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Friday, April 21, 2006
Zosa: Lessons from success and failure
By Elbert M. Zosa
Biz Vantage
Some of you may have read the speech of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) chairman Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) at the graduation of the Ateneo’s School of Management and its Science and Engineering Department.
There was good reason for the Ateneo to invite MVP as a successful alumnus who can dispense worthwhile advice to its latest crop of blue eagle graduates eager to spread their wings. Under MVP’s management, PLDT had emerged as the most profitable corporation in the Philippines in 2005, making P34.5 billion in profits.
Manny described his journey in his speech, which he broke into three parts: first as student, second as professional manager, and third as entrepreneur and corporate activist.
The highlight of his student life was winning the national competition for Procter and Gamble’s scholarship to the MBA program of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. Manny suggested that he could not have gone otherwise due to limited finances at that time.
Manny’s father was no slouch himself, being another success story. He started as messenger at the Philippine National Bank, but crowned his career as president of the Traders Royal Bank in the mid-80s.
With humility, MVP offered the information that Procter and Gamble had turned down his job application after he returned with a prestigious MBA from one of the top business schools in the world. Obviously, Manny gained other work experience including that of investment banker in Hong Kong. The major crossroad in his career was the start-up of a regional banking and trading business. He said he founded First Pacific with only six people, 50 square meters of office space and little capital in 1981.
Manny also talked about some failures in Australia but which eventually turned out to be a great investment. Most people know the PLDT story and the eventual turnaround to its current ascendancy.
I had a chance to visit Manny’s offices in Hong Kong because PCIBank, whose International Services group I headed, also had a deposit taking company in Hong Kong. Maybe this was a year or two after they started business because they already had a beautiful office several times bigger than 50 square meters.
While I realized First Pacific’s potential, I certainly did not envision the extent of their success. Neither could I foretell that First Pacific would also bid for majority ownership of PCIBank several years later! They did not win that one, though.
Manny’s final thought to the graduates merits quotation: “I was born poor, but poor was not born in me. And it shouldn’t be born in you either. You can make it. Whatever you wish to do with your future, you can make it. It gets dark sometimes, but morning comes always. Suffering breeds character.
Character breeds faith. In the end, faith will not disappoint.”
These are words that should reach more people.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (April 21, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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