Success strategies of Tuna King Ricardo Po Sr.

The secret of success is consistency of purpose. —Benjamin Disraeli 

Did you know that China’s revolutionary hero Dr. Sun Yat-Sen — admired in both Beijing and Taipei — was once involved in smuggling arms to help Filipino rebels? Dr. Sun failed in 10 uprisings himself before winning the Xinhai Revolution, also known as the October 10, 1911 Revolution. This year is the 100th anniversary or centennial of that event, which ended the Manchus’ Qing Dynasty as well as China’s thousands of years of imperial rule.

I was reminded of Dr. Sun’s connection to the Philippine Revolution when I recently passed by the Singapore Philatelic Museum and saw their special Sun Yat-Sen exhibit. It featured one photo of Sun seated beside Filipino revolutionary and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s grand-uncle, Mariano Ponce of Bulacan.

In June 1898, Mariano Ponce represented Filipino insurgents and tried to buy arms in Japan, but Japanese officials were hesitant to openly support Filipino rebels against the rising colonial power of the United States. Ponce visited Dr. Sun at his home in Yokohama, and the Chinese revolutionary was enthusiastic about helping the Philippine Revolution.

Through his Japanese connections, Sun arranged for General Kawakami of the Army General Staff to have the Okura Trading Company secretly buy 10,000 Murata rifles, one cannon, 10 field guns, six million rounds of ammunition, plus equipment for manufacturing ammunition. The funds came from Galicano Apacible with the help of Jose Ramos Ishikawa. The arms procured by Dr. Sun were loaded into the ship named Nunobiki Maru, which sailed on July 19, 1899, but unfortunately sank near Shanghai due to a storm.

Prewar UP student leader and Bicol’s World War II hero Wenceslao Vinzons’ grandfather Chinese immigrant Sia Hui Tam, his dad Sia Din Long (whose Filipino name was Gavino Vinzons) and uncle Sia Hong Kam, were all activist Philippine supporters of Sun Yat-Sen. His grandpa, Sia Hui Tam, was editor of Manila’s revolutionary Chinese-language newspaper Kong Li Po, of which the father of the late Fookien Times publisher Jimmy Go Puan Seng was also an editor. Dr. Jose Tee Han Kee led this fiery revolutionary newspaper.

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Century Tuna and Century Canning chairman and founder Ricardo Po Sr., flanked by CEO Chris Po (left) and vice president/general manager Greg Banzon, receives the 2011 Agora Award for Marketing Company of the Year.

Congratulations to one of the most accomplished yet low-key business tycoons in the Philippines, immigrant self-made success Ricardo Po Sr. His 33-year-old firm Century Canning, Inc. recently won the Philippine Marketing Association’s top honor as 2011 Awara Award’s “Marketing Company of the Year.”

Unknown to most people, Century Tuna is also the leading tuna brand in China, where Po’s partner is the low-profile ethnic Chinese tycoon and world’s second largest tuna canner Kraisorn Chansiri of the Thai Union Group based in Bangkok.

In our past dinner conversations, I listened to business ideas, economics and even Chinese history and philosophy from Po, who is proficient in both Mandarin and Hokkien. He is a gutsy immigrant who used to work for one of Manila’s top Chinese-language newspapers as a journalist and advertising executive before going into business as a pioneer of canning tuna locally when most people then ate imported tuna.

Based on my research and interviews, here are some success secrets of the Philippines’ largest tuna business, which all of us small entrepreneurs and professionals can learn from:

• The First Mover Advantage — As the pioneer local canner in the tuna business, I believe Century Tuna has the first-mover advantage (or FMA in marketing), similar to Jack ’n’ Jill or the C2 tea drink of John Gokongwei Jr. in the snack foods and healthy tea businesses. Century Canning reportedly has 89 percent of the Philippine tuna market, with aggressive challenger CDO’s San Marina corned tuna brand at 10 percent and a smaller brand called Sea Quest with 1.5 percent market share.

This market dominance and technological edge are usually very difficult to dislodge by challengers. San Miguel beer is another example of this phenomenon; without disastrous missteps, its 121-year beer dominance is so difficult to topple even with the wealth of self-made billionaire Lucio Tan and his Asia Brewery, Inc., well run by son Michael “Mike” Tan.

• Nonstop innovations — One doesn’t have to be an Apple, HTC, Huawei or Samsung to continuously innovate; even non-technological businesses should, too, in order to surpass the competition and stay relevant in changing times. Like ShoeMart, which innovated its way to become SM Malls, Century Pacific Group led by Ricardo Po Sr. is one example of a thriving business that seeks to keep improving by innovating, e.g., effectively marketing tuna as a health food thanks to its omega 3 and DHA components, its new ideas of hotdogs made out of tuna or Wow Ulam. Other new ideas are Century’s canned and frozen bangus products. 

• Use celebrities to advertise — Former Procter & Gamble Philippines president Siddik Tetik of Turkey told me that one unique characteristic of the Philippine consumer products market is our heavy use of celebrity endorsers in marketing efforts. Po has reportedly been one of the pioneers of this strategy by having Miss Universe Gloria Diaz as a celebrity endorser.

Up to now, Century Canning’s top endorsers include Angel Locsin and her boyfriend, soccer athlete Phil Younghusband, KC Concepcion and Piolo Pascual, actor Coco Martin for Wow Ulam, Sarah Geronimo, John Lloyd Cruz, and others. Competitor CDO’s San Marino corn tuna brand used to have Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes as endorsers up to the middle of this year.

• Develop a brand for every market segment — Po has various brands for different segments: Century is a bit upscale, 555 is mass-market, while Freska is more for the northern Luzon market and Blue Bay is more for the Visayas region. In the mass-market sardine segment worth P10 billion a year, the biggest brand is Ligo, with Youngstown, Mega Sardines and 555 making up the top four biggest brands.

Our top realty developers also use this market segmentation strategy, like Megaworld with its more affordable Empire East brand, and Ayala Land with its Avida and other brands. I think the successful Gokongwei and Manny Villar groups have not come out with new brand names to make their higher-end products more distinct from affordable products, with their Robinsons and Camella brands used in prime condos and even affordable housing.

• Excellent management team — John Gokongwei Jr. used to tell me that one of the must-have ingredients for business success is human talent, especially for management. Apart from Po Sr.’s entrepreneurial genius, combining the wisdom of Chinese culture and traditional Confucian values with Western ideas, his Harvard- and Wharton-educated third son Chris Po is smart, and they have the best professional executives like the hardworking La Salle alumnus and Ironman athlete Greg Banzon. Other sons of the Po family helping out in the business include Ted and Teng Po.

• Corporate philosophy — When asked to cite some success secrets, Banzon said their corporate philosophy is one key factor to the success of the Century Pacific Group, which includes Argentina corned beef and Wow Ulam of the Pacific Meat Corp., the Angel and Birch Tree milk brands of Snow Mountain Dairy Corp., Yoshinoya fast foods, etc. Banzon explained, “Our core values of passion for excellence and malasakit, or concern and caring that the job be done well.”

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