Jorrell Ang came into my circle of awareness through his company Design Jutsu. I was working with an overseas client that needed some repetitive and labor intensive graphic design work and needed a group that was low cost and highly skilled. I initially reached out to the eLance.com community, but didn’t feel confident in the offers I received. I found Design Jutsu through a Google search and was instantly impressed with their portfolio of high-quality work. Since the request I had was unusual I wasn’t sure Jorrell’s team would take the job, but to my delight he accepted the work and exceeded my expectations. As a firm based in the Philippines, Jorrell is able to work effectively with U.S.-based and English speaking clients and I have used Design Jutsu for a wide range of projects and clients. It was my pleasure to offer Jorrell the opportunity to share a little about his personal entrepreneur story and the great work he and his staff do at Design Jutsu!

1. Career influences

The two biggest influences in my professional life are my ex-officemate, Jun Dolor (5 years ago) and 1902 Software CEO, Peter Skouhous. I started my career as a graphic designer and a desperate wannabe developer. When I applied for a web development job/web designer, Jun was my supervisor and seatmate. Unlike other senior staff, he taught me everything I know about web development. He was a very patient instructor and also a good friend. Unfortunately, he passed away because of a motorcycle accident a few weeks before I got promoted to senior developer. Without him, I wouldn’t be a developer. I really owe him a lot. I learned the business side of graphics, web design and customer relations while working for 1902 Software under Peter’s guidance and was promoted to Art Director.

2. Biggest career success

Every time my company, Design Jutsu, accomplishes something significant and wins a long term client it is always a big success for me. Having good office staff I can trust and rely on are also big career successes. Without them Jutsu wouldn’t have grown to where it is today.

3. Recent lessons learned

Everyday is a battle. Having everything setup to do business is not enough. My people need me as much as I need them.

4. What inspires and motivates

I want to be one of the best companies in our field. We may not be number 1 but when people hear Jutsu, I want them to know who we are and what we can deliver. Like Coke is to Cola, and McDonald’s is to fast-food, we envision Jutsu to be synonymous with Graphic Design. This idea is our fuel as we deliver results to our clients. We’re in a 3rd world country, as they say, but I want to prove that we can deliver world class results and we should think, act, and deliver like one.

5. Share a leadership story

I’m transparent to my staff. I tell them that we will not be working together forever and there will come a time that we will part ways for different reasons and situations. But when that time comes, I hope that they will leave Jutsu as a better person. I want Jutsu to be the place where they learned and improved their skills, furthered their careers and improved their lives. This is the type of impact my friend Jun Dolor had with me and since he is already gone, I want to impact other people the same way he helped me and changed my life.

6. Your Top Two

It’s not the software, computers or machines that are needed to operate the business. The most important part of a business is always the people. Without the passionate involvement of staff business is lost.

Treat people like you want to be treated. Put yourself in their shoes. With this approach work is much easier and performance comes naturally. Also, if you see that your staff has the potential to do more, then don’t hinder them, support them instead. You may discover many hidden talents!

7. About Jorrell

Jorrell Ang was a graphic/web designer and web developer before he started Design Jutsu. Jorrell says, “I started with 2 people, one marketing and one designer, as an extension of myself but luckily we grew to 8 people on our team in just a year. I’m very lucky to have them as part of my team. They are more like family than employees.”

JUTSU is an IT company focused on graphic and website design. They also do web development as a secondary product. Jutsu saw an opportunity with the problem IT companies had finding the right designer. When the company found a single designer they became locked into the style of that particular designer. As a result, Design Jutsu gathered talented and skillful designers with many diverse skills that could meet the varied and changing needs of other IT companies and small business.

Jorrell personally trains and develops his staff to harness and strengthen their skills and unique design styles. Jutsu can create many types of designs; from corporate to fashion and even personal. Jutsu designers are both talented and skillful. Skills can be learned but talents are natural gifts. This unique combination of talent and skill are what make their strategically selected staff unique.

Website: http://www.designjutsu.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designjutsu
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DesignJutsu
Linkedin: http://ph.linkedin.com/pub/jorrell-ang/26/978/264

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