Innovative leadership for sustained growth

(Conclusion)

The name of the program will be Emerge, which stands for Educated Marginalized Entrepreneurs Resource GEneration Program. The focus of this program is to assist the educated poor.

We have been helping the poor, but now we would like to focus on the educated poor—college graduates who would like to go into business. Not the typical mom-and-pop operations or sari-sari stores, but businesses that really have big potential for growth.

A fund will be created to finance their equity requirements with the agreement that a portion of the projects’ net income will be given back to the fund to make it sustainable.

A mentorship component will be developed with retired and active business executives from organizations like MAP, Finex and MBC.

Yesterday, I talked with the president of Finex and he was really interested in also doing this with us.

These organizations or mentors will help develop a business plan, secure a bank loan and formulate the required management systems for a project.

It will be organized under a Partners-In-Mission concept with the proposed multisectoral composition of: the Church (calling on Cardinal Tagle); Department of Education (I was hoping Brother Armin will be here); foundations (like Phinma); corporations (I talked with Ed Chua and he told me Shell would be interested); embassies (I hope the British and Australian embassies will also help); multilateral and bilateral agencies (like ADB and World Bank).

Top ten MAP programs for 2015

Aside from these 3 major programs, there will be 7 additional areas of focus for MAP 2015. We will do these through the different committees.

The first 3 items have been discussed earlier, and so I will mention it in passing:

Support for the implementation of EMERGE program;

Series of fora on authentic leadership with a voter’s education project;

Leadership summit to produce an action plan for the new president of the Philippines to address business community’s areas of concern;

Electoral reforms advocacy: We know that elections are coming in 2016 and therefore, this area is really very important;

Strengthening of MAP’s international and global relations with counterpart organizations: This is specially important because of the Asean integration and the holding of the Apec meeting here in the Philippines;

Legislative coordination: Senate President Frank Drilon, in one of his speeches here in MAP, mentioned to us that they need  more inputs for the Senate of the Philippines and for the House of Representatives.

ICT vigilance: We will have to continue our advocacy for the creation of the Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) which we feel has not been really acted upon to this time;

Sports management: You all know what happened in the recent Asian Games in Incheon and the Smart Gilas Team, so we in MAP would like to contribute to the integrated sports development plan for the country;

Traffic management and mass transportation: Just yesterday, I wanted to go to UA&P in Pasig City coming from Fort Bonifacio. It took me 3 hours, and I didn’t even reach my destination … I wasted my time;

Agribusiness development: Bernie Villegas has always told us that agribusiness is important for national development … This is an area that we would also like to look at all the more this year.

Poverty alleviation

At this point, let me stress to all of you the area of poverty alleviation which I urge you to prioritize—in line with what Pope Francis said: “Mercy for the lost and confused, and compassion for the poor and the needy.”

I would like all MAP members to share their managerial talents, skills and resources, to be active. They must step out of their comfort zones and go all out for this, so that we can produce a new breed of capable young men and women coming from the marginalized communities who will emerge as business leaders in our country and who, in turn, will generate employment for others.

Extro

As a final note, I would like to quote my cousin Ramon del Rosario Jr., who is my model for CSR and corporate governance: “Being poor is not a liability to being successful.”

This will be our guiding spirit for our Emerge program.

Maybe I should share with you today, before I end, a family secret.

You know in the early 1990s, Ramon called me up three times, early in the morning. It was so unlike Ramon. He asked me to join him in a Presidential campaign and I told him: “No, I am not going to join … I’m not interested in politics.”

But the last time he called me, he was so insistent that I decided to join. Peter Garrucho, Ramon del Rosario, Raffy Alunan, Rene Valencia and myself, all MAP members, decided to help out in the presidential campaign of Fidel V. Ramos.

As you all know, he became President, and so all of us were drafted. Some of us were short-lived, like Ramon del Rosario and Peter Garrucho. But I was there for six years and worked with President Ramos. So, if there is anyone of you who would like to be President of this country, we are offering our services.

We have a solid track record, and all we want is a candidate who is honest and competent, maybe Cardinal Tagle. If you can, is it possible to separate the Church from the State? But we really need an honest and competent President.

Let me end with the final message of the Pope from his Mass in Luneta:  “Who will carry the light if you do not?”

As you have elected me in this position when you gave me your vote of confidence, I would like all of you to share my aspiration. Let us all carry this light and keep it continuously burning so that, together, we can bring life to our people.

(This article is lifted from an address delivered by the author during the 66th Inaugural Meeting and Induction of the 2015 Board of Governors of the Management Association of the Philippines.  The author is  MAP president for 2015, and an independent director of Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company. Feedback at <[email protected]> and <[email protected]>. For previous articles, please visit www.map.org.ph)