UP grads serve people via entrepreneurship
By Ces Rodriguez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:09:00 08/23/2008
MANILA, Philippines—To biz or not to biz? That was the question in Dr. Dodie de la Cruz's mind. As a prominent ear-nose-throat specialist in his native Iloilo City in the early 1990s, he had it made. So what business did he have mulling the idea of opening a diagnostic center?
He knew it was needed-too many patients with too few hospitals servicing their needs, not to mention that the cost of simple medical tests was prohibitive. But the ethical question loomed large in his mind: Should doctors engage in business or not? After all, the overriding raison d'etre of business, is profit. So how does this mix with the altruism of the medical profession?
He found his answer a year later. Profit, he realized, can be a means to serve the larger community. "Being in business gives doctors control. When we are in control, we are more responsive to patients' needs," he said.
With 10 business partners, De la Cruz opened Medicus Clinic in August 1991. Today, Medicus Clinic ranks among the country's top 5000 corporations and the city's top 30 individual and corporate taxpayers.
Dr. De la Cruz's entrepreneurial happy ending is one of 25 stories found in "Dreamers, Doers, Risk-Takers 4: Iskolar ng Bayan Gives Back, the Enterprising Way." Published by the Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation Inc. and the UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries, the book is the fourth and final volume in a series that began during the Philippine centennial year in 1998 and culminates, appropriately, on UP's centennial this year.
UP grads entrepreneurs, too
What makes the book unique is the fact that UP has not been associated traditionally with the swashbuckling world of business. As a Petri dish for future presidents, yes; poets, surely. Supreme court justices and scientists? Check. Researchers, artists and writers, up there in the list. But "negosyantes"? One is hard-pressed to think of a name quickly.
Except perhaps for Loida Nicolas Lewis who graduated with a law degree in UP Diliman in 1967. Lewis, an accomplished lawyer who sued the US government twice for discrimination and won twice, was the wife of Reginald F. Lewis, the leveraged buyout (LBO) whiz who, in 1987, bought the European food conglomerate of TLC Beatrice International for $985 million.
His unexpected death in 1993 and the recession in Europe eroded earnings. Shareholders were restless. With trepidation but much determination, the widow took over the company with the mission to "create wealth." She did and sold off units that lost money. Her primary concern was to maximize returns for their shareholders. "My husband was not in the business of creating an empire. He was in the business of creating wealth," she said.
While the story of Loida Nicolas Lewis is often told, the rest of the stories in the anthology are an opportune reminder that the state university breeds its share of negosyantes, many of whom connect their enterprising ways with the college education they had.
The French Baker's Johnlu Koa is a BS Business Administration graduate of UP Diliman in 1979, completing his MBA in the same campus in 1984. Figaro Coffee Company's Pacita Juan graduated with BS Hotel and Restaurant Administration degree from UP Diliman in 1976. Four generations of Puyods-three of whom finished Agriculture, Agribusiness and Social Sciences degrees in UP-own and manage two agribusiness companies, Philippine Greenfarm Development Corporation and Philippine Fresh Fruits Corp., in Davao.
"By putting up job-creating, income-generating, sometimes dollar-producing enterprises, these UP-bred entrepreneurs implicitly help build the nation and community. In other words, by simply being in business, they are already doing enough in terms of 'giving back,'" Ruperto P. Alonzo, director of UP Institute for Small-Scale Industries and Paterno V. Viloria, president of Small Enterprises Research and Development Foundation say in the foreword.
Ruby Catalan-Pornan, a BS Food Technology graduate of UP Visayas in 1990, first joined the corporate world, then dabbled in selling foodstuffs and organizing conventions before running her own immigration and recruitment company. While sending people abroad may be at odds with UP's training and focus on nationalism, Ruby consoles herself with the fact that she remains meticulous and above-board in her dealings. "As they will be going out anyway, I might as well help them to do it the right way," she says. "I prefer to help them go through the steps properly and make them succeed in their goals rather than push them to other agencies who may just take advantage of their weaknesses."
Serve the people
However, for others like Philip Cruz, who completed his MS in Fisheries in UP Visayas in 1988, the entrepreneurial path was something he aimed for because he wanted to "serve the industry." So while his colleagues joined the academic and research community, Cruz got a job in the private sector so he could learn the ropes and observe the workings of business. As the national technical services manager for a feed company, he trained aquaculture technicians and learned first hand the problems of farmers. It led him to market a self-published manual and later, establish a company around his invention, a feed fishing device that lowered production costs and reduced the pollution of fish farms. Today, Cruz runs a diversified aquaculture business and has ventured into advanced herbal processing plants.
Like Cruz, many of the entrepreneurs featured in the book do more than just operate their business in order to pay it forward. Often, they are involved in outreach programs to fulfill what many call business' other bottomline-corporate social responsibility. Pacita Juan's Figaro Foundation spearheaded a tripartite effort by local government, academe and agricultural sector to promote Barako coffee.
Philab's Hector Navasero, who was a BS Agriculture graduate of UP Los Baños in 1958, has led the revival and development of baseball in the Philippines. He spends P2 million a year of his own funds for training programs, clinics, travel sponsorships and the distribution of baseball equipment throughout the country.
Yoly Ong, who put up the ad agency Campaigns & Grey in 1986, regularly does pro bono commercials for Haribon Foundation for projects related to biodiversity conservation; Acts of Hope for the Nation (Ahon) Foundation, a group which works with communities to build public school libraries; Greenpeace for their climate change projects; Child Protection Unit-Network (CPU-Net), an alliance of groups working to fight child abuse; and Coalition Against Corruption, a network of concerned organizations working on various anti-corruption activities. Yoly graduated from UP Diliman in 1971 with a degree in mass communication.
How-tos
In addition to being an inspiring read, "Dreamers, Doers, Risk-Takers 4" functions as a kind of how-to guidebook for aspiring entrepreneurs. It chronicles the start-up years of these iskolar-turned-entreprenyor ng bayan and takes a detailed look at their problem-solving and growth strategies, management style and business philosophy, entrepreneurial competencies, and ways of managing information and sourcing assistance.
Nazario S. Racoma, an agriculture graduate of UP Los Baños in 1968, was a government technocrat who opened Traffic Supplies and Construction Corp. in the early 1990s when he couldn't get people to support plans to privatize subsidiaries of the Philippine National Construction Corp. "I wanted to demonstrate there's money in the business, given that, at the time, there were still very few players in the industry," he recounts. Today, the company's assets are worth P30 million, without any bank loan.
Naz is only too happy to dole out the stuff he learned on his way to entrepreneurial success: Know your strength and capitalize on it; this is called distinctive competence.
Be a hands-on entrepreneur. Do not be a copycat, innovate. Study hard and work hard because being successful is not a game of chance. Know your competitors. Finally, he says, love God, love your family and treasure friendships.
The stories of the 25 entrepreneurs in this book expand on many of the lessons Naz dispenses. They also demonstrate the UP way of thinking outside the box, playing it by ear, being resourceful, and ultimately, serving others.
"Dreamers, Doers, Risk-Takers 4: Iskolar ng Bayan Gives Back, the Enterprising Way" will be launched on Aug. 26 to commemorate the UP Centennial year.
(The author is editor in chief of One Philippines, an entertainment magazine for overseas Filipinos.)
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