MANILA, Philippines?The Philippines may have scored zero on the medal tally in Beijing, but there is one Olympic title it can claim for itself?guardian of the bellies of the world?s greatest athletes.

If no untimely bout with diarrhea thwarted a sportsman?s dream of victory at the 2008 Olympics, it was thanks to an oral vaccine for cholera made by a Filipino pharma. Carlos ?Do? Ejercito, president and CEO of United Laboratories (Unilab), gives the inside scoop: ?In the last Olympics, China had a marathon runner whom they thought would win the gold medal. But he got diarrhea. Natalo. So, this time, all of China?s athletes took this vaccine so they don?t get diarrhea or cholera. And because you cannot have a cholera epidemic during the Olympics, all the food handlers in all the restaurants of Beijing had to take the vaccine. We supplied it.?

This Olympic caper is but the latest in the storied history of Unilab, a company that has been around for so long and has grown so large, most people forget it is a homegrown business that began as a corner drugstore in Binondo just after World War II.

From Binondo to Beijing

The late founder Jose Y. Campos first tried making his own products in the 1950?s with the vitamin Tiki-Tiki. It was called ?United American Tiki-Tiki? to ride on people?s postwar craving for all things American. Today, even without the ?United American? tag, Tiki-Tiki remains one of the strongest vitamin brands in the Philippines.

If Campos was the driver of the shift from retailing to manufacturing, Do Ejercito is the force behind Unilab?s expansion to complex prescription drugs and overseas markets?a move that quintupled the company?s business in the last ten years. Ejercito is one of the 50 Filipino CEOs featured in the book ?Extraordinary: Stories for Aspiring Leaders? published by the Management Association of the Philippines.

He recounts the circumstances that led him to change the path Unilab was on. ?Until about ten years ago, if you looked at the product portfolio of Unilab, we were very strong in over-the-counter drugs, but we were not very strong in prescription drugs.?

When Ejercito became President of the company in 1998, he had to contract with foreign companies so Unilab would have products to sell. ?It was so difficult. Para kang nakikiusap lagi. We needed to expand our capability in R&D (research and development), so we could produce our own prescription products.?

When an executive from a multinational pharma told him they did not consider Unilab a serious competitor, Ejercito decided it was time to make the move. ?Our total business then was only P6 billion. This year, we are breaking P30 billion.?

Unilab has also established profitable operations in other Southeast Asian countries, China, and India. It has become, as Ejercito puts it, a multinational in its own right. ?There is no other pharma company in the world in a free market where one company has 20 percent market share, and we have it here,? he says of Unilab?s standing in the Philippines.

Unilab?s rise from corner drugstore to major Asian player is extraordinary, and Ejercito?s personal success story is no less exceptional.

Self-made man

The 63-year-old CEO was born to very poor parents in Cavite, the sixth of 13 children. None of his five older siblings finished college. ?I was four years old when I was in grade one,? recalls Ejercito. ?I was so tiny, very skinny. Gutom lagi eh. By 10 years old, I was in high school, then at fourteen, I started college at the University of the East.

?Our house was a small shanty in front of Cavite High School. I had to earn my allowance for the day. I would go to the market, buy recados for pancit, for halo-halo, then cook it. I?d open my tindahan, and then students would come. I would get about 90 centavos. Seventy centavos would go to pamasahe. I?d have 20 centavos left for a bottle of Coke and espasol. That was my lunch, my dinner?espasol. That?s why now, when my wife brings home espasol, I don?t want to see espasol!? Ejercito laughs.

By age 18, Ejercito graduated cum laude with a degree in accounting. His first job was junior auditor at a small firm. ?I earned P2 per day for half a day?s work. I lasted two weeks. I was making more money in my small tindahan in the province.?

He then joined the accounting department of Procter & Gamble. ?I was there for about one-and-a-half years, then I decided accounting wasn?t really the work I liked. By then, IBM was opening. I joined as a systems engineer.?

After five years, he decided to move again. ?I was becoming very technical. I was the industry specialist for banking, connecting these branches to the head office computer. Sabi ko, being a specialist is the longest route to the top. So, I moved to Citibank. It was my account eh. Kinuha naman ako,? he laughs. ?I stayed thirteen years.?

Ejercito rose all the way to country operations head of Citibank in the Philippines. After that, there was nowhere else to go except a foreign assignment. He was offered various positions in Hong Kong, Japan, London and New York, but his children?s flat refusal to move kept him in the country. He joined Unilab instead.

Ten years and many successes later, he still daydreams about future healthcare projects. ?I want to put up a manufacturing plant to produce our oncology, or cancer products. ?Yung mga chemotherapy. Right now, we are importing that as finished product, and we?re having difficulty with sourcing. I also want to get into vaccines. Most countries would want to have their own vaccines, for security. Even countries like Vietnam have their own vaccine plants.?

The biotech field is one area Unilab has its eyes on. ?The future of pharmaceuticals is in biotech, not chemical,? says Ejercito.

?The products you see now are all chemical-based. Biotechnology works on the cellular level, on the tissue, the DNA. We?ve ventured into that. We set up a plant in China and it?s a profitable business. We produce two products. One of them is the human growth hormone, which is used for children of short stature.?

The other product is the oral vaccine for cholera used by athletes and food handlers in the Beijing Olympics.

After more than 40 years managing various companies, Ejercito cites three reasons for failure in leadership in the book ?Extraordinary: Stories for Aspiring Leaders??1) developing a superstar complex; 2) not being able to gain people?s buy-in for a decision, then using rank to ram it down; and 3) not knowing how to manage down.

?The companies that stay very long, that live very long, are those that are aligned with society,? he remarks. ?Their very existence is in the interest of society. We are here to stay for a very, very long time. By aligning ourselves with the needs of society, we hope society will appreciate us, and that will improve the chances that our company will survive for many generations.?

(More advice from Ejercito and other Filipino CEOs in ?Extraordinary: Stories for Aspiring Leaders? available at National Bookstore and Powerbooks outlets.)