Our economy needs more dreamers like Michael Martinez

When you cease to dream, you cease to live. —Malcolm Forbes

Despite a lack of resources, Michael Christian Martinez’s inspiring dream recently focused the international media spotlight on the Philippines at the Sochi Winter Olympics. The 17-year-old Martinez was not only the country’s lone competitor there, he is also the first figure skater ever to represent a Southeast Asian country!

In business terms, who would attempt such an unlikely dream, such as South Korea with Samsung, Taiwan with HTC or China with Huawei and Lenovo?

Thanks to visionary “rags-to-riches” taipan Henry Sy Sr. for dreaming of and pioneering the first-ever ice skating rink in the Philippines at SM Megamall in 1992. Sy told me before that the reason for this totally unheard-of idea was his love for ice skating during his foreign travels. This is the reason CNN and other media highlighted the fact of Martinez as “being an unlikely competitor from a country without snow.”

Philippine STAR senior vice president for sales and marketing Lucien C. Dy Tioco said: “Saw this kid practicing at SM Southmall skating rink three years ago and my jaw dropped as he did the Biellmann spin. I thought to myself, ‘This kid should be in the Winter Olympics. And what do you know, he now is!”

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Local entrepreneurs, prepare for 2015 ASEAN integration

Is our Philippine economy and our local entrepreneurs ready for the inevitable 2015 ASEAN economic integration of a tariffs-free and borderless region? What are our government and business leaders doing about this?

The new leadership of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), led by president Alfredo “Fred” Yao, told the STAR in an interview: “Our advocacy is to help local businesses to be ready with this 2015 ASEAN integration, because you cannot stop that. If you ask government, they say that yes they are prepared, but the stakeholders of the Philippine economy, the local businessmen, are not prepared. Out of 10 businesses, maybe only two or three of the mostly big corporate ones are preparing, but the rest don’t even know what is going on.”

Yao said the PCCI is now holding meetings with various industries to raise awareness and encourage preparedness for the challenges of stiffer competition and the entry of duty-free imports due to the integration and to boost our local factories, exporters and tourism. He said the other day he met with the fashion-industry bosses of Bench, Bayo and others. He urges, “Let’s be ready, be more competitive to survive the challenges and also seize the new economic opportunities in the ASEAN integration.”

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James Yap expands motorbike business, idolizes Ramon Ang

Recently I had an interview with basketball star James Yap and his Italian girlfriend Michela Cazzola of the Asian Development Bank at their favorite restaurant, Ramen Santouka in Greenhills. He shared that his expanding business retailing Italy’s Vespa scooters and Aprilia motorbikes with Mototechnik started due to help from his late good friend Miguel “Mike” Coyiuto, who died last year at age 52. Now his business partners are non-relatives Jeffrey Yap of Fabulous Autoworks, James Yap, Renato Alfante and Andy Cheng.

The basketball star shared that his idol in business is San Miguel Corp. and Philippine Airlines boss Ramon Ang, whom he has known for 10 years and who he describes as “very humble and a cool guy.” Ang advised him: “Always save your money. Before going into a business, study first the business very well.” Yap said that secrets to doing well in business are almost similar to basketball excellence: “You need hard work, focus, discipline, competitiveness, passion and teamwork with others.”

Yap said that he saw Vespa scooters all over Italy during his trips there with his girlfriend Michela and told his friend Mike, who then brought him to the Philippine distributor. After they each bought one unit, they later decided to open this Mototechnik business in Granada Street, Quezon City, in 2013. Now, Yap and his partners reveal that they’re planning to open two new branches on Quezon Avenue and Mindanao Avenue late this year.

Yap said that everyone, whether celebrities or ordinary people, should try to save money. He puts part of his earnings mostly in the bank; he bought his own condominium unit and invested in the Mototechnik business.

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Less than 1% of Filipinos invest in stocks

Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) president Hans Sicat recently told me that among their goals to support true economic development include expansion of the Philippine stock market in terms of more publicly listed companies, bigger trade volumes and encouraging more ordinary people to invest their savings in stocks.

When asked how much of the total Philippine population (now over 100 million) are investing in stocks, former international investment banker Dr. Sicat replied: “The number of investors in our stock market is less than one percent of our population, because there are only close to 600,000 individual stock investor accounts in the Philippines. The good news is, we are promoting and we launched a new product called TradeX as an online platform. People can do stock orders via smartphones or computers.”

When asked why among ASEAN’s original five economies, we lag behind and have the smallest stock market by many metrics, whether market capitalization, number of listed firms, etc., Sicat said, “Yes, true we’re still the smallest by many metrics among the ASEAN 5, but the good news is that over the last two to three years, we’ve grown tremendously in size and average values. We’ve also extended stock trading hours from mornings only to include afternoons now, starting in 2012.”

Dr. Sicat also urged more privately held companies to explore the possibility of public listings or initial public offerings (IPOs).

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Success secrets of wedding & debut entrepreneurs

Weddings in the past were just organized by the bride or family members, but nowadays an unmistakable sign of our growing Philippine economy and the increasing sophistication of consumer spending is the fast growth of the weddings-and-debuts sector into a big industry. Entrepreneurs, suppliers and the public are invited to the Philippines’ biggest annual bridal fair from Feb. 21 to 23 at SM Megamall’s Megatrade Hall.

Some of the entrepreneurs behind this bridal fair shared their success secrets. Juan Carlo The Caterer, Inc. founder, engineer Alex Michael del Rosario of Batangas, was a former overseas Filipino worker whose business now employs over 250 people and sometimes handles 13 weddings a day. He said hard work, attention to detail, nonstop creativity and hiring good employees are important to his success.

Nice Print Photo owner Charisse Tinio used to own 10 Konica photo developing retail shops, but she shifted to wedding and events photography before photo film became less popular. Now her business can handle up to eight weddings a day. She said, “The key to success is service; there is no dictated SRP or standard retail price for great service and clients are willing to pay for superior service.”

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Businessmen & professionals invited to free up orchestra concert

I recently got to know University of the Philippines summa cum laude graduate, UP Orchestra musical director and music professor Edna Marcil “Michi” Martinez. She is inviting businessmen, professionals and the public to a free concert by the UP Orchestra and UP Arco on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. at the UP Theater, UP Diliman, Quezon City. The concert is a voluntary fundraising to help typhoon victims in UP Visayas with donation boxes at the venue. Interested people can get free control tickets at the UPD OICA Office at UP Theater, 928-1928.

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