A Taipan Turns 80

An article published in The Philippine Daily Inquirer, August 6, 2006

THE INVITATION TO THE celebration of taipan John Gokongwei’s 80th birthday on Aug. 11 shows the silhouette of a boy on a bicycle, a poignant reminder of the days when young John peddled soap, thread and candles on a bike.

The eldest of six children orphaned at a young age, Gokongwei put his education on hold and relied on street smarts and a keen instinct for choosing businesses with sure markets to support the family his father left behind. But he made sure he had time for reading and for dreaming, two ingredients of his success of which he was never in short supply.

At 19, Gokongwei put up his own company, importing textile remnants and old clothing from the United States, pioneering so to speak the ukay-ukay business in the country. At 30, he turned his attention to food manufacturing and thus was born Universal Robina Corporation.

His growing empire, eventually to be known as JG Summit, soon branched out to land-development (hotels, malls, offices, housing, condominiums and mixed-use), telecommunications, textiles, banking, petrochemical, airline and publishing—in all, 22 business units providing products and services which are leaders on the market.

Considering he started pedaling toward taipan-hood at age 15, it has been a busy 65 years for Mr. John, despite his “soft retirement” five years ago.

While most people his age spend their time reminiscing about the past, Gokongwei is busy plotting his next moves.

“I'm going into philanthropy,” he says. “I'm shifting.” And so it seems the prime of Mr. John has just begun.

What's the secret of your youthful look?
I don’t know. Keep working. (Laughs) When I was on a ship last month in the Baltic, most of the Americans and Europeans looked 60, but the Orientals didn’t have wrinkles. Sila 50 lang, wala na, bald na. (At 50, they are already bald.) I still have a full head of hair.

Do you work out?
I do every day. I walk on my treadmill, that’s 30 minutes; then I swim 20 laps. Takes me about 20 minutes a day.

No vices?
I don't drink. I don't smoke. I used to drink half a bottle 20 years ago. On average, I drank a fourth of a bottle. I drank scotch or gin. Every day, one-fourth bottle. But I stopped 20 years ago when Benigno Aquino was shot.

Why?
I was shocked. I didn't drink and I didn't smoke. So the next day, my wife said, “O, you didn't smoke the whole day.” So I just stopped.

Cold turkey, just like that?
I just stopped. I'm glad I did because if I didn't stop I think I'd be dead by now... You know, when I'm on a trip, I take beer.

How about red wine?
No, I'm allergic. I have a problem with stomach acidity.

How about white wine?
A little, but not too much.

Do you drink coffee?
I take a lot of coffee but decaf.

Does Great Taste have decaf?
No. (Laughter) At least I tell the truth. (Laughter) I have to take decaf because if I drink more than two cups I can't sleep the whole night.

So why isn't Great Taste making decaf coffee?
Decaf has a very limited market. You have to spend siguro P200 million just to build a plant. Maybe even more. Please try our doughnuts. They are very good.

How is your health? Any health problems?
Big health problems, no. Small health problems, yes. I have a lot of uric acid.

But it's not serious enough for you to stop trying your products?
No. I eat anything. In fact I like to eat chicharon. My wife doesn't like me to eat it, but I eat it when she's not around. (Laughter)

Which of your achievements are you proudest of?
Having a nice family—I think that's my best achievement. I have children who are all very responsible. They're all okay.

Are they all involved in the business?
Yeah, all.

How did you know which part of the business to give to them?
Oh, no, they did the picking themselves. Like Lisa, she wanted to be a publisher... They pick what they want. I always tell them, “Do anything you want as long as you excel.” Lisa, Robina and Lance, they picked what they wanted. The three younger ones are still doing merchandising but, you know, I think they'll have to move from there. I mean, Robina was in publishing, but she's head of the whole retail group now. The retail group is our second-biggest business now.

That includes the department store and what else?
Ministop, department store, supermarket and then, what else, Do It Yourself.

How about the boutiques like Dorothy Perkins?
That's all under her. I think we've got a new one again.

Toys ‘R' Us?
No, not Toys ‘R' Us. It's for ladies.

Ah, Wallis in Shangri-La Mall?
Right, Wallis.

Do you still micromanage?
Everybody says I micromanage. I'm like a housewife. I look at everything. I have managers, though. I think we have 10 or 20 professionals who are doing very well. All our BUs [business units] are run by professionals except for two. One is her [referring to niece Patricia] brother [Vincent, son of his brother Henry] and the other one is Bobby [son of his deceased brother Johnson]. And the professionals, some of them are pretty good, very good.

Who hired them? Did you pick them?
Some are homegrown; the rest are from the outside.

How do you instill discipline among your children since you cannot let go of them if they don't do well?
I don't discipline them. I think they're more disciplined than me. (Laughter)

How did that happen?
I don't know. (Laughter) All six of them are very disciplined.

Thanks to Elizabeth [his wife]?
Yeah, I think Elizabeth has something to do with it. But I think maybe it's also the environment. They're very good kids.

Did any of your children try to work somewhere else?
No, they're all in the business. Except Lisa. When she was in the US, she wanted to stay for three years. I was worried she would marry an American there. (Laughter) So I told her, “You come home.” Better you're all here. (Laughter) So she came home. She worked with the telecom/telephone company for a year. Then one day she said, “Dad, I wanna do something else.” What? “I wanna publish magazines.” Are you sure? Are you serious? That's a very difficult field, but go ahead. I let them do what they want.

Of the Chinese traditions you've been born into, which ones have you kept?
The best Chinese tradition is filial ties. That means love your parents, your grandparents, you know. This is, I think, the most important thing. You take care of the old. And the rest are education, humility, but the most important one is you're supposed to be loyal to the family... That's why when I go to the US and I see the old people, I feel sad.

What qualities do you look for in people you hire?
The most important to me is integrity. After that, of course, ability, and knowing how to mix with other people, because, you know, these people, once they become BU managers, they're running a corporation bigger than most corporations in the Philippines. Just one, like Robinsons Land, you know, it's bigger than most... or URC [Universal Robina Corp.] So, you have to have people who have integrity, ability, also people who can work with others. There are some people who are very good but they cannot work with others. People who work hard—that is the criterion for top people. For the lower ranks, we have different criteria.

What do you demand of your employees? Do you demand loyalty, for instance?
That one, definitely, yeah, if you're working for me. But if you resign, what can I do? If you are working for me, you had better be loyal.

What are the biggest challenges facing all your businesses right now?
If the political climate doesn't change, it's okay [because] we could manage to grow the business well. But any big changes in the environment can affect the course of our business. Secondly, I think, manpower. Getting good people is very difficult. A lot of people are immigrating. We lost a lot of pilots in our airlines. We lost a lot of engineers in the petrochemical plant. They were people who had been trained.

You train your own engineers, right?
Yes, but then they leave for the Middle East. Maybe now, [given the situation] in the Middle East, they'll come back. (Laughter) They're very good people. But in the Middle East they're paid four times more, so what can you do? How can you compete?

Those who've chosen to stay, why do you think they've stayed?
I think, first, they love the country. They want to stay here. Their families are also here.

Did you have to entice them with bigger bonuses and salaries?
The good ones are always given a big bonus at the end of the year. Sometimes they get up to six months [bonus]. But not many are that good to get that kind of bonus. (Laughter)

C2 is one of your successes.
This product is very successful. I went to China. We have a plant there and I visit China quite often. I saw people drinking this and I checked around and I noticed this was outselling Coca-Cola in some areas. So I looked at the statements and this fellow from Taiwan was No. 1. The biggest beverage-makers in China are from Taiwan. So I made a study. We came up with one line and in three months we were going to be short. So we ordered six more lines. That's what we have now, six lines.

Do you use, or at least try, your products?
Every product we make, I try.

What's your favorite among your products?
I like Nova.

How about candy?
I like Dynamite. But I don't like to eat too much candy, you know, because my sugar is borderline, 120, 130.

Which of your restaurants do you like best?
You know, I like Mr. Choi's Kitchen. We have now six branches.

All in the Robinsons malls?
No, four in Robinsons, one in Abenson and one in Caloocan, in Gotesco.

Why do you think the Chinese are so good in business?
It has nothing to do with being Chinese. Well, basically the Chinese are like the Jews. They immigrated. The Jews went to the West, the Chinese came here, went to Thailand, Indonesia, all over Asia.

When you go to a foreign country and you're an immigrant, you have no land, no money—nothing. So what do you do? You become a peddler or a stall-keeper. I think if you look at all the big companies formed here, they've all been formed by immigrants. I would say 99 percent by immigrants. But after a while, by the second or third generation, nawawala naman. My great grandfather was the wealthiest man in Cebu in the 1920s, but by 1940 there was not much left. It's like water, it flows, like the tide.

Are you more Chinese or more Filipino?
What do you mean by more Chinese or more Pinoy? I think it should not be whether you are more Chinese or more Pinoy, but whether you're … it depends on your philosophy. You might think you're Filipino, but what is Filipino culture? What is it? Can you tell me? What is Chinese culture? But you can tell a Rightist from a Leftist. Do you believe in free enterprise, democracy?

So it's not about race, it's more about beliefs.
I think it's more of the beliefs. What is race, anyway? If you trace the history of the Philippines, all the great heroes have Chinese blood, including José Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo. Sergio Osmeña, Cardinal Sin, all of these people. It's a belief kasi that if you're Chinese, you're good in business. That's one of the things that people think immediately.

As I've explained, immigrants, when they come here, really have nothing. So what can they do except work hard? But if you were born here, the worst that you can have are a few bananas and coconut trees. You won't starve, really, if you stay in the provinces. And most of the Chinese who immigrated here were peasants and farmers. There were no wealthy guys.

You know, Lee Kwan Yew, when I attended a seminar, he was telling the Chinese leaders in China, “Don't tell me you cannot beat us. Singapore was founded by peasants and farmers and fugitives while China [had] all the intellectuals. The rich people stayed in China. You should do a better job than Singapore.” And everybody clapped their hands... Well, Singapore, if you trace the history, a hundred years ago it was really nothing. It was a barren rock.

How do you see the new generation of entrepreneurs, the likes of Ben Chan and the owners of Abenson and [other companies]?
I think they're doing a good job. But I think our entrepreneurs are not as daring as those in Thailand or Malaysia. I don't know what you would call it but, if you take a look at their economy, they're better entrepreneurs than us, I think. They're pretty good, especially the ones in Thailand.

To what can you attribute our lack of entrepreneurial flair. Could it have something to do with our political [climate]?
I don't know. A lot of people say it may be because we were under Spanish or American rule or because we're the only Catholic country. So many reasons. Could it be the political climate? But the political climate has been going on for, what, 60 years? Independence was '46.

What distinguishes a Gokongwei business from the others?
Well, we started as a one-man show. That's me. We have tried to keep the characteristics of that one-man show. I mean, we have frugality and all the usual things. But one point I think I have and most of our execs have is we can see what's happening and we take a position right away.

If you notice, we take positions in every area. We're always No. 1 or No. 2. I think that it's very important for entrepreneurs to see where the wind is blowing and what areas you can go into. And then you decide to put your resources there and, as I've said, you have to have the stomach for it because you are not able to sleep nights.

What sets a Gokongwei airline apart from other airlines or a Gokongwei mall from other malls?
It's not a Gokongwei factor. Like the airlines (Cebu Pacific)—we provide a no-frills airline, point to point, always on time. And now we have one thing that other airlines don't have. We will be the first one with all brand-new airplanes (Airbus) by the end of the year. So that's one advantage. I think we'll get half the market.

Now, our malls, we're not as many as Shoemart but we're getting there. Shoemart took 60 years to reach its level. We only started in '85, so we're only 20 years old. Maybe '83. We have now 19 malls. We're about half the size of Shoemart and it took us only 20 years. It took them 60 years. I'm not saying they're not good... (Laughter)

What about real estate or land development?
The same, 1980-something was when we started. In malls, we're No. 2 now. In development, in condominiums, we're doing very well. People like to buy into our buildings because we deliver. Our buildings, the quality and time schedule, we deliver.

What about promotions of arts and culture? For example, the other malls have galleries.
Well, the promotion of arts and culture doesn't have to be done through a mall. There are many things you can do. You can contribute money to the schools. We've given about P400 million... to ICA (Immaculate Conception Academy), Xavier, La Salle, Ateneo (the John Gokongwei School of Management). The engineering school (Technical Training Center in Rosario, Pasig) also.

What happened to your Children's Library?
It's still going on.

These contributions are all under the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation?
Yes, because the foundation was created to help education in the Philippines.

How about your contribution to the protection of the environment?
All our plants have been proven to be environment-friendly. I think that is another achievement.

Which business is closest to your heart and why?
I started with food, that's why I like Nova. (Laughter) And that's still our biggest business. Then retail is No. 2. Real estate is No. 3.

Are all your brands making money? If there are brands not making money, do you let go of them?
If we don't become No. 2 or No. 1, we drop the product, just like the ice cream. There's no more Presto ice cream. We were No. 3, No. 4, so we decided [to pull it out].

So it's not good enough for you to be No. 3. Are you still No. 1 in fun snacks?
Yeah, we're No. 1 in fun snacks, chocolates, candies.

One of your first-biggest success stories was Blend 45 coffee. What happened to that?
It's still doing very well, Great Taste and Blend 45. We're No. 2 in coffee, next to Nestlé.

So what's the No. 1 snack?
Jack n' Jill.

Which variant?
Chippy, Chippy, Nova, Piatos.

Do you think the generation of your children have it easier, now that the business has been set up, compared to your time?
It's different, you know. We had to struggle in a different way but the second generation, in order to prove themselves, have to work real hard to keep the momentum, because they're gonna be judged also.

Aren't you afraid the third generation might lose it, as the saying goes?
That's always everybody's fear. (Laughter)

How do you ensure that they don't?
There's no way you can ensure that. You just make sure that your second generation will take their job seriously and... teach the same discipline to the third generation. But you never can ensure. It's hard.

What is the most difficult decision you've had to make, business-wise?
None, it's all the same. Oh, one of the most difficult was when I wanted to buy PLDT. That's when I bought already from [Anthoni] Salim, but he could not get the approval here.

Wasn't it a big risk to come out with Sun and go up against two giants?
I love risks, but you have to have equation of risk and reward. If the reward is there, you won't mind the risk.

You came out with the first no-limit…
...24/7. Now everybody wants free SMS. We have some other things coming out.

Like what?
I can't say. (Laughter) If I tell you wala na, tomorrow [it's the] headline.

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