Great expectations: 10 lessons from Cebu’s next-gen business leaders

(First of two parts)

The first-class resort hotel by the beach, where I stayed, has rooms that are a third of the price than that of branded hotels. There’s very good buffet breakfast here and in other hotels, offered at half the price of Manila hotels. Thai foot massage nearby with free finish on shoulders, head, and hands, billed for only P200. I thought my peso exchange rate in Cebu was very good!

I was in Cebu this weekend though not for leisure but to present what we found out in the first-ever survey of Cebu’s “next-generation” business leaders that we did in partnership with the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and industry.

It was a joy doing the survey because of the revelations on the commercial success of this prime city of the south – this Ceboom, this patch of land with meager natural resources that thrived on entrepreneurship, the city that competes with Metro Manila in many ways, including its traffic.

My space this Sunday is limited but I will share with you 10 valuable lessons from Cebu’s next-generation leaders. If we don’t finish here, you will need to catch the continuation next Sunday, but it is worth following. Here are the lessons:

1. You can succeed in business, even if you start late, even if all your life before that, you were an employee. Bunny Pages of Pages Holdings Inc. said he started his now-successful multi-concept restaurant chains when he was nearing 50. The advantage for him was that he was more prepared, and his sense of urgency is strong because he felt he did not have the luxury of time.

He started by buying a good fruit juice and shake stand with a couple of stalls in the mall. He reinvented it and have grown the brand swiftly to 150 branches, with some branches franchised out. Today, Bunny and his team-family whom he got actively involved, now power Pages Holdings, which operates more than a dozen restaurant brands.

2. Don’t worry about the number of competition. It’s like traffic – you will eventually get to your destination. What is so insightful about this lesson from Leonora Salvane of GT Cosmetics Manufacturing Inc. is that she is not even talking about leadership or being big. She reminds aspirants to get over the most important part, which is to actually try, first and foremost, to be part of the action.

She did not only try. She built her brand and differentiation using her chemical engineering background to experiment and concoct. She said the Cebu market is very discerning, that if you convince Cebu, you will convince other markets. Well, she made it in Cebu. Now GT Cosmetics is making it to the global market as she is now in Finland, USA, Japan and Canada.

3. Find what is lacking, look at what other countries have done, and fill that gap. Wesley Chongbian’s Mynimo heads the very small population of Cebu entrepreneurs in the digital business. He saw a way to ride the wave of Cebu’s economic progress and the boom of other industries – help Cebu businesses and solve their problem in sourcing talents.

He saw these job websites in the US and Manila and noticed that no one is tapping the Cebu market. So he, along with his three siblings, crafted his own app in his parents’ garage. Today, they have 2,000 postings monthly in their job site.

4. Invent one design or product, then there will be a second one; then combine the two, you get a third one; then it leads to several innovations. This is the practical yet sage lesson from Nature’s Legacy’s creative CEO, Pedro Delantar. From a backyard rattan business in the ‘80s, they ventured into stone carving, home furnishings, decorative products, and garden accessories. Today, their products are a hit in the US and European markets.

His objective today? To still continuously experiment. Innovation can happen in a number of angles in the business or product, such as new processes, new materials, or new shapes. His guideline is simple: wow effect. His training ground, the Cebu competition. Known as the furniture capital of the Philippines, this industry in Cebu accounts for more than 60 percent of the Philippines’ furniture exports.

5. Achieve affordability with quality, but deliver faster than the others to help your bottom line. This is the formula that Beverly Dayanan, founder of Contempo Property Holdings Inc., shares to thrive in serving the lower market. Her market choice was influenced by her own biography of growing up with her family not having a home of their own.

She is a prime example of one who is not an overnight success. Tracing her roots from Davao Oriental, she worked odd jobs while studying, and got employed as a bank teller, where she eventually became intimate with the concepts of finance, cost of money and “how value is created and lost according to usage of time.” Her edge is her feminine touch and gut feel. According to her, the entry of women in the real estate business drove men to do more.

6. Throw your children to the ocean, and they must learn how to swim. Robert Go, CEO of Prince Retail Group, did not want to drown his children. The one thing he understands though is that school can teach them how to analyze, but only actual business problems can teach them how to decide.

The contemporariness of his thinking is reflected even in his investment decisions, recently putting in a hundred million pesos of the company’s resources in new technology that digitizes their processes, the way they issue their invoices, and allows them to engage in critical data analytics. You see, he is not only into teaching his children how to swim, he is also into building life savers in the uncertain sea.

(To be continued next Sunday.)