Name: Alberto L. Lumbayan Jr.

Date: October 4, 2020

REFLECTION PAPER
A person who fears challenges are the ones who can never achieve success.

The bigger the challenge is, the bigger the fear of a person to take it. You see,

challenges are part of our everyday lives. It makes us stronger. Without them, it seems

that life has no meaning. Some may take challenges as a curse; some may take it as

God’s plan. Either of the two, everyone should face challenges with stronger minds and

positivity that they could handle it.

We’ve often heard of stories about how a smaller entity fought and won against a

larger entity, just like how David beats Goliath and how Jack stole the golden goose

from a giant. In these stories, the smaller entity won against their adversary, but this

seems not to be the case in real life. The case study “Crest vs Colgate” Toothpaste

talks about how crest toothpaste fought against Colgate within Colgate’s territory.

In this case study, it taught us to face big or small challenges. When in times of

failure, it taught us to learn from our mistakes and be better the next time. These

lessons may sound enormous, but these opens up my mind in facing challenges. Mr.

Edwin Totanes faced challenges at an early age of his career in P&G Corporation. But it

didn’t result as easy as he thought it would be. The company was a beginner in

personal care category, that’s why it was a challenge for Mr. Totanes to lead the team.

But being optimistic, they succeed in launching the crest toothpaste in Visayas region,

and soon after, launched it in other regions in the Philippines. The launching of Crest

was not the “successful” one because the giant company – Colgate, was the leading

brand in the Philippines. It was a big challenge for the Crest to go beyond Colgate. But

again, Mr. Totanes didn’t stop from there. He made an advertisement scheme that he

thought would make the Crest toothpaste in the Philippines recognized. Another
Name: Alberto L. Lumbayan Jr. Date: October 4, 2020
REFLECTION PAPER
challenge that Mr. Totanes faced was the approval of the management to air the

advertisement scheme that he made. The management rejected it. He has nothing to do

with it because he was just an employee of P&G Corporation. Despite to this, he still

aired the advertisement he made for Crest toothpaste. After the release, Crest

toothpaste was recognized and leveled the Colgate Philippines. Later replaced with

another advertisement because the management didn’t approve the first advertisement.

In my point of view, it seems to me that the management didn’t trust Mr. Totanes’ ability

to make Crest Toothpaste recognized in the Philippines. If I was on his shoes, I would

be very down and may quit my job in P&G Corporation. Despite all of this, Mr. Totanes

stand firm and continued to follow what the management told him to do.

Above all, lessons that can be learned from this case study are – respect, being

optimistic, and face challenges with stronger soul and positive minds. With these, I think

everyone can achieve success.