A businessman for 2010

Over the noisy chatter of rumor mongers in a coffee shop, I overheard someone say that given the business turmoil we are now facing, we need a businessman with impeccable management expertise to be our next president. None of the present politicians impress him. I swear I heard the names of JAZA and Manny Pangilinan among those mentioned as ideal potential successors of Ate Glue, if she decides to leave.

Oh well… I have heard that before. But will either of them give up the perks and peaceful existence of private business to enter the turbulent world of Philippine politics? I continued eavesdropping as I normally do in a coffee shop just in time to hear someone belittle the potentials of business executives in the totally alien environment of government bureaucracy.

After George W. Bush, the cachet of MBAs, particularly Harvard MBAs has been greatly diminished, it was asserted. I guess that strikes out JAZA but Manny P is from Wharton so I guess he will have to step up and do his patriotic duty.

But in defense of Harvard MBAs, I suspect Dubya got into the prestigious business grad school not on academic merits but on the strength of his pedigree and family’s financial gifts to the school. I have met a lot of Harvard MBAs and Dubya, the first MBA President, seems the exception to the rule.

I don’t really think Manny P will consider a run for Malacañang in 2010, so I did a fast run through of the presidential hopefuls to see who among them have business management credentials. The obvious name that comes to mind is Manny Villar. He has an MBA from the University of the Philippines. And he has proven his business acumen by building up a real estate empire from scratch. Possibly the only Filipino billionaire without roots in China, Manny V is often referred to as the brown taipan.

The other hopeful is Bayani Fernando. He is an engineer and I don’t think he has an MBA. But he has also managed a profitable business in construction before he entered politics. At the Tuesday Club this week, he was telling me that if his bid is successful, he will have the most business friendly administration ever because it is the only way to attract investments that create jobs. And he will cut waste and deliver services efficiently, as he has always done.

Then there is Mar Roxas, a former investment banker in New York. I realize that given today’s mood, that is not the best credential to get a job… any job. But Mar was an investment banker when the job was more respectable. His knowledge of and network in the world of finance should come in handy in managing our economy. His exposure to the reality of the Philippine situation as a politician and a Cabinet member has also obviously imbued in him a strong social conscience.

So there you go… if we want someone with business background as our next president and neither JAZA nor Manny P would oblige us, we have three current politicians with business credentials who are just dying to be President. But will business sense really make a difference?

I strained my hearing abilities once again to catch the conversation at the other table. It seems not everyone agrees that businessmen make better presidents. I heard someone say that not only is Dubya proof the theory doesn’t work, he pointed out Ate Glue is an economist and with that, he is resting his case.

I wanted to butt in but it would have been impolite. I wanted to say an economist is not necessarily a businessman. Ate Glue is an academic economist… an economics teacher with no grounding in the real world of business. She has not agonized over meeting a payroll in her life. She has not even managed a large enough organization before she became President. An academic economist like Ate Glue is like a doctor of medicine whose work involves research and a little teaching but has not seen a live patient nor written a prescription.

In defense of business execs, I also wanted to volunteer an article I just read in BusinessWeek on how in the Catholic Church in America a group of business execs are putting management skills to work in shaping it up. The execs took the initiative after they became increasingly dismayed with how the church was losing members, squandering talent, mis-managing the $105 billion it annually spends and allowing its reputation to decline quickly amid screaming headlines about sex-abuse scandals.

Thus, this influential group of Catholic executives designed a business plan for the country’s largest religious organization. If it works for the tradition-bound Catholic Church, it should work for our inefficient, graft-ridden government.

The conversation in the other table was getting heated. I heard someone ask, what would a businessman bring to the table that would make him a better president? Decisiveness, for one, someone volunteered. Results-orientation, said another. Greed, said another…

Greed? How is that good?

This deadly sin is a powerful motivator. And wasn’t it said before that greed is good?

But what can an MBA teach about greed that our typical politicians don’t already know? Our current politicians have doctorates in greed!

Ah, that’s where the difference lies. What we have now is naked greed. What the MBAs can provide is something we can call “genetically altered” greed… the motivation to move things along more efficiently for the greater good and not to secret bank accounts.

Look… I heard someone interject… those MBAs from the good schools have been taught to be socially responsible… genetically altering their greed gene. Look at all those corporate social responsibility projects of JAZA and Manny P… they seem to be doing more good in areas where government has failed its mission. If they can be this effective doing CSR part time, imagine what they can accomplish if they work on this full time and with the full backing of the State.

But, someone objected… those buwayas on Wall Street who caused all the financial mayhem that spooked world economies are MBAs who were taught ethics and social responsibility too. Look at the damage they have created!

Ah! There are always deviants… like sex perverts in the clergy, there will always be anti social characters who are unable to see beyond themselves. But on the whole, the quality MBAs not only have the skills to manage something as complex as a country but also the orientation towards a higher purpose or what they call social responsibility.

I thought to myself, that guy is right. I saw it in my own son who just finished his MBA in Cambridge U. He came back to Manila to do his thesis and he selected to work on microfinance. I was pleasantly surprised. Of course he turned around and accepted a job with a large multinational bank abroad. The urge to make money and pay his student loans was pretty strong. But in the course of working on microfinance, he was exposed to the problems of poverty and the many approaches being taken to deal with it. His view of the world of finance has been forever altered to take the small and the grassroots into account.      

I glanced at my watch and noted I have to move on and do more productive work than eavesdropping in a coffee shop. The morning’s chatter started to convince me that we may indeed need someone with a strong business background to succeed Ate Glue in 2010. That is not the only criterion, of course, since character, track record and a natural ability to inspire the people are equally important.

We don’t need cha cha for that.

You know you are an MBA when....

You refer to your previous life as ‘my sunk costs.’

You refer to dating as test marketing.

You ask the waiter what the restaurant’s core competencies are in their menu.

You believe you never have any problems in your life, just ‘issues’ and ‘improvement opportunities.’

You use the term ‘value-added’ without falling down laughing.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]