W&R CEO Robin Michael Garcia on the academe, political advisory, and the passion that binds them.
Bridging academia and industry
More often than not, big ideas begin with a question and for Robin Michael Garcia, who was then a PhD student, the question was a “what” and a “how;” and the answer was a political advisory firm, called W&R, which he now leads as CEO.
“It really started when I was doing my PhD, and thinking about what are the other professors doing?” Robin shares, recalling his years at the Fudan University in Shanghai, China, where he obtained his PhD in International Politics.
“How did they use their research, the rigor, and the science to bridge into the industry that they are a part of?”
Robin was inspired by the likes of Condoleezza Rice, a faculty member of Standford University since 1981, who served as the national security adviser for former US president George W. Bush in 2001-2005 and as the 66th Secretary of State between 2005 and 2009. Also following the footsteps of the United States’ first female Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who is also a professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Henry Kissinger, former US security adviser and secretary of state, and once was a member of the Faculty of Harvard University, Robin ventured into bringing up a political advisory firm that remains faithful to its academic side.
Outside his political influences, Robin also looks at tech entrepreneurs, such as Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who have likewise pursued doctorates which they later applied in their fields.
“These are people who went on to do their doctorates, whether in political science or technology engineering, who moved beyond that but were still firmly in academia,” Robin notes.
Robin graduated top of his class at Fudan University, where he was awarded the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence. Before this, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Development Studies at the De La Salle University (DLSU) and a Master of Public Administration from the University of the Philippines.
Despite his accomplishments, Robin points out that what fueled his pursuit for higher studies was his passion for the social sciences.
“I was not the best student when I graduated high school or college. It’s really the passion for the field that drove me, and the belief in education and ideas,” he says.
Robin shared that at one point he stood in limbo between attending one of the country’s top law schools and Fudan University, where he was granted a scholarship. Ultimately, Robin opted to go to Shanghai under the influence of his mentors in DLSU; after all, Fudan University was amongst the best in the field. In 2021, QS World University Rankings data showed the university ranked 34th across the globe and 6th in Asia.
Today, as an assistant professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific, Robin teaches subjects related to international relations. He is also sought by local and foreign media for key insights concerning foreign policy issues, particularly on the Philippines and China. He has been cited by CNN Philippines, Manila Bulletin, Philippines Star, BusinessWorld, Al Jazeera, China Daily, and South China Morning Post among others. These are all on top of his role as chief of W&R and its subsidiary, WR Numero (WRN).
Robin owes his expertise in public policy and international relations to his years in the academe, but if there’s one lesson he holds that is worth noting, it is that political science cannot stay within the ivory tower. “We need to bridge academia to industry,” shares Robin on what drove him to establish W&R.
“What pieces this together is my passion for social science and understanding social and political behavior,” Garcia said
His brainchild: W&R
In a fast-changing world, riddled with uncertainties, preparing for risks is key in staying ahead of the game—a practice businesses know all too well. But often, these firms overlook risks arising from politics; and this is where W&R comes in. Robin wanted to put weight on how critical it is to identify political-economic risks early on as a way to cushion, if not at all dodge, the hard-hitting impact of political conflict.
At the onset, W&R advised industries, like banks, mining, telecom, and energy, on how politics affects businesses, using the tools of political science.
W&R’s unique data-driven approach allows the firm to monitor political-economic developments, identify political risks, analyze data, and plan strategies. Since its inception in 2018, the firm has produced country reports and briefings for companies not just in the Philippines, but also in Mongolia, and Myanmar. W&R has also built a policy advocacy strategy for an energy company based in the Philippines
Outside the Philippines, the firm also worked with international clients across the Asia-Pacific region, particularly Australia, Myanmar, and Mongolia.
At one point, W&R advised the Mongolian government agriculture ministry on market entry, which includes insights on political-economic factors to consider in exporting Mongolian products to Southeast Asian states.
W&R Plus
In the months leading to the 2019 midterm elections, however, just a year after Robin founded W&R, demand for political surveys and opinion research started to emerge; thus, WRN Research was created.
“It started with risk political advisory, political intelligence, and then into the technology space,” he says.
“It was just part of W&R. It was not established yet as a separate subsidiary, but we realized that we needed other people, aside from the people we have now. People with expertise in technology; that’s why we created an affiliate company to house all of that expertise in one room.”
WRN is a tech-driven public opinion research, and data analytics firm, through which Robin brought social science expertise and technology into the mix to generate a more accurate insight into the public’s sentiment.
Using advanced data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, sentiment analysis, surveys, and the like, WRN manages to analyze millions of data discourse and sentiment around the campaign period, allowing it to provide clients insights on how to improve chances of electability.
The firm also maximizes data accessible through the news and social media among others to better understand public views. Between 2020 and 2021, WR Numero has conducted surveys on Filipinos perception of China, corruption allegations against the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, and the non-renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise. Most recently, the company published a report detailing the social media influence of key political personalities who are in the running for the 2022 election.
Robin’s quest for innovation, however, is nowhere near over as he is yet again left with a question, this time he asks “where?”
“W&R is an advisory firm, and then we branched out into opinion research, but where will we use that data?” he says. The answer: communication strategy.
“Communications for elections, communications work for the private sector and for public affairs—that’s another area where we are expanding.”
What started out as a simple question has emerged into a company that aids industries and governments on political-economic obstacles and opportunities, all driven by passion.
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