Lucio Tan is strategic genius, 3 Purisimas’ winning streak

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided.  It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.  —Napoleon Bonaparte

The day after “rags-to-riches” taipan Lucio C. Tan’s PNB-Allied-BPI deal news came out, Financial Times interviewed me and I commented that Lucio Tan has proven he is a strategic genius with his wise, emotionless and bold business maneuvers.

Why do I say emotionless? I’ve heard of Lucio Tan in past years decisively removing siblings, a maternal uncle and even some of his own kids from his major companies due to loss of confidence or other reasons. And now, the taipan is cohabiting with his perceived biggest archrivals and letting them even manage his prized assets!

The multinational Philip Morris last year merged with his cash cow Fortune Tobacco, then his Asia Brewery beer competitor San Miguel Corp. (SMC), led by Ramon Ang, this year was given management of his Philippine Airlines (PAL), and now the Hispanic Zobel Ayala clan’s Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) will merge with his Philippine National Bank (PNB) and Allied Bank.

Who shall be the stewards of Lucio Tan’s mega-fortune now? For the New York-listed Philip Morris, the head in the Philippines is the talented Cambridge University history graduate Chris Nelson; in PAL there’s the visionary Ramon S. Ang; for BPI it’s Management Association of the Philippines’ 2012 Management Man of the Year awardee and Far Eastern University, Inc. vice chairman Aurelio “Gigi” Montinola III; and for BPI Family Bank its president is the brilliant Teodoro “TG” Limcaoco.

Montinola is a cum laude graduate of Ateneo de Manila University and has an MBA from Harvard Business School, while Limcaoco is a graduate of Stanford University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. TG’s wife Helen C. Limcaoco earned a BS in Business Economics, magna cum laude, from the University of the Philippines; an MA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania; and an MBA in Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is The Little Gym’s award-winning master franchisee for the Philippines, and co-master franchisee for Singapore. The Little Gym is a top developer of physical skills in children worldwide.

More than these sterling credentials, these corporate leaders represent firms with long histories of corporate excellence, good governance and strength. Lucio Tan has, in effect, already been doing his estate planning while still healthy and at the helm of his empire. 

Where does Tan derive his inspiration and strategies for his daring and unconventional moves? He is a keen and lifelong student of ancient Chinese literary classics such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sun Tzu’s Art of War (his son Michael “Mike” gifted me with the best translation), and Lao Tzu’s I Ching.

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The Purisima family is on a roll these days

Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima has been named “2012 Finance Minister of the Year” by top global banking and finance magazine Euromoney for his “careful and successful stewardship” of the Philippine economy, and for his initiatives in promoting capital markets, both in the Philippines and in ASEAN.

A son of Atty. Fidel Purisima of Ilocos Sur and Fevi Velasquez Purisima of Calumpit, Bulacan, Secretary Purisima is a graduate of De La Salle University, the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a top-notcher of the CPA or accounting board exams. He used to be the head of the SGV Group.

His talented wife, Maria Corazon “Corrie” de la Cruz-Purisima, is senior vice president and debt capital markets head of HSBC Philippines. On Dec. 24, she will have a new boss as markets and treasury expert Wick A. Veloso becomes the first-ever Filipino CEO of HSBC Philippines in its 137 years of existence in the country. Outgoing head Tony Cripps will move Down Under as new CEO of HSBC Bank Australia.

Secretary Purisima’s cousin, Chief Superintendent Allan Purisima, now ranked No. 4 in the Philippine National Police (PNP), is expected to be appointed the next PNP chief when current chief Nicanor Bartolome retires on March 16, 2013. Purisima is a former aide of President Aquino, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1981, and has a doctorate degree in peace and security administration.

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Philippine STAR readers have e-mailed to say that they’re very happy with the good services of two banks, the Philippine Veterans Bank (not a government bank but owned mainly by World War II veterans who fought the Japanese invaders) and the fast-growing East West Bank, which already has 228 branches. 

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Via Philstar.com, a reader of this column and fellow of LSE IDEAS (of the London School of Economics) Dr. Nicholas “Nick” Kitchen e-mailed me and we exchanged some e-mails on economic and geopolitical trends. He graduated from Oxford and Keele universities.

I asked for some analyses, like how does he foresee the strategic competition between the US and China (which is now affecting Asia)? Dr. Kitchen said: “This is strategic competition without overt enmity; it’s a struggle for control of strategic assets rather than an attempt by either party to defeat the other strategically; indeed, both have an overriding interest in the other’s economic success. For the US, this is about its hegemonic, global interests — in support of free trade, most specifically —for China as a rising power this is about reclaiming the regional status it feels both its historical place and current position entitle it to.”

Wouldn’t rivalry between the US and China actually potentially benefit ASEAN countries if the region’s governments know how to flexibly balance equidistant ties with both powers?  Kitchen replied, “In theory, yes. And to some extent this is true in terms of foreign direct investments.”

In my opinion, we should learn from other Southeast Asian countries Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore to maintain strong equidistant ties with all the powers, whether the US, China or even Russia and India. Let all of them woo us to benefit us economically, but not to be unnecessarily entangled in their strategic rivalries.

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