HENRY SY

(​SM DEPARTMENT STORES​)

Sy started out with a small sari-sari store business that helped them in their day-to-day life. Sy
and his father lived in a small space until the fruits of their labor made them successful in the
following years. However, when the Philippine economy collapsed in World War II, their store
burned down that forced his father to go back to China. Henry Sy stayed in the Philippines and
built his own shoe business in Marikina.

Sy did not have an overnight success: he had to enroll himself in school, change legal names,
sell rejected and overrun shoes, plus many other setbacks that he had to face early in life. He
did not give up and pushed through maybe because he knew that something big, which is what
he has now, is about to come.

After a series of failures in his business, Henry Sy stood back up and persevered to attain his
goal. He established a small shoe store in Quiapo, Manila that marked the establishment of SM
Prime Holdings. Now with three of the most valuable companies in the Philippines: SM
Investments Corp. and SM Prime Holdings Inc., valued at over Php 1 trillion each, and BDO
Unibank, valued at around Php635 million, he is has become the richest man in the country.
 TONY TAN CAKTIONG
( ​JOLLIBEE FOODS CORPORATION​)

When he was 22, Caktiong decided to shell out P350,000 in an ice cream parlor franchise. He
opened Cubao Ice Cream House and Quiapo Ice Cream House. As their business becomes
more and more successful, they started to hire more people to help them manage it. Two years
later, he decided to serve hamburgers, fried chicken, and spaghetti as people began to tell him
that they don’t want to eat ice cream all the time. It was then that they decided to rebrand and
change their name to “Jollibee” as it represents them as a company, and the people that they
cater to – hardworking and happy.McDonald’s came into the picture not many years later, but
they failed to take over Jollibee’s popularity as, according to Caktiong, they don’t know the local
food culture. Filipinos have a sweet taste on food, so Jollibee decided to serve spaghetti with a
sweeter flavour. Filipinos like to smell everything they eat, which is the reason behind the
“Langhap Sarap” tagline they have been using for a while now.

As years go by, the Jollibee group grew bigger. Caktiong partnered up and established a couple
other food chains including Chowking, Red Ribbon, Greenwich, and Delifrance. Aside from
bringing Jollibee, Chowking, and Red Ribbon to other countries, they’ve also established new
food chains in China and Taiwan which suit the tastes of the people there.
 CECILIO K. PEDRO
( ​LAMOIYAN CORPORATION)​

Cecilio K. Pedro is another Filipino businessman of Chinese descent but his story is not the
typical rags-to-riches tale but about turning adversity into triumph. He earned his business
management degree at the Ateneo de Manila University, one of the more prestigious private
schools in the Philippines.

He once headed Aluminum Container, Inc. which was the major supplier of the collapsible
aluminum toothpaste tubes that were formerly used by local manufacturers of
Colgate-Palmolive, Procter and Gamble and the Philippine Refining Company (now Unilever).
However, technological innovations and the environmental concerns over aluminum materials
prompted the multinational companies to make use of the plastic-laminated toothpaste tubes as
an alternative. As a result, Cecilio’s aluminum factory closed shop in 1985, but this didn’t stop
him from exploring other ways to put his factory equipment into good use.

Cecilio K Pedro decided to compete with the multinational giants by producing locally made
toothpastes and hit them where it would hurt the most — the selling price. He founded the
Lamoiyan Corporation, which became the manufacturer of the first locally produced toothpastes
“Hapee” and “Kutitap” (sparkle). They were sold in the Philippine market at 50 percent lower
than the selling price of the well known foreign brands.

Although Colgate countered by dropping the price of its toothpaste products 20 percent lower
than their original price, Cecilio Pedro came up with another innovation that gave him a further
edge in the local market scene. He developed multi-flavored toothpastes for children that came
brightly packaged in tubes and boxes adorned with “Sesame Street” characters. Today, the
market for the budget-friendly toothpaste brands has expanded to neighboring countries like
China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

However, the low-priced toothpaste was not the only strategy that took Lamoiyan Corporation to
the pinnacles of success. The company was lauded for having the “Most Outstanding Program
for Equal Employment Opportunity” by providing work opportunities to the country’s
hearing-impaired community members.

ALFREDO M. YAO
(​ZEST -O CORPORATION​)

Alfredo M. Yao was born on November 23, 1943 to the simplest of families. The eldest among
his siblings, he had to sacrifice a lot at an early age. He lost his father and became the family
breadwinner at the age of 12. He started a printing business at age 17 with a Php 3,000 loan
from what is today known as the Development Bank of the Philippines.

He never got to finish school even though he wanted to, because he was already a full-fledged
businessman by age 18. He’s gone through the ringer, so to speak: he’s been a street vendor
and at times, slept on cardboard box on the sidewalks of the street.
Yao went from printing and packaging to the beverage industry in the unlikeliest of ways. He
learned printing wrappers through a cousin who was then working for a printing press. This
paved way for him to venture into the printing press business thus, the birth of Solemar
Commercial Press named after his mother.

In 1979, while on a business tour of Europe, he stumbled across a new way of packaging:
Doypack, a sealed bag made of plastic and aluminum that’s designed to stand upright. Seeing
its potential, he marketed it to local juice manufacturers, but no one showed interest.Not wanting
to let something with this much potential go to waste, he started making his own juices in his
kitchen and packaged it using the doypacks he got from Europe. He would soon corner the
market on juice drinks, thanks to the convenience of his doypacks.Yao has never been one to
shy away from innovation. While his beverage company, Zest-O Corporation, was slowly
making waves in the juice market, he was already looking at other potential investments. At
2008, he launched Zest Airways and sought to compete with other low-cost carriers of the
country.

SOCCORO RAMOS
(​NATIONAL BOOKSTORE​)

From being a hardworking young girl, to being a successful entrepreneur.

Nanay Coring has always been in the retail industry. As a young girl, she helped her
grandmother sell fruits at the local market in their home province. Life was hard and her mother
decided to move to Manila to find better opportunities. She attended a public school and took on
many jobs during summer vacation – from wrapping bubble gum to sewing buttons on shirts.
After finishing high school, her family did not have enough money to send her to college. She
then worked as a salesgirl at a bookstore. It was there where she met her would be husband,
Jose.

They opened a stall shop in Escolta. They named it National Bookstore, after their cash register.
But things did not go uphill from there. In the 1940s, a strict censorship on books was
implemented. Nanay Coring had to put the books away and resort to selling soap, candies, and
slippers. After the war, the whole of Escolta was burned down. This did not dampen Nanay
Coring and Jose’s souls. They opened another small store. This time, they sold the books they
had previously put away and whisky.Gathering their earnings, the couple bought more school
supplies and books. They slowly rebuilt National Bookstore. They ventured into postcards and
greeting cards. They also partnered with international publishing houses and reprinted books at
lower prices. Aside from selling products of well-known brands, National Bookstore also now
manufactures its own school supplies – Best Buy. Keeping up with the times, they have teamed
up with Kobo, a Canadian based e-book seller. National Bookstore is also visible on social
media and customers can even shop online via their website. Students, office workers, and
everyone else will find what they are looking for at National Bookstore.