, managing social media and digital work for major consumer and hospitality brands. He later co-founded All Goods Social, a creative and social media agency with university friends.
His eventual move into the business was a very different challenge.
Today, Cervantes serves as President of SLI Consulting Inc., a Philippine IT consulting and staff augmentation company that has been operating for nearly four decades.
“I came from advertising and social media, so I naturally looked at the business from a different perspective,” Cervantes said. “I was used to asking why people were engaging with a brand, what their experience was, and how we could build better relationships. I eventually realized that many of those same principles apply to running a business.”
Entering a Business With Decades of History
SLI Consulting’s Leadership had already built decades of experience in the Philippine IT industry before Cervantes joined its leadership. https://www.sliconsulting.com.ph/
But the company was also carrying the challenges that can come with a long-established business.
The technology industry had changed. Client expectations had changed. The workforce had changed. Yet some of the company’s established processes and habits had remained largely the same.
For Cervantes, the challenge was not simply to introduce new ideas. It was to determine which parts of the business needed to evolve while preserving the experience and relationships that had allowed SLI Consulting to operate for decades.
One area quickly became apparent: relationships.
Traditionally, client interactions could become heavily focused on solving problems when they arose. Cervantes wanted SLI Consulting to move toward a more proactive relationship with clients, creating more regular touchpoints and more reasons to engage outside of a crisis.
That meant more client visits, regular meetings, relationship-building activities and a greater emphasis on understanding what clients actually needed from their technology workforce.
The same philosophy was applied internally.
Moving Beyond the Traditional Staff Augmentation Model
For SLI Consulting, the people it deploys to clients are central to the business.
These project employees are not simply numbers on a roster. They represent SLI Consulting every day inside client organizations.
Cervantes began pushing for greater engagement with project employees, including more accessible HR support, stronger incentives and commissions, and more opportunities for the company to maintain a relationship with employees throughout their assignment.
“The people we deploy are the ones who ultimately deliver the experience our clients receive,” Cervantes said. “If we want to take care of our clients, we also have to take care of the people representing us.”
This has become an increasingly important part of how SLI Consulting approaches staff augmentation.
Rather than viewing the business purely as matching an IT professional to a vacancy, the company is working toward a model built around three connected relationships: the client, the technology professional and SLI Consulting itself.
Learning Through the Pandemic
The transformation accelerated during one of the most difficult periods for businesses: the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like many companies, SLI Consulting had to make difficult adjustments as businesses moved rapidly to remote work and uncertainty affected the economy.
There were periods when the company had to reduce expenses and make difficult decisions. But the leadership team ultimately focused on retaining its people while adapting to a technology industry that continued to experience demand as businesses moved online and embraced remote work.
For Cervantes, the period reinforced an important lesson about leadership.
The company did not get through the pandemic because of one person. It survived through collective effort, difficult compromises and the resilience of its people.
That experience also shaped how Cervantes views his role today.
From Managing a Company to Building an Organization
One of Cervantes’ priorities now is making SLI Consulting less dependent on any single person, including its president.
That means developing people who can make decisions, take ownership of client relationships and solve problems without waiting for everything to reach the top.
For a company with decades of history, modernization is therefore not simply about adopting new technology.
It is also about changing how people work together.
“Leadership isn’t about making yourself indispensable,” Cervantes said. “The goal is to build an organization where people can take ownership, take care of clients and keep things moving even when the president isn’t in the room.”
That philosophy reflects Cervantes’ own transition into leadership.
His early years in advertising taught him creativity and communication. Building a startup agency taught him resilience and the realities of entrepreneurship. Entering the family business taught him that leadership also means inheriting problems that existed long before you arrived and taking responsibility for solving them.
Today, those experiences inform his approach to SLI Consulting.
Building the Next Chapter of SLI Consulting
SLI Consulting continues to operate within the company’s core strength: helping organizations access qualified IT professionals through consulting and staff augmentation.
But its direction is increasingly focused on building a more modern experience around that core business.
For clients, that means becoming a more proactive technology workforce partner rather than simply a supplier of resources.
For project employees, it means greater engagement, better support and a stronger connection with the company behind their assignment.
And for SLI Consulting itself, it means building an organization capable of carrying its nearly four decades of experience into its next chapter.
For Cervantes, the journey from social media to the C-suite was never part of a predetermined career plan.
It was a series of unexpected opportunities, difficult problems and lessons from both success and failure.
The work now is less about changing SLI Consulting for the sake of change and more about making sure the company remains relevant for the next generation of clients and technology professionals.
“Malayo na, but malayo pa,” Cervantes said. “We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a lot more to build.”
Learn more aobut SLI Consulting: https://www.sliconsulting.com.ph/
