Dare to go into new directions

EDGAR Sia II started Mang Inasal in Iloilo City in 2003 because he believed there was space in the crowded restaurant market for his grilled chicken concept.

His instinct proved correct and for his pioneering concept, he has earned a number of awards, including the Mansmith Young Market Masters Award (YMMA) in 2009.

In 2010, Jollibee Foods Corp. acquired 70 percent of Mang Inasal for P3 billion.

But instead of resting on his laurels, Sia focused on another start-up Double Dragon Properties, which was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2014 for just P2 a share. Today, it is trading at 10 times its listing price.

At 38 years old, Sia is the youngest on the Forbes list of richest people in the Philippines with an estimated net worth of over $390 million, making him a certified rock star entrepreneur.

Sustainability

Indeed, Mang Inasal has become a case study on how entrepreneurs see opportunities even in mature sectors.

The sustainability of the concept was proven with the entry of the Jollibee group five years ago.

Since then, sales of Mang Inasal have gone up 2.5 times, even if the number of stores went up by only 30 percent in the same period.

“When Jollibee acquired Mang Inasal five years ago, Mang Inasal (in 2010) had 330 stores across the country, to date there are already 456 Mang Inasal stores nationwide. Systemwide, sales revenue continued to grow exponentially to P10.7 billion last year, and revenues are expected to further grow this year because of synergy created by the partnership,” he says.

Before the acquisition, Sia set up Injap Land Corp. as a wholly owned subsidiary of holding company Injap Investments Inc., which was renamed DoubleDragon Properties Corp in 2012 after partnering with the Jollibee Group family.

From 2009-2011, developments were focused on Iloilo City. But in 2012, after the company became DoubleDragon Properties Corp., Jollibee chair Tony Tan Caktiong and Sia agreed to partner to exponentially grow DoubleDragon and make it a formidable property company in the Philippines.

This new direction made them look for opportunities in the property sector that can be scaled up.

Eventually, they decided to roll out 100 CityMall community malls.

Other projects in Metro Manila include the DD Meridian Park, Dragon8 Mall and Jollibee Tower, which are expected to contribute 300,000 square meters to their leasing portfolio.

SIA

The 100 CityMall projects in the provincial sites are expected to contribute an additional 700,000 square meters of leasable spaces.

Evolution

“We are focusing on community malls because we can see the upcoming shift and evolution of the provincial traditional retail trade to modern retail. CityMall is our concept that will provide the venue for that shift. We have designed CityMall to allow the modern retail to flourish, and become the main beneficiary of the retail evolution and exponential growth of the provincial consumers in the country,” he says.

Then, through his Hotel of Asia Inc., Sia is also into the hotel business with Hotel 101 and Jinjiang Inn. His group is building 1,600 of a target 5,000 rooms, based on Sia’s strong confidence in both the consumer market and the tourism markets.

His entry into these fields is a testament to his philosophy that an entrepreneur has to embark on ventures that have the potential to last generations.

On Mang Inasal, Sia says it has four barriers that can ward off competition: (1) cost advantage brought about by its scale and volume; (2) Inasal recipe; (3) strong brand recall, and (4) over 400 branches nationwide.

This is the same formula used with CityMall. He believes that erecting enough competitive barriers will make CityMall the most dominant player in the country’s community mall industry.

Based on his business ventures, Sia offers some lessons other entrepreneurs can learn from.

“First, I believe that it is very important that when you start a business, make sure that the business opportunity that you embark on is identified properly. Because no matter how well you manage any business, if the business concept you have chosen is not deep enough to have the potential to sustainably grow really big, it really won’t,” he says.

“Then after you have identified your sustainable business concept, it is also very important that you design your business model thoroughly, because no matter how good your concept is, if you did not thoroughly design and think well about every aspect of your business model, you will not be able to duplicate, sustain and grow it successfully,” he adds.

Sia then says that an entrepreneur has to be ready to sacrifice, especially during the start-up years.

“You also need to have the persistence, discipline, and you have to be very passionate in your execution. Because as a new player, and given the very crowded and current mature marketplace with many strong competition, most especially if you are competing in a traditional and mature industry, you will surely encounter several headwinds along the way. But if you have sheer discipline, stiff persistence, and burning passion inside, you can overcome all the challenges that will come your way,” he says.

Sia also advises entrepreneurs to act fast but not to the point of being reckless.

“The key to be fast and still succeed is to maintain your sharpness, and keep yourself updated with what is happening in the grassroots so you know the real pulse on the ground, and it is also very important that you continuously nurture your business spectrum,” he says.

Big, small picture

Also, as a business builder, Sia says seeing the big and small picture is essential.

“While it is important to be able to set a clear long-term vision, you also have to couple it with the ability to dissect and understand the nuts and bolts of your business model, thoroughly understand the industry you are in, and passionately execute the vision that you have set out,” Sia concludes.

(The author is chair of marketing and advocacy firm Mansmith and Fielders Inc. For complete transcript, as well as his interviews with other thought leaders, visit www.josiahgo.com. He can be contacted at [email protected]. The search for the 11th Mansmith Young Market Masters Awards is ending on Nov. 3, 2015. Forms can be downloaded at www.youngmarketmasters.com)