- Henry Sy
Today, I’m now going to feature the life story of the richest man in the Philippines. He is no other than Henry Sy, the retail magnate who owns all established 33 SM Malls and also a banking magnate who owns Banco De Oro-EPCI Bank and majority share in China Bank.
This is another inspiring story as we witness his rags to riches story on how he built all SM Malls and became one of the biggest bankers enabling him to become the richest man in our country surpassing both Lucio Tan and the Ayalas.
Let’s learn and be inspired from another successful entrepreneur story as his daughter Teresita Sy-Coson narrates the story of his father’s success:
Our company, SM, as many of you may already know, came from the hard work of my dad, Henry Sy, Sr. It is a rags to riches story that even myself did not realize until I went to trace his roots in China.
His journey from the thatched hut I saw there to the shopping centers he has today is something that amazes even myself.
His determination, his discipline and his thriftiness have produced an astute and street smart businessman who has influenced a lot of people. Including us, his children.
My father’s perseverance during the different crises our country has gone through has made our active business pursuits possible for a half century. True, he was disappointed with the economy many times, but he never saw the reason to quit and instead pursued his goals relentlessly.
He had many obstacles – both external and internal – in his business, and there were times he could not understand why things had to be so complicated for him to pursue his business objectives.
It has been written – and I can attest that it is true – that Henry Sy started from the bottom.
He came to the Philippines at the young age of 12, and worked in his father’s small sari-sari store more than 12 hours everyday to help him. It was located on Echague St., which is now Carlos Palanca Sr. St. in Quiapo, Manila. There, he devised ways to increase his income by developing small portions of products – much like the sachets we see today in the supermarkets.
He was able to make multiple sales in order to make extra income, spending so much time in the store that he had no time to go out and play with friends in the neighborhood. It did not take a long time for him to realize, however, that he can only do so much in a sari-sari store environment.
WWII came and the sari-sari store was looted and burned. He did a lot of buying and selling of odd things during the war to enable the family to survive.
This must have provided him the hands-on training for his stamina in business. At one time, he was hit by shrapnel while selling, and quite fortunately was brought to the hospital by his good friend in a kariton.
Without that friend, he could have bled to death. He treasured that friendship and later expressed his gratitude after the war by making that friend his partner in a shoe store. The partnership lasted for more than 40 years until the shoe store had to give away to the building renovations of the lessor.
After the war ended in 1945, he ventured into selling American shoes imported by enterprising Gis.
He later saw the opportunities of opening a shoe store, and not long after he was managing three shoe store in partnership with friends.
With the pleasure of a growing family while at the same time pursuing studies at FEU in the early 50s, he sought more ways to augment his income.
He studied the market and decided to be different. While other young men went to the US to pursue a higher education, he went on a long business trip to the East Coast, and came home with a lot of merchandising ideas.
For a time, he was selling a lot of shoes, accessories, and leather goods, hoping to change the way shoe manufacturers look at the industry.
Sensing a lot of opportunities, he decided to open SHOE MART – “SM” – the first air-conditioned shoe store that merchandised shoes in a very inviting and classy format. With the success of that store, he went on to open more shoe stores, but he could not get enough suppliers.
Many shoe manufacturers at that time could not understand why they had to listen to this shoe retailer who had very definite ideas on what he wanted to sell. They did not cooperate by providing him with the volume he needed, and because of that limitation, he gradually shifted to apparel – and thereafter other merchandise – with the help of my mother.
He was continuously learning from his customers, suppliers, and employees. This on-the-job research gave him enough confidence to expand to a department store chain. Many things in life grow out of needs, and to meet the needs, you become determined. With determination you will take extra challenges and do things differently – which will most likely bring success.
We opened our first department store in 1972, two months after Martial Law was declared. The business had a slow start, but progressed steadily. During the Martial Law years, he continued to open more department stores, reaching a point wherein he could not get space he needed in the existing shopping centers during that time. He then decided think long term, and invest in properties for malls, which were patterned after suburban shopping centers, which he had been studying for some time.
When we started the construction of our first mall in 1983, the Philippines was in the midst of a debt moratorium and experienced hyper inflation. The economy decline was further aggravated by the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. Many bankers predicted our demise because my dad came from nowhere – he may had a few department stores and shoe stores at that time, but he was not one of the financial heavy-weights at that time.
Unaffected by criticism, and armed with sheer determination and optimism, he persisted and opened in 1985 with our department store and supermarket and a few tenants. Many potential lessees were saying no to lease offers.
At about the same time, given the social unrest of the times, our own Shoemart Makati was faced with ugly strikes. He almost gave up, but through the encouragement of his employees and customers, he continued. At that time, he decided emotionally draining disturbances should not overpower him or detract him from his goals. Since that time, he has not faltered in his confidence, and became even more determined to continue the business. He also convinced everyone of us in the organization to follow his optimism.
Later, we expanded, slowly building malls at that time to get our formula right. The expansion was not without difficulties. When constructing Sta. Mesa and Megamall, we were faced with delays in construction due to cement shortages and the 1989 coups.
When the 1997 Asian crisis came, we were planning our mall expansion, including the Mall of Asia, which was then envisioned to be the biggest mall in the region.
Because my dad felt the tsunami-like effects of the region wide crisis, which was unlike any other he had experienced, we had to change plans. We deferred opening the Mall of Asia, and went on with the opening of other malls.
We grew in numbers instead of size, serving different smaller markets. We have also expanded our retail business beyond department stores to include supermarkets, hardware stores, appliance superstores, and other retail formats.
At about the same time, we looked into the banking business – both at our bank and at the industry. At the time, our main bank, Banco de Oro was a medium sized bank. Because we were quite conservative in lending, the deluge of bad loans that characterized the times did not affect us. Given that, we thought it was an opportune time to grow amidst some instabilities. We reorganized and strengthened our organizations for about three years and developed growth strategies that started in the year 2000.
Encouraged by the consolidation program of Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP) in making Philippine banks more competitive relative to the region, Banco De Oro made few acquisitions because of the moratorium on banking. It acquired the Dao Heng Philippines branch, the First eBank, the Banco Santander Philippines branch, the United Overseas Bank branches, and most recently – Equitable PCI Bank.
Opportunity is where you find it, not where it finds you. Crisis and weakness indicate one can look for opportunities. Transforming problems into opportunities can bring good returns. Prosperity and growth come only to a business that systematically exploits its potentials and systematically optimizes its performances.
Our business – especially that of shopping centers is a long term business. It takes at least eight years to pay back. We feel that the country will always be around, and with Filipinos’ love for shopping, there will always be customers we can sell to.
We also have to continuously innovate. Our other retail formats like supermarkets, hardware stores, appliance stores, home stores, toy superstores, baby stores, and Watsons are continuously evolving with the shopping habits of our customers. Because they frequently visit the store, we make sure we have new products all the time so that their shopping experience will not be boring.
Our group’s policy is to look for opportunities at all times, and to be ready to act when it comes. While crises may have brought opportunities, we continue our plans in good or bad times with some changes to suit our demands of the time.
- Mariano Que
It all began in 1945 just after the liberation of Manila. Mariano Que, realizing the need for medicines, started a very humble business venture with his hard earned P100. He bought a bottle of "Sulfathiazole" and street-peddled this in the sidewalk of Bambang, Sta. Cruz, Manila. From pushcart selling and with his previous working experience in a drugstore before the war, he eventually opened a drugstore on March 1, 1945. He named it after "Mercury", in Roman mythology the messenger of gods, the god of commerce and manual skill. Mercury’s winged feet symbolize speed and the caduceus he carries the medical profession. These qualities sum up Mercury Drug’s quest of delivering fresh and reliable medicines to the public through prompt service.
In 1945, Mercury Drug introduced a better way to make medicines more affordable to more Filipinos: "Tingi-tingi" or by piece method of selling. From then on it introduced many "firsts" in the Philippine drugstore: In 1948, its first motorized customer delivery service; In 1952, the 17-hour, 7 days a week drugstore service; In 1963, the country’s first self-service drugstore; In 1965, the 24-hour, 7 days a week service; In 1967, the first computerized temperature-controlled central warehouse: In 1969, the first drugstore chain to use biological refrigerators to preserve life-saving medicines: In 1976, the first drugstore chain to expand throughout Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Upon the invitation of Ayala Corporation, Mercury Drug opened its second branch in May 1963 at a developing commercial center (now known as the Ayala Center) in Makati. This move opened the door to the establishment of the landmark branch in Quiapo, Manila in 1965 and the opening of more branches thus bringing Mercury Drug’s service closer to many Filipinos.
Today :
The company is considered as the leading drug store chain in the country with a network of more than 500 company-owned and franchised stores serving the public at the most convenient places in Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It has a workforce of over 7,000 employees totally committed to professional excellence and dedicated service. It coordinates this vast network of stores at its head office in Bagumbayan, Quezon City which also houses its modern distribution center operating on the concept of centralized buying and warehousing. It belongs to the top 20 companies in sales performance for the past several years.
As it was then and now, Mercury Drug’s main concern is customer service, more especially if it would mean saving a life. It continues to make available despite of high carrying costs, life-saving drugs like serum, blood plasma, albumin, and the like. For the shopping convenience of its customers, it carries, aside from pharmaceutical items, basic daily household needs, health care products, personal care products, cosmetics, toiletries and other convenience products. It has also incorporated value added facilities and services in selected stores.
To maintain its present leadership in the drug retailing business, the company continues to innovate. It keeps up with modern technology and upgrades its computer facilities in the head office, stores and distribution center to support its services.
These qualities of Mercury Drug earned for the company various recognition from different sectors. To name a few: "Retailer of the Year" award in 1964 from the Business Writers Association of the Philippines for its innovative service concepts; "Quezon City’s Best in Business" in 1994 from the Government of Quezon City and the Rotary International District 3780; Consumers Union of the Philippines’ "Hall of Fame" Awardee in 1996 for having been awarded as Most Outstanding Pharmaceutical Retailer for 5 consecutive times; "1996 PMAP Award for Outstanding Employer of the Year" from the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines; "Most Outstanding Drug Store Chain" in 1999 from the New Millennium Excellence Award Committee and the Parangal ng Bayan Awards Foundation jointly with the National Consumers Council in recognition of its products/services beneficial to the consuming public. In the 1999 7th Annual Review 200: Asia’s Leading Companies survey done by Far Eastern Economic Review, Mercury Drug ranks number 8 among the top 10 Philippines-based companies and number 3 among the top 5 Philippines-based companies in terms of high quality services/products.
In 1945, Mercury Drug introduced a better way to make medicines more affordable to more Filipinos: "Tingi-tingi" or by piece method of selling. From then on it introduced many "firsts" in the Philippine drugstore: In 1948, its first motorized customer delivery service; In 1952, the 17-hour, 7 days a week drugstore service; In 1963, the country’s first self-service drugstore; In 1965, the 24-hour, 7 days a week service; In 1967, the first computerized temperature-controlled central warehouse: In 1969, the first drugstore chain to use biological refrigerators to preserve life-saving medicines: In 1976, the first drugstore chain to expand throughout Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Upon the invitation of Ayala Corporation, Mercury Drug opened its second branch in May 1963 at a developing commercial center (now known as the Ayala Center) in Makati. This move opened the door to the establishment of the landmark branch in Quiapo, Manila in 1965 and the opening of more branches thus bringing Mercury Drug’s service closer to many Filipinos.
Today :
The company is considered as the leading drug store chain in the country with a network of more than 500 company-owned and franchised stores serving the public at the most convenient places in Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. It has a workforce of over 7,000 employees totally committed to professional excellence and dedicated service. It coordinates this vast network of stores at its head office in Bagumbayan, Quezon City which also houses its modern distribution center operating on the concept of centralized buying and warehousing. It belongs to the top 20 companies in sales performance for the past several years.
As it was then and now, Mercury Drug’s main concern is customer service, more especially if it would mean saving a life. It continues to make available despite of high carrying costs, life-saving drugs like serum, blood plasma, albumin, and the like. For the shopping convenience of its customers, it carries, aside from pharmaceutical items, basic daily household needs, health care products, personal care products, cosmetics, toiletries and other convenience products. It has also incorporated value added facilities and services in selected stores.
To maintain its present leadership in the drug retailing business, the company continues to innovate. It keeps up with modern technology and upgrades its computer facilities in the head office, stores and distribution center to support its services.
These qualities of Mercury Drug earned for the company various recognition from different sectors. To name a few: "Retailer of the Year" award in 1964 from the Business Writers Association of the Philippines for its innovative service concepts; "Quezon City’s Best in Business" in 1994 from the Government of Quezon City and the Rotary International District 3780; Consumers Union of the Philippines’ "Hall of Fame" Awardee in 1996 for having been awarded as Most Outstanding Pharmaceutical Retailer for 5 consecutive times; "1996 PMAP Award for Outstanding Employer of the Year" from the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines; "Most Outstanding Drug Store Chain" in 1999 from the New Millennium Excellence Award Committee and the Parangal ng Bayan Awards Foundation jointly with the National Consumers Council in recognition of its products/services beneficial to the consuming public. In the 1999 7th Annual Review 200: Asia’s Leading Companies survey done by Far Eastern Economic Review, Mercury Drug ranks number 8 among the top 10 Philippines-based companies and number 3 among the top 5 Philippines-based companies in terms of high quality services/products.
- Tony Tan Caktiong
Tony Tan Caktiong’s Life and his Jollibee company is another rags to riches story of an entrepreneur that truly inspires everyone. Tony was the third of seven siblings born to poor parents who migrated from the Fujian province in China to look for a better life here in the Philippines. His father began as a chef in a Chinese Temple. Not later on his father was invited to open a restaurant business in Davao so the whole family moved south. All together, they helped one another in managing the restaurant business which in turn became profitable. This allowed young Tony to return back to Manila and pursue his course Chemical Engineering at the University of Santo Tomas (UST).
In 1975, Tony and his colleagues went on a visit to a Magnolia Ice Cream plant located in Quezon City and learned that it was offering franchise when he saw a poster for it. By the month of May, with his family savings, he took P350,000 to grab the franchise opportunity and opened two Magnolia ice cream parlors named Cubao Ice Cream House located near the Coronet Theater, and Quiapo Ice Cream House located beside the bridge – the one going to ilalim – near a Mercury Drug outlet. They all worked hands-on but as the business propels, they noticed they could not do it all so they started to set up an organization hired store managers, and trained people.
Tony started with just two ice cream. Then after two years, he offered chicken and hamburger sandwiches, because customers were telling them they didn’t want to be eating ice cream all the time. They prepared the food in the back kitchen, and soon noticed that people were lining up more for hamburgers than for ice cream. Then in 1978, when they already had six ice cream parlors, they asked themselves: “Why don’t we change into a hamburger house?”
That was also the time they decided to incorporate and realized thet they needed a brand name. They were looking for a symbol that would represent the group, and because Tony was very impressed with Disneyland characters, they decided on a bee. The bee is a busy creature that produces honey – one of life’s sweetest things. They thought it would be a very good symbol to represent everybody. They decided they would all be very busy and happy at the same time, because if they were busy but not happy, it wouldn’t be worth it. That’s why they put the word jolly and just changed the “y” into “i” to form a brand name - JOLLIBEE.
“ It wasn’t long before we heard that the multinationals were coming in – including McDonald’s. Friends started asking us if we were going to get a McDonald’s franchise but I remember saying, if you franchise, you can’t grow outside the Philippines”, says Tony.
McDonald’s came in 1982, but they didn’t feel threatened because they were a little naïve and Jollibee was doing very well. They found McDonald’s to be very good at everything, but it didn’t know the local culture. They knew the Filipino’s taste buds and what he liked in food, so they offered him flavorful and good-tasting products. He likes pasta, so they started offering spaghetti. He likes chicken, so they came up with good fried chicken by mixing different flavors. They also knew something important all along: Filipino taste is sweet. This is very Filipino – very Asian. He said: “If we eat anything sweet; we don’t really think it’s sweet; but try giving it to a foreigner and they’d be surprised.”
Tony narrates: “Filipinos also like to smell their food before they eat it. They want to be sure it smells delicious before they take a bite. Sometimes they would open a kettle and say, what’s this? It smells good! This was proved by the Langhap-Sarap advertising campaign by Basic [Footcone and Belding]. They did it for us initially for the hamburger, and when it became successful, we started using it as a campaign slogan for the other products.”
It didn’t take them long to introduce new products when they were starting out. The family members would discuss what new products customers would like, and without much marketing they’d bring something out – like spaghetti. Tony’s sister is also a good cook, so she would come up with a new recipe, they would comment on it, and then she’d fix the recipe before they started offering it. “Before, it was simple. Now, there’s a formal structure. There’s a big Research and Development (R&D) department and a marketing department. The marketing department gets inputs from customers and the products they like, and then communicate that to R&D. R&D then develops it. We have an internal taste panel that taste the food and comment on it, and when a formulation is needed they do it. The next step is a consumer panel test. We have the product taste-tested by consumers, and if it’s okay, we test the product in a few stores. Before it was easy, but now it takes three to six months to roll out a new product. Another time-consuming process is training our people on how to prepare and serve the new product.” says Tony.
Jollibee group has also become bigger. Now they have Chowking, Greenwich, Delifrance, and the recently acquired Red Ribbon. Greenwich pizza started as an over-the-counter pizza store at the Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan, Metro Manila, in 1971. One time, the founder approached Tony to ask if they were interested – at that time she has 50 kiosks and having difficulty managing the business – when she asked them if they were interested, Tony said, “why not? Let’s form a joint venture.” They took over the management in 1994, but they retained the taste of her products because it suits the local market. On the other hand, they took over Chowking in 2000 because Chinese food is also very popular among Filipinos, but there was no good company serving the market. So they took over and worked on it.
“Delifrance is doing so-so. And the reason is because we’re still not used to eating bread as a meal – therefore, the market is limited to the AB classes. It can’t grow into a mass-market type. Our latest acquisition was Red Ribbon Bakeshop last 2005 to include cakes, rolls, breads and pastries in their line of products. For us to sustain a good growth rate on a long-term basis, we have to continue acquiring businesses”, Tony relates.
They had to let go of Binggo. They found that the convenience store was in a totally different industry. At one time, they had around 20 stores, but they found it hard supplying them because the volume they were buying for them was just too small to attract good suppliers. They had to let it go.
They’re also bullish on China because they’ve acquired Yonghe King and its 91 stores. “It’s making money. So there’s no pressure to turn it around; the challenge is how to expand the brand. China is huge; it’s like having several countries in one country. If we do well, we can have several thousand stores there. If Jollibee has more than 500 stores for 80 million Filipinos, how many stores can you put up for 1.3 Billion Chinese? Kentucky Fried Chicken alone is opening 200 stores a year in China. It’s doing very well”, says Tony.
“Many countries share our taste in food, and the opportunity is in going to China, India and Indonesia- countries with large populations. We usually do a very broad 10-year horizon but it’s not detailed. We have a five-year plan, a three-year plan, and a one-year plan. We have plans for China and India, but if we want to go to India, we’ll need a long-term plan. We might have to start putting Indian people into the organization and it would probably take at least three years before we sent them back. In China, we had an opportunity to break into the market with Yonghe, but because our people didn’t speak the language, we had to hire translators to help us out. We still send our people there, but they have to work with translators. We also need good people here. We’re lucky to be the leader, but it’s still a competitive market. You can’t afford mistakes because customers will leave if they’re not happy with you. The food business is still very basic. It’s still about taste. It’s still about How did you serve me? Is your place nice? Am I treated well? Do I get value? If you think about it, if we’re going out to eat, these are the basic things we look out for, but the execution is the difficult part. It’s not like other businesses where it’s the concept or the knowledge that’s difficult. Here, there’s no secret; it’s very easy, but it’s the execution that’s hard. If you ask a lot of restaurant, they know all these things. Executing day by day is what’s hard.”, Tony continues.
When asked what’s the secret of Jollibee’s success, Tony says: “If you have to ask, the secret of Jollibee’s success is sharing. We share our success with people; we give good compensation; we share any honor that comes our way. Actually, this idea of sharing didn’t come from me. It came from a friend. He said: You know why you’re successful? You know how to share. A lot of people do not share, but in Jollibee you share a lot with your people.”
Truly, Tony Tan Caktiong is another exemplar example of an inspiring entrepreneur. He had all the achievements from Management Man of the Year in 2002 to an Agora Award for Outstanding Marketing Achievement, from a Triple A Alumni Award from the Asian Institute of Management to a Ten Outstanding Young Men Award for Entrepreneurship. And to cap it all, he also won the World Entrepreneur of The Year 2004 by Ernst & Young besting other 31 world entrepreneur competitors.
On July 25, 2007, Jollibee Group launched Tio Pepe’s Karinderia in EDSA Central in Mandaluyong, it’s pilot restaurant to professionalize Filipino’s “Carinderia” Industry.
As of 2007, Jollibee had under its wing 1,385 stores in the country: Jollibee (583); Chowking (367); Greenwich (237); Red Ribbon (163); and Delifrance (35)
Overseas, Jollibee Group has 174 stores: Yonghe King in China (102); Jollibee in US (12); Red Ribbon in US (19); Chowking in US (12); Chowking in Dubai (7); Chowking in Indonesia (5); Jollibee in Other Countries (16) and one Chun Shui Tang, a teahouse in Taiwan.
