PLDT Global COO Edith Gomez-Cudiamat champions culture-first leadership at ACC CXO Forum

HONG KONG – As organizations navigate a business environment shaped by artificial intelligence, shifting geopolitical and economic dynamics, and fast-changing customer expectations, leaders at the ACC CXO Forum in Hong Kong kept arriving at the same conclusion: technology may enable transformation, but culture determines whether it succeeds.

PLDT Global Chief Operating Officer Edith Gomez-Cudiamat put culture at the center of how organizations adapt, execute, and thrive amid constant change. Resilience, trust, adaptability, and innovation all came up across the forum. Gomez-Cudiamat pointed to culture as the force that connects them and turns strategy into action.

This people-centered approach has helped PLDT Global keep pace in a business environment where speed, adaptability, and collaboration matter more than ever. The company treats culture as more than an organizational value. It is a strategic business enabler that empowers teams to innovate, respond decisively to change, and deliver value to customers and partners worldwide.

At PLDT Global, that culture has a name: Malasakit. It is the genuine care that pushes teams to go beyond expectations, keep learning, and take ownership, for colleagues, customers, partners, and communities alike. It shows up as collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning, with employees at every level empowered to contribute ideas, challenge conventional thinking, and own outcomes. As technologies reshape business models, the company sees an agile, empowered workforce as one of its strongest competitive advantages.

Gomez-Cudiamat built on a well-known maxim to show that culture’s reach goes well beyond strategy development. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast,” she said. “And I would respectfully add, culture also determines whether strategy survives the rest of the day. Because culture influences the thousands of decisions people make every day when no one is watching.”

She added that culture matters even more as organizations adopt emerging technologies and new ways of working. Businesses keep investing in digital transformation and AI-powered solutions. Lasting success, however, depends on how people respond to change, collaborate, and make decisions across the organization.

She stressed that culture is not defined by slogans or values statements. “Culture is not the poster on the wall. Leadership drives culture and moves transformation forward,” she said.

The forum brought together senior executives and decision-makers from telco, technology, fintech, hyperscalers, and other business sectors. They discussed leadership, growth, innovation, and the impact of technological disruption. Speakers returned again and again to people-centric leadership, trust, collaboration, and organizational agility.

Gomez-Cudiamat also urged leaders to share decision-making and accountability across teams so organizations can move faster and respond better to change.

In an age of constant disruption, she emphasized, culture is more than what defines an organization. It is what turns strategy into execution, enables transformation, and helps an organization endure and succeed.