For Abba Napa, co-founder and CEO of The Moment Group, hiring the right people used to seem straightforward: find those who are skilled, smart, and share your values. But over the years — and especially after the pandemic hit the food and beverage industry hard — her thinking evolved.
“I used to think, if we’re the same, then we’d work well together. We’d get along, move in the same direction, and everything would fall into place,” Napa says. “But I realized that’s not how great teams are built.”
Like many businesses in the F&B space, The Moment Group was hit hard by COVID-19. “We were really knocked to our knees,” she admits. “We lost so many good people. It forced us to take a hard look at how we were structured.”
That’s when Napa realized a powerful truth: you can’t build the right team until you understand what your organization is lacking — and what you, as a leader, don’t do well.
“Before anything else, you need to look in the mirror,” she says. “Ask yourself: what are my weaknesses? What are the skills I don’t have? What are the things our business isn’t doing well?”
She compares it to building a basketball team. “You can’t have five point guards. Even if they’re all great, the team still won’t win. You need defense, offense, people who can see the gaps and fill them.”
Once she began to understand both her own blind spots and those of her organization, she was able to hire with clarity and intention — choosing people who could complement, not replicate, the existing strengths of the team.
“It’s not just about hiring good people,” Napa says. “It’s about knowing what kind of people you actually need.”
The bottom line: Smart hiring starts with self-awareness. If you don’t know what your business is missing, you’ll never fill the gap — no matter how talented your team is.
This article includes quotes from an interview originally published by Esquire Philippines, authored by Henry Ong.
