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JOHN GOKONGWEI: his informational and inspiring story

From RSG speech given more than 10 years ago but still very relevant today.

Speech delivered last March 1, 2002 during the launch of the Ateneo de Manila University John Gokongwei School of Management

Good morning.

I am John Gokongwei, Jr. I am not an Atenean but I feel at home with you. Today, at least.

Sixty-two years ago, I could not have dreamt of appearing before the Jesuits and their students to tell the story of MY life. I was no more than a student then, at San Carlos University in Cebu, when my father died suddenly. It left me, the eldest, the responsibility of taking care of my mother and five siblings. That was tough for someone who was 13. Creditors had just seized our home and business and I had no experience with earning a living.

But here I am--not all on account of my good looks or charming personality--but because I somehow survived. And when I look back, I know now that I did so because I recognized CHANGE when I saw it.

The first change was war. I had turned 15. My mother had already sent my brothers and sister to China where the cost of living was lower. From Cebu, she and I had to make money to send to them.

I turned to peddling. My day began at 5 in the morning. I would load my bicycle with soap, thread, and candles, and then bike to neighboring towns to sell my goods. On market days, I would rent a stall, lay out the goods from the bike, and make about 20 pesos a day, enough for me to survive and to buy even more goods for next time. Those days, you might call my BICYCLE AGE.

After two years of biking and peddling, at 17, I entered my BATEL AGE. The batel was a small, very utilitarian boat that defied the open sea and would take me farther from Cebu and all the way to Lucena, from where I would take a truck to Manila, with companions twice or thrice my age. The sea trips could take two to three weeks depending on the weather, and the land trips another five to six hours. (I was lighter then, you can imagine.)

On the batel, I read books like Gone with the Wind under the great blue sky to pass away the time, even if we traders were always in fear of sea pirates and the bad weather.

Once, our batel hit a rock and sank. Thank heavens for my rubber tires! Those were the goods I had with me to sell in Manila. Well, we all held on to those tires, which meant I saved all those traders and those traders saved all my tires.

At that time, the War was still going on. Ironically, I look back at the War with the fondest of memories. It was the great equalizer. Almost everyone I knew had lost big and small fortunes at the time. This meant we all started at ground zero. Ground zero meant living by our wits alone; ground zero meant starting equal; ground zero was where I discovered I was an entrepreneur.

When the War ended, I was 19. Because of the war, the economy was more dependent than ever on imports. So when I set up Amasia, my first company, it was to import textile remnants, fruit, old newspapers and magazines, and used clothing from the US.

There was a side benefit to this. I would wear some of my own stock, so I would have different clothes to wear when I went courting Elizabeth, the woman who would be my wife. But at the end of it, I made some money.

The Bicycle Age was over. The TRADING AGE began.

By then, my brothers and sister returned from China. Together, we worked in the trading business I had begun: as bodegeros, clerks, warehousemen, cashiers, and collectors. And all this while they were all still going to school; me, I stopped schooling. Like most Chinese-Filipino families, we worked where we lived, and at times, we had to endure the stench of rotten oranges and potatoes filling our two-story apartment.

By the early '50s, we were importing cigarettes and whiskey as well. Business was good. But two factors made me change strategies again. First, I saw that trading would in time become a low-margin business BECAUSEwe were at the mercy of our suppliers and buyers. Second, I saw that the government was working on import-substitution policies to encourage local business. President Quirino wanted to shore up the country's foreign exchange reserves that had been depleted as a result of the high importation of the post-war years.

So I decided to enter the AGE of MANUFACTURING. In 1957, I started a corn milling plant producing glucose and cornstarch. Why cornstarch? Because I thought--and it turned out, correctly--that the unglamorous cornstarch would be in great demand from better known businesses like textiles, paper, ice cream, pharmaceuticals, and beer.

But there was one problem: I needed capital. That was not easy. I was 30, had no big company success to back me up, and I didn't know any bankers.

Thankfully, Dr. Albino Sycip, then chairman of China Bank, and DK Chiong, then president, gave me a clean loan of P500,000 to start my business. He would be asked later why he did that and he said something about knowing a good man when he saw one. (Maybe he knew something I didn't.) Anyway, from there Universal Corn Products, the predecessor of Universal Robina Corporation, was born.

Of course, the bigger cornstarch players did not give us an easy time. They engaged us in a price war. That is a nice way of saying they tried to kill us by selling low.

But we prevailed, and started to get clients like San Miguel Corporation. It was my first real taste of competition. And I liked it. I think THAT first experience prepared me for the bigger, tougher competitors in my future.

By 1961, cornstarch was becoming a commodity, and I saw that there was no future in a business where we had to keep lowering margins to survive.

It was time to get into the bigger, and riskier, game played by big multinationals like Procter and Gamble and Nestle. I saw that all they did to capture the market was to brand their products, for instance their coffee and their toothpaste. That is, give their coffee and toothpaste a name, a face, and an image that customers would instantly recognize and identify with quality. Me, I dreamt that one day I would be the Philippine Nestle or General Foods. So the Manufacturing Age for me was giving way to the AGE of BRANDS.

So, we put up CFC, and our first successful product was Blend 45, an instant coffee we put out to directly compete with Nestle's Nescafe. We positioned it as "the poor man's coffee," hired top movie star Susan Roces to endorse it, and employed Procter-and-Gamble veterans to sell it. Basically, we took a page out of the multinational book, and applied it to our business. We gave our coffee, snack food, candy, and chocolates a name, a face, an image. Today, Jack and Jill, Max candy, and Cloud 9 have become household names.

It was also at this time that I returned to school for an MBA--with all due respect to the Jesuits, at De La Salle University--and a decade later, for a 14-week advanced management program at Harvard. Going back to the university for studies which war had interrupted gave me an appreciation, believe me, for the beauty and the breadth of business life. This is something I believe I would never have gained if I had chosen to stop my education.

The success of URC opened up many opportunities for our group. We had the choice to focus on food where we were very successful-or to pursue other businesses. We decided that there were too many good opportunities to pass up, and that remaining in our comfort zone would stunt our growth. So we got into the Age of Expansion.

For the next two decades, we pursued businesses that answered positive on FOUR CRUCIALQUESTIONS.

First: Is there a market?

Second: Could we compete against both local and foreign players?

Third: Could we find the right people for the job and did we have enough capital to pursue the business?

Last and most important: Did we have the stomach for it? That is, could we take the sleepless nights, the cutthroat competition?

We went into textiles, retail, real estate, telecommunications, aviation, banking, and petrochemicalsbecause we said YES to all those questions. Still, in all those industries, we were faced with tough and worthy competitors: the mighty SM Department Stores and Malls, the unbeatable PLDT, the entrenched Philippine Airlines and the powerful San Miguel Corporation. Most pundits expected us to fail. They were wrong. Robinsons Stores and Mall, Digitel, Cebu Pacific Air and Universal Robina Corporation are now market leaders in their respective fields.

That's because they offered the public a choice.

Remember the story of David and Goliath? Every industry has its Goliath. But every David knows that all giants have their weaknesses. Every weakness is an opportunity.

In a few months, we will launch our mobile services to compete with two giants, Globe and Smart. Our stomachs are churning for sure, but we know that we faced similar challenges before, and we are hopeful we can prove the pundits wrong again.

In the past decade, which is one-sixth of my entire business life, the company has tripled in size. This was the decade when our companies raised money from the global equity and debt markets, brought our companies public, and hired the best professionals to run them. In six decades, we grew from a one-man team to a group with 30,000 employees.

Now I am in what you can probably call the AGE of GLOBALIZATION. I am always asked where I stand on this issue. I say that it does NOT matter where I stand because as sure as the Ateneo Basketball Team will win next year's UAAP championship, global barriers will come crashing down, and we have no choice but to prepare ourselves for that.

Still, our company will not take globalization sitting down. OUR future and the country's depend on how we act now. JG operates branded food concerns in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Hongkong, China, and soon, Vietnam. We also sell our snack foods in India, Korea, and Taiwan--one of the few ASEAN companies to do so.

In a few years, when foreign products find their way into OUR shopping carts as they already have, we want Piattos and Chippy to find their way into THEIR shopping carts as well. Our dream is to be the first group to plant the Philippine flag throughout Asia.

As I look back, I ask myself, "What if I had stopped at cornstarch?" I would probably be the owner of the biggest cornstarch group in the country today or just as possibly, be broke.

But I chose to live my life unafraid even during times when I WAS afraid. I discovered that opportunities don't find you;/ you find your opportunities. I found those opportunities when MY FATHER PASSED AWAY, WHENWAR CAME, THROUGH CHANGES IN PRESIDENTS AND THEIR POLICIES, DURING MARTIAL LAW,DESPITE COUP DE ETATS, PAST ECONOMIC BOOMS AND BUSTS, AND IN THE MIDST OF MARKETSHIFTS AND MOVEMENTS.

Now I'm 75 and retired. And funny, but I often wonder what ever happened to my first bike! The bike that was my companion during those first years when my family had lost everything. I wonder where it is now? That bike reminds me that success is not necessarily about connections, or cutting corners, or chamba--the three Cs of bad business.

Call it trite--but, believe me, success CAN BE ACHIEVED through hard work, frugality, integrity, responsiveness to change--and most of all, boldness to dream. These have never been just easy slogans for me. I have lived by them.

I hope that many of you in this room will some day choose to be entrepreneurs. Choose to be entrepreneur because then YOU create value. Choose to be an entrepreneur because the products, services, and jobs you create then become the lifeblood of our nation. But most of all, choose to be an entrepreneur because then you desire a life of adventure, endless challenge, and the opportunity to be your BEST SELF.

Thank you.

[dailyfairytale]

4 Essential Work Realisations: A (sort of) motivational speech - CAJ, 2015

In the past months that I have been joining the Good Morning Talk (GMT), I have heard all sorts of motivational speeches that speaks about values believes, leaderships, and goals. This week I would like to focus on the things that all previous speeches aims to mold and strengthen - WORK.

At the age of 16, while others would care about how they look, or what time would their crush pass by the corridor, I would always worry about how I won't get punished by my superior in ROTC, and how my part-time work would be like after school. But don't, worry I have my piece of fun when I was in college, so don't feel sorry :)

For those who are not familiar with quasi-military training, candidates are trained both mental and physical. Most of the time, you'll lack sleep, you tend to over work, and always being challenged to extraneous activities. You are also asked to memorise things that would install values to your core (something to keep you sane, much yet give meaning to what you are doing though most of the time there are none). Every time a superior try to ask you a question, you should have an answer to that. If not, well, it is okay. You just have to suffer the consequences whether through ridicule, exercise, or other means that would let you tell yourself "I can't afford to feel shit everyday. I should do something about it". The same goes in a workplace. We are challenged every single day to the tip of the mountain to make a better view of the big picture - to make better versions of ourselves, and so I have came across four realisations, and in order to explain them clearly, allow me to discuss each one through short story and poems.

1. The Story of the Priest and the Nun

A Priest offered a Nun a lift.

She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to reveal a leg. The priest nearly had an accident

After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg.

The nun said, "Father, remember Luke 14:10?"

The Priest removed his hand. But, changing gears, he let his hand slide up her leg again.

The nun once again said, "Father, remember Luke 14:10?"

The Priest apologised "Sorry sister but the flesh is weak"

On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to look up Luke 14:10 (American Std. ver) "Go forth and seek, further up, you will find glory."

NUMBER 1 - KNOW YOUR WORK

I found this joke online, and seeing it was like love at first sight. I don't know if there are traditional catholics who may found this offensive, but for what it's worth, it was just to catch your attention.

Even with a degree we are always dumbfounded as we enter the work force "Sino ba magsasabi na alam na nila ang ginagawa nila first time nila pumasok sa trabaho?" (Who will say we know what we are doing from the very start?).

Yes, everything can be learned but learning something is different from knowing it by heart. And in any profession, we must know the ins and outs of our work. Only then, we can say that we ar worthy our position. Besides, who knows how much "opportunities" we might be missing, right?

If you don't like your work, You'll need three time the energy: To force yourself to work, to resist the fore, and finally to work.

If you love your work, Your desire to do it will be like the wind to propel your ship with much less fuel.

If you like your work, you work no more - For your work when you like it, is no longer, but sheer enjoyment!

If you enjoy your work, you'll work and work without counting the hours, and you'll reap and enjoy more earnings as well.

NUMBER 2 - LOVE YOUR WORK

This is a poem by H.L. Neri, and this captures the idea on how a person's behaviour would portray the way they see their job. Often times we are asked by our boss "Mahal mo ba ang trabaho mo?" (Do you love your work?) specially when they get furious about something. Then you'll realise how you truly love your work if you no longer feel that you are working at all.

If you work for a man in heaven's name, work for him, speak well of him, and stand by the institution in which he represents. Remember that an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness. If you must growl, condemn or eternally find fault, resign your position and when you're outside damn to your heart's content. But as long as you are part of the institution, never condemn. For if you do, the first high wind that comes along will blow you away, and you probably never know why.

A great piece by Elbert Hubbard and our NUMBER 3 - LOYALTY. Once you know your work, and realises that you love it, then you must be loyal to the same institution that you work for. Remember, that we are only as good as our actions and values. We should learn to appreciate the institution that puts food in our table, and do everything that we can to help it. Otherwise, you should give it a chance to prosper even that would mean - YOU- should not be a part of it.

Lastly, NUMBER 4 - DON'T QUIT. Whatever it is that you are facing, you should keep moving forward. Besides, whenever you fall, there is no way but UP.

According to Lance Armstrong, "Pain is temporary. It may last a minute or an hour, or a day, or a year. But eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If you quit however, it lasts forever."

KNOW YOUR WORK. LOVE YOUR WORK.BE LOYAL.DON'T QUIT

Have a nice day ahead and enjoy the rest of the week.

Good Morning

[dailyfairytale]

"Typical human beings would normally say -- I wish I was born rich, so I can do anything I want--. Mine would be, "I wish I was born rich, with a heart of a child, instinct of a trader, bravery of a hero, and mind of a Philantrophist"

C Jimeno 2015

[dailyfairytale]

How do you measure laziness?

In light of my earlier post titled "Amidst darkness,there is Faith", I mentioned that during our GMT, an executive would do a response. He related the speech to laziness and tardiness. He said, how can you say if a person is lazy or tardy? Can it be measured? How can it be measured? Or is it relative?

I stopped, and started thinking. Then, a co-worker of mine said "it can be measure through output or result", but I disagree.

Now, the boss asked me personally, and I'm still contemplating. What do you think? - How do you measure laziness?

[dailyfairytale]

Amidst darkness, there is Faith

Every Monday morning we have our "GOOD MORNING TALK" A.K.A GMT. A company employee is assigned to give a speech that is rather inspirational, and an executive would do a response connecting the speech to our day-to-day work.

Today, a colleague of mine shared a story about a teacher and a student. She read the script as if both characters are speaking to each other. The teacher is implying that God does not exist, and is not almighty and pure. His argument is that, since God is the creator of all, why would He create a devil who is evil in nature? Why would there be darkness, pain, sickness, hatred, envy, and disaster to mankind? 

To give you a full idea of the story, kindly see the link http://www.soon.org.uk/stories/lesson_in_faith.htm 

One of the student answered the teacher by pointing out misinterpreted meaning of things, such as the word "cold". Cold does not exist, only the absence of heat does and there is no such thing beyond 273 degree celsius. Another is death, the student said that death is not merely opposite of life, but only the absence of it. And lastly, taking about science. He said, if science is not flawed, why should we believe that every human being has a brain without seeing one? He concluded that since the class cannot see their teacher's brain, thus is safe to assume that the teacher has none. So, why would they entrust their education to him? Then the teacher answered, "I guess you have to take them on faith"

This made me realised that information is always available to everyone who wanted to know something, most contradicts one another, and all are made by humans from various places from various times. Having so, doesn't give us a guarantee that everything that we see, hear, nor feel are all true. The only truth probably are things around us that we perceive as something what the ones before us said they were. 

Everything lay on how one perceives things. We don't know if there will come a time that all word mysteries will be answered during our lifetime, much more after life. It all boils down on what we choose to believe in, and what we want to think is true.

In order to live a life, and enjoy what is available within our reach, it would help to grasp faith. Faith that there is something more to what there is now. Faith, that someone greater have done all of these things. Faith, that what we have now is real, and faith that we can do more, be more, and achieve more.

My atheist philosophy professor in college said he rejected the day he had opened his eyes to much more realistic things in life, and stopped believing that there is God. He grew up in a hard core catholic family, and opted to extend his horizons to the real world. He made sense, and I believe everything that he said. But then again I'm taking his advise to hold on into something. 

Besides, humanity is still alive because of faith.

[dailyfairytale]

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[dailyfairytale]

Living in a fairytale

While going through my files, I browsed through my old blogs from friendster and myspace. Its nice to reminisce both remembered and forgotten past. I knew that I was immature but I did not realised how bad I was nor how bitter I expressed my hatred out in the open.

I felt proud and ashamed  at the same time. Nonetheless, I'm happy with the experience. Reading through my words made me felt the exact feeling I had back then, and it makes me feel so rejuvinated. So now, after 6 years, with a more mature mind set, I would like to take you with me in my living fairytale. It may not be always an happy ever after, but it will surely be amazing nonetheless.