MVP speaks at sold-out Stanford lecture on innovation in emerging markets

MANILA, Philippines - Businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan spoke yesterday to a packed lecture hall in Stanford University about the importance of innovation in getting – and staying – ahead in business.

Pangilinan spoke to an audience of students and professors, Silicon Valley practitioners – a number of them Filipinos studying in this center of high technology. The Manila- and Hong Kong-based business leader held his presentation as part of a weeklong gathering of top executives of the MVP Group in a CEO summit to immerse themselves in the innovation capital of the world. The goal is to raise the employment of innovation in improving lives and deploy it in the companies they manage.

“There is no other way to get ahead and stay ahead than to innovate continuously, and be a leader of innovation. That is why we’re all here at Silicon Valley, a place of intellectual ferment, to learn and be instructed,” Pangilinan said. “Innovation starts and ends with our people.”

The top businessman spoke at Stanford University’s US-Asia Technology Management Center (US-ATMC) at The School of Engineering. US-ATMC programs are designed to integrate practical perspectives into strategic technology management on an international scale, employing analysis of research trends in selected areas of leading-edge technologies.

Pangilinan is chief executive officer and managing director of First Pacific, which is invested in a number of the Philippines’ leading companies. Among his many leadership positions, Pangilinan is chairman of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), which recently won a prestigious technology award at the Mobile World Congress held in Madrid, Spain.

“In the world of telecoms, for example, a Darwinian evolution is taking place, forcing companies to redefine themselves in order to endure. PLDT is no exception to this phenomenon,” said Pangilinan.

Speaking on the sidelines of his speech, the businessman brought home a key purpose of his visit to Silicon Valley, the high technology capital of the world.

“In the Philippines we need to use technology to make people’s lives better and richer. We need to develop home-grown solutions to the issues we face, and it’s my hope to bring back ideas and technology and processes that we can use to improve life for all Filipinos,” he said. “Our visit to the US-Asia Technology Management Center is a milestone on our journey towards reaching that goal.”

US-ATMC hosts a series of public lectures and seminars, sponsors faculty research projects, and develops new university courses and major internet website projects. Pangilinan’s speech marked the first time that a Filipino CEO has spoken before Stanford University students.