From Social Media to IT Consulting: How SLI Consulting Is Rethinking IT Staff Augmentation

  

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/

About SLI Consulting

SLI Consulting Inc. (SLIC) is a Philippine IT consulting and staff augmentation company with nearly four decades of experience in the technology industry. The company helps organizations access qualified IT professionals and workforce solutions tailored to their business requirements.

SLI Consulting has evolved alongside the Philippine technology industry while maintaining its focus on connecting businesses with technology talent. Today, the company works with organizations across industries through IT staff augmentation and consulting solutions, supported by dedicated teams focused on client service and project employee engagement.

SLI Consulting is part of the AGC Group, a Philippine business group with interests in technology, managed services, recruitment and marketing.

Core services: IT Staff Augmentation, IT Consulting, Technology Workforce Solutions

No Room for Nonchalance in Fil-Am Visual Artist Chels Munger’s First Solo Exhibition, "Glass Houses"

 

Breakout 22-year-old visual artist  explores themes of loss, grief, remembrance, and reckoning in her first one-woman show at Gallery BIG.

Contrary to her Gen Z peers, Fil-Am visual artist Chels Munger feels life is too short and unpredictable for nonchalance and emotional detachment.

“We don’t know what’s gonna happen even next week, next month — let alone five years. I think if there’s something that you want to be said, there’s something that you want to do, there’s something you want to act on — especially creatively — I really feel like we should just go for it,” the young artist says.

Five years ago, life  looked different for then-17-year-old Chels, who lived in Valencia, California with her parents and her only brother, Seth. Then came some unwelcome turbulence that changed the shape of their family — and then, her mother Rachel’s unexpected cancer diagnosis. After a valiant, three-year battle, her mom passed away in 2024, leaving Chels, then 20, and her brother Seth, then 18, to redefine what their family and future would look like.

“These past five years have been a lot of just me and my brother, really clinging together, and I think it really taught me to just… speak my voice. It’s like, okay, there’s no going back now. It’s really just me. All of this relies on me. I need to do this for myself. And if this is how I’m feeling, I should express it, because I bet there’s someone out there who feels the same way.”

Grief mixed with oil on canvas

Chels Munger leaves no feeling unexpressed in Glass Houses. Each piece feels like oil, acrylic, or various tactile media mixed in with the involuntary tears, the unarticulated ache, the deep longing and grief — and the eventual self-reckoning — that came with her mother’s loss.

“The first piece was “Counting Sheep”— and that whole piece was really about anticipatory grief,” Chels recounts.

“My mom was going through her treatments, and things just kept getting worse, you know. So a lot of it was, I guess, just expressing those feelings. The way things were going in the U.S., too. — I was even afraid to lose my brother. I think all those fears and anxieties manifested into that piece.”

The work was so powerful and emotionally resonant, that when Chels posted about it, her maternal grandfather — multi-awarded Filipino visual artist Roy Veneracion — messaged her to say how much he liked her work, and asked if she was ready to show her piece in the Philippines.

What Chels thought was meant to be a one-piece contribution to a group show, turned out to be the seeds — “a push”, she describes it — for around  20 completed works and her first solo exhibition in the Philippines.

A next-generation artist comes into her own

Besides the death of her mother, diving into painting was the plot twist Chels did not see coming.

“I was always really stubborn,” she admits. “So I was like, oh, my grandpa is a painter, so I'm gonna do everything but paint.”

As hard as she tried, though, painting was the only art form that allowed Chels to release and, quite literally, handle her emotions.

“I got to a point where, emotionally, I couldn't strike exactly what I was feeling unless it was painting, and that's really where it came out,” Chels shares. “At our house in the U.S.,  every single wall is filled with [Roy Veneracion] paintings. Wow! So I really did grow up looking at his work at all times and constantly observing it, even if we didn't really get to paint together much. I definitely put a lot of those things kind of in the back of my head.”

As a debut exhibition, Glass Houses introduces the art public to Chels Munger’s unique style — informed by her influences and her lived experience, but decidedly and  boldly, her own. She writes in her artist statement: 

“Each piece’s surface consists of oil or acrylic paint, layered over with oil pastels, text cutouts, and tactile media. Text plays a central role in my process, leaving clues for narrative or meaning. Deeply inspired by music — especially the emotional complexity captured by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke — my work toes the line between tension and tenderness, exploring recurring themes of family, relationship dynamics, regression, and growth.”

“In my process, I feel like a sculptor chiseling away at a rugged surface until I find the form underneath. I invite viewers to explore these vulnerable corridors and discover what they find. Everything is up to your own interpretation; take what sticks and toss the rest. The work does not ask you to understand it, but rather to better understand yourself."

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Glass Houses runs from October 1 to 25, 2026 at Gallery BIG, 4/F Main Wing of the Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Mandaluyong City. 

For Opening Reception and Press Inquires: Email chelra.art@ninasnotebook.com and nathrondina@gmail.com.  

For Catalogue and Acquisition inquiries: Contact Gallery BIG on social media or call (+63 2) 8775.8888. You may also reach out directly to Gallery BIG sales staff: Megan (+63 977 8265943), Tess (+63 977 826 5989) or Darwin (+63 977 826 5980).

Growing appetite for poultry – Philippine market boosts production and imports

September is part of the rainy season in the Philippines, a time when pagkaing pang-ulan – warm, hearty dishes enjoyed on rainy days – are especially popular. Chicken features prominently in many of these dishes and has long been a familiar part of Filipino cuisine and a popular choice among consumers. But its importance extends far beyond seasonal menus. Chicken consumption in the Philippines continues to grow and, according to USDA forecasts, is expected to reach around 2.38 million tonnes in 2026. Rising demand is being met by increasing domestic production, complemented by imports, including supplies from the European Union.

Rising demand drives the poultry market

Growing chicken consumption in the Philippines is going hand in hand with higher domestic production. According to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service in Manila, chicken consumption in the Philippines was estimated at 2.236 million tonnes in 2025, up from 2.060 million tonnes a year earlier – an increase of around 8.5%.

Figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority also point to clear growth in domestic production. In the fourth quarter of 2025, poultry production reached 858.36 thousand tonnes, up 8.9% year on year. Chicken, which accounted for 71.5% of total poultry production, increased by 9.4% over the same period.

A growing market draws on multiple sources of supply

Alongside rising domestic production, imports provide an additional source of supply for the Philippine market. According to the Bureau of Animal Industry, the Philippines imported 540.5 thousand tonnes of chicken meat in 2025, 14.47% more than a year earlier. EU countries are also among the Philippines’ international suppliers. European Commission data show that 67.3 thousand tonnes of poultry were exported from the EU to the Philippines in 2025, up from 41.3 thousand tonnes the previous year – an increase of more than 63%. 

Poland was the largest EU supplier, exporting 45.4 thousand tonnes of poultry to the Philippine market in 2025, accounting for more than two-thirds of total EU exports to the country. In the first half of 2026, Poland accounted for around 84% of EU poultry supplies to the Philippines.

“Rising poultry consumption in the Philippines creates opportunities both for the development of local production and for cooperation with international suppliers. For importers, processors and the foodservice sector, reliable supply, product quality and food safety are key considerations. The EU poultry sector has extensive experience in serving international markets and can meet these needs by offering products produced in line with the common standards that apply across the European Union,” says Dariusz Goszczyński, President of the National Poultry Council – Chamber of Commerce (KRD-IG) in Poland.

Common standards for EU poultry production

Poultry production in the European Union is subject to common regulations covering areas such as food safety, hygiene, animal health and welfare, and traceability. At the same time, well-developed production and logistics infrastructure makes it possible to supply distant markets, including the Philippines.

The principles of European poultry production are presented to Filipino consumers and industry representatives through the “European Poultry – From Our Farms to Your Tables” campaign, co-funded by the European Union. The campaign aims to raise awareness of production standards and the origin of European poultry products.

The New Luxury in Aesthetics Is Collagen: Why MOLD Urban Premier Is Leading With XERF

 

MOLD Urban Premier is redefining luxury aesthetics in Makati with XERF, placing collagen stimulation, subtle results, and long-term skin quality at the center of its approach to advanced aesthetic care.

The idea of luxury in aesthetics is evolving. For increasingly discerning clients, premium care is becoming less about dramatic transformation and more about skin quality, subtle results, and treatments chosen with the future in mind.

MOLD Urban Premier (MUP), an advanced aesthetics concept in Makati, is building its approach around this shift.

At the center of its treatment portfolio is XERF, a non-surgical radiofrequency technology designed to deliver energy at multiple depths to support collagen remodeling and address concerns such as skin laxity and facial definition.

The decision to lead with XERF reflects MUP’s philosophy: “Aesthetics, considered over time.”

Rather than treating aesthetics as a series of isolated procedures, MUP takes a longer-term approach through its Assess, Prioritize, Treat, Preserve, Review method. The goal is to identify what a client needs now while considering how each treatment fits into their overall aesthetic plan.

Collagen plays an important role in that approach. As natural collagen production declines with age, changes in firmness, elasticity, and skin structure become more noticeable. Technologies that support collagen remodeling offer another way to approach these concerns without relying solely on treatments that immediately add volume or significantly alter facial features.

For MUP, this represents a more considered definition of premium care: knowing what to treat, when to treat it, and when additional intervention may not be necessary.

XERF also reflects the type of result MUP intends to champion. Collagen remodeling develops progressively, making the technology suited to clients who prefer improvements that emerge over time rather than an immediately obvious change.

This is particularly relevant as aesthetic preferences continue to move toward results that preserve individual features and allow patients to look refreshed without appearing noticeably treated.

With XERF as its hero technology, MOLD Urban Premier is positioning collagen not simply as another aesthetic trend, but as part of a broader movement toward longevity-minded care.

At MUP, the new luxury is not necessarily more treatment. It is better-timed, better-considered treatment designed to preserve what already looks like you.

About Mold Urban Premier

MOLD Urban Premier (MUP) is an advanced aesthetics and skin longevity clinic in Makati and the newest branch of MOLD Manila. MUP combines carefully selected aesthetic technologies with individualized treatment planning focused on skin tightening, collagen support, skin quality, regenerative aesthetics, facial refinement, and long-term maintenance.